鄂尔多斯生态植物园

In the 87,000 square kilometers territory of Ordos Prefecture, the Mu Us Desert, Kubuqi Desert, a number of hills, valleys and arid highlands make up 48%, therefore it’s one of the regions in China with grave desertification and soil erosion. Since long ago, we have stuck to the ecological strategy by controlling the sands and forestation. In the past few years, we have been focused on forging the ecological safety frontier in the north of our country, seizing the opportunity of building a national model city in afforestation and pushing forward key state and local ecological projects. By the end of 2016, the forest has reached 34.8 million mu, of which the forest and vegetation covered over 26.7% and 75% respectively, up by 14.54 and 40 percentage points respectively compared with 2000.

According to the fifth national survey of deserts, the desertified land in Ordos was 3.18 million mu less than 2009, down by 0.6367 million mu annually, accounting for 24.94% in the total decrease in the region within the same period. Sanded land decreased by 0.2578 million mu, land prone to desertification by 0.1941 million mu, and drift sand by 5, 534, 9000 mu. Now, 70% of Mu Us Desert and 25% of Kubuqi Desert have been put under control: the threat of Mu Us Desert is nearly gone and Kubuqi Desert was becoming stable. The ecological deterioration is slowing down and the ecology of the key rehabilitation areas has been bettered significantly. A new way of ecological rehabilitation with Ordos characteristics has been worked out, and it is recognized as “a model of the coordinated development of the economy, society and ecology in China’s arid and semi-arid areas” by the academicians with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Accelerated Afforestation and Better Living Environment

We have been vigorously pushing forward local ecological forestry projects on the basis of the national move to launch key forestry projects, coordinating the efforts of individuals, groups and the country. Since 2000, the “grain for green” campaign, natural forest protection initiative and the “Green Wall of China” have created 7.64 million mu of artificial forest, 7.85 million mu of aerial-seeding afforestation and 4.07 million mu of enclosed forest. In afforestation, we attach the same importance to the landscape, so as to boost our citizens’ happiness index. In the center of the urban areas and populous areas, 150 larges parks as well as 37 leisure squares have been built, among them are Yeke Juu Park, wedding ceremony parks, Mother-themed Park and Music Fountain Plaza by the Ulan Muren River, Bronze Plaza and Genghis Khan Square. By the end of 2016, we had achieved a greenery coverage rate of 43.27% (together with a greening rate of 40.26%) and the park greenbelt per capita was 31.13 m2, ecologically sound, comfort-to-live and harmonious are the new impressions that comes to our mind. In 2013, we were awarded the “National Model City in Afforestation” title, the highest honor in greening. The change in the outlook of Ordos’ ecology has drew the attention from the nation and the autonomous region, many meetings have been held in Ordos (such as the National Seminar on Shrub Forestation Practice, the National Seminar on the Grain-to-green and Grazing-to-grass Progress, and the National Sand Control Seminar) and numerous honors have been granted for our excellence in ecological aspects (including such titles as National Advanced Collective in Desertification Control, National Advanced Collective in Greening Work, National Advanced Unit For Outstanding Contribution to the Three-north Shelter Forestation, and National Advanced Unit For Outstanding Ecological Contribution).

Overall strengthening of ecological protection

While we are thoroughly pushing forward the ecological rehabilitation, we improved the law enforcement and protection and management system in forestry in such sectors as forestry security, administration, policing, fire prevention and pest disease control so as to protect forest resources. Firstly, we increased infrastructure construction and strengthened law enforcement. During the “Twelfth Five-year Period”, we put RMB 46.47 million into forest public security infrastructure and equipment, built 9 local police stations and rehabilitated the functional area of 17 grass-roots police stations. Currently, among the 33 grass-roots forest police stations, 1 is state level, 8 are secondary and another 6 tertiary. We conducted 32 special operations and settled 3,009 forest-related criminal and administrative cases, penalized 3,335 law breakers and confiscated fines worth RMB 32.41 million, which posed high pressure on the unlawful against the forest. The second work we did is to complete the Category Ⅱ survey of forest resources and compile Forest Protecting And Utilizing Plans For Ordos From 2010 To 2020 and The Scheme Of Running Prefecture Forest. During the “Twelfth Five-year Period”, we reviewed 1,257 applications for expropriation of forest with a 100% of examination and approval rate, totaling 17,500 hectares and the actual felling quantity amounted to 83,500 m3 accounting for 7.7% of the designated felling amount, and all the felling was completed in line with due authorization. Thirdly, we established 116 professional and semi-professional fire-fighting teams with more than 1,800 persons to guard against and fight forest fires. A distance monitoring system for fire prevention covering the key blaze-prone zones was put into use, monitoring 21,700 square kilometers of land and over 80% of it can be monitored. In the meanwhile, 9 state-level standard pest disease prevention and control bases and 5 monitoring and reporting centers were erected, containing pest disease possibility below 7‰. Fourthly, we built 2 national natural reserves and 7 regional ones and 1 at the county level, covering an area of 13,467,800 mu and taking up 10.35% of the whole prefecture. And we built a state-level wetland park, a state-level ecological park, a state-level forest park, 3 regional forest parks and 2 state-level pilot desert parks. The fifth point is that, since the launch of “Natural Forest Protection Program”, we had created 11,479,600 mu of non-commercial forest, and 18,665,200 mu of state-level non-commercial forest received compensation for the corresponding ecological input, which totaled RMB 1.312 billion. There are 36,335,800 mu of local-level non-commercial forest under the special protection of altogether 120,000 forestry staff, among which 5,300 are professionals.

