(East-West Question) Wang Tao: On the Silk Road, how can humans coexist harmoniously with deserts and oases?
China News Agency, Lanzhou, May 23rd, Question: Wang Tao: How can humans coexist harmoniously with deserts and oases on the Silk Road on land?
China News Agency reporter Ding Sigaoying
The traditional overland Silk Road started from the ancient Chinese capital Chang'an (now Xi'an), passed through Gansu, Xinjiang, and reached the Mediterranean Sea through Central Asian countries, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and other countries, and ended in Rome, with a total length of 6,440 kilometers. .
This road connecting the ancient eastern and western civilizations of the Eurasian continent is also known as the "Silk Road to the Desert Oasis".
What does the Silk Road mean to geographers?
Surrounded by the desert Gobi, how did people open up the Silk Road and connect the world?
Wang Tao, a researcher at the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been engaged in the study of desert environment, desertification process and its prevention and control for nearly 40 years. The past of symbiosis with the oasis of the Gobi Desert, and the interpretation of "China's experience" for global desertification control.
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Service reporter: In terms of physical geography, how was the route of the Silk Road chosen and developed? How have the deserts and oases along the route changed over the years?
Wang Tao:
It is generally believed that the concept of "Silk Road" was first proposed by the German Ferdinand von Richthofen more than 100 years ago.
With the development of the times, the Silk Road has become a collective name for the political, economic and cultural exchanges between ancient China and the West.
The overland Silk Road we often refer to mainly refers to a land passage between Europe and Asia.
The Silk Road has been surrounded by the desert Gobi since ancient times. The natural conditions are harsh, with little precipitation, high temperature, and heavy wind and sand. Especially in the Hexi Corridor and Xinjiang in China, the living environment is harsh. The opening of the Silk Road is very important for human beings. It is not easy.
When people opened up the Silk Road, there were more deserts, Gobi, and wasteland along the way than there are now.
When productivity is low, people choose to live by water and grass, and choose to actively avoid sandstorms.
After the Silk Road was unimpeded, with trade exchanges, economic activities, population increase and technological progress, people's utilization of natural resources improved, and more efforts were made to change the living environment in which they lived.
For example, people can gradually control the direction of water flow, plan farmland, orchards, etc., control the means of production with water as the core, and expand the scope of oasis; even through human intervention, the structure of desert systems in the past can be changed to form artificial oasis (oasis).
At the same time, human beings are gradually enhancing the ability and technology to resist wind and sand and prevent desert erosion of oasis.
Oasis has continued to develop along the Silk Road, making oasis areas much larger today than they were more than 2,000 years ago.
The Silk Road, with its harsh natural conditions, is more driven by economic and political factors, making it increasingly connected to the world.
The "Oasis of Clear Water" built on the Gobi Desert in Zhangye, Gansu.
Photo by Yang Yanmin
China News Service: With the increase in exchanges and technological progress along the Silk Road, how does China turn the desert into an oasis? How to deal with the balanced relationship between the two, so that humans and nature can coexist in harmony?
Wang Tao:
Most of the areas that the Silk Road traverses have harsh natural conditions and fragile ecological environment. Humans need to make double efforts to develop new living spaces.
The Silk Road passes through Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang and other places in China. The region is rich in land, light and heat, minerals, energy and other resources, but it is located in an arid area and faces arid climate, sparse precipitation, wind, sand and water. Due to shortage of resources, desertification threatens the survival and development of local people, and also poses a threat to China's ecological security and economic and social development.
"Desert prevention and control, turning the desert into an oasis, and seeking fertile land from the desert" have become one of the ecological measures after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
In the 1950s, organized and targeted national desertification prevention and control projects also began to be implemented.
In 1952, the Shenyang Forestry and Soil Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences started the research on the prevention and control of wind and sand disasters in the Northeast region, and in 1954, it started the research on wind and sand fixation on the Baotou-Lanzhou railway.
At present, China has effectively prevented the spread of desertification and desertification. Especially since 2000, the desertified land has been gradually reduced, and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification has achieved the goal of zero growth in global arid and semi-arid land degradation by 2030 ahead of schedule.
Through decades of hard work, China's desertification has gone through a process of development—rapid development—partial reversal—overall control. With the joint efforts of the government, enterprises, and the public, the desertification in China has changed from “sand forced people to retreat” to “green advances and sand retreats.” "A historic shift.
