African journalists meet with Wang Youde, desert fighter, in Baijitan of Ningxia Hui autonomous region in Northwest China. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Growing trees in the harsh deserts of Northwest China has been a lifelong passion of Wang Youde and his team, though the task is anything but easy.
On a forest farm in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region where they work, there is a window of only seven to 10 days to irrigate the saplings during winter season. During that period, Wang and his colleagues would eat and sleep by a canal day and night, utilizing every possible moment they can for irrigation work.
“It is very dry with annual rainfall of less than 200 millimeters,” said Wang, speaking about his former work location. Besides, the ground temperature runs up to 60 C in summer and moving sands often bury newly planted saplings.
In 1992, when the saplings were about to be irrigated, the canal unexpectedly overflowed its bank. “I saw the cement boards along the canal fall off one by one, with tens of meters (of the bank) being affected,” recalled Wang, former director of the Baijitan National Nature Reserve near Lingwu city in Ningxia.
There was a danger that thousands of acres of newly planted saplings could be washed away and the team’s efforts for a whole year would go to waste.
Wang was suddenly seen jumping into the icy water without hesitation, with a bale of straw in his arms.
The team leader was trying to stop the water flow with his body. Seeing that effort, the other workers could not help but follow Wang. Everyone fought in the cold water all night long, and they finally blocked the breach.
But from that day on, Wang began suffering from severe arthritis. Despite the ailment, he was undeterred, having a deep commitment to fighting desertification and to “regain the land robbed by the desert”.
“I feel very proud and happy to see the success of my lifetime’s effort. I believe I have lived up to the expectations of the Party and the people,” Wang said later.
Man can conquer nature, as the Chinese saying goes, and the success of Wang and his team in combating sand invasion is one example.
Few people will fail to be astonished by a bird’s-eye view of the desert park in Baijitan reserve. A green “great wall” covering almost 1,800 square kilometers on the edge of the Maowusu Desert stands in stark contrast to the rolling dunes of the desert that seem to stretch out into infinity.
Decades of effort by Wang and his colleagues built the “wall” that stops the westward advance of the desert.
Wang (center), a role model leading local people in the fight against desertification for more than three decades, makes straw checkerboard barriers along with his colleagues to control encroachment from the Maowusu Desert in Ningxia in 2007. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Located in northwestern China, Ningxia is rich in natural beauty, ranging from waterside landscapes to scenery in cold regions. As an important protective barrier of ecosystems in the northwest, Ningxia plays a significant role in safeguarding the country’s natural environment as a whole. The development of Ningxia is closely related to water resources from the Yellow River, the lifeline of many thriving areas.
However, surrounded by deserts on three sides, Ningxia is faced with arduous tasks in desertification control. Wang, born near the park in Baijitan reserve in 1953, remembers a time when his hometown in Lingwu city was covered in sand.
“Back then, we lived near the border of Maowusu Desert. The expansion of the desert occupied our farmlands, houses and hometown, and tens of thousands of people had to move away,” recalled Wang, whose family was among those affected.
The park used to be a State-owned forest farm for sand control, and the havoc wreaked by the sand has been an unforgettable memory.
“My hometown was always plagued with flying sand every spring,” Wang said. “Each morning, we had to remove the sand before we could open the door.”
In 1970, Ningxia, with an arid area of 16,500 square kilometers at that time, launched a tree-planting program and other measures to improve the environment and control the expansion of the desert.
Wang’s story mirrors the country’s reform and opening-up, launched 40 years ago, as his success started with a reform to the old, egalitarian system known as the “iron rice bowl” that promised job security for life along with income and benefits.
Wang started to work as a well digger at age 18. However, he had to quit four years later as the increasing scarcity of underground water made the work difficult. He then devoted himself to sand control and became a tree planter.
In 1985, when he worked as deputy director of Baijitan National Nature Reserve in Lingwu, Wang began his mission, leading his colleagues into battle against the sand.
The battle required the effort of a large number of people, but not many had the stomach for the long and painstaking work. The forest farm was on the edge of bankruptcy and 70 percent of the workers had asked for job transfers.
