Role of the Law on Sand Prevention and Control in Combating Desertification
Land desertification is one of the most serious problems of ecological environment. The aggravating desertification of land has made ecological environment deteriorated and the subsistence and development of human beings menaced. The area of desertification in China covers 34.6％ of its total land area, of which sandy desertification land accounts for 18.2％, and desertification has become a serious trouble or danger for the Chinese nation. The continuous expansion of desertification is partly caused by natural factors such as climate change and various natural disasters, but irrational human activities is the main factor. In order to reduce the impacts of human activities on vegetation, ensure the fulfillment of the expected objectives of the national sand prevention and sand control projects, accelerate the development of the systems for the monitoring and early warning of land desertification, improve science and technology for sand prevention and control, enhance the supervision of sand prevention and control activities of governments at all levels in desert-prone regions, supervise the implementation of sand prevention and sand control policies and the effective use of related funds, enhance the publics awareness of laws and regulations on sand prevention and control, improve the livelihood of the people and the conditions for economic production in desert regions, the National Peoples Congress (NPC) of China adopted timely the 《Law on Sand Prevention and Sand Control》 in 2001. The promulgation of the 《Law on Sand Prevention and Sand Control》, together with the 《Forest Law》, the 《Grassland Law》, the 《Law on Water and Soil Conservation》, the 《Water Law》 and the 《Environmental Protection Law》 and other regulations and statutes of various agencies and local environments, will not only further promote sand prevention and control activities in China and provide a legal guarantee for sand prevention and control, but also provide a legal basis for the National Peoples Congress to supervise the implementation of sand control programmes and the implementation of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD), which will eventually contribute greatly to the improvement of Chinas ecological environment. China is a contracting party to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Desertification combating involves a wide range of subjects, including prevention of soil erosion, land deterioration, desertification and salinization. Although it is imperative to prepare a comprehensive master law on desertification control in China, the present situation remains inadequate for such a law. Therefore, it is more practical to prepare individual laws such as the law on sand prevention and control and the law on water and soil conservation, which will lay a solid foundation for the preparation of an integrated and comprehensive law on combating desertification. So far, there are more than 140 contracting parties to UNCCD and among those parties, no one but China has issued a law on combating desertification. The 《Law on Sand Prevention and Sand Control》 adopted by NPC of China is the first law on combating desertification in the world, which will provides not only a legal framework for sand prevention and control in China, but also an important supporting mechanism for the implementation of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.
WANG Tao
Chinese Academy of Engineering, Beijing, China The Environment and Resources Protection Committee of the National Peoples Congress of PR China
国际会议
中国-欧盟荒漠化综合治理研讨会(The China-EU Workshop on Integrated Approach to Combat Desertification)
北京
英文
164-170
2003-10-15（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）