Making Ideas Travel: Sharing China’s Experience in Watershed Management

China’s Loess Plateau takes its name from the dry powdery soil that covers this vast 600,000-square kilometer area in the country’s northwest. Home to 50 million people, the land in this drainage basin of the Yellow River once suffered from overuse and overgrazing as well as frequent floods and droughts, becoming one of the worst eroded places on earth. But now, thanks to an ambitious water and soil conservation and ecosystem rehabilitation effort, a part of this area has been reclaimed for sustainable agricultural production, its eco-systems have been restored, and poverty significantly reduced as a result.

China's vice minister for water resources launches the South-South exchange.

The Loess Plateau watershed rehabilitation has helped reduce by half the number of the region’s people living in poverty. Farmers’ incomes have more than tripled, per capita grain output has increased by over 60 percent, employment has increased and diversified, better sediment control has reduced downstream siltation and flooding, and a network of warping dams is being developed to store water for irrigation and reclaim fertile lands from trapped sedimentation.

Africa seeks to replicate China’s success

These successes are now being shared with regions facing similar challenges in watershed degradation, not only throughout China and Asia, but in Africa. China’s Ministry of Water Resources, with support from the World Bank Institute (WBI), the East Asia & Pacific and Africa regions of the World Bank and the UK’s Department of International Development (DFID), invited 24 senior African government officials to Beijing last month for an eight-day workshop. This South-South exchange “China-Africa Experience Sharing on Watershed Management,” focused in on technical areas of water and soil conservation, and how the rehabilitation of an eco-system goes hand-in-hand with economic development and poverty reduction.  It introduced the Loess Plateau area to delegates from African ministries of agriculture and rural development, water resources, land and forestry management, and environment, as well as transboundary basin programs such as the Nile Basin Initiative. 

Participants from Nigeria and Tanzania are welcomed by      farmers from China's Loess Plateau.

One challenge in watershed management projects is the need to forge multi-sector collaboration. Philip Olum, CEO of the National Water Resources Authority in Kenya remarked, “Often, in one watershed, we have the Ministry of Water trying to do something on catchment water protection, and the Ministry of Agriculture with another program to improve agriculture.  The challenge is to bring all the concerned parties together to have one integrated watershed management approach.  I now see that is possible, because I have seen it here.”

Watershed Management is Critical for Africa

The Loess Plateau was selected for this exchange because of its severe land degradation from long-term unsustainable agricultural practices such as removal of forest cover, and loss of grass and top soils. These problems are also common in Africa, where governments must address severe soil erosion due to deforestation, free-grazing, and frequent droughts and floods. As this overexploitation of natural resources, water and land is caused by the individuals’ struggles for economic survival, the Loess watershed rehabilitation effort is a powerful example as it demonstrates that conservation must go hand-in-hand with poverty reduction and sustainable agriculture.

A local farmer offers freshly picked fruit to a participant from Ghana.

Knowledge Dissemination as a Bridge

Demand for this kind of activity is expected to grow as the Bank and other development stakeholders recognize the value of South-South knowledge exchanges.  Deeper collaboration across the Bank’s operational departments will be needed to identify good practices and country experiences, to match supply of expertise with demand for knowledge, and to identify participants who can apply the lessons to which they have been exposed.

Participants learned not just from their hosts, but also from one another. “In addition to learning about the Chinese experience, our participation in this event made us aware of successful stories of land and water management projects very close to us, for example, in Nigeria,” remarked Mr. Anku, director from Ghana’s Environment Protection Agency.  “This event provided us an opportunity to learn from our own Western African sub-region. We now plan to link ourselves to benefit from these successful stories as well.”

Participants debrief after field trip to Gansu province.

More information on WBI's Water Program

More information on the Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation Project

Contributed by Alyson Kleine and Mei Xie, World Bank Institute