PASSING ON THE GREEN BATON
Three generations of farmers in northwest China rally to turn desert into forest By Li Nan
President Xi Jinping visits the Babusha Forest Farm in northwest China's Gansu Province on August 21
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August 21, 2019, will remain a memorable date in Guo Wangang's life. On that day, the 67-year-old farmer received a special guest at his “forest farm,” an ecological initiative to prevent desertification. President Xi Jinping came for a visit.
“President Xi plowed the soil and built barriers with us to stabilize the sand,” Guo told Beijing Review . “He also asked us about the quality of the drinking water and our income.”
The Six Old Men
Guo's Babusha Forest Farm lies near the Tengger Desert in northwest China's Gansu Province, the fourth largest desert in China. “We are ordinary farmers doing an ordinary job,” he said.
Guo is modest. He is actually part of an extraordinary group of dedicated green warriors. Three generations of farmers from six families began rallying in the 1980s to green the Tengger. He is from the second generation of these families. Today, the third generation has joined in. In 38 years, the group has grown 40 million trees, pushing the desert back by 15 km.
Gulang, the county where the forest farm lies, is a key area for monitoring desertification. From the 1960s to the 1980s, it suffered severe desertification as the Tengger expanded rapidly, with sand dunes approaching Guo's village at a speed of 7.5 meters per year. Many locals left in the 1960s.
To combat desertification, the Three-North Shelter Forest Program was launched in 1978. Extending from the northeastern to the northwestern tip of the country, it covers more than 40 percent of land area that is prone to erosion and will continue till 2050.
部分人追求美观效果,喜欢加湿器喷出白雾,而白雾的实质是水中矿物质随水雾喷出的结果。这些含有矿物质的雾滴有很强的吸附能力,雾滴吸附细菌、病毒或装修时残留在室内的有毒物质,这种带有致病因素的“毒雾”被孕妇吸入过多可能是加湿性肺炎导致呼吸系诸多统疾的发病根源。孕、产妇这一易受疾病的群体,如果冬季室内过于干燥,可尽量选择无“雾”加湿器,并剂量在室内配置湿度表,将室内湿度保持在45%~50%之间,此时人体感觉最舒适,湿度过高容易致病[8]。而不使用加湿器时,务必将加湿器中水倒掉、擦干,防止细菌滋生,危害孕妇健康。
In 1981, Guo's father and five other villagers took a contract to green 5,000 hectare. Since their collective age was nearly 300 years, they came to be known as the Six Old Men.
What made them volunteer for such backbreaking work? “The desert had a big impact on our farmland and home. If we couldn't control it, our homes would not exist and we would not survive,” Zhang Runyuan, one of the Six Old Men, told
Beijing Review .
In 1995, the farm was on the brink of bankruptcy. Guo Wangang, who headed the farm, thought of emergency measures like drilling a well and growing cash crops such as wheat, corn, watermelon and tomato. “The biggest hurdle was money. We needed nearly 300,000 yuan ($41,859), an astronomical sum for farmers at that time,” he said.
Babusha Afforestation also welcomed its first college graduate, Chen Shujun, as its technician. “I had heard the story of Babusha when I was young. I never thought one day I would be part of the story,” Chen said.
From the early 1990s, sons and sonsin-law from the other five families took up their fathers' spades one by one and the second-generation band of six brothers was formed.
A decade later, by 1991, a 2,800-hectare forest had sprung up. But while the desert turned green, the hair of the Six Old Men had become white. So they agreed that each family would contribute one member to take over the work. In the following years, four of the six passed away.
Gulang is in its northwestern part. The locals were given incentives to join the program, which encouraged farmers to be productive in their output while maintaining a unified collective operation. Subsidies were offered for anti-desertification work.
The turning point
Guo was the first in the second generation to join the green warriors in 1982 after his father fell ill. He had to leave his job in town to work on the farm and it slashed his income by one third.
“In the beginning, I was reluctant to give up my job since I had a family to feed,” Guo said. Besides, life in the desert was tedious. He complained a lot and wanted to escape.
But a catastrophic sandstorm on May 5, 1993, changed his mind. On that afternoon, a sandstorm invaded Gulang when Guo was working on the farm. He was buried under sand and escaped death by a hair's breadth. However, 23 locals died in the storm. From that day, he stopped talking about leaving the farm.
The mRNA level of HMGB1 in the myocardium of the baseline group was positively correlated with BNP and LVEDD(r=0.850,P=0.003;r=0.916,P=0.001,Figure 6),but negatively correlated with LVEF(r=0.880,P=0.001,Figure 6).
