OPINION ON RED DESERTIFICATION AND TYPES OF DESERTIFIED LAND IN CHINA

According to the new explanation of desertification in the world and the definition of desertification in the study on combating desertification/land degradation in China, a report of the project supported by ESCAP/UNEP,the contents of desertification should include:1) The essence of desertification is land degradation;2) Desertification is closely related to human activities;3) Desertification is marked by the occurrence of desert like landscape on ground surface ;4) The natural background of causing desertification is vulnerable eco environment. So, there are also earthy desertification and rocky desertification formed under water erosion among types of desertified land in China.The key regions for combating desertification in China include also red earth hilly areas and rocky hilly areas in the humid areas of southern china, in addition to the arid and semi arid and sub humid areas of northern China. Red desertification which belonging to earthy desertification is induced by water action,and indicates the serious land degradation as marked by the occurrence of bad land on ground surface and caused by interactions between irrational human activities and vulnerable eco environment in red earth hilly areas of southern China.The phenomenon of red desertification is objectively existent in southern China,it is essential to further investigate the red desertification.