Afforestation erodes Japanese chopsticks

For some years now China has been engaged in a campaign to reduce erosion of its agricultural lands by planting trees. While this erosion has been exacerbated in the last century, it’s been going on for millennia. The Loess Plateau, which is drained by the Yellow River (yellow, because of all the silt it carries) is nick-named China’s Sorrow because of its frequent flooding. It floods so often because the silt it carries from time to time causes the river channel to shift suddenly (a process called avulsion). The costs of both reduced agricultural productivity and flood control are high, and so China is planting trees, as well as reducing the number of trees cut down. (Dust storms are also a problem.)

This afforestation program affects Japan because 97% of their disposable chopsticks come from China, which has slapped a 5% tax on the commodity. Chinese chopsticks exporters have lifted the costs further. Japanese importers are now looking for other sources of chopsticks, while some companies are either not being so generous in giving them out or are now using reusable plastic ones. (Wasn’t the development of chopsticks in the first place a response to resource constraints?)

Another consequence of this afforestation program that China should be concerned with is water supply. More trees means more transpiration, and less water for growing crops. The first cases I think of come from South Africa and Argentina, though no doubt the problem is much more wide spread. Afforestation may seem green, but it’s not all roses.

[August 9, 2006: Updated broken link.]