On January 20, 2021, Economic Information Daily, a publication under China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency, reported on the shelterbelt destruction at Yangguan Forest Farm. Located in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, the Yangguan Forest Farm is part of the Great Green Wall. Given the public’s growing attention in recent years to afforestation and desertification prevention efforts, the report sparked intense public discussion.
Prior to this, as early as 2001, China’s official media had already reported on the destruction of the forest farm. The Central Environmental Protection Inspection Team had received complaints regarding the situation, and environmental protection organizations had also filed lawsuits. However, these efforts failed to resolve the issue.
Following the publication of the report, the Gansu Provincial People's Government established an investigation team on January 20 and released its findings on January 26, stating that only isolated instances of illegal logging had occurred. However, the very next day, Economic Information Daily published a follow-up article revealing three relevant documents, questioning the credibility of the forest farm and the provincial authorities.
On January 28, the Central Ecological and Environmental Protection Inspection Office dispatched a team to Dunhuang to conduct an on-site investigation. Subsequently, on March 19, a joint investigation team composed of central government ministries released its final report. The report confirmed management issues at the forest farm while also overturning the data presented in the documents published earlier by Economic Information Daily.
Background
Grape industry in Dunhuang See also: Red Globe grape
The history of grape production and transportation in Dunhuang dates back to the Western Han dynasty, when Zhang Qianopened up the Western Regions. Grapes were gradually introduced into the zhongyuan through Dunhuang. By the Northern Wei Dynasty, records show that large-scale grape cultivation had already taken place in the region. In 1998, Dunhuang Grape Wine Co., Ltd. was established. From September 6 to 8, 2008, the local government of Dunhuang held the "First China·Dunhuang Grape Culture Festival" to promote the development of the grape industry through the event. At the same time, Dunhuang proposed to establish a grape production base in Northwest China and registered the "Yangguan" and "Dunhuang" grape brands. Its seedless white grapes and Red Globe grapes were recognized as "Famous Chinese Fruits" by the Grape Branch of the Chinese Society of Agriculture. In 2009, the total area under grape cultivation in Dunhuang reached 0.438 million hectares, of which 0.425 million hectares were primarily planted with seedless white and Red Globe varieties. The total grape output was 67.03 million kilograms, generating an output value of 151.86 million yuan. By 2010, the total grape cultivation area in the city had increased to 0.54 million hectares, with a total production of 70.89 million kilograms.
In 2020, the Dunhuang Municipal People’s Government stepped up efforts to promote the local grape industry. The official Weibo account "@Dunhuang Release" published a total of 20 posts related to Dunhuang grapes that year.
Previous reports In 2001, People’s Daily Online reprinted an article titled "Thousands of Acres of Shelter Forest in Dunhuang Felled by Axes", reporting that over 3,000 shelter trees were cut down without felling permits, and the cleared land was subsequently converted into vineyards. In 2006, China Economic Times published an article titled "Dunhuang, Do Not Repeat the Tragedy of Loulan", warning against ecological mismanagement. In 2011, Gansu Forestry magazine featured an article titled "Desert Becomes Oasis: A Record of Yangguan Forest Farm in Dunhuang Preventing Eastward Desertification", highlighting afforestation efforts in the region.n March 2017, in response to media coverage, the Jiuquan Municipal Forestry Bureau issued a report titled "Investigation on Media-Reported Deforestation and Land Reclamation within the Yangguan Forest Farm in Dunhuang", addressing concerns over deforestation and land use changes.
Previous complaints Between 2016 and 2017, the Seventh Central Environmental Protection Inspection Team received ten complaints concerning the Yangguan Forest Farm.
In 2019, the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) filed a lawsuit against the Dunhuang Yangguan Forest Farm and Dunhuang Wine Company at the . The court proposed mediation between the parties; however, CBCGDF believed that mediation would not lead to effective ecological restoration.
Timeline +DateProgressJanuary 20 The Economic Information Daily published an article titled "Ten Thousand Acres of Desert Shelter Forest Destroyed: Dunhuang’s Last Barrier Against Desertification on the Verge of Collapse."The People's Government of Gansu Province announced that the city of Dunhuang had established a special task force to investigate the issue.The provincial government of Gansu formed an investigation team led by Vice Governor Liu Changgen, which departed for the Yangguan Forest Farm that same afternoon.January 21The Office of the Central Ecological and Environmental Protection Inspectorate dispatched personnel to Dunhuang to conduct an on-site investigation.January 26The People's Government of Gansu Province held a press conference to announce the findings of the provincial investigation team.January 27Xinhua News Agency published a follow-up article disclosing related official documents.January 28The Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced that the investigation conducted by the Central Environmental Inspectorate was largely complete.March 19A joint investigation team released the final results of the inquiry.