“The rooftops of farm buildings often leaked when it rained,” Wang recalled. Without vegetables, workers only had millet for food with some chili paste.
Wang stands in the Maowusu Desert. He has managed to control nearly 66,666 hectares of quicksand in the past two decades. His work contributed valuable experience to sand prevention and control in China. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
After a thorough investigation with all the employees, Wang decided to break the “iron rice bowl” system with a “piece rate” wage mechanism. Many workers, however, opposed the reform as they thought they would lose their benefits.
Some workers called Wang names in public. Once, someone put an ax under his pillow as a way to threaten him to stop the reform.
To promote the reform, Wang introduced the new mechanism in a more flexible manner: The workers could either keep the “iron rice bowl” or opt for a “piece rate”.
The reform soon proved to be effective as workers who chose the “piece rate” saw their incomes more than double, which in turn ignited their enthusiasm for work and greatly improved efficiency.
As the reform began well, Wang further developed it by establishing a bidding system in which all employees could bid for construction projects or contract work on the farm.
Wang also set a good personal example. In the summer of 1986, he stayed at an orchard construction site for more than 50 days without going back home, even though his home was only 3 kilometers away.
“My father always left home early and came back late,” said his son, Wang Lijun.
“One thing that always came back with him was the sand. There was sand on the floor and on the bed. When he used the washing machine, there was also sand in it.
“My mother said he made the desert green, but this resulted in desertification at home.”
With persistent effort, Wang Youde reformed the income distribution system of the reserve, enabling people to earn more according to the results of their work.
He also proposed an annual target: Everyone was set the task of making 10,000 straw checkerboard barriers, digging holes and planting 10,000 trees over an area of 6.67 hectares. By doing so, they could gain an annual income of 10,000 yuan (US$1,569) from sand control activities.
He and his colleagues developed an effective method to not only control the sand in Baijitan, but also enable people to reap more income from the program.
At first, they planted sand-fixation forests along the outer reaches of the desert to form the first line of ecological defense, then plant primary forest belts along trunk canals and roads to form a second. With the dual protection, they were able to divert sand and water to create fields, upon which they planted fruit forests and nursery gardens — providing another source of income for people.
They also planted grass for grazing livestock and to develop animal husbandry, using the manure to help fertilize the fields.
“First we fixed the sand, then planted trees and created fields to develop farming and husbandry. The method enables us to develop in a sustainable way, and has been identified by the State Council (China’s Cabinet) as one worth promoting to the public,” said Wang.
Over the years, Wang led his colleagues in building 42,000 hectares of sand-fixation forest, effectively preventing the expansion of the desert. With 70 years of efforts in intensive afforestation and comprehensive management since 1949, Ningxia became the first in China to make headway in reversing desertification.
Local people who once lived in uninhabitable, mountainous regions have migrated to better-off places and shaken off poverty. But Baijitan, the poor reserve which had bad ecological conditions and fixed assets of only 400,000 yuan before 1985, grew to be a national-level reserve with good infrastructure, rich biodiversity and fixed assets of nearly 100 million yuan.
Wang is not the only hero in the fight against desertification in China. Due to the interplay of environmental and human factors, China has been severely affected by desertification, with more than a quarter of its territory covered in desert.
Wang’s forestation story is among many such initiatives across the country. In Saihanba Forest Park in North China’s Hebei province, three generations of workers have created 7.47 million hectares of artificial forest out of a semi-desert since the 1960s. In 2017, the afforestation project in Saihanba won the UN Environment Program’s Champions of the Earth award.
Wang retired in 2014, but he did not stop his fight against desertification, continuing to lead people in planting trees on a barren mountain not far from Yinchuan Hedong International Airport — doing so at a rate of 66.7 hectares a year.
Wang has leased about 670 hectares of desert wasteland to plant trees, and also established a foundation for sand control.
“For me, every single tree I plant shows my life’s value, and this makes me happier,” he said. “Until I pass on, I will continue fighting with the sand.”
In 2019, Wang was awarded the national honorary title of “people’s role model” at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Contact the writers at vivienxu@chinadailyapac.com
