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investment and capacity development projects, with cofinanc-

ing by ADB, GEF, the International Fund for Agricultural

Development and the World Bank. The IEM approach provided

new ways to plan and manage dryland natural resources by

combining knowledge and experiences from diverse disciplines.

The PRC’s adoption of the IEM concept was unprecedented.

It was the first time that the Government had established such

a high-level, cross-sectoral, national and provincial institutional

coordination mechanism for natural resources management.

It allowed a wide array of national, provincial and local insti-

tutions and agencies (such as those operating in the areas of

agricultural and rural development; land, forestry and water

management; environmental protection; finance and planning)

to work together on building the foundations to combat land

degradation. This included the introduction of new policy, legal

and institutional concepts and frameworks, the development

of provincial strategies, implementation of pilot projects, and

sharing of information.

All along, the PRC sought to learn

from countries that have wrestled with similar problems.

In the initial stages of its work, the partnership placed heavy

emphasis on critical groundwork. It developed and disseminated

the policy, legal, institutional and technical concepts and frame-

works of IEM through the central and provincial government

agencies involved in dryland activities. This effort included the

building of knowledge, skills, laws and regulations, policies and

legislation, organizational and institutional abilities, and the

communications and relationships necessary to put IEM into

practice in the six hardest-hit dryland jurisdictions. The work

of six legal teams added substantially to PRC’s knowledge base

on the subject.

New local laws were put on the books, includ-

ing, for example, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regional Wild

Plants Conservation by-laws, the Forest Resources Management

and Protection Regulation in Beijing, and the Regulation for

Implementation of Law on Combating Desertification in Gansu.

Pilot projects: alternative agricultural solutions

In Guohan County, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, subsistence farming

livelihood and access to land and water resources were adversely affected

by the arrival of environmental refugees from a village whose dryland

ecosystem had been destroyed. With the partnership support, villagers built

greenhouses to grow higher value cash crops. As a result, their incomes rose.

Growing industry in nearby Wuhai City had depleted local groundwater

resources. To save water, farmers adopted a drip irrigation system,

which increased water efficiency by 40 per cent and helped control

pests and diseases. Twelve sites tested drip irrigation, canal repairs or

rainwater collection to conserve water.

In Qinghai province, villagers in Huangyuan County undertook

greenhouse and mushroom farm trials and increased their annual

incomes. With more than 500 greenhouses on pilot sites, farmers are

now ready to set up a cooperative to sell directly to the

provincial capital.

Minhe County, in Qinghai province, was among several sites that

introduced courtyard vegetable gardens, thereby adopting a traditional

architectural feature that has been rarely used for vegetables. The

gardens have improved household nutrition, reduced expenses, and

led to small-scale experimentation with new crops.

Greenhouses in Qinhai province

Image: Frank Radstake

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