Abstract: With an area of about 3.09×10⁶km² and nearly 0.9×10⁸ population (in 1999), which accounts for 32.2% of the total area and 7. 14% of the total population of China, Northwest China goes across 5 provinces. Northwest China has vast area, and is the most vulnerable ecological area and a large ecologically fragile area as a whole. The vulnerably ecological characteristics of Northwest China are severe water and soil erosion, low vegetation coverage, increasingly degenerated grasslands, want of water resource, continually developed desertification, frequently occurred sand storms and so on. The status quo of ecological environment of Northwest China is still generally vulnerable, improving locally and deteriorating on the whole, improving in short-term and deteriorating in long-term. Ecological construction is very important to sustainable development of Northwest China. The aim of ecological construction in Northwest China is put forward.
Based on the assessment of the eco-environmental status of Northwest China, a number of issues that existed in the ecological construction and needed to be solved are analyzed in the paper. These issues are as follows： the past evolution of the environment and vegetation of Northwest China and the vegetation construction, the environmental change in the future and its influence to the vegetation construction, the scientific program and plan, the water resources carrying capacity to the artificially large scale vegetation construction, the development and application of the techniques of the ecological construction, the system of the policies and laws concerned to ecological construction, the relationship between the ecological construction and the sustainable development of the local economy. These issues include not only scientific problems but also social ones. To research and solve these issues will help construct the scientific and social support system for the ecological construction of Northwest China. Northwest China region can be divided into three major ecological districts according to its ecological characteristics. To the three major different ecological districts, different stratigies of ecological construction are recommended in the paper. In the end, some countermeasures and policy proposals are suggested for the ecological construction in Northwest China.

Key words: Eco-environment, Ecological construction, Sustainable development, Northwest China