A HISTORICAL EXAMINATION ON LAND DESERTIFICATION IN NORTH CHINA

1 INTRODUCTIONAccording to historical records, there has existed the large-area desert in the northwest of China for a long time, which formed in the geologic age and historical periods, and continuously evolved because of climate changes and human activities. Although a certain amount of achievement has been obtained since the 1950s, land desertification went on expanding quickly. For desertification by wind erosion, the average expansion speed was 1560km2 per year from the late 1950s …

A historical examination on land desertification in North China

Desertification control has been facing severe situations in the interlocking area between cultivated land and grazing land in North China since the Qing Dynasty because of unreasonable land utilization. The paper analyzes the policies of all the previous governments to open up land, and examines the historical and geographical background and process by means of historical records. We consider that causes of the area of land desertification to extend are increase of farming migrants, the change of life style of Mongol and weather and land conditions. In order to control the spread of land desertification, we suggest the level of the government to make policies should be improved, the number of farming migrants should be controlled, the Government’s general and specific polices should be actively publicized, and investment in agriculture should be increased. Foundation item: Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 49831080). Biography: YAN Ting-zhen (1969 - ), male, a native of Linshu County, Shandong Province, is a Ph. D. candidate of Peking University. His research interest includes historical geography of city and region.