First report On January 20, 2021, Economic Information Daily, a publication affiliated with Xinhua News Agency, published an article titled “Ten Thousand Acres of Desert Shelter Forest Destroyed—Dunhuang’s Final Defense Against Desertification Near Collapse.” The article sparked widespread public concern and intense debate. According to the report, Yangguan Forest Farm in Dunhuang—part of the “Three-North Shelter Forest Program”—had undergone extensive clear-cutting described as a “scalping” operation. Over 10,000 mu of protective forest had been reduced to almost nothing, forming a corridor approximately 5 kilometers wide, which allowed sand and dust from the Kumtag Desert to blow directly into Dunhuang. Based on on-site investigations by the newspaper’s journalists, the cleared land had been converted into vineyards, “with even the potential to fully replace the forest.” Since grape cultivation requires large amounts of irrigation and thrives in soil conditions similar to those of deserts, the report warned that the Yangguan Forest Farm might “be buried by desert sands,” thereby exacerbating the risk of desertification. The journalists also discovered that, although the forest farm contained extensive areas of nationally and provincially designated public welfare forests, the signs indicating such status were “systematically smashed or removed,” appearing to be a deliberate attempt to erase the memory of the land’s protected nature. Furthermore, the article revealed that both the forest farm and local government had been covering up the large-scale tree cutting. The felled trees were “in the vast majority healthy and vigorously growing.” Some desert poplars were found “with their bark stripped” or even “charred,” seemingly to fabricate the appearance of natural death. Despite this, both the Dunhuang Forestry Bureau and the forest farm insisted that “no illegal logging had occurred,” claiming instead that the tree removal was merely part of a “low-quality forest transformation” project.
Escalation of the incident As of January 25, the number of online posts related to the public outcry surrounding the incident had reached 678,900 entries across the internet, with a peak volume of 415,800 entries recorded on January 23.
On January 21, People’s Daily Online published a commentary titled “Ten Thousand Acres of Desert Shelter Forest Destroyed—This Must Be Thoroughly Investigated!” The article emphasized that Yangguan Forest Farm serves as a critical ecological barrier and reported that the Gansu Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government had dispatched an investigation team to Dunhuang. It also noted that media attention had already been drawn to Yangguan Forest Farm as early as 2017, and the recurrence of such attention now demands a deeper inquiry by relevant authorities.
On January 23, the official Weibo account of People’s Daily posted a commentary stating: “To protect Dunhuang, one must first protect Yangguan.” The post immediately resonated with the emotions of netizens. As of January 30, the post had been reposted 49,317 times. Most of the reposts and comments expressed emotions of anger and sorrow, with many netizens calling for "severe punishment" and a "thorough investigation." The post triggered a “minor peak” in public opinion on January 24, generating 127,500 related posts on that day alone.
The proportion of sensitive information across the web surged to 94.99% on the day Economic Information Dailypublished its article. It stood at 83.31% on January 21, dropped to 61.04% on the 22nd, rose again to 73.38% on the 23rd, and was 70.98% and 63.39% on the 24th and 25th respectively. Following the official announcement from the Gansu Provincial Government on January 26, the proportion of sensitive content fell to 48.24%, and further decreased to 45.76% on January 27.
Gansu province investigation report On January 20, 2021, the Gansu Provincial Government established an investigation team led by , which departed that afternoon to conduct an on-site investigation at the Yangguan Forest Farm.
Issues related to Yangguan Forest Farm On the morning of January 26, the investigation team held a press conference regarding the “Yangguan Deforestation Incident.” It acknowledged that management of the forest farm had been extensive and lacking in precision but affirmed that the two oases in Dunhuang had not been threatened. After analyzing historical satellite remote sensing data and reviewing national land survey data from 1999, 2009, and 2019, the team found no evidence of large-scale deforestation since the year 2000.
Remote sensing imagery from 2018 to 2019 indicated three suspicious areas of potential forest damage totaling approximately 42.98 mu (approx. 2.87 hectares). Upon on-site verification, the team concluded that these changes were primarily due to infrastructure upgrades at the forest farm, such as the construction of gravel roads, U-shaped irrigation ditches, and the installation of irrigation pipelines. No evidence was found of tree felling for vineyard expansion.
Regarding the vineyard issue, the team reported that satellite imagery showed an expansion of 400 mu of vineyard land in 2012 as part of low-quality forest conversion. No further expansion was detected thereafter. These findings are consistent with national land survey data from 1999, 2009, and 2019.