China’s Grain for Green Program: A Review of the Largest Ecological Restoration and Rural Development Program in the World
Abstract
This book provides a comprehensive review of Grain for Green, China’s nationwide program which pays farmers to revert sloping or marginal farm land to trees or grass. The program aims to improve the ecological conditions of much of China, and the socioeconomic circumstances of hundreds of millions of people. GfG is the largest reforestation, ecological restoration, and rural development initiative in history, combining the biggest investment, the greatest involvement, and the broadest degree of public participation ever.
The book is organised in three sections. Part One reviews the history of land management in China from 1949 to 1998, exploring the conditions that led to the introduction of GfG, and comparing it to other reforestation programs. Part Two offers an overview of GfG, describing the timeline of the program, compensation paid to farmers, the rules concerning land and plant selection, the extent to which these rules were followed, the attitudes of farmers towards the program, and the way in which the program is organized and implemented by various state actors. Part Three discusses the impact of the GfG, from both ecological and socio-economic standpoints, looking at the economic benefits that result from participating in the GfG, the impact of the GfG across local economies, the redistribution of the labor force and the sustainability of the program, in particular the question of what will happen to the converted land when payments to farmers end.
... Conversion of farmlands to forests and grasslands (CFFG) is an ecological project with the strongest policy, widest coverage and highest degree of participation in China, with efforts to protect and improve the environment to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) [1,2]. The first phase of this CFFG project was launched in 1999, and the second round continued in 2014. ...
... In terms of the scope, the monitoring and assessment were conducted in part of the project areas from 2013 to 2017 [13][14][15][16][17]. Therefore, the monitoring and assessment were based on an incomplete set of indicators, insufficient quantification and incomplete coverage. To address these issues, the objectives of this study are: (1) to establish a systematic and scientific monitoring and assessment index system for the comprehensive benefits; (2) to establish a scientific and feasible calculation method by its own characteristic; and (3) to comprehensively and quantitatively assess the benefits, and make an objective evaluation for the effectiveness assessment of major ecological projects and the contribution of ecological protection in China. ...
... The largest benefit of the project was in terms of the ecological benefit, accounting for 58.92% of the total, especially for the top four functions, i.e., water conservation, purification of atmospheric environment, carbon sequestration and oxygen release and biodiversity, accounting for 84.91% of the total ecological benefits, fully re-flecting the ecological benefits of the CFFG project as the "green reservoir", "oxygen bar reservoir" and "carbon reservoir", as well as the biological gene pool [45][46][47][48]. These aspects can achieve improvement of the ecological environment and biodiversity conservation, and are an important part of the management and ecological restoration of mountains, water, forests, fields, lakes and grasslands [1], It was also the fulfillment of multiple sustainable development goals (SDGs), including targets for poverty reduction, good health and well-being, clean water and sanitation, sustainable cities and communities, climate action, and terrestrial biodiversity conservation [2,49]. Social benefits were the second most important benefits, accounting for 30.46% of the comprehensive benefits. ...
Conversion of farmlands to forests and grasslands (CFFG) is one of the major ecological projects with the largest investment, strongest policy, widest coverage and highest degree of participation in China, and even in the world. In order to scientifically evaluate the benefits and dynamic changes, better serve the decision-making, consolidate the achievements and promote the high-quality development of this project, it is of great significance to organize the monitoring and evaluation of its benefits. On the basis of reviewing and summarizing the monitoring and evaluation history of the benefits, this study established an indicator system for comprehensive monitoring and evaluation, composed of three components of benefits, 10 categories and 48 indicators, including 23 indicators of ecological benefits, 11 indicators of economic benefits and 14 indicators of social benefits. These methods of monitoring and evaluation are applied to the systematic and full coverage monitoring and evaluation of the national project of CFFG for the first time. There are four aspects of the innovation of this research: First, it is the first time that a comprehensive ecological, economic and social benefit evaluation indicator system has been established. Second, it is the first time that quantitative evaluation methods have been established. Third, it is the first comprehensive quantitative assessment of the CFFG project. Fourth, this is a full-scale evaluation of the project for the first time. The evaluation results show that the total value of the three benefits from the CFFG project is 2405.046 billion Yuan (354.4129 billion US$)·y−1, of which the ecological benefit is 1416.864 billion Yuan (208.7922 billion US$)·y−1, the economic benefit is 255.486 billion Yuan (37.649 billion US$)·y−1 and the social benefit is 732.696 billion Yuan (107.9717 billion US$)·y−1, accounting for 58.92%, 10.62% and 30.46%, respectively, of the total benefits. Our results provide detailed evaluation of the achievement and benefits of the CFFG project.
