Zhangye Improved Grassland Management Project

The project is coordinated by Zhangye Academy of Forestry Sciences, with the aim to restore the local degraded grassland ecosystem by seeding grass and building fence on the degraded grassland, increase carbon sequestration and contribute to local development by introducing sustainable grazing and management of grassland. The project covers Gaotai County, Shandan County, Minle County, Su’nan County, Ganzhou district and Shandan Racecourse. Shandan Racecourse is the largest central local enterprise in Zhangye. Although its geographical location is in Zhangye, it is directly managed by the central government. Therefore, it is an independent administrative region. Before the implementation of the project, the grassland in the region has been facing serious degradation and even desertification due to the impact of climate change and human activities. 261,059.80 ha of degraded grassland have been managed sustainably by fence building and reseeding of local high-quality forage. There are three main restoration measures as followes in the project: - Rotational grazing of 76,608.83 ha of degraded grassland - Rest grazing of 107,448.54 ha of degraded grassland. - Reseeding grass was implemented of 77,002.43 ha of seriously degraded grassland. Besides these main restoration measures, the project also alleviates soil desertification and restore grassland vegetation to improve soil carbon storage and local biodiversity through grassland management measures, such as daily management measures from other protect projects like rodent and pest control and grassland fire prevention to ensure the long-term sustainable management of the project area. This project also has achieved the Climate Community and Biodiversity Standard (CCB) and is also one of the only carbon removal projects certified for the CORSIA – Pilot Phase.