China imposed a nationwide grazing ban on Tuesday amid efforts to prevent further deterioration of its vast grasslands and improve the environment.

China imposed a similar grazing ban for the first time in April of last year. The current ban ranges from two months in some areas to an entire year in regions more seriously affected.

China banned grazing on 1.3 billion mu (86.7 million hectares) of pasture and forbade 30 million livestock from roaming on wild grasslands at the end of last year, said Wang Zongli, deputy director of the Animal Husbandry Department under the Ministry of Agriculture, in Ordos, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

China boasts 400 million hectares of natural grassland, or 41.7 percent of the country's total land area, the second largest in the world.

However, over-grazing and unrestrained development have had a drastic effect. More than 80 percent of China's 260 million hectares of usable grassland has deteriorated. Soil has eroded and become sandier, more silt and mud is being washed into rivers, and sandstorms and flooding are occurring more frequently.

(Xinhua News Agency April 11, 2007)