On October 6th, the 2008 annual report meeting of Sino-German joint project "rehabilitation of degraded land ecosystems in the mountainous area of the southern shaanxi Province, China" was held in Shangnan Hotel, Shaanxi Province. Prof. Reinhard Moandl, Prof. Hany EI Kateb and Prof. Bemd Felbermeier from Technical University of Munich, Dr. Wen-Feng Ding, Dr. LI Ya-long and Dr. Cen Yi from the Institute of Soil and Water Conservation of ChangJiang River Scientific Research Institute (CRSRI), Mayor Assistant Peng Hong of Ankang City of Shaanxi Province, and Mr. Liu KeJun from Soil and Water Conservation Bureau of Shangnan, as well as other personnel concerned took part in the meeting.

The Sino-German joint project is undertaken by Technical University of Munich and Institute of Soil and Water Conservation of CRSRI. The Experts will carry out an investigation in the impact of afforestation and appropriate land use on the reduction of erosion and on the improvement of surface water quality. Based on the data analysis of afforestation, erosion and spatial data, a “land use planning system” for environmental landscape management will be prepared.

In the afternoon, the experts visited all the 35 plots and 3 afforestation-experimental farms and learned more about the progress of field experiment.

At the meeting, the Chinese and foreign experts expressed their views about the progress and continuous work of the project. After discussion, an agreement on data sharing, data analysis, model establishment and other continuous work was reached, which laid a foundation for the smooth progress and successful completion of the project.