Seizing the golden time for afforestation in autumn, Chao Yongfu and his colleagues have been busy for over a month and finally completed the task of replanting and rebuilding barren mountains and valleys this autumn - digging fish scale pits, planting peach, apricot, spruce, and locust trees one by one, and waiting for one autumn and winter to accumulate energy. In the coming spring, they will sprout and branch out, and grow new green. Chao Yongfu is the head of the Soil and Water Conservation Workstation in Pengyang County, Guyuan City, Ningxia, and is also a native of Pengyang. Not long ago, he witnessed a new thing happening in his hometown with his own eyes: the good mountains and waters created by soil and water conservation not only enable trees, grass, and crops to grow, but now they can also "grow" money! On September 12th of this year, Pengyang County completed the first signing of carbon sequestration trading for the Yellow River Basin soil and water conservation project. Pengyang Shengze Water Investment Co., Ltd., as the carbon transfer party for soil and water conservation projects, signed an agreement with Ningxia Yahao New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. to trade 36000 tons of soil and water conservation carbon sinks for a total amount of 1.116 million yuan. The transaction proceeds will be used to support the construction of soil and water conservation and ecological restoration projects in Pengyang County. I have been working in water conservancy for so many years, and I never thought that one day 'good soil and water' could also be 'monetized' Chao Yongfu introduced that the carbon sequestration project of this transaction is located in the Licha small watershed of Wangwa Town, Pengyang County. Since 2000, comprehensive management of soil erosion has been continuously carried out here, achieving a soil and water conservation rate of 80.68% in 23 years. After calculation and verification, the total carbon sink for soil and water conservation in the basin from 2002 to 2023 is 93000 tons, and the value conversion of soil and water conservation ecological products can reach more than 3 million yuan. For Pengyang County, it is not easy to obtain "good soil and water". This used to be a key area for soil erosion control in China, with barren mountains, ravines, barren land, and fragile ecological environment. The local people summarized the appearance of the mountains and rivers in Pengyang County back then: "The mountains were peaceful, water scarce and precious like oil, the wind blew yellow sand away, and the rain brought mud and water. Due to the abundance of mountains and limited rivers, the cultivated land is mostly on steep slopes, making it difficult to plant and harvest. The livestock pulling the plow often have their legs worn out by rope ties; When it rains on sloping farmland, it runs away from water, soil, and fertilizer, resulting in a lack of soil moisture and fertilizer, and poor yields. Faced with such difficulties, Pengyang County has persistently carried out comprehensive management of small watersheds in the past 40 years. Through a series of mountain and water management projects such as slope improvement, terracing, silt dam construction, and afforestation, surface runoff has been effectively intercepted, achieving the goal of "water does not come down the mountain, mud does not come out of the ditch". Chao Yongfu said that in years of governance, the people of Pengyang have explored and summarized a series of good methods according to local conditions, such as the comprehensive management model of small watersheds, which includes "putting hats on the forests and grasses on the mountaintop, tying belts on the terraced fields on the mountainside, and putting boots on the ditches, reservoirs, and dams; Returning farmland to forests and grasslands on mountain slopes, preserving soil and water, transforming sloping farmland into high standard terraced fields, and preserving soil moisture and fertilizer; Build valley blocks, pond dams, water cellars, etc. in the farmland ditches at the foot of the mountain, intercept and store runoff for irrigation, and appropriately develop ditch and dam land. The hardships of each shovel, the persistence of each generation, have transformed the "three running fields" of "running water, running soil, and running fertilizer" into the "three guaranteeing fields" of "protecting water, soil, and fertilizer", doubling the yield of grain per mu; Pengyang's dryland terraced fields have been selected as "China's Beautiful Countryside" and have become a golden signboard for rural tourism; There is also broad development space for characteristic industries such as agroforestry, courtyard economy, grass and livestock industry, and ecotourism. Nowadays, the area of soil erosion in Pengyang County has been reduced to 25%, achieving a win-win situation of mountain and water control, ecological construction, poverty alleviation and economic development. In the late autumn season of Pengyang County, climbing up a mountain everywhere can yield a picturesque scenery: various vegetation is staggered, layer by layer covering the terraced fields between the mountains, as if overturning the color palette of nature, splashing out a layer of deep green, a layer of light gold, and a layer of orange red. From a high altitude, it looks like circles of colorful ribbons coiling from the foot of the mountain to the tip. Such a beautiful scenery is just one of the achievements of soil and water conservation work in Ningxia. In recent years, Ningxia has been fully committed to building a leading area for ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin, taking soil and water conservation as the fundamental measure for Yellow River protection and management, and continuously doing a good job in mountain and water management. According to Ma Deren, Director of the Soil and Water Conservation Department of Ningxia Water Resources Department, through the implementation of national key soil and water conservation projects such as comprehensive management of small watersheds, improvement of sloping farmland, and construction of silt dams, the area of soil erosion in Ningxia has been reduced from 19600 square kilometers in 2011 to 15100 square kilometers in 2023, a decrease of 23%. The soil and water conservation rate has reached 77.3%, and the annual sediment inflow into the Yellow River has been reduced from 100 million tons in the 1980s to over 20 million tons. The forest coverage rate, grassland comprehensive vegetation coverage rate, and wetland protection rate in Ningxia have reached 11.35%, 56.8%, and 29%, respectively. The number of wild animals and plants has increased to 471 and 2139, respectively. The mountains and rivers have achieved a historic transformation from "yellow" to "green", and the carbon sequestration capacity of soil and water conservation continues to improve. Around the goal of "green mountains, clean water, beautiful villages, and prosperous people", Ningxia continues to deepen the integration of soil and water conservation and industrial development. Taking small watersheds as units, it organically combines mountain, slope, and water control with improving agricultural comprehensive production capacity, developing characteristic industries, and improving rural living environment, providing more and better ecological products with soil and water conservation functions. The per capita income of the people in the soil and water conservation project area has increased by more than 1300 yuan. Pengyang, Yuanzhou, Yanchi, Longde, Xiji, and Haiyuan have been rated as national demonstration counties for soil and water conservation. Ningxia will continue to tap into the reserve resources of soil and water conservation carbon sinks, establish and improve relevant institutional mechanisms, promote more soil and water conservation carbon sink projects to enter the carbon market trading, and transform more green mountains and rivers into gold and silver mountains Ma Deren said. (New Society)