Dryland Ecosystems

The People's Republic of China (PRC) suffers from some large-scale land degradation problems, posing a significant threat to the lives of local residents and to the future economic welfare of the nation. The dryland areas of the western PRC, which cover approximately 40% of the country's land area, contain some of the most severely degraded land in the world. With only about 7% of the world's farmland and 6% of the world's annual water runoff, the PRC must feed 22% of the world's population. With the assistance of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Asian Development Bank, the PRC government established the PRC-GEF Partnership on Land Degradation in Dryland Ecosystems to address land degradation issues, reduce poverty, restore dryland ecosystems, and conserve biodiversity through an effective integrated ecosystem management (IEM) approach.