... By that time, often decades later, priorities and goals may have changed. For example, most of the Grain for Green plantings were focused on lessening erosion in degraded agricultural areas [86], while the studies highlighted here tested various ecosystem variables besides erosion (Table 1). For example, Peng et al. [37] quantified carbon sequestration, citing potential offsets relating to carbon emission targets put into place long after the original restoration efforts were organized. ...
... For example, in Hawaii, non-native non-invasive species, often of cultural and/or agricultural importance, were used in lowland forest areas to maximize plant traits in a way that created resistance to invasion by more weedy species [94]. Similarly, in China's Grain for Green Program, both "ecological" (native to the region) and "economic" (species that could be used for agricultural or non-timber forest products) tree species were encouraged [86]. Our review indicates that such novel assemblages can still increase ecosystem services for certain variables, but may not achieve or may hinder biodiversity goals. ...
... Unsurprisingly, adding large quantities of trees, often in monoculture, to what would naturally be sparsely vegetated or grassland areas lowered water yield and stream flows relative to natural vegetation types. Indeed, the Grain for Green Program has been criticized for using resource-use inefficient species such as Populus that were not native to the immediate area or, at the very least, not native in such large numbers [86], leading to an overall loss of native, diverse forest and native vegetation more generally [97]. Such losses of water yield are particularly important in arid regions or more mesic habitats where droughts are projected to increase [41,98]. ...
Purpose of Review
Although landscape-scale restoration efforts are gaining traction worldwide, their success is generally unknown. We review landscape-scale restorations to gain insight to whether focal ecological outcomes have been achieved, in the face of changing environmental conditions.
Recent Findings
Only 9% of the 477 articles that resulted from our search were studies of landscape-scale restorations. The majority (73%) of the landscape restorations from our study have occurred since the 1990s, indicating that this type of restoration has gained in popularity in the last 30 years. Furthermore, 67% of these restoration studies occurred in a single country: China. Many scientific studies have addressed the ability of a species to shift ranges with climate change, yet few of the landscape-scale restoration studies used for our study addressed this question. Instead, 87% of the studies focused on ecosystem function, rather than community-level processes, as a result of restoration.
Summary
There is a clear need for more research to be undertaken on the ecological outcomes of landscape-scale restorations to understand whether they enable species and communities to shift their ranges or adapt to climate change. Conservation practitioners could utilize our decision matrix as a tool to guide restoration of individual sites within a landscape context, as well as current and future climatic conditions, to guide ecological outcomes of interest. Optimal biodiversity maintenance requires habitat conservation in concert with restoration activities at the landscape scale, and the latter, likely increasingly so in a world of changing climate.
... Since the turn of the new millennium, several reforestation projects have been implemented in South China karst, aiming to protect vulnerable landscapes, restore natural forest environments and establish forestry as a source of income (Xu et al. 2006;Tong et al. 2016;Liao et al. 2018). As a result, trees have been planted and farmlands have been converted to forests or grasslands, both at an unprecedented spatial scale (about 32 million ha in China since 2001) (Delang and Yuan 2014). Indeed, the karst region has been identified as a global hot spot of biomass increase and net increase in leaf area (Brandt et al. 2018a, b;Chen et al. 2019), and the application of dynamic vegetation models simulating vegetation growth without human interference has demonstrated that neither climatic (rainfall, temperature) nor atmospheric (CO 2 , nitrogen) factors could have caused such an increase, leaving anthropogenic land use conversions as the only viable explanation . ...
... This overuse of fragile soils caused widespread soil erosion and land degradation, in particular on steep sloping hills. From around 2000, the Chinese government started to implement a series of ongoing reforestation projects in the study area to restore the vegetation cover and to improve livelihoods for the local population (Delang and Yuan 2014;Tong et al. 2017;Liao et al. 2018). The giant restoration projects, the Grain to Green (starting in the year 2000) and Rocky Desertification Treatment (starting 2008) projects, aimed at converting farmland on sloping hills and rocky desertification areas (in theory slopes should be steeper than 25°) to forests (Delang and Yuan 2014;Tong et al. 2017). ...
... From around 2000, the Chinese government started to implement a series of ongoing reforestation projects in the study area to restore the vegetation cover and to improve livelihoods for the local population (Delang and Yuan 2014;Tong et al. 2017;Liao et al. 2018). The giant restoration projects, the Grain to Green (starting in the year 2000) and Rocky Desertification Treatment (starting 2008) projects, aimed at converting farmland on sloping hills and rocky desertification areas (in theory slopes should be steeper than 25°) to forests (Delang and Yuan 2014;Tong et al. 2017). This criterion of 25°implies steep sloping hills and was set as these areas are prone to erosion, which leads to the loss of topsoil and results in a stony landscape with sparse vegetation and exposed rocks. ...