There are also two concepts that need attention - "desertification and oasis", which are two processes that develop in opposite directions but are interrelated.
The oasis process enables the establishment and stability of artificial oasis on a large scale, the production and ecological environment are significantly improved, and the social, economic and ecological benefits are organically unified, and the development and utilization of water resources is the key.
However, if it is over-exploited and unreasonably used, the ecological environment of modern artificial oasis may also tend to deteriorate until it becomes a new desert.
Reasonable regional water transfer and water use are the key, so that humans and nature can coexist in harmony.
Caohu National Wetland Park in Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, is located in the frontier of the Badain Jaran Desert and the Mongolian New Gobi.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Gao Zhan
China News Service reporter: With the advancement of the "Belt and Road" construction, how will China benefit the countries along the route with its experience in sand control?
Wang Tao:
Implementing the "One Belt, One Road" initiative, strengthening ecological construction and expanding ecological capacity are important parts of desertification prevention and control.
Most of the countries along the Silk Road are located in areas with severe desertification and suffer from sandstorms.
After the reform and opening up, China has gradually promoted the "Chinese experience" of desertification prevention and control to the world.
In 1987, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established the "International Desertification Control Research and Training Center" at the Lanzhou Institute of Desertification, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Almost every year, people from developing countries affected by desertification are invited to participate in training courses, academic and technical exchanges, and field trips. China's major desertification control projects and large-scale land desertification control results.
In 2014, the Central Asian Ecology and Environment Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was established, and successively established sub-centers in many Central Asian countries to promote and promote the countries along the Silk Road in ecological environmental protection, sustainable resource utilization, agricultural development, mineral resources exploration, disaster monitoring and Scientific and technological cooperation and personnel training in early warning and other fields play an active role.
China has also shared its Chinese wisdom in desertification prevention and control to countries along the Silk Road through online and offline meetings and exchanges, sending scientific and technical personnel to go abroad for technical guidance, and promoting books and promotional films.
Most of the countries along the Silk Road, our team has visited and carried out exchanges and cooperation.
We also provide technical support to some countries in need of desertification prevention and control.
Over the past 30 years, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and major countries along the Silk Road such as Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Mongolia and other countries have provided concepts and technologies for desertification prevention and control. Conduct collaborative research and practice.
The 17th session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development pointed out that China is in a leading position in the world in combating desertification; the secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification clearly stated that China's achievements in combating desertification are a model that can be used for reference internationally.
In 2017, the 13th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification was held in Ordos, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liu Wenhua
China News Service: In the future, how will China build a "Green Silk Road" with countries along the Silk Road?
Wang Tao:
China's desertification prevention and control project was launched in 1954, which is inseparable from the assistance and cooperation among countries along the Silk Road.
Countries have frequent exchanges in talent and technology exchanges.
The "grass grid" quicksand fixation technology now promoted in countries along the Silk Road actually came from the Turkmen Institute of Desert Research during the Soviet era. The systematic desertification prevention and control technology has gradually formed a sand control blueprint for global learning and sharing with the world.
Press sand to plant trees on the "grass square".
Photo by China News Agency reporter Yang Yanmin
Sand prevention and control is not the elimination of deserts. Ecological civilization emphasizes the concept of harmony between man and nature, between man and man, and between man and society.
Facing the environmental and economic and social challenges of desertification, cooperation can only be effectively dealt with.
Dust weather knows no borders, and ecological governance is not a matter of one region or one country.
In the future, to jointly face the challenges of desertification, all countries in the world will continue to make efforts on the basis of strengthening cooperation and reaching consensus.
The development of desertification prevention and control technology according to local conditions, the construction of desertification monitoring system and legal system, and the multiple ecological, economic and social benefits of desertification prevention and control are all important topics worthy of discussion in the future.
(Finish)
Interviewee Profile:
Respondent Profile
Wang Tao, an expert on desertification and desertification, is currently the chairman of the International Desert Research Association (IDRA), the director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)-Chinese Academy of Sciences "International Desertification Control Research and Training Center", and the vice president of the China Society for Sand Control and Sand Industry.
As the chief scientist, he presided over 2 national 973 projects on desertification, oasis and desertification and 1 national key R&D project on key technologies and applications of desertification prevention and control, and won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award as the first winner2 and the International Dry Zone Development Commission (IDDC) Outstanding Contribution Award.