XINING, April 25 (Xinhua) -- The growth of China's highest sandy area, Qaidam Basin in Qinghai Province, has been at least temporarily halted with the planted area increasing by 2.7 percent year-on-year.

    Statistics from the provincial forestry bureau show the total afforested area has reached 9.8 million mu (653,000 ha), thanks to 2.28 million mu (152,000 ha) of afforestation projects carried out during the country's Tenth Five-Year Plan Period (2001-2005).

    Sands cover nearly 34,900 square km, one third of the basin in the northwest part of Qinghai, and encircle the 6,000-meter high Qilian and Kunlun Mountains.

    Li Wen, an official with the forestry bureau, told Xinhua on Wednesday that the afforestation projects have slowed down desertification.

    "Sandy areas are not the same as deserts. They are caused by irrational development of grasslands and can be reversed," he said, adding that early success in an unirrigated afforestation research project gave desert control workers hope for the basin.

    The basin has an average elevation of 3,200 meters and is rich in salt, oil, and natural gas, but its elevation and dry climate have meant sparse vegetation and serious desertification and made it difficult to get access to these resources.

    Local forestry personnel began a 3.73-million-yuan (483,000 U.S. dollars) pilot project five years ago to improve sandy areas, and have added nearly 250 ha of forests in the form of 187 forest belts, and brought more than 17,000 ha of sandy areas under control.

    Scientists have also started a 156-ha experimental center using unirrigated and deep-sowing methods that have resulted in a forest survival rate of more than 80 percent.

    They say that dry afforestation techniques will make large-scale desertification-control and soil improvement projects possible.