ContextSouth China karst is undergoing large scale land-use conversions driven by reforestation projects aiming at combating land degradation. However, the spatial extent of these human induced land-use changes is largely unknown.Objectives
This study aims at quantifying land use changes in South China karst in the context of large scale restoration and reforestation projects.ResultsWe apply an extensive field survey on land-use mapping and find that 45,406 km2 of farmland have been converted to forest, while 41,811 km2 have been deforested (likely due to timber harvest), which corresponds to a forest expansion of 6%, and an 8% contraction of farmlands. We find that the converted areas agree well with satellite observed greening trends, explaining why South China karst is considered a global hot-spot of vegetation cover increase. In total, 43% of the farmland to forest conversions have taken place on sloping hills steeper than 25° and predominantly at larger distances from settlements. However, 19,464 km2 of the steep sloping areas were still farmland in 2016, which is 15% of the total farmland in South China karst.Conclusions
Large scale forest dynamics are observed on sloping hills. Given the low agricultural productivity but high erosion risk, considerations regarding loss of crop production and local food security must be balanced against gains in expected provisioning of ecosystem services (e.g. carbon sequestration, timber production).
... 9]. These programs covered 97% of Chinese counties and targeted over 100 million ha of land for forestation [10]. ...
... The SKNFPs are, despite different emphases, regarded as the central driver of forest transition in a majority of studies and, accordingly, many authors have focused on their merits or shortcomings, often remaining at a large geographical scale (see, e.g., [10][11][12][13][14][15]). Yet, while a growing number of publications have evaluated the outcomes of the SKNFPs, the understanding of important local dynamics shaping these outcomes remains limited. ...
... The short-term goal of the NFPP (1998)(1999)(2000) was to reduce commercial timber extraction by over 60% and to eliminate timber harvesting from natural forests [10,15]. This was to be achieved through a ban on commercial logging in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. ...
The transition from net deforestation to net reforestation in China has received much scientific attention, in the hope that, by understanding the underlying drivers and processes, it might be reproduced in other regions of the world. The scientific literature has suggested that this process was driven by the creation of off-farm opportunities and huge state afforestation programs by economic growth. Recent publications, however, have noted a lack of inclusion of local dynamics in this analysis. We used the social-ecological interactions (SEI) framework, designed for the assessment of ecosystem services in socio-ecological systems, to trace the causes and patterns of the local use of forest biomass in a village in Northwest Yunnan. Our results suggest that societal values, in particular, are key to understanding the local resource use underlying the forest transition in Yunnan. However, societal values have been neglected, both in the analysis of forest transition as well as in social-ecological systems research, in general.
... The loess hilly and gully regions (LHGR), located in the middle of the Chinese Loess Plateau, used to suffer from the most serious land degradation worldwide due to intensive farming activities and sensitive natural conditions (Wen & Deng, 2020). In response to the immoderate reclamation in the last century, this region initially launched the first round of GFGP and 36.7% of cropland has been restored since 2000 (National Forestry and Grassland Administration of China, 2020; Delang & Yuan, 2015). Although the LHGR's ecological restoration and socio-economic development have shown remarkable achievements, some impoverished farmers still maintain slope farming for survival (Li & Zander, 2020;Li, Zhang, et al., 2021;Yu et al., 2020). ...
... The cropland redistribution scenarios suggest that it is possible to restore steep slope cropland and simultaneously maintain cropland area, which is significant to realize the primary goals of GFGP to improve soil conservation and household livelihoods (Delang & Yuan, 2015;Xu et al., 2004). Rural households are regarded as the core agents of GFGP with considering sustainable participation (Uchida et al., 2005;. ...
China's Grain‐for‐Green Project (GFGP) motivates conversion from steep slope cropland to forest or grassland to reverse serious land degradation. However, impoverished farmers potentially persist with inefficient slope farming for survival, thereby threatening sustainable GFGP. Consequently, a strategy for balancing farming and vegetation restoration from a spatial optimization perspective is necessary. Here, we selected two catchments with high and low agricultural intensity in the loess hilly and gully regions for a case study. Spatial analysis and binary logistic regression models were used to clarify the effects of topography, accessibility, and location factors on cropland distribution and explore spatially optimized cropland distribution. The results show that steep slope cropland is still widespread, of which cropland with slopes >15° accounts for 46.7% and 34.7% in the two catchments, respectively. Residences and roads significantly impact steep slope cropland distribution, and around 80% of cropland with slopes >15° is distributed within 200 m from residences or 100 m from roads. In cropland redistribution scenarios, cropland with slopes >25° and >15° can be redistributed to gentler slopes while maintaining cropland areas in catchments with high and low agricultural intensity. Correspondingly, 38.8% and 81.2% respectively of simulated cropland on gentle slopes needs optimized attributes such as accessibility in order to be priorities of farmers. Our research provides new insights into GFGP strategies for steep slope cropland restoration in catchments with different agricultural intensities, thereby advancing sustainable farming and vegetation restoration in China's mountainous regions. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
... A number of national and supranational set-aside schemes, aimed at retiring agricultural land for environmental benefits, can offer useful templates for how payments for ecosystem services can reduce current impacts in socio-economically sustainable ways [56][57][58] . As a case example, China's Grain for Green programme, the world's largest national scheme of payments for ecosystem services, achieved the regeneration of 15 million hectares of farmland to forests between 1999 and 2010, with overall positive economic outcomes for the 124 million people involved 59 . The programme generated substantial carbon and biodiversity benefits, despite being primarily aimed at reducing soil erosion 59,60 . ...
