The Desertification And Its Causes In The History Of Hebei Province

Hebei Province used to have a broad distribution of forest and grassland and a good ecological environment in the past.People in ancient times has worked using fire, stone knives, stone axes and stone plough in order to obtain its prey, construct living places,and grow crops, thus making some forest, grassland in areas around tribes preliminarily damaged since Yangshao Culture during the Neolithic Age,During the slave society, large areas of forest were cut as a result of the frequent war between the tribes, burning and consuming some trees in order to develop handicraft industry, such as smelting, making pottery and building houses. Besides, agricultural cultivation is simple and extensive, which allows the large areas of forest, shrub, lawn to be reclaimed as farmland. Among them, the forest and grassland in Hebei Province suffered large-scale damage.Warring States period entered the feudal society and agriculture continued to develop. Not only building irrigation works, building tall and solid defensive facilities and the large-scale palaces, temples but also constant expeditions caused great damage to forest in t plains areas. Forests in North China Plain almost disappeared in late Warring States.Both Qin and Han dynasties is the first peak of China's feudal society, during which productive forces was greatly improved, using advanced agricultural tools and technology. Qin also introduced incentive the policy of reclaiming wasteland, moving hundreds of thousands of people to the border areas and the ones short of labour to reclaim wasteland .Therefore, large area of forest and grassland was damaged, and meanwhile the population of agriculture increased, thus farming region continuing to expand. The forest in plains and hilly areas in present Hebei Province completely disappeared and has been mostly reclaimed as farmland.During both Tang and Song dynasties, the forest in the Taihang Mountain and Luliang Mountain suffered a large-scale damage.From Yuan Dynasty to the Republic of China, forests in North China's mountain suffered serious damage. Forests Yanshan mountain and Taihang mountain have been completely destroyed.The early years of the Ming and Qing Dynasties took some measures to encourage reclamation, the Qing government implemented "real-immigrants to strengthen its border defence and "Let people work in the borrowed field to lead a living" policy, resulting in the grassland in the Hexi Corridor and along the Great Wall being reclaimed as farmland.From the founding of the PRC to the end of the 20th century, reforestation in the plain areas and dry lands had a great achievement. But in major national forest, there was a forest resources crisis due to excessive logging, consuming more than growing. The area of grassland , as a result of feeding too many animals in the grassland suffered from he majority of grassland degradation, at the same time, causing much grassland disappear due to reclaiming wasteland growing grain .The serious destruction of forest and grassland caused serious ecological disaster. Since Western Han Dynasty, in the Loess Plateau Zone serious soil erosion and frequent flood in the Yellow River Basin do greater and greater harm. Subsequently, the Yongding River, Fenhe River and some other rivers suffered severe floods. At the same time ,drought in northern China has emerged a rising trend The hydrology conditions of major rivers deteriorate, and large numbers of lakes and wetlands disappeared, thus, leading to a sharp reduction in wildlife resources.In farming-pastoral areas, the desertification of grassland around the oasis continues to develop. Because of high-intensive agricultural reclamation and frequent wars, since the Eastern Han Dynasty, some areas have gradually serious desertification. The desertification in some areas of desertification also constantly expanded.Increasing dust weather has seriously affected people's daily life in northern China and strongly restricted the local economic and social development. Among the causes of the evolution of forest and grassland into desert, human factors play a leading role, and natural factors also play a certain role. Of human factors, the ever-increasing population caused is the fundamental reason.Today, China's science and technology and the economy has made considerable progress, the Chinese government has "the protection and restoration of the ecological environment" as a basic state policy. Besides, implement of the policy-"returning farmland to forest" "returning farmland to grassland" and "grazing ban", is an important guarantee to change the ecological environment in Hebei Province, and build a harmonious society.In Hebei Province, the protection and restoration of the ecological environment must be based on the soil moisture conditions of different regions and we must pay attention to the coordinated development of forestry, grass industry and agriculture, following the law of ecology and economics, and take scientific measures–to develop and use forest , grassland and farmland in the light of local conditions.