Guizhou dedicated to soil erosion control

Guizhou has made efforts to prevent soil erosion. [Photo/ddcpc website]

In recent years, remarkable achievements have been made in the control of soil erosion in Southwest China's Guizhou province.

A total investment of 21.68 billion yuan ($3 billion) has been made in projects such as soil conservation initiatives, slope farming land management, rocky desertification control, reforestation, and mine restoration, resulting in the control of soil erosion over an area of 19,600 square kilometers.

In 2022, the province's soil conservation rate reached 74.03 percent, with a reduction of 5,400 square kilometers in soil erosion compared to 2015. A decrease in intensity was achieved over a total area of 14,400 sq km of soil erosion. The province has been rated "excellent" in soil erosion control by the national assessment for the past four years.

Measures to prevent human-induced soil erosion have become increasingly standardized. Over 22,300 soil conservation plans have been approved, approximately 2.5 billion cubic meters of waste materials have been intercepted, and 432,700 hectares of land have been protected from soil erosion. A total of 2.45 billion yuan has been collected as compensation for soil conservation.

The number of violations and irregularities in soil conservation has also been decreasing year by year, from 7,301 cases in 2018 to just 480 cases in 2022. Meanwhile, the implementation rate of soil conservation plans has been steadily increasing, from 47 percent in 2018 to 93 percent in 2022.

The integration of soil conservation and informatization has been steadily improving as well. Over 8,000 units in the province have utilized information technology to carry out soil conservation work, with an annual average of 62,400 inspections of production and construction projects.

Efforts have also been made to create soil conservation demonstration sites, and several counties, industrial parks, and projects, including the Jinsha national soil conservation demonstration county and Meitan provincial soil conservation demonstration county, have been established.