... As a case example, China's Grain for Green programme, the world's largest national scheme of payments for ecosystem services, achieved the regeneration of 15 million hectares of farmland to forests between 1999 and 2010, with overall positive economic outcomes for the 124 million people involved 59 . The programme generated substantial carbon and biodiversity benefits, despite being primarily aimed at reducing soil erosion 59,60 . It also facilitated an effective relocation of cropland from southern to northern China 61 . ...
Agricultural production has replaced natural ecosystems across the planet, becoming a major driver of carbon emissions, biodiversity loss, and freshwater consumption. Here we combined global crop yield and environmental data in a ~1-million-dimensional mathematical optimisation framework to determine how optimising the spatial distribution of global croplands could reduce environmental impacts whilst maintaining current crop production levels. We estimate that relocating current croplands to optimal locations, whilst allowing ecosystems in then-abandoned areas to regenerate, could simultaneously decrease the current carbon, biodiversity, and irrigation water footprint of global crop production by 71%, 87%, and 100%, respectively, assuming high-input farming on newly established sites. The optimal global distribution of crops is largely similar for current and end-of-century climatic conditions across emission scenarios. Substantial impact reductions could already be achieved by relocating only a small proportion of worldwide crop production, relocating croplands only within national borders, and assuming less intensive farming systems. Optimising the spatial distribution of global croplands could substantially reduce carbon emissions and biodiversity loss associated with rain-fed crop production, according to a mathematical framework applied to environmental impact and crop yield data
... Soil properties are interrelated and markedly impact soil-plantatmosphere-continuum systems, which are important indices to evaluate restoration effects (Cao et al., 2011;Delang and Yuan, 2015;Tong et al., 2017Tong et al., , 2018. Several previous studies described changes in soil physicochemical and hydraulic properties after vegetation restoration in the karst region of southwest China. ...
... Different species lead to a wide range of soil infiltration characteristics . Hence, vegetation restoration must consider the spatial-scale influences of environmental factors such as climate, topography, lithology, and human disturbance (Delang and Yuan, 2015;Li et al., 2018;Tong et al., 2017). ...
Vegetation restoration effectively prevents soil degradation. However, the changes in soil properties that occur in fragile ecosystems in response to vegetation restoration are unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of vegetation restoration on soil physicochemical properties and saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) at different elevations. Restoration strategies included natural shrubland (NR), managed plantation forest (PF), cropland (CR), and secondary forest (SF). Topsoil (0–15 cm) samples were collected from seven counties in the karst region of southwest China. The soil nutrients were significantly (p < 0.05) higher in both NR and PF than in CR but were lower in SF. Soil physical properties (bulk density, porosity, texture, and Ks) were significantly (p < 0.05) different between CR and SF but not significantly different between NR and PF. Hence, the short restoration period (~15 years) had a stronger influence on soil nutrients than on soil physical properties. The soil properties following different land-use types were affected by elevation. For SF and PF, soil Ca, total nitrogen, and sand content were significantly (p < 0.05) negatively correlated with elevation. For NR, only sand content was significantly (p < 0.05) negatively correlated with elevation. No soil parameters were significantly correlated with elevation in CR. Soil nutrients increased to a greater extent in the low-elevation area (150–500 m) than in the high-elevation (1000 to 1200 m) areas. This discrepancy could be explained by the relatively increased biomass after vegetation restoration. Clay content variation was the main factor controlling Ks variation. The change in clay content was greater in low-elevation areas than in higher-elevation areas, where higher weathering and erosion rates were caused by strong hydrothermal conditions. Accordingly, the present study showed that the variations in soil properties observed after vegetation restoration are influenced by both land-use types and elevation.
... The first coincided with the national subsidy period for ecological trees in China (8 years); the second with the rotation period of 40 years for Larch, the tree species they studied. However, national subsidies will no longer play an important role in the determination of the evaluation period because (i) they are fading out from 2015 on (with a respective delay in areas where it started later) [21] and (ii) in the new period of the afforestation program, farmers can choose to plant ecological or economic trees with the same level of subsidies. In our study, a 30-year evaluation period was chosen because tree growth rates and SOC sequestration rates would decline afterwards (Tables 1 and 2). ...