They adopted a more efficient way to stabilize the sand. “From the 1990s, we have been building straw barriers to stabilize the sand. The survival rate of trees planted in the barriers is higher,” He Zhongqiang, one of the second generation, told Beijing Review .
By 2000, all the 5,000 hectare in Babusha had been afforested. The vegetation cover increased to 70 percent from less than 3 percent in the 1980s.
公式(7)、(8)、(9)中：f(x)是城市化系统综合指数，g(y)是生态环境系统综合指数，C值为城市化与生态环境之间的系统耦合度，D值是耦合协调度；T值是城市化与生态环境综合调和指数，α与β分别为城市化与生态环境在综合调和指数中所占比重，为了使经济发展和生态环境重要性程度一致，本文取α=β=0.5。同时借鉴物理学关于协调类型的划分及其他各类研究文献，可以将城市化与生态环境的耦合类型分为4大类，12个亚类(表2)。
Wang Zhiping and Guo Xi, the second and third generation of farmers respectively at the Babusha Forest Farm, inspect their forest from a watch tower on August 7
Shi Yinshan, one of the second generation of eco warriors at the Babusha Forest Farm, trims a tree on August 7
A converted truck demonstrates how to build straw barriers to stabilize the sand in the desert before planting trees
Guo was ambitious. He suggested taking up another desert area near their farm. “The government had rolled out its strategy to develop the western regions and I thought more preferential policies would be issued to fight against desertification,” he said.
The western region development strategy was launched in 2000 to develop 12 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. Gansu was one of them.
In 2009, the eco warriors founded Babusha Afforestation Co. to bid for more greening projects. “Besides managing four desertified areas in Gulang, we also reached out to the border of Gansu and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,” Shi Yinshan, one of the second generation of green warriors, told Beijing Review .
Chen advised the company to bid for greening projects under the Ant Forest scheme. In 2016, Ant Forest was initiated by Alipay, the financial arm of Alibaba, China's biggest e-commerce player. Alipay users who act in an environment-friendly manner are rewarded with virtual energy for each such act. When they accumulate a certain amount of energy, Alipay plants a tree for the user in the desert. Usually, the trees are planted by local afforestation companies with funding from Alipay.
The experience taught them that only the trees planted in grassy areas survived. So they learnt the first lesson: Stabilize the sand first with dry grass; then plant trees. Gradually, more saplings began to survive and there came a time when the once bleak desert was dotted with trees, bushes and grass.
His theory has been highly regarded by strategies since the warring state period.
对于老百姓长期居住、生活的街道名称的更改，更改前要做好民意调查，参考社会大众的意见，不能因为街道名称的更改给百姓带来生活、出行上的不便。同时要通过新媒体的方式积极采纳群众的合理意见和建议。潍坊市2014年4月在地名网上发布《关于道路命名征求意见的公告》，向全社会征求部分道路拟用名称的意见。
The third generation bids for new projects on the Internet and plants trees with new technologies and machines.
Seven years later, new blood joined the group, starting with Guo Xi, the grandson of the Guo family. “When I was young, Babusha was my playground and I have fantastic memories of the place,” the 34-year-old said. “I am willing to take over the baton and continue to expand the forest in the desert.”
术后迟发性感染可能与手术操作及患者自身免疫功能欠佳相关，糖尿病已经被普遍接受是术后感染的危险因素［19］。本研究发生术后感染的5例患者中有3例合并糖尿病。
At the end of 2018, Babusha Afforestation received 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) from Alipay to plant an Ant Forest. It amazed the second generation of eco warriors. “The college graduate is indeed a big help in our afforestation efforts,” Wang Zhipeng, one of the second generation farmers, told Beijing Review .
Guo Xi, who is a motor mechanic, is good at operating machines. Machines to dig and plant and other mechanized equipment have been introduced in Babusha and are operated by Guo Xi. “In the old days, my grandpa planted about 0.67 hectare per day. With a tree-planting machine, one can plant 3.33 to 4 hectare, 50 to 60 times faster than manual labor,” Guo Xi told Beijing Review .
He is also making Babusha known to youngsters via social media. He shares videos about the farm on Kuaishou, a leading short video social platform in China. The most popular videos get more than 200,000 views. “Babusha was a desert. Now it's green. I hope more people know about it,” he said.
After nearly four decades of efforts, Gulang's environment has improved. “Today, the desert winds are fewer and less fierce. The annual rainfall has increased from 100 mm in the 1980s to 300 mm this year,” Guo Wangang said.
What makes him proud is that those who fled Babusha are now moving back. Today, there are 24 more households. “In the 1960s, we used to be driven away by the desert. Now the story is quite the reverse,” he said.
