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The Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, one of China's 10 major pasture regions, began a herding ban on all grazing land as of Thursday.

No sheep or cattle were seen on Ningxia's 2.62 million hectare of grassland on the first day of the ban.

Ningxia was the third region in China to institute a complete ban on herding. All of the 2.9 million sheep in Ningxia will be raised in fenced yards in an effort to recuperate grassland. The ban in these areas means 50 million sheep will have been banned from free grazing on the degraded grassland.

Dai Cun, a 72-year-old herdsman, agreed the ban was necessary.

"Although I feel idle, I support the ban on herding."

Eight other areas, including Xinjiang, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia have pledged to bring in bans in the near future.

Zhao Tingjie, vice-chairman of the Ningxia regional government, said the ban on herding was a major move to stop grassland deterioration and sandstorms.

China has 331 million hectares of grassland, ranking second after Australia in the world. But over 90 percent of the grassland has been damaged from overgrazing and sandstorms caused by grassland deterioration have become a major problem for Chinese environmentalists.

The State Council, the country's cabinet, approved a plan in 11provinces and regions in western China to convert low-yielding farmland into grassland last year. About 6.67 million hectares of farmland have been converted into grassland so far this year.

Wuqi County, which launched China's first herding ban in northwestern China's Shaanxi Province, is transforming bleak mountains into lush woods and grassland.

Wang Peng, director of the Wuqi County Bureau of Agriculture, said more than 3,700 sq. km of vegetation in the county had been restored, and about 49.6 percent of its territory had been recuperated since the county decided to ban herding five years ago.

Vegetation has restored after only one year in areas where the herding ban has been in place.

(Xinhua News Agency May 2, 2003)