... This study determined the minimum price per tCER to make ecological and economic trees as well as bamboo forest economically attractive. Although economic trees are not officially included in the CDM afforestation framework, we assumed that afforestation with economic trees can also generate tCERs because (i) they indeed can contribute to carbon sequestration [30][31][32][33]; and (ii) afforestation projects in some countries like China include economic trees [21]. Therefore, our study followed the tCER rules to provide new insights and give policy recommendations under the condition that economic trees fulfil the respective requirements. ...
Afforestation programs have huge potential to store carbon, thereby contributing to mitigate climate change. However, the voluntary acceptance by landowners crucially depends on their economic outcome. We (i) assess the carbon sequestration potential of afforestation projects in various Chinese regions by comparing different tree species, project durations and regional particularities, (ii) analyze the costs and benefits of tree species used for timber and fruit production as well as bamboo, and (iii) compare them with alternative crops under different climatic and economic conditions. Finally, we calculate the minimum compensation required by farmers to convert cropland to forests assuming a joint production of timber or fruits and carbon sequestration. No compensation is needed when cropland with relatively low revenues is to be converted. In contrast, compensation payments must be high for converting land used for cash crops, such as sugarcane. For fruit trees, the amount of carbon sequestered is low, but selling fruits and nuts is quite profitable. Consequently, in most cases there is no compensation needed. The minimum price per carbon credit decreases with increasing project duration because more carbon is stored per hectare, and in consequence, the required payments per credit are lower. This does not hold for fast-growing trees like eucalyptus and poplar, for which the minimum price increases with extended project duration. Bamboo shows a high carbon sequestration potential, and becomes economically more attractive by including carbon revenues. Carbon credits can often compensate the opportunity costs of alternative land uses, except for afforestation on highly productive cropland. We demonstrate that the economic attractiveness of afforestation projects is strongly context dependent and varies substantially across regions. The findings can contribute to the cost-efficient design of carbon sequestration projects. The methodology can be applied to other regions in the developing world.
... Given the intricate relationship between on-farm and off-farm activities [25][26][27][28][29][30], emphasizing one aspect and neglecting the other might lead to an incomplete or misleading understanding of the program's effectiveness, especially if off-farm employment competes with on-farm activities and leads to reduced agricultural production. However, many studies concentrating on the effect of the program on household income or household welfare are based on a simple comparison of households before and after participation, or of participants and non-participants (see Delang and Yuan [31] for a detailed review). These results might be susceptible to sample bias as a result of some unobserved heterogeneity. ...
... By the end of 2014, over 295 million ha of marginal or sloping lands had been reforested, affecting 32 million rural households, with an expenditure of over 405 billion Yuan (in 2014, 1 Chinese Yuan was worth 0.16 USD) [40]. Given its notable economic and environmental benefits [31], the Chinese government declared its intention in 2014 to enlarge the scale of land conversion by another 90 million ha and to compensate farmers for an additional eight years [40]. ...
This study provides an empirical analysis of household technical efficiency and its determinant factors (especially conservation payments) in the context of the Grain for Green program. On the basis of a sample of 225 farm households on the Loess Plateau in 2007, we estimate household technical efficiency using the data envelopment analysis method. In addition to a traditional ordinary least square (OLS) analysis, quantile regression (QR) analysis is also deployed to explore the possible heterogeneous effects of conservation payments and other variables on the technical efficiency across the quantiles. The results suggest that when off-farm activities are taken into account, households have considerable potential for improving their technical efficiency; OLS analysis shows that conservation payments decrease household efficiency, and the QR analysis suggests that the negative impact is significant only for higher performance households; The presence of children, access of households to leased land markets, credit markets, and extension services all show heterogeneous impacts on household efficiency. On the basis of the findings of the study, policies suggestions to improve the program’s effectiveness are provided.
... Finally, the absolute impacts of policies that promote multiple development and environmental objectives will most likely be larger in fast-growing economies such as China, India and Indonesia (Johansson et al., 2015). For example, the Chinese Grain-for-Green Program (the largest reforestation effort in the world) transformed more than 15 million hectares of degraded agricultural land and 17 million hectares of barren mountainous wasteland to natural vegetation (Delang & Zhen, 2015). Although the biodiversity value of this effort is not certain, there is evidence to suggest that there were substantial ecosystem service benefits related to carbon storage and water provision (Delang & Zhen, 2015). ...
... For example, the Chinese Grain-for-Green Program (the largest reforestation effort in the world) transformed more than 15 million hectares of degraded agricultural land and 17 million hectares of barren mountainous wasteland to natural vegetation (Delang & Zhen, 2015). Although the biodiversity value of this effort is not certain, there is evidence to suggest that there were substantial ecosystem service benefits related to carbon storage and water provision (Delang & Zhen, 2015). ...