Oasis against poverty
Planting drought-resistant vegetation in the desert, while it improves the environment, generates little income. How to fight desertification and poverty at the same time has long been a problem for the forest farm.
混合式教学对学生学习方式的积极影响主要表现在其为开展自主参与、自主体验和自主发展的学习方式提供了有利条件，使学生自主学习能力增强，这正符合建构主义学习理论主张。
The biggest crisis erupted in the mid-1990s when the government adjusted its preferential policies and the subsidies to the farm stopped. One of its products, shrub twigs used for building mud houses in northwest China before the 1990s, fell out of favor.
It needed enormous effort when they started. The saplings and even the water had to be transported into the desert on the back of donkeys. The only digging tool they had was the old-fashioned spade. None of the six knew anything about fighting desertification and almost 70 percent of the first batch of trees they planted were blown away.
However, the local bank agreed to give them a loan. The six families contributed either money or labor, and became shareholders of the farm. Two years later, the farm revived.
员工适应性(employee adaptiveness)反映了员工在与顾客互动过程中，根据情境特点和对顾客不同需求的理解，灵活调整自身行为[29]。营销学对适应性的探讨最早集中于销售群体，指销售人员根据情境需要调整销售方式[30]以提高销售绩效。随后由于服务与销售的兼容性[31]，该项研究也扩展到服务领域[32]。适应性的一种极端情况是员工对所有顾客都展现同样的行为，另一种极端情况是员工对每一位顾客都表现出独一无二的行为模式。
It also turned to raising poultry. Last year, Guo Xi raised 5,000 chickens, bringing a net income of 200,000 yuan ($27,922).
2003年，上海的朱燕翎女士诉雀巢公司未在其“雀巢巧伴伴”产品中进行转基因产品标识败诉一案，反映出我国对于转基因产品标识制度的不完善。在该案中，数家测试机构对于该产品的转基因测试结果的不统一亦反应出我国对于转基因成分的规定缺乏权威的国家标准以及缺乏专门的检测机构的问题，这些问题都是完善标识制度的掣肘。因此完善标识制度必须先确立权威的含有转基因成分程度的统一制度以及建立专门的检测机构。
The farm is now creating jobs for the impoverished in the neighborhood. This year, it rented land from poor farmers in a nearby community and planted drought-resistant cash crops, including medicinal herbs and dates. The community residents were hired as farmhands during the busy seasons.
Zhang Runyuan (right) and He Zhongqiang work on the Babusha Forest Farm on August 7
“We employed 3,000 people from neighboring communities to plant trees this spring. Everyone earned more than 3,000 yuan ($418.8) in two months,” Guo Wangang said. “We found a new way out of poverty by combining afforestation with agriculture and raising fowls.”
随着经济发展对煤炭需求的增加及国家产业政策的重大调整，国际煤炭价格相对有比较优势，我国煤炭进口不断增加，自2012年以来，煤炭进口经历了一个波折的发展，在2013年煤炭进口达到近些年的最高峰，3.27亿万吨，此后连续两年下降，并在2015年达到近些年的最低点，2.04亿万吨。此后，煤炭进口渐渐回升，2017年全国累计进口煤炭2.71亿吨，同比增加0.15亿吨、增长6.1%。其中，第一季度进口6471万吨，同比增长33.8%;第二季度进口6855万吨，同比增长 15.07%;第三季度进口 7159万吨，同比下降 0.38%;第四季度进口6604万吨，同比下降12.39%。
“As President Xi says, clear water and lush mountains are invaluable assets,” he said. “And we did it. Planting trees in the desert is not an easy task. But as long as we persist, there will be result.”
(Reporting from Gansu Province, with contribution by Liang Yuxuan )
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Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar
生态敏感度指生态系统对区域内自然和人类活动干扰的敏感程度，反映区域生态系统遭到干扰时发生生态环境问题的难易程度和可能性，并用以表征外界干扰可能造成的后果。研究区域可大致分为三种类型地形地貌：北部临城区域、西侧临秋浦河区域和东侧接白洋河（清溪河）区域，地势较为平坦；中南部近陀弥山与茱萸山区域地势较高，形成丘陵、山地相间格局；天生湖和谷谭圩区域为山间盆地，湖光山色掩映，风景优美。选取地形地貌、水文、土地类型等作为生态敏感因子进行评分和加权叠加，根据定量评价结果划分低敏感区、较低敏感区、中敏感区、较高敏感区、高敏感区，得到研究区域生态敏感度空间分布（图3、表1）。
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