2.1 Background
The thesis is based on some of the most noticeable environmental program in Northern China, taking Ningxia as a focus area to understand the larger context and tension in the realisation of these programs. Ningxia is an autonomous region of the People’s Republic of China located in the Northwest part of the country. The central government has recognised the problems of over-grazing, desertification and the widening of rural-urban income gap in the region since the economic reform. For more than 15 years, the province have implemented ecological migration project of different scale that aimed to reduce poverty and protect the environment. Ningxia is quite different from the traditional pastoral areas such as inner Mongolia and Xinjiang. Grazing areas in Ningxia are smaller and located closer to user groups than in the traditional pastoral regions. The pace of economic development in North-western China acclerated in recent years. A number of economic centers were formed. Ningxia’s northern Yellow River irrigation region with Yinchuan as its core is becoming one of these regional centers. It radiates out to the neighboring regions such as Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Gansu provinces. As the function of
An Environmental Rationale
this center is strengthened, this region will attract a larger population. In this the northern region of Ningxia will become an important destination for the migrants from the central and southern regions. Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region contains three distinctive landscape regions: In the North, the Yellow River irrigates the land, resulting in better agricultural conditions and higher economic output. The dry desert central region and southern mountainous region, due to natural conditions, have lower economic development. Ningxia falls in the arid and semi-arid areas, and has a highly fragile ecosystem. Socioeconomic development is very imbalanced in the region. There is an obvious distinction between the irrigated, alluvial plains along the Yellow River and the desert steppe region in the south. As shown on the the context map, marked in dark green, are targeted sites under NFPP; in light green is the SLCP; TNSBP in dark brown; Irrigation Program in Orange; CPTG in Beige. Together, these programs constitute a form of reterritorialization that partition and relocate its participants based on environmental and economic factors such as slope, water availability and GDP by administrative region.
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