... The full citations for these sources are listed in the references for the paper. China (Mather 2007;Delang and Yuan 2015;Zhang et al. 2017); Denmark , France (Mather et al. 1999), India (Mather 2007;Nagendra 2010); Kenya (Holmgren et al. 1994;Tiffen et al. 1994;Maathai 2003), Madagascar (Kull 1998), Mexico (Klooster 2003), Niger (Reij 2014); NE United States (Foster 1992), Puerto Rico (Rudel et al. 2000); Scotland (Mather 2004); SE United States (Rudel and Fu 1996), Switzerland (Mather and Fairbairn 2000), Vietnam (Mather 2007;Meyfroidt and Lambin 2008b) and small farmers to abandon agriculture or, at the very least, the less-productive, upland fields. With selective abandonment of the less-profitable lands, farmers and their workers could devote more of their labor and agricultural inputs to the most-productive fields. ...
... China has exhibited a prototypical latecomer transition. It launched the massive 'Grain for Green' reforestation program (Delang and Yuan 2015) after the Yangtze and Yellow River floods of 1998 made the argument about the contributions of upland deforestation to lowland floods more compelling. Indonesia has pursued similar policies of reducing deforestation in the uplands of Sumbawa in order to curb downstream flooding (Ansharyani 2018). ...
Forest transitions occur when net reforestation replaces net deforestation in places. Because forest transitions can increase biodiversity and augment carbon sequestration, they appeal to policymakers contending with the degrading effects of forest loss and climate change. What then can policymakers do to trigger forest transitions? The historical record over the last two centuries provides insights into the precipitating conditions. The early transitions often occurred passively, through the spontaneous regeneration of trees on abandoned agricultural lands. Later forest transitions occurred more frequently after large-scale crisis narratives emerged and spurred governments to take action, often by planting trees on degraded, sloped lands. To a greater degree than their predecessors, latecomer forest transitions exhibit centralized loci of power, leaders with clearly articulated goals, and rapid changes in forest cover. These historical shifts in forest transitions reflect our growing appreciation of their utility for countering droughts, floods, land degradation, and climate change.
... Different types of forests have different economic returns and their composition affects the quality of forests (e.g., ecological functions). As a result, policymakers and The goal of this paper is to evaluate the environmental impact of the Grain for Green program (also known as the Sloped Land Conversion Program) in China, which is one of the largest PES programs in the developing world (Delang et al., 2015). In this program, farmers are given compensation for retiring cultivation on sloped land and planting tree seedlings. ...
... These forests not only provide habitats for a significant wildlife population but also maintain the ecosystem for the Yangtze River Basin (Zhu et al., 2003). However, despite their significant economic and ecological roles, the forests degraded over the past few decades, especially during the Cultural Revolution (CAS, 2000;Delang et al., 2015). The four provinces combined therefore represent an ideal setting to evaluate the effectiveness of the GFG program for its environmental goal of increasing forest cover. ...
China’s Grain for Green (GFG) program, one of the world’s largest Payments for Environmental Services programs, has been implemented for more than ten years. However, empirical evidence on its impact on increasing the forest cover is still lacking. The goal of this research is to estimate GFG’s effect on the total forest cover and examine its heterogeneity across four types of forests. To do so, we utilize a rich panel of GIS data set (1988–2008) containing 409 counties in four provinces. We found a small but significant treatment impact on increasing the total forest cover as well as three out of four types of forest cover, but that the impact is not equal across the forest types. We discuss the implications of these findings in future program design.
... Between 1949 and 1979, 38 million hectares of natural habitat were converted for agriculture in China. The associated environmental degradation led to severe erosion, sandstorms, droughts and floods, and lack of forest resources, culminating in the Yellow River drought in 1997, and Yangtze River flood in 1998, and by 1998 erosion affected 38% of the nation's land area (Delang and Yuan, 2015). Regulating ecosystem services (air quality regulation, soil stability, sediment regulation, water purification and biodiversity) declined through the twentieth century in the Yangtze River basin, while provisioning services (crop production, agricultural goods) rose (Dearing et al., 2012;Zhang et al., 2015). ...
... Upstream farmers were sufficiently compensated, and downstream agricultural intensification was supported by the resulting sedimentation and flooding regulation. The programme was particularly attractive to farmers because its objectives combined reforestation and restoration of ecological integrity with poverty alleviation (Delang and Yuan, 2015). ...
