Chinese researchers warn that ecological environment in Alxa League of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has been further deteriorating in the past several years.
They say latest statistics show that each year 1,000 square kilometers of grassland turn into desert in the region, which account for nearly one third of the total newly increased desert in the country.
More than 80 percent of the land in the far west of the region was covered by desert, posing a major source of sandstorm which harassed northern China frequently in the past years.
The forest, with the secondary forest in Helan Mountain and Juyanhai Oasis, posed a natural ecological barrier to protect the northern part of the country, has also decreased to 380,000 hectares, from 1.13 million hectares 50 years ago.
(CRI September 6, 2004)
