farmers were gigiven financial compensation for not farming on them, and keeping their livestock pinned up. when i first filmed mr. ta fuyan and his colleagues back in 1995, i had d no idea this initiatative could achieve such dramatic results. the efeffort that people put into convertingng their slopes into terraces has resultlted in a marked increase in agricultural productivity. the higher yields are directly related to the return of natural vegetation in the surrounding ecological land. now when it rains, the water no longer runs straight off the slopes. trapped by the vegetation, it s sinks into ththe ground, we it is retained in the soil, taking weeks and momonths to o gently seep down andd irrigate the fields and teterraces below. rrestoration has occurredd over an area of 35,5,000 square kilometers. thehe impact of such an enormous addition of vegetation goes far beyond the plateau itself. there's been a significant reduction in the s soil rushing down intoto the yellow river. as i've been traveling around the loess plateau, i've seen extensive changes. the vegetation cover on t