One-third of the world’s population is estimated to suffer directly from ecosystem degradation. As the long-term socio-economic costs of land use change and ecosystem degradation and functional collapse become increasingly evident, international agreements are providing opportunities to tackle drivers of degradation and to engage in large-scale restoration. This chapter reviews restoration projects from the ecosystem services and poverty alleviation literature, with a focus on research from the ESPA programme. Studies on restoration indicate that advanced degradation, with low opportunity costs, provides minimal risk for restoration projects; however, context-specific and complex socio-ecological trade-offs need to be understood. While site-based ecological interventions are most obvious to observers, restoration projects involve a balance of on- and off-site, and ecological and social components. It is increasingly clear that tackling the direct and indirect drivers of degradation is as critical to success as the site-based ecological methods for restoration. The ecosystem services framework provides common ground for trans-disciplinary research and project design. Moreover, filling in the substantial knowledge gaps will require further state-of-the art collaborations between biophysical, social and economic scientists.
... It can be seen that although the total amount of cropland and forest land did not change much, both experienced large ups and downs during the study period, with the area of arable land increasing sharply from 1994 to 2000 and the area of forest land and grassland decreasing sharply during this period, due to the fact that the continuous increase of the Chinese population led to an increased demand for grain consumption [47] before 2000, and a large area of forest land and grassland was reclaimed. In 2000, China's Grain for Green Program was carried out nation-wide after it being tested in three provinces in northern China [48]. The area of cropland remained stable and started to decline after 2000, while the area of forest land started to rebound after 2003, which is strongly related to the Grain for Green Program. ...
Global land cover changed significantly in the last several decades due to strong climate warming and intensive human activities, and those changes greatly affected ecosystem services all over the world. Using CCI-LC land cover data from 1992 to 2020, the spatiotemporal characteristics of land cover change in China were investigated, and the annual ecosystem service values (ESVs) were estimated with the equivalent factor method. The results showed that: (1) The overall accuracy and Kappa coefficient of CCI-LC products in China were 71.1% and 0.65, respectively. (2) From 1992 to 2020, the area of cropland in China increased generally first before 2004 then decreased after 2008; the area of forest land decreased before 2003 then increased after 2015; the area of grassland and bare land consistently decreased; and the area of built-up land continuously increased, with a total increase of 113,000 km2. The primary characteristics of land cover transitions in China were the mutual conversion of cropland, forestland, and grassland as well as the continuous increase of built-up land. (3) Forest land was the most significant contributor of ESV in China, making 62.9% of the total ESV by multi-year average, followed by grassland (18.5%) and water (10.3%); the ESV was roughly high in the southeast China and low in the northwest. (4) The total ESV in China decreased generally before 2015 and got stable in the last five years. The hot spots with rising ESV were mainly concentrated in the western, northern and southwestern parts of China, while the cold spots with declining ESV were mainly concentrated in the economically developed eastern and southern China. (5) Cropland, forest land, grassland, and water were the positive contributors to ESV change in China, while built-up land and bare land were the negative contributors. The findings provide a theoretical foundation for China’s harmonized socioeconomic and environmental development.
... Meanwhile, adhering to the strategy of sustainable development, the Chinese government has invested a large amount of human and financial resources to improve vegetation greenness and the ecological environment. A series of huge ecological restoration projects has been proposed, for instance the Natural Forest Conservation Program and the Grain to Green Project [32,33]. These projects are intended to protect existing natural vegetation, improving the Earth's surface greenness, and to prevent desertification and soil erosion. ...
Guizhou Province is a typical representative karst region in China, with poverty and a fragile ecology, and knowledge of vegetation dynamics and its response to climate changes and human activities can provide basic information for ecological environmental resource management. Based on MOD13Q1 NDVI remote sensing products and meteorological data, spatial-temporal variations of NDVI in Guizhou Province from 2000 to 2021 were investigated using trend analysis, a coefficient of variation and the Hurst index. Simultaneously, the response to climate change and human activities was also explored using partial correlation and residual analysis. It was concluded that, firstly, the regional average NDVI in Guizhou Province displays a significant improving trend, with a rate of 0.056/10a from 2000 to 2021. NDVI in Guizhou Province displays notable spatial heterogeneity, with high values mainly concentrated in forests and woody savanna regions in eastern and northwestern Guizhou and low values distributed in croplands and rapid urban expansion regions in western and central Guizhou. In addition, the overall spatial distribution of NDVI displays an upward trend, and the area of extreme and light significant improvement accounts for 81.0% of Guizhou total area. Secondly, the NDVI variation in Guizhou Province is relatively stable and the area of lower-to-moderate fluctuation accounts for 90.1% of Guizhou total area; meanwhile, the future trend of NDVI variation in Guizhou is largely sustainable. Thirdly, the NDVI variations in Guizhou are more strongly influenced by air temperature than precipitation; meanwhile, compared to climatic factors, human activities have a stronger impact on vegetation dynamics in Guizhou Province. Fourthly, the trend, stability, sustainability and relationship with climatic factors and human activities of NDVI variations are varied among different vegetation types. These results will provide valuable information for ecosystem restoration and environment protection in Guizhou Province.
