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Turning back China's deserts |
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By Sherri Zickefoose
Calgary Herald
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August 1, 2002
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A Calgary company is poised to help
China's $84 billion reforestation plan and cultivate a growing
business at the same time. |
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In two weeks, Calgarians Jan Bjerreskov
and Dan Chu are ready to uproot their families and head to Inner
Mongolia for at least three years -- time enough to build 100
acres of greenhouses, start growing 500 million spruce and pine
seedlings, and train Chinese farmers to harvest trees to combat
the creeping desert that is spelling disaster for Asia. |
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Their Calgary company has been hired
by the Chinese government, which unveiled plans in May for a
$12 billion, 10-year effort to plant thousands of square kilometres
of trees, hoping to repair decades of environmental damage and
the slow spread of desertification threatening farmland. It
will be the biggest conservation effort ever attempted, according
to Chinese forestry officials. |
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"They're throwing billions of
dollars at these projects," says Bjerreskov, Maple Leaf
Reforestation Inc.'s general manager. |
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"It's a massive, massive project." |
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Desertification is the loss of crop-growing
soil due to poor land management, lack of irrigation and deforestation.
China's spreading deserts are destroying farming land at a worrisome
pace -- about 2,500 square kilometres each year. |
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The government's plan to import a little
Canadian know-how is expected to help build a shield against
the yellow Gobi wind and also to help farmers learn to harvest
pine and spruce to create a future industry. |
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"They're doing their best, but
it's just not working," says Bjerreskov, who saw empty
greenhouses and puny saplings during a recent tour of the area. |
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"Right now, it takes them about
three years to grow a 15-cm seedling and we can do it in five
months in a greenhouse," he said. "We're taking the
Canadian technology and transferring it to China." |
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Bjerreskov has lived in Calgary since
1982 after leaving his home of Denmark. He managed Golden Acre
Garden Sentres for over three years, and has worked in horticulture
his entire life. |
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He expects to have the first greenhouse
built by December and seeding underway by January. |
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"I'm excited, but I got scared
when the numbers started coming in because it's so big, just
to fulfill our contract." |
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Maple Leaf will own 60 per cent of
the greenhouse project and estimates startup to cost $3 million.
In five years, the build-out costs for the future 47 greenhouses
will be $97 million, |
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according to Chu. The company, which
has sprouted from Optimal Life Group Inc., has negotiated the
contract to supply China with annual revenue potential on full
deployment of $150 million, producing a cash flow of $117 million. |
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Chu, Maple Leaf's president, is as
excited by the prospect of turning a profit as he is by the
chance to create jobs. |
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"We hope we can make a difference,"
says Chu, a chartered accountant who studied at the University
of Saskatchewan. |
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Bjerreskov will be joined by his wife,
Eva, in a year. While their daughters are in university, he
says the couple will return to the city. |
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"Calgary is always going to be home. That's where we
settled down. The mountains are our playground, that's what
we enjoy, camping and hiking."
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Changing
Inner Mongolia: Pastoral Mongolian Society and the Chinese State (Oxford
Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology)
