Abstract

The Loess Plateau in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River in western China is one of the areas with the most severe soil loss in the world. Over the past years, severe soil erosion has lowered the soil fertility, exacerbated the incidence of natural disasters including drought, seriously affected the living and production of the local people, restricted the sustainable development of the local society, economy and environment, resulting in a vicious circle between the ecological environment and poverty.

Implementing integrated watershed management is of vital importance in Loess Plateau area. In the past, watershed management was treated largely as a technical problem, but today, watershed managers pay more attention to the socio-economic aspects of watershed management. Participatory approaches enable families and their communities affected by watershed management to be involved and shape key decisions. The intention is to fully integrate environmental objectives with local economic, social and cultural goals.

The objective of this paper is to assess the experiences, good examples and best practice relating to watershed management within the Loess Plateau Projects. Introduction to LPP was given at the first beginning, then key issues and challenges for watershed management in China were put forward, and then the key elements involved in integrated watershed management in LPP were analyzed with the existing problems and countermeasure suggestions followed.

Keywords: soil loss, integrated watershed management, Loess Plateau Project