11. Poverty Alleviation Projects Through Integrated Ecological Management Supported by the World Bank: Case Study of the Yanhe River Basin

The Chinese government launched poverty alleviation projects in the 1980s and 1990s, which were supported by loans from the World Bank. One of the projects was organized by the Ministry of Water Resources to control, in an integrated manner, soil and water in the provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. These provinces include nine tributaries of the Yellow River. One of these tributaries, the Yanhe River in the city of Yan’an, was chosen as a project area. Yan’an City applied for a loan of 28 million USD and provided matching funds of 161 million CNY, amounting to a total project investment of 392 million CNY as of the 1990s. After 8 years of project implementation from 1994 to 2001, living conditions for local residents have greatly improved. Economic, social and ecological benefits were evaluated at the end of project implementation. The World Bank summarized lessons learned from the project, which can be referenced by similar projects.