5.4 Water and soil conservation
According to the statistics in 1985, the area of soil loss was 352000 km2 in the upper reach of the Yangtze River, and the annual amount of soil loss was 1568 million tons (Table 5). To reduce soil loss, this area was designated by the State Council as the national key prevention area of soil and water conservation in 1988. The cumulative area of soil loss control was 80000 km2 in the Yangtze River from 1999 to 2003, and it was 160000 km2 by 2010. Soil and water conservation reduces the area, and the intensity of soil loss decreases yearly. Compared with 2011, the area of soil loss decreased by 31900 km2 in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in 2017.
Table 5 Soil loss in the upper reach of the Yangtze River