Great Green Wall
<Great Green Wall> Project
The Future Forest aims to arouse public awareness on the issues of desertification in and yellow dust storms in North East Asia and seek innovation in the usual concepts towards environmental issues that affect our daily lives. Within various activities hosted by Future Forest, the
Project is one of the major projects which goal is to build a 28 kilometer-long windbreak forest in Kubuqi desert in Inner Mongolia, China in partnership with the All-China Youth Federation. Yellow dust storm phenomenon had been a rarity even till the 1960s; however with the expansion of deserts, loss of forests and accelerated global warming, the dust storms occur not only in the driest spring season but randomly throughout the year. The Great Green Wall project aims to raise consciousness on the cause and effects of yellow dust storms and reduce losses ensued. The Great Green Wall project was inaugurated in October, 2006 and has successfully completed its 2nd phase as of January, 2008.
Projects to combat deforestation and yellow dust storms that originated from China began in 2002, when first 3,000 trees were planted in a 10ha area of Beijing and Xian with the support of various associations of both Korea and China. In 2003, a 20ha wide Korea-China Friendship Forest was built in Xian and Lanzhou area. In 2004 and 2005, this area was expanded to 50ha and 60ha respectively. In 2006 April, it was agreed with the support from the State Forestry Administration, P.R. China, to build the Great Green Wall - a forest barrier of 28km by 0.5km, 1,400ha in surface - in the Kubuqi desert in association with the All-China Youth Federation and Dalateqi City Government. The project is to be finished by December 2010 and costs around US$ 7 billion. The budget will largely be supplied by governmental funds, the Future Forest and Chinese Matching Funds. is in collaboration with the Ministry of Forestry, Korea, based on research by Korea Forest Research Institute and Graduate School of Environmental Studies at Seoul National University, and it is generously sponsored by numerous corporations such as SK, Yuhan-Kimberley, KBS, Hankook Daily News. From China, participating parties include the State Forestry Administration, Chinese Communist Youth League and Dalateqi People?s Government.
The subject area, Kubuqi desert in Dalateqi, Inner Mongolia was selected by suggestions from the All-China Youth Federation and Dalateqi City Government. The area is also where the shifting eastern border of the expanding desert is. The desert area is around 3587ha and annual precipitation amounts to 200-360 mm. Actual tree planting takes place during the wet season from the end of March to the beginning of June. First a base patch is created on the desert sands by building a fence, which ranges from 1.5 m x 1.5 to 4m x 4m, to prevent the nursery trees being blown away by desert storms. For every 1 km of base patch, a water pump facility is raised. Then the 3 to 4 trees are planted in a single hole with a gap of 30 to 40cm, presuming that at least one will survive. There are 5 types of species that are planted, and they are selected on their susceptibility to survive in the harsh desert environment. The species that are planted also varies depending on the geography. The nursery trees are generally 2 to 5 years old and each tree is provided with 500g to 800g of humus for successful rootage and management. The survival rate of the nursery trees largely depends on the amount of rainfall, which is up to 80 % to 30%. Besides the annual visit from the Green Corps, the numbers of work forces concentrated solely on the Great Green Wall are 8 to 9 people though it varies depending on work load and seasons. Access to water resources during dry seasons is provided by groundwater pumps or rain during wet seasons.
Though there are questions on the possibility of survival of trees planted in the desert, actual survival rates and the well-organized management proves that the Great Green Wall project has the potential to be a success. It is important that the entire people are favorable to the idea of Great Green Wall - which appears to be positive, according to the growing interest in Korean students towards the Green corps activities and messages of gratitude from the local residents in China. Through the Great Green Wall project, Future Forest aims to raise consciousness on environmental issues that prevails in our modern world, focusing on deforestation matters, combating Yellow dust storms and eventually seek mutual environmental partnership with China.
