A group of 20 Chinese and German experts set off here Friday for the lower reaches of the Tarim River in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to conduct a field survey of the damaged ecosystem in the area.

During their three-day tour, the experts will survey the riverbed, underground water and reservoirs in the region while visiting eco-farms and shelter forest.

They are expected to put forward proposals to improve the environment to ensure sustainable development in the area when they return to Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang.

The 1,321-km-long Tarim River, the longest inland river in China, runs west to east along the northern edge of the Taklimakan Desert, the biggest moving desert in the country, and flows into Taitema Lake.

The 320-km section of the lower reaches of the river and Taitema Lake dried up in 1972 because of too much economic development, which resulted in severe environmental degradation.

"The Tarim River is critical for the environment of Xinjiang and central Asia," said Prof. Johannes Kuchler, from the Institute for Landscape and Environment of Technical University of Berlin, who heads the expert team.

The Chinese government has spent 10.7 billion yuan since 2001 on a long-term project to restore the environment along the Tarim River, which was expected to have effect by 2005.

The cooperation between Chinese and German experts will greatly push forward the environmental protection work along the Tarim River since German experts were experienced at restoring the environment in other places in Africa and central Asia, said Prof.Xia Xuncheng, from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The experts from the two countries have cooperated in protecting the Tarim River since the 1980s but this was the first time they have launched a joint investigation team.

The experts have just attended a Sino-German symposium on the Restoration of the Damaged Ecosystem in the Tarim River Valley held here during the past five days.
 
(Xinhua News Agency September 6, 2003)