As a developing nation, I think China is sill far from achieving the goal of “harmonious development” between human being and nature. Soil erosion, one of the problems in the duration of economic development, should be concerned for its serious consequences.

     According to a news from ChongQing on April 13th 2009, Chen Lei, minister of water resources said in ChongQing that China had lost more than 50 million mu arable lands due to soil erosion in the last 50 years, 1 million mu per year averagely.

     This data was revealed by Chen Lei in the conference on water and soil conservation. He explained that China was a country with a large population but few water resources along with a sharp unbalance between population and area of land. What’s worse, the soil erosion further aggravated these conflicts. Currently, the annual erosion of he topsoil in the serious areas of on the Loss Plateau has achieved one centimeter. In the northeast black earth district, the thickness of cultivated horizon in some places has fell from about one meter at the beginning of cultivation to less than twenty centimeters now. Some arable lands have lost the production capability owing to the total loss of cultivated horizon.

     It is reported that, to the total area, the proportion of area of lands of which the thickness of cultivated horizon is less than thirty centimeters has reached as high as seventy seven percent. The karst region in southwest and the upper-middle reaches of Yangtze River are twelve percent and eighteen percent respectively.

     Chen Lei added that soil erosion not only damaged water and land resources severely, but also worked as an important reason for area source pollution (non-point pollution). According to the scientific investigation of committee for china soil erosion and ecologic environment safety, it is estimated that the annual economic losses to china caused by soil erosion equals approximately two point two five of GDP together with the incalculable losses for ecologic environment damage.

     Aiming to the current situation of soil erosion in China, Chen Lei promised that it would take fifteen to twenty years to control and restore the area of soil erosion. The government will try their best to ensure the harmonious development of ecological environment.