ASIAN JOURNEYS’ GREEN DESERT YEP
December 13, 2008
Youth Expedition Project (YEP)
NORTHERN CHINA – INNER MONGOLIA, HEBEI
A Community Service Project organized by ASIAN JOURNEYS
A Youth Expedition Project supported by National Youth Council (Singapore)
Asian Journeys’ Green Desert Project was one of the projects highlighted at the National Youth Council YEP Networking Session on 6 Dec 2008 held at the NYC, Somerset Road.
Over 40 youth leaders were invited by the YEP team to consider organizing youth expedition teams to various ASEAN countries as well as China and India.
Lawrence Ko, AJ’s ED, was one of the speakers who shared about youth social engagement through the YEP. Lawrence challenged the youth leaders, many of them who were finishing their military stints or were already in the universities, to get involved in social activism and organizing young people for community change.
Citing Reinhold Niebuhr, the great American thinker in the 20th C, Lawrence asserted that “It is better to be creative than to be learned. Creativity is the essence of life.” There is much that can be done to study and understand the social challenges facing Asia and the environmental challenge is but one of these.
Later at the rug sessions, Benjamin Lim, a volunteer leader of Asian Journeys and president of AJ’s Green Desert Club, was at hand to also enthuse inquirers who were exploring getting involved in China projects especially the Green Desert project to help build the Great Green Wall of China through tree-planting in the northern provinces and countryside of China.
A. Desertification in Northeast Asia (China)
Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas. It is a gradual process of the loss of soil productivity and the thinning out of the vegetative cover resulting from human activities and climatic variations such as prolonged droughts and floods. What is alarming is that the land’s topsoil, which takes centuries to build up, can, if mistreated, be blown and washed away in a few seasons. Among human causal factors are overcultivation, overgrazing, deforestation and poor irrigation practices. Such overexploitation is generally caused by economic and social pressure, ignorance, war and drought.
The Chinese authorities have made the battle against desertification a top priority and are investing huge resources in putting it in check. There is a massive reforestation programme, a plan to lay down a “Green wall” of trees and plants stretching from Beijing to Inner Mongolia, and farmers are being urged to cut back on livestock numbers.
B. Background
In Sep 2002, Asian Journeys was invited by the local governments of Duolun and Dalateqi in Inner Mongolia to participate in tree-planting conservation program. A site visit was made in September 2002 with a small team of enthusiasts to meet local officials and understand the proposed projects. Asian Journeys will embark on organizing a 5-year program 2007-2011 to mobilize Singaporean youths in partnership with China youths from Beijing to participate in the Green Desert project viz., to plant trees both in Beijing and in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. The Youth Expedition Project (YEP) supported by National Youth Council of Singapore is one of the learning programmes which can help accomplish these goals and objectives.
C. Objectives
A. To help Singaporean youths develop awareness of Environmental issues in general and of the growing problem of desertification in North East Asia in particular, especially in Inner Mongolia
B. To help Singaporeans learn and participate in Green Desert Environmental Promotion Efforts in Beijing, the capital city which faces some of the worst sandstorms of all time because of the growing desertification of the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, especially in the lead up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics
C. To rally youth volunteers from Singapore, Beijing and international students in Beijing to join in reforestation efforts through tree-planting, and addressing issues related to macro and micro policies, technology and urban lifestyles to ensure sustainable development
D. Goals: To Help Address the Issue of Sandstorm and Air Pollution in Beijing due to Desertification in Northern China Grasslands
1. By researching and raising awareness of the need for environmental protection through youth-initiated programs in Singapore to educate and mobilize resources
2. By identifying with the local populace of Beijing city and participating with the city officials and environmental NGOS in their myriad of efforts to confront the environmental problem of sandstorm and air pollution due to desertification through various programs to jointly educate and raise awareness of the global efforts in addressing issues of desertification and environmental degradation.
Other project partners past and present include:
Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing YMCA, UNISIM (Singapore), NTU Environmental Engineering dept, Hyflux(Hydrochem in Shanghai)
And past participants include student volunteers from NUS, NTU, Singapore Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Nanyang Polytechnic, Nanyang JC
For more information and partnership possibiltiies, please call:
Project Team Facilitator: Benjamin Lim (+65-97717248)
Project Coordinator: Lawrence Ko (Tel +65-9742 9493) or