Forest and sand-related industries are growing robustly and bringing great benefits to farmers

· Ordos boasts 30.07 million mu of bushes which occupy 87% of all the forest resources. On the basis of those resources and their planting features, we have hatched a primary industry featuring the construction of timber bases, a secondary industry comprising the R&D, production and sales of forest and sand produces and a tertiary industry of ecological tourism, in line with the guideline of “industrializing ecological rehabilitation and promoting industrial development with ecological improvement”. At the moment, there are 25.53 million mu of raw material forest, which includes 6.17 million mu of salix mongolica, 9.81 million mu of caragana microphylla, 4.51 million mu of Hedysarum mongolicum, 0.34 million mu of prunus sibirica, 0.56 million mu of sea buckthorn, 75,000 mu of Haloxylon ammodendron, 20,000 mu of grapes, 20,000 mu of Malus micromalus Makino, 3,500 mu of apple and 19,000 mu of dates. Enterprises like Yili and Dongda involved in sand control and afforesting and related industries surpassed 80 in number, and out of them 14 key prefectural enterprises and 2 leading national forest enterprises were born. The annual yield of almond syrup, wine and sea buckthorn drinks reached 35,000 tons and artificial boards 25,800 m3, biomass-generated electricity 313 million degrees, creating a total value of RMB 3.56 billion and a sales volume of 3.15 billion; and this business has put 100,000 farmers and herdsmen into work. Taking advantage of the good ecological environment we’ve created, we actively developed ecological and cultural industries like sight-seeing in the grassland and desert tourism, and built 20 scenic spots like Engebei Desert, Xiangsha Bay and Seven-star Lake. Forest and sand produce industries in turn motivated the ecological rehabilitation, bringing ecology, economy and social effect into a win-win situation.

· Forestry reform under way and forestry potential fully explored

We’ve been working on the reform of collective forest ownership. Firstly, the reform of collective forest ownership. By the end of 2015, the whole city had issued 91,999 forest ownership certificates to 56.38 million mu of forest and the subject status of farmers and herdsmen was established. In the meanwhile, forests with a disputed ownership were mediated and 6,420 cases involving 2.909 million mu were settled to ensure the harmony and stability of rural pastures. Dalad Banner was designated as one of the 8 national pilot counties to implement the comprehensive reform of forestry; and Hanggin Banner and Otog Banner were designated as regional pilot sites for comprehensive forestry reform. Secondly, constant promotion of the forest rights protection management system. We established “city forest resources and assets assessment and management center”, 1 municipal-level forest right information center, 8 banner-level forest rights management center and put all the forest rights data into database. We issued City Collective Forest Right Transfer Management Provisions. At present, the city has handled 789 transfers of forest right which cover 1.111 million mu and amount to RMB 498 million. Thirdly, significant results have been achieved through the forestry co-ops for farmers. The city has established 27 co-ops and among them, 5 are prefecture-level, 2 are national level, attracting 1,910 farmers and herdsmen who run 404,000 mu of forest collectively. Meanwhile, forest-associated businesses are growing rapidly, including farming under the forest, tourism across forest and forest produces processing, all of which has generated RMB 436 million.

Reform of state-owned forest farms. Firstly, infrastructure of state-owned forest farms was further improved. Efforts were made to obtain RMB 258 million cumulatively on renovation of old and dilapidated houses during the 12th Five-Year Period, and 19 state-owned forest farms (stations) involving 1,797 units and 138,400 m2 were renovated. Secondly, reform of state-owned forest farms was launched. A municipal leading team on reform of state-owned forest farms was set up with the deputy mayor as the team leader. Special investigation of 26 state-owned forest farms in the city was completed, and their data were updated. Furthermore, Proposals on the Reform of State-owned Forest Farms in Ordos was drafted and adopted at the 8th executive meeting of the Ordos Municipal People's Government, so as to specify functional orientation, define properties of forest farms, improve the management system, innovate the operational mechanism, optimize management performance, maintain the stability of management areas and implement support and security policies, etc.

Ecological civilization was vigorously carried forward and forestry role was promoted in an all-round way

Ecological improvement constitutes the carrier of ecological construction. Forestry ecological construction embraced rapid development, while ecological civilization was vigorously carried forward. For instance, a variety of ecological knowledge publicity and education was conducted, such as the apricot blossom festival and peony festival; Forestry Records, Green Light, Flora of Ordos, Plant Resources of Ordos, Honey Plants of Ordos and The Flowers in Ordos were published; compilation of Wild Animals of Ordos and Change of Forestry Ecology in Ordos were launched; a number of feature films such as River over the Desert, Desert Transformation, In the Land of Shrubs, Song of Green and Harmony and Green Light were shot; many songs about forestry such as Call for the Green, Ecological Beauty of Ordos, The Green Dream and Green Ordos were composed, among which Call for the Green was rated as one of the top 10 ecological songs in China; several eco-moral education bases such as Ecological Construction Achievements Exhibition Hall of Ordos, Engebei Desert Botanical Garden and Seven-star Lake Biological Museum were built, so that the green and healthy concept and way of life of the whole society that features love for nature, attention to green and return to nature has quietly formed. The forestry ecological construction of Ordos has also attracted a number of media, writers and artists at home and abroad. Achievements of ecological construction in Ordos were continuously reported by CCTV programs such as Topics in Focus and News Broadcast. A large series of reports such as Interpretation of Ecological Phenomena in Ordos and Green Evolution of Ordos received overwhelming response. "Ecological phenomena in Ordos" and "green storm" have become the focus at home and abroad, and the role of forestry has been greatly improved in Ordos.