Chinese environmentalists delighted as Beijing inquiry backs Dunhuang deforestation claims

Central government team finds significant deforestation at state-owned Yangguan Forest Farm in Gansu province to make way for commercial vineyards

‘By rejecting the claims of the Gansu government, the [central government] team showed the inquiry wasn’t just a cover-up’, ecology expert says

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The central government team said more than 2.2 sq km of trees at Yangguan Forest Farm had been lost over the past 30 years. Photo: Weibo

Published: 1:09pm, 20 Mar 2021Updated: 1:09pm, 20 Mar 2021

Environmental groups in China are celebrating a victory for “ecological protection” after a central government investigation backed up claims of widespread illegal deforestation at a forest farm in the country’s arid north west.

A report published on Friday concluded that over a period of more than 30 years large parts of the state-owned Yangguan Forest Farm near the ancient Silk Road city of Dunhuang in Gansu province had been razed to make way for vineyards. The investigation, by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration and the natural resources, and ecology and environment ministries, was started after an inquiry by provincial authorities in January – sparked by media reports and a public outcry – dismissed the allegations.

After nearly two months of field investigations, drone mapping, remote sensing and interviews, the central government team ruled that there had been significant deforestation – centred on the southwestern section of the farm – though not to the extent claimed by local media reports.

Since 1990, the size of the forested area had been reduced by 2.23 sq km (0.86 square miles) – or 42 per cent of the total – while the amount of land given over to vineyards had tripled to 2.37 sq km, it said.

It also said that about 0.38 sq km of the deforested land had been used by the privately owned Dunhuang Wine Company from 2013 to 2014 to cultivate grapes and jujube trees.

Yangguan Forest Farm was established in the 1960s in a bid to counter the effects of desertification in the Dunhuang area. Photo: Weibo

The forest farm was established in the 1960s in a bid to counter the effects of desertification in the Dunhuang area, which lies to the southeast of the Kumtag Desert. But deforestation, along with unlicensed logging and the mismanagement of land and water resources had undermined the project, the report said.

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