Essay on Forestry, Fishing and Mineral Resources of China

Forestry:

Through centuries of defores­tation much of the good timber that once covered China’s landscape has been lost and nearly one-seventh of the land surface now is under forest. Most of the Tibetan highlands He above the timberline. Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang are too dry for the growth of natural forest, except for their high mountains. Moreover, it is quite likely that bamboo, grasses, shrubs and scrubby plants have taken over the areas that once were covered with forest.

Appar­ently, for its size, China is not well endowed with forest resources. Since 1955 there have been concerted efforts to in­crease forested areas by afforestation, but have not always been particularly success­ful. Despite increasing demand for wood and paper products and the administra­tion’s efforts to develop forest resources, during the recent years forestry still lags and it China has been a timber importer.

Livestock:

Animal hus­bandry constitutes an important component of agricultural production, al­though China has not been renowned for its livestock wealth. Of special importance are the hogs, and it has the world’s largest swine herd. Hogs are valuable for their meat, and high quality of manure they produce, and are raised by most farm fami­lies. In addition, cattle, sheep, and goats are raised. It also produces a large quantity of poultry, consisting mostly of chicken.

Fishing:

In terms of total fish-catch, China ranks third among the fishing na­tions in the world. Fish consumption provides an important nutritive element in the meat-poor country. Its seacoast is rela­tively long, indented and irregular, the continental shelf is extensive, and the off­shore ocean currents provide desirable conditions for fishing grounds.

However, its coastal waters and numerous inland wa­ters are only partially developed. The primary fishing grounds are along the southern coast from Hangzhou Bay (near Shanghai) southward to Hainan Island, a distance of over 3,000 miles. The fishing fleet comprises non-motorized and some motorized boats with small catch capacity.

Shanghai and Guangzhou (Canton) are the leading fishing ports. Freshwater inland fisheries are also important. China has a long tradition of aquaculture and now leads in the production of freshwater catch in the world. The most productive inland fish farming area is in the Xi Basin and Delta between Guangzhou and Macau.

Pond-culture is a significant sideline occu­pation for most farm families in a broad area of the southeast, although increased pressure by the administration to convert fishponds, lakes, and drainage channels into land for crop production is resulting in the decline in freshwater fish produc­tion. Despite the large fish consuming market at home, fish exports to Japan, Hong Kong and other Asian nations gen­erally provides badly needed foreign exchange to many farmers engaged in fish­ing.

Mineral Resources:

Generally speak­ing, minerals did not play an essential role in the evolution of China’s distinctive cul­ture, although it is well-endowed with several minerals, chief of which is coal, and substantial quantities of other minerals such as tin, lead, zinc, iron-ore, copper, as­bestos, antimony, manganese, tungsten, pyrites and oil also exist.

But exploitation of these has remained marginal, except that of coal, and oil during the last few decades. The country ranks third in coal produc­tion in the world (after United States and Russia); mining nearly one-sixth of the world’s output. The deposits are widely scattered, but most of these are located in the northern part of the country.

The provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi produce over one-half of China’s production. Other major coal-producing areas are: Heilingjiang, Shandong, Hubei, and Liaoning. In addition to these Northern provinces significant amounts of coal exist in Sichuan, Yugui, Guangxi, and Guizhou. Most of nation’s coal is bituminous of good quality; lignite and anthracite depos­its are also present in several areas.

Coal is the major source of energy requirements for the country’s drive to industrialize. The production has gone up dramatically during the last forty years. A major prob­lem is that south of the Chang Jiang the reserves are widely scattered, and are com­paratively meager to cope with the nation’s industrialization programs.

Before 1950 China was considered to be very poor in petroleum reserves and the production of oil was very modest. Over 85 percent of the nation’s needs had to be met with imports. Since 1960, however, it has become an exporter and the country is rapidly becoming a major oil producer. The current production amounts to nearly 5 percent of the world.

Major Fields is lo­cated in Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, Shandong and Henan provinces. Some shale oil is found at Fushun in Liaoning, (near the coal fields) and in Guangdong. Light oil of good quality has also been found in the Xi River estuary of the South China Sea, and the Qaidam Ba­sin in Xinjiang.

China has contracted with western oil companies to jointly explore and develop oil deposits in the China Sea, the Yellow Sea, the Gulf of Tomkin and the Po Hai. Most of the country’s produc­tion is consumed at home; only a small amount is exported. Mineral fuels and lu­bricants account for about 8 percent of value of country’s exports.

Iron ore is found in almost all the provinces; the reserves are located mostly in Hainan Island, Gansu, Guizhou, south­ern Sichuan, and Guangdong. The largest mines are located north of the Chang Jiang River that supply, the ore to neighboring iron and steel plants. China is well sup­plied with ferro alloys, and manganese.

Reserves of tungsten are also known to be quite large. The tungsten production is nearly one-third of the world’s total out­put. Reserves of antimony are perhaps the largest in the world. Tin reserves are also plentiful and production is about one-sixth of the world. About one-fifth of the world’s production pyrites is derived from China. The nation is also rich in copper, gypsum, asbestos, tungsten, lead, zinc, ce­ment and in gold deposits (though not much extraction of gold has taken place due to inaccessible sites).

The country has rich overall energy potential, and the production from various sources is estimated to be about 7-8 percent of the world. It has an extensive river net­work and mountainous terrain capable of generating a large amount of hydroelectric power, most of which is generated in the southwest, where the coal supplies are poor but demand for energy is growing.

In contrast, in the north and the northeast the potential is smaller, but these contain the sites of the early hydroelectric stations built by the Japanese. Here in the northern regions water flow is given to considerable seasonal fluctuations because there is con­siderable drop in water level in the rivers and flooding during summers.

In sum, while China possesses a rich overall energy potential, most of which re­mains to be developed. The locations of most energy resources are distant from their industrial users. For example, the southwestern Tibet in the area of the sharp bend of the Brahmaputra River, is poten­tially very rich for the generation of hydroelectric power, but is remote and in­accessible for the industrial centers.

Generally speaking, China is rich in coal and oil; Central China contains abundant coal, and southwest has great hydroelectric potential. But the industrialized regions around Guangzhou (Canton) and the lower Chang Jiang Basin around Shanghai cannot obtain much of the energy from the major sites where energy generation is feasible or actually produced.