"Good water and soil" in exchange for "green banknotes" Ningxia manages mountains and water and continuously improves its carbon sink capacity
Taking advantage of the golden time of afforestation in autumn, Chao Yongfu and his colleagues worked hard for more than a month and finally completed the task of replanting and replanting the barren mountains and ditches this autumn-digging the fish scale pits and planting peach trees, apricot trees, spruce trees, Robinia pseudoacacia, etc., wait for an autumn and winter accumulation, and wait until the next spring will sprout, sprout, and grow new green.
Chao Yongfu is the director of the soil and water conservation workstation in Pengyang County, Guyuan City, Ningxia, and a native of Pengyang. Not long ago, he witnessed with his own eyes a new thing happening in his hometown: the good mountains and rivers created by soil and water conservation not only can grow trees, grass and crops, but now they can also "grow" and pay for money!
On September 12 this year, Pengyang County completed the first signing of a carbon sink transaction for a soil and water conservation project in the Yellow River Basin. Pengyang County Shengze Water Investment Co., Ltd., as the transferor of carbon sinks for soil and water conservation projects, signed an agreement with Ningxia Yahao New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. to trade 36,000 tons of carbon sinks for soil and water conservation, with a total amount of 1.116 million yuan. The transaction proceeds will feed back the construction of county soil and water conservation and ecological protection and restoration projects in Pengyang County.
"I have been working in water conservancy for so many years, and I never thought that one day 'good soil and water' could be 'realized'." Chao Yongfu introduced that the carbon sink project for this transaction is located in the Licha Small Watershed in Wangwa Town, Pengyang County. Since 2000, comprehensive management of soil erosion has been continuously carried out here, and a soil and water conservation rate of 80.68% has been achieved in 23 years. After calculation and verification, the total amount of water and soil conservation carbon sinks in the basin from 2002 to 2023 is 93,000 tons, and the value conversion amount of water and soil conservation ecological products can reach more than 3 million yuan.
For Pengyang County,"good soil and water" is really not easy to come by. It used to be barren mountains, ravines, barren land, and fragile ecological environment. It is a key area for the control of soil erosion in the country. The local people summarized the landscape of the mountains and rivers in Pengyang County at that time: "The mountains are the heads of monks, the lack of water is as expensive as oil, the wind blows away the yellow sand, and the rainfall, mud and water flow."
Because there are many mountains and few rivers, and most cultivated land is on steep slopes, it is difficult to plant and harvest. The livestock pulling plows are often worn out by ropes; whenever it rains, sloping farmland "runs away water, soil, and fertilizer", lacking moisture and little fertilizer, widespread planting and harvesting... Faced with such difficulties, Pengyang County has persisted in carrying out comprehensive management of small watersheds in the past 40 years, and has adopted a series of mountain management and water management projects such as slope modification, land construction of terraces, construction of check dams, and sealing and afforestation., effectively intercepting surface runoff, achieving the goal of" water does not go down the mountain and mud does not go out of ditches."
Chao Yongfu said that over the years of governance, the people of Pengyang have explored and summarized a series of good methods according to local conditions. For example, the comprehensive management model of small watersheds of "wearing hats on top forests and forests, tying belts on mountainside terraces, and wearing boots on ditches, reservoirs and dams" is to close mountains on top of mountains to cultivate forests and conserve water sources; returning farmland to forests and grass on hillsides to conserve water and soil, transforming sloping farmland into high-standard terraces to protect moisture and fertilizer; Build grain workshops, ponds, water cellars, etc. in farmland ditches at the foot of the mountain to intercept runoff for irrigation, and appropriately develop ditches and dams.
The hardships of shovels and the persistence of generations have transformed the former "three running fields" of "running water, soil and fertilizer" into the "three protecting fields" of "protecting water, soil and fertilizer", and the yield of grain per mu has doubled; Pengyang dry farming terraces have been selected as "Beautiful Pastoral Areas in China" and have become the golden signboard of rural tourism; characteristic industries such as under-forest economy, courtyard economy, grass and livestock industry, and eco-tourism also have broad development space. Today, the area of soil erosion in Pengyang County has been reduced to 25%, achieving win-win results in mountain management and water control, ecological construction, poverty alleviation and economic development.
In late autumn, in Pengyang County, you can gain a picturesque scenery by climbing a mountain anywhere: various vegetation is scattered in high and low, and terraces in the mountains are stacked on top of each other. It seems to have knocked over the color palette of nature and poured out a layer of dark green, a layer of light gold, and a layer of orange-red. Viewed from a high altitude, it is like a circle of colorful ribbons winding from the foot of the mountain to the tip of the mountain.
Such a beautiful scene is only one of the achievements of Ningxia's soil and water conservation work. In recent years, Ningxia, which has made every effort to build a pioneer area for ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin, has regarded soil and water conservation as a fundamental measure for the protection and management of the Yellow River, and has continued to do a good job in mountain management and water management.
According to Ma Deren, director of the Water and Soil Conservation Division of the Ningxia Water Resources Department, through the implementation of key national water and soil conservation projects such as comprehensive management of small watersheds, management of sloping farmland, and construction of check dams, the area of soil erosion in Ningxia has been reduced from 19,600 square kilometers in 2011 to 2023. 15,100 square kilometers, a decrease of 23%, the water and soil conservation rate reached 77.3%, and the annual sediment volume entering the Yellow River has been reduced from 100 million tons in the 1980s to more than 20 million tons.
Ningxia's forest coverage rate, comprehensive grassland vegetation coverage rate, and wetland protection rate reached 11.35%, 56.8%, and 29% respectively. The number of wild animals and plants increased to 471 and 2139 respectively. The mountains and rivers on the border have been transformed from "yellow" to "green". The historic transformation of water and soil conservation and carbon sink capabilities has been continuously improved.
Focusing on the goals of "green mountains, clean water, beautiful villages, and rich people", Ningxia continues to deepen the integrated development of soil and water conservation and industries. Taking small watersheds as a unit, it will integrate mountain governance, slope management, water management, improvement of comprehensive agricultural production capabilities, and development of characteristic industries., improving rural living environment and other organic combination, providing more and better ecological products containing soil and water conservation functions, and increasing the per capita income of people in soil and water conservation project areas by more than 1300 yuan. Six counties and districts including Pengyang, Yuanzhou, Yanchi, Longde, Xiji and Haiyuan were rated as national soil and water conservation demonstration counties.
"Ningxia will continue to tap reserve resources for soil and water conservation carbon sinks, establish and improve relevant systems and mechanisms, promote more soil and water conservation carbon sink projects to enter the carbon market transactions, and transform more green waters and green mountains into gold and silver mountains." Ma Deren said.
