General Situation

According to the survey result on land use changes, China in 2005 has a total of 122.0827 million hectares of arable land, 11.549 million hectares of vegetable land, 235.7411 million hectares of forests, 262.1438 million hectares of grassland, 25.5309 million ha of other farm land, 26.0151 million hectares of residential area and factory and mining areas, 2.3085 million ha of land for transportation, 3.5987 million ha of land for water conservancy, and the rest were unused land. Compared with that of 2004, arable land reduced by 0.30%, vegetable land area rose by 2.31%, forest land increased by 0.30%, grassland decreased by 0.21%, residential area and factory and mining areas increased by 1.11%, land for transportation use rose by 3.37% and land for water conservancy purpose grew by 0.26%.

In 2005, the net loss of arable land across the country was 361,600 hectares, of which 138,700 hectares were used for construction; 53,500 hectares were destroyed by disasters, 390,300 hectares were restored to their original landscape to conserve ecology, 12,300 hectares were lost due to agricultural restructuring and 306,700 hectares were added resulting from landrehabilitation. In addition, 73,400 hectares of land was found to have been occupied by construction projects without reporting the change of land use.

The total area of farmland in mainland China decreased by 7.6 million hectares during the period of 1998~2005, among which 1.4178 million hectares were taken for construction purposes. Meanwhile, 2.1317 million hectares of usable farmland were added through land rehabilitation.

Water and Soil Erosion  The area of land affected by water and soil erosion in mainland China was 3.56 million km², accounting for 37.1% of the total national territory. Among them, 1.65 million km² was affected by water erosion and 1.91 million km² by wind erosion. It occurred mainly in mountainous areas, hilly land, windy and dusty regions, especially in the middle and upper reaches of major rivers of China. 5 billion tones of soil were lost due to water and soil erosion across the country every year.

Countermeasures and Actions

【Overall Development of the Planning of Land and Resources】 By compiling the Guideline of the 11^th Five-Year Plan for Land and Resources, the Ministry of Land and Resources completed the early stage of work for the compilation and revision of the Guideline of the Utilization of Land Nationwide and fully deployed corresponding tasks to each province. With the deepening of preparatory research of this work, the planning and compilation work of the provinces of Liaoning and Xinjiang were advanced steadily, and that of Guangdong province were formally initiated.

【Actively Participating in Macro-regulation and Consolidating the Achievements Made in Land Market Streamlining】We had carefully implemented the demarcation of the boundaries of development zones to the four directions and completed the planning and examination of development zone. Based on the achievements obtained during the market streamlining of the previous year, 10 development zones were cut down after checkup with the reduction of 5,200 km² of area. In addition, the pre-warning and forecasting system for state-level development zones had taken the preliminary shape with the fulfillment of the monitoring and analysis of 160 state-level development zones.

【Control of Water and Soil Erosion】In 2005, altogether 46,000 km² eroded land were treated comprehensively, among which 14,900 km² were covered by key national projects for water and soil conservation while 31,100 km² were done by other departments, local governments and social forces. Throughout the whole year, comprehensive treatment for water and soil erosion were conducted in 3,402 small rivers, among them, 2,427 had completed such work involving 2.24 billion cubic meter of earth and stone and 654 million work days by the mass. In total, 498,600 hectares of slope farmland, low land and flood plain were improved nationwide; 2.863 million hectares of forest and grassland for water and soil conservation were built and 237,000 small-scale water conservancy projects were built. Over 840 silt embankments were newly built in the loess plateau.

【Implementation of Key Water and Soil Conservation Projects】 In 2005, the central government carried out the key water and soil erosion prevention and control project in the mid and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and Yellow River, pilot silt embankment construction projects for water and soil conservation in the loess plateau, pilot project on the comprehensive treatment of water and soil erosion in the limestone area of south and north Panjiang River situated in the upper reaches of the Pearl River as well as in the black earth area of Northeast China, treatment project of the sandstorm sources of Beijing and Tianjin, project on the water and soil conservation in comprehensive agricultural development and other key water and soil conservation projects such as the water and soil conservation projects in eight major areas. Over 600 counties were covered by these water and soil conservation projects.

【Urban Geological Survey】 The Multiple Parameter Based Three-dimensional Geological Survey in Beijing had yielded some primary achievements. Based on the investigation of the current disposal situation of urban domestic refuse in Beijing as well as the geological environmental survey of the site selection for the treatment of such refuse, the geological environment most suitable for landfill were identified, and different categories of areas such as landfill prohibition area, landfill restriction area and potential landfill areas were marked according to related laws and regulations as well as their respective geological environment. 10 new grounds suitable for refuse storage were selected. This survey provided crucial scientific basis for the planning, site selection and construction of refuse treatment sites of Beijing in the future. In addition, a series of major cities in such provinces as Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hainan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Heilongjiang and Gansu had carried out the investigation on geological problems of urban environment based on the pilot work of the previous year.