ABSTRACT
China’s Western Region Development Strategy, announced in 1999, aims to accelerate economic growth in the western provinces and close disparities between the eastern and western regions. The vast region of 6.85 million square kilometres encompasses 71 per cent of the land area of China and is home to 355 million people, or 28 per cent of the total population (Liu and Nielson, 2004). The region is rich in many natural resources, but is poor in fertile land and water, is subject to highly variable precipitation, and its soils suffer constant wind erosion. Western lands account for 80 per cent of China’s total eroded lands (Glantz et al, 2001).
