Officials and technicians from African countries will come to
northwest China's Gansu Province in August for an annual
training program on combating desertification.
The African trainees will learn Chinese experiences on desert
control through lectures and field practice, said Man Duoqing, head
of the international affairs department of Gansu Desert Control
Research Institute (GDCRI).
"They will spend some 25 days in the field across Gansu and
neighboring provinces and regions to learn how to choose plants for
desert control and how to set up windbreaks, among others,"
according to Man.
The two-month China International Training Course on Desert
Control Science and Technology is run by the GDCRI, a leading
anti-desertification agency. It has more than 20 trainees this
year, among whom a dozen come from Africa.
One third of the world's land faces threat of desertification
which causes US$42 billion in economic losses every year, UN
statistics show.
With deserts including the Sahara, Africa is the worst
desertificated region in the world. The poverty-stricken continent
is in urgent need of international economic and technical
assistance.
China will cover all the expenses of the trainees, including
tuition and accommodation, as well as air tickets to and from China
if needed, GDCRI director Wang Jihe said.
Wang said China aims to boost international cooperation in
desert control and help developing countries especially those from
Africa in this regard.
Since the first session of the program in 1993, about 150
African officials and technicians from more than 30 countries
including Egypt, the Republic of Congo, Ghana, Angola and Tanzania
have been trained, Wang added.
This year's trainees will stay in Minqin, a central-north county
in Gansu labeled as one of the four sandstorm sources in China, to
see how China painstakingly fight against desertification.
Minqin brought 2,000 hectares of desert under control last year
with a simple but practical method, which first prevents sand from
moving by placing nets made of wheat straw on it and then grows
drought-enduring plants.
China's deserts are shrinking by 7,585 sq km annually, compared
with an annual expansion of 10,400 sq km at the end of last
century, said Zhu Lieke, deputy director of the State Forestry
Administration, in late May.
The decrease showed the desertification that started in China in
the late 1990s had been "primarily brought under control", Zhu
said. However, some experts argued that the situation is still very
severe.
Dr. Osama M. A. Nofal, an Egyptian at the 2005 session, told Man
during his visit to Egypt last month "many of my colleagues have
taken the training in China, and we have found that the techniques
are very practical in our local desert control efforts."
Wilson Owusu Asare, a forestry official from Ghana and an
trainee at the 2005 session, said in a recent email to GDCRI that
he is very grateful for the training.
"The training laid emphasis on practical skills, and the
experiences I learned in China has proved very helpful," he
said.
(Xinhua News Agency June 18, 2006)