... These patterns might be explained by the complex effect of human behavior on the interrelations between people, the environment, and bears. With the implementation of the Grain-To-Green Program (GTGP) and special agriculture, the local government has encouraged farmers to plant economic forest or cash crops (such as nuts, Camellia spp., Ginkgo biloba, and herbs) in place of cereal crops, especially in steep mountains (Delang, 2014;Tengchong Municipal People's Government, 2020). These changes might have reduced and fragmented cornfields near the forest, decreasing bears' crop raiding as their relationships in spatial patterns. ...
Conflicts between humans and Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) are widespread in Asia and pose challenges to human-bear coexistence. Identifying effective mitigation measures requires a thorough understanding of human-bear conflicts (HBC). We assessed spatial-temporal patterns of HBC and their impact factors around the Baoshan Section of the Gaoligongshan Nature Reserve (GNNR) between 2012 and 2020. The results suggested that crop raiding by bears occurred most commonly, followed by beehive loss, livestock depredation, and human casualties. HBC hotspots occurred near the protected area where local people frequently encountered bears. The landscapes with lower elevation and human density were at higher risk of HBC. Furthermore, villages with more fragmented forests or less fragmented croplands were more vulnerable to HBC. The differences in agricultural structures contributed to the diverse composition of HBC between the two regions. In addition, crop raiding by bears decreased significantly, probably due to the changing landscape composition and configuration derived from human behaviors, yet livestock depredation and beehive loss increased. Our findings indicated the complex interrelationship between the environment, bears, and humans, which could guide the implementation of mitigation measures. We recommend multiple approaches based on a social-ecological system to mitigate HBC.
... Moreover, apparent differences exist between the soil properties of the grassland ecosystem and those of the cropland ecosystem (Qi et al., 2012;Zhang et al., 2018), meaning that expertise obtained from the past efforts of sown pastures on degraded natural grasslands (Li et al., 2018) may not apply well to similar settings on, e.g., abandoned croplands. The current environmental protection and ecological restoration policies in China encourage the conversion of marginal croplands to forest-and grasslands with economic compensations (Deng et al., 2014;Delang and Yuan, 2015), especially in traditionally non-farming regions such as Inner Mongolia. This represents an opportunity to utilize the set-aside marginal cropland resources in the agropastoral ecotone in northern China for sown pasture, using locally suitable forage species such as alfalfa (Xu et al., 2021) and smooth bromegrass (Malhi et al., 2002). ...
Grassland is the primary land use in China but has experienced severe degradation in recent decades due to overgrazing and conversion to agricultural production. Here, we conducted a field experiment in northeastern Inner Mongolia to test the effectiveness of sown pastures in lowering the grazing pressure on grasslands and raising the quality of marginal soils. Alfalfa and smooth bromegrass monocultures and mixture were sown in a marginal cropland field in Hulunber in June 2016. Biomass productivity, soil physicochemical, and biological properties were monitored annually from 2016 to 2020. The results showed that the marginal cropland soil responded consistently positively to sown pastures for major soil properties. Soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) increased by 48 and 21%, respectively, from 2016 to 2020 over the 0-60 cm soil depth range. Soil microbes responded proactively too. The soil microbial biomass C (SMBC) and N (SMBN) increased by 117 and 39%, respectively, during the period of 2016-2020. However, by the end of the experiment, the soil of a natural grassland field, which was included in the experiment as a control, led the sown pasture soil by 28% for SOC, 35% for TN, 66% for SMBC, and 96% for SMBN. Nevertheless, the natural grassland soil’s productive capacity was inferior to that of the sown pasture soil. The average aboveground biomass productivity of sown pastures was measured at 8.4 Mg ha ⁻¹ in 2020, compared to 5.0 Mg ha ⁻¹ for natural grassland, while the root biomass of sown pastures was averaged at 7.5 Mg ha ⁻¹ , leading the natural grassland by 15%. Our analyses also showed that the sown pastures’ biomass productivity advantage had a much-neglected potential in natural grassland protection. If 50% of the available marginal cropland resources in Hulunber under the current environmental protection law were used for sown pastures, the livestock grazing pressure on the natural grasslands would decrease by a big margin of 38%. Overall, these results represent systematic empirical and analytical evidence of marginal cropland soil’s positive responses to sown pastures, which shows clearly that sown pasture is a valid measure both for soil rehabilitation and biomass production.
... Input indicators: afforestation, reforestation, protection of existing forests, and tending to forests are the primary practices of forestland management in southern China [53]. Accordingly, the present study divided the input indicators of forestland use into afforestation + reforestation, forest tending, and forest management. ...
Maximizing the carbon sequestration of forested land is important for achieving carbon neutrality. Although some studies have discussed forest carbon sequestration efficiency (FCSE) from the perspective of total factor production, it is being increasingly recognized that forestland use regulates sequestration and emissions. When viewing forestland use as input and carbon emissions as output, there is