Karst areas in Southwest China, with Guizhou as the focal center, are confronted with ecological deterioration and large areas of rocky desertification. Human activities are defined as the driving force behind the soil erosion. Further, local farmers in the area suffer from poverty due to a lack of drinking water, food and a weak living environment. Over one-third of national poverty-stricken counties occur in this part of China. To balance ecological protection and economic development in the region and help local farmers out of poverty we propose integrated controls and discuss on ground water exploration and sustainable use, soil conservation and remediation, and vegetation restoration (especially economic plant species) in this paper.