Zhaorigetu, a herdsman who formerly lived in the Abag Banner of the Xilin Gol League, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, sold his cattle and sheep and moved his family to Bayan Qagan Town to raise milk cows. "The successive drought and the grazing of much livestock caused the grass to turn yellow. As long as we move away, the grazing land can recover," he said.

His family is among 135 herdsman families in the first batch of migrants in line with the strategy of "enclosing and removing" urgently launched last September

Due to natural disasters and over-grazing, the well-known Xilin Gol Grassland has suffered sand-encroachment and desertification that has cut the grazing area gradually. The basic living environment for many herdsmen has been ravaged. In early June this year, the normal dense green couldn't be seen in the entire grassland west of the city of Xilin Hot, capital of Xilin Gol League. The league committee is giving top priority to saving the grassland from desertification and making it green again. Xilin Gol League put forward last July a project of "enclosing and removing" to cope with the worsening situation of the grassland and launched the project last September.

The project is to enclose grazing land and remove both herdsmen and livestock to allow the grazing land to recover to its natural condition. The guiding principle of the project is "changing the concept of herdsmen, changing the mode of production and trade, and improving the living standards of herdsmen." The league plans to remove 8,000 families, prohibit 10,000 local families to graze, cease grazing by 19,000 families in spring, and divide areas and allow grazing by turn to 5,000 families in three years. The accumulated rehabilitated grassland is expected to amount to 100 million mu (about 17 million acres), occupying 40 percent of the whole area of the league. A total of 2.35 billion yuan (US$283.8 million) will be invested, of which 70 percent will be funded by the state. Furthermore, the league will take another three years to rehabilitate another 100 million mu (about 17 million acres) of grassland.

Zhaorigetu said the banner government was offering each herdsman family free of charge the use of a two-room house, a cowshed, a cow pen and a silage cellar, and had provided him with five milk cows bought by discounted loans, along with low-price fodder and forage grass. In the new residence, water and electricity are provided, a telephone can be installed, and children are able to attend a school that is nearer to their homes. The banner's bureau of science and technology is undertaking the task of teaching the herdsmen how to raise milk cows. Zhaorigetu's five milk cows can produce some 60 kg of milk each day, providing him with income of more than 50 yuan (US$6), and have already borne two calves.

The measure of ceasing to graze covered 30 million mu (5 million acres) of grazing land in 40 towns and 121 villages of the Xilin Gol League from April 10 to June 25 this spring. Another 5 million mu (835,000 million acres) of grazing land elsewhere was also placed off limits at different times, while the amount of grassland where cattle and sheep are not allowed totals 35 million mu (5.8 million acres). Some 1 million livestock have been either sold or raised in folds or pens instead of being grazed.

Much money has been invested in the project. A special fund of 430 million yuan (US$52 million) arranged by the league government this year is scheduled to be used for the resettlement of herdsmen such as building pens and sheds for livestock, buying fodder and forage grass, and building forage grass planting bases.

(china.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, July 16, 2002)