BEIJING — An official probe has found that a forest farm designed to fend off desertification saw its wooded area shrink by hundreds of hectares in the past three decades due to illegal deforestation and other problems, authorities said on March 19. 

The area of woods at the Yangguan forest farm in Dunhuang city, Northwest China's Gansu province, has been reduced by 256.7 hectares since 1990, while the area of vineyards and other orchards expanded by 236.5 hectares, and areas of shrubs increased by 34.6 hectares, according to investigation results unveiled by the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ministry of Ecology and Environment and National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

The investigation started after media reports in January uncovered deforestation at the farm, which was created in 1963 as a publicly owned forest farm. It controls 773.3 hectares of land and is located around 70 km away from the city proper of Dunhuang.

Investigators found 37.8 hectares of trees were illegally axed between 2013 and 2014 to make room for vineyards and jujube yards managed by a local winemaker.

Between 2007 and 2011, 333.3 hectares of forest land was illegally leased to enterprises, and only 295.5 hectares had been retrieved before the investigation.

Unauthorized construction projects, unlicensed logging and lack of irrigation also contributed to the shrinkage in forest area. Other problems disclosed by the probe included misappropriation of state compensation funds.

Investigators attributed the problems to such factors as long-existing conflicts and difficulties in forest farm reform and development, weak awareness of ecological protection, irrational water allocation and poor management and supervision.

Authorities have conducted in-depth investigations via multiple methods such as remote-sensing image analysis, spot checks and drone surveying.

Officials have begun work to rectify the problems, demanding efforts to take back and reforest the land illegally occupied by orchards, redistribute water resources to ensure irrigation and punish those responsible for illegal logging and leasing.

The central authorities will start to research and regulate the registration of forest land rights across the nation and strengthen supervision over the management of public-welfare forests.