A Taiwanese environmentalist has organized a 15-member team to join his project to fight the expansion of the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang Province, China, through reforestation.
HIMA Foundation president Wender Yang (楊文德), the organizer of the New Loulan Project, and his team plan to leave for Xinjiang on April 25 to dig 15 wells in the Taklamakan Desert and plant more than 100 diversiform-leaved poplar trees, which are suitable for growth in arid regions.
The tree's roots can reach 10m down to the underground water table. They can help retain water and hold sand together.
Yang said it would cost NT$10,000 to grow a tree and NT$70,000 to dig a well in the desert. To support the work, he has raised funds from Tainan County Commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智), model Lin Chi-ling (林志玲), politicians, members of two local chapters of the Rotary Club and private enterprises.
Photographs of each tree and well will be posted on the foundation's Web site and identified by the names of individual donors. The public will be able to monitor the trees' growth on Google Earth, he said.
Yang said he hoped that more people would join the project to prevent the expansion of the Taklamakan Desert, which has been the source of dust storms affecting Asia.
Statistics show that the desert has been increasing by 168km² each year.
The Taklamakan Desert, the largest desert in China, swallowed Loulan (樓蘭) — a sprawling kingdom of 360,000km² on the Silk Road — in the 4th or 5th century.
It is believed that the ancient city of Loulan vanished during the Tang dynasty because of deforestation.
The Taklamakan Desert has been expanding and could soon merge with the Lop Desert to the west and become a much larger desert.
Yang gave up his well-paid job as an executive in the Asian operations of a listed Wall Street company in 2002 and launched the ambitious New Loulan Project to stop desertification in Xinjiang.
His HIMA Foundation has helped local Loulan descendants revegetate the desert around the historic region, hiring them to turn 5km² of desert into blooming flower beds of Apocynum venetum, also known as Indian hemp.
The plant is said to have medicinal value because its flowers and leaves can be made into tea that helps reduce blood pressure, while its fiber is good for making thread and weaving quality clothing.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
RSS