MEDIA RELEASE
Released By:
Gallus
Reducing poverty is the ultimate goal of an Australian aid project to counter
the combined effects of land overuse and erosion in Qinghai province in
north-western China.
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Chris
Gallus, today announced that Australia would provide up to $12.25 million for
the five-year project.
To be known as the Qinghai Forestry Resources Management Project, it aims to
introduce new techniques and technologies to Qinghai provincial and local
government forestry agencies and communities to improve their ability to better
plan and implement sustainable land management.
'The project has been designed to address poverty from a natural resources
management and community perspective as opposed to taking an engineering
approach,' said Mrs Gallus.
'Australia has expertise in this area and a successful record in employing
biological or vegetative methods, which are cheaper and more sustainable than
engineering methods.'
Mrs Gallus said the project, funded by the Australian Agency for
International Development (AusAID), would be implemented by the Qinghai Forestry
Bureau.
Once densely forested, the project area was substantially cleared of trees
150 years ago. Since then, increasing pressure from cultivation and grazing has
resulted in a cycle of poverty and continuing environmental degradation. 'The
objective of the project is to break that cycle,' said Mrs Gallus.
'In addition to transferring Australian skills and technologies to local
institutions, the project will be pitched at the community level in order to win
local acceptance for conservation and resource management and to impart teaching
skills and techniques that can be passed on to other communities.
'Improving the ability of affected communities to plan and implement better
resource management will contribute to reducing rural poverty in resource- poor
areas,' said Mrs Gallus
Media contact:
Craig Bildstien (Office of Mrs Gallus) 0407 604 437
Jo Elsom (AusAID) 02 6206 4960 / 042 804 489