2. The campaign was initiated by Mao Zedong, the first president of the People’s Republic of China, during the Great Leap Forward between 1958 and 1962 WHO AND WHEN

3. The purpose of the campaign was to eliminate four pests- rats, sparrows, mosquitos, and flies- to improve harvest THE GOAL 1. 2. 3. 4.

4. In the beginning the campaign seemed successful and the harvest improved, however, by 1960 farmers began realizing that sparrows ate bugs more than seeds and without the sparrows bugs were taking over THE SUCCESS

5. By the time Zedong ended the killing of sparrows it was too late. The locust population grew monumentally. Combined with the problems already caused by the Great Leap Forward and bad weather conditions, the campaign led to the Great Chinese Famine which killed around 30 million people. THE RESULTS

6. http://chineseposters.net/themes/four- pests.php http://www.enotes.com/topic/Four_Pests _Campaign http://www.dirjournal.com/info/worst- manmade-ecological-disasters/ SOURCES