Great efforts have been made by the Chinese government to curb the ecological deterioration in the Qinling Mountains, the country's north-south demarcation. Enterprises of heavy polluters in the concerned provinces, such Shaanxi, Henan and Gansu, have been shut down; tourism-related exploitations, which have caused adverse effects on eco-environment, have been stopped; and real estate development is forbidden at the foot of the mountains.

The Qinling Mountains lie as a natural demarcation between China's northern and southern natural environments. The range is also a watershed between the Yellow River and the Yangtze River valleys, and a key water source on the middle line of the south-to-north water diversion project. The mountains' particular geomorphologic structure blocks cold air from the north, conserves water resources, and helps adjust climate. The mountain range not only acts as a vital ecological protective screen in central China, but its influences can reach as far as provinces on the lower reaches of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers.

However, with the economic development and intensified human activities in the past decades, Qinling has been suffering ecological degradation. The rate of forest coverage has decreased from 64 percent 50 years ago to 46 percent at present, and forest resources storage has decreased by 70 percent. While eco-tourism is developed, the numerous restaurants and hostels dump their domestic garbage into the mountain valleys, damaging the natural environment for vegetation. Sewage water, waste residue, domestic trash discharged from enterprises and residences without disposal have polluted the Fenghe, Bahe and Heihe rivers and their 17 tributaries originated from the mountains.

The increasingly deteriorating eco-environment of Qinling will affect China's sustainable development and the coordinated development of eco-environment and social economy, to which the Chinese government has attached great importance.

In March 2001, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) set Qinling Mountains one of the 10 state pilot ecological functional reserves. Governments at various levels, that of provinces, cities and counties situated along the mountain range, were required to restore the local eco-environment systematically.

The Shaanxi provincial government has started a special pollution-striking action in the north foot of the Qinling Mountains, where the ecology is most seriously destroyed and pollution is the most difficult to control. According to the Shaanxi Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau, in Xi'an alone, capital city of Shaanxi, 407 enterprises have been set as targets of the program. It's hopeful that these efforts can effectively contain the eco-environment of Qinling from worsening.

The ecological rehabilitation of Qinling is a long-term project, though. According to the government plan with a total investment of 24.5 billion yuan (US$3 billion), by 2015, the landscapes of the Qinling Mountains will become as beautiful as they used to be and the natural ecology will be restored.

He Fali, director of the Shaanxi Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau and chief of the Qinling ecological restoration project, says he and his colleagues are determined to make Qinling clear again so as to leave the future generations a "green heritage."

(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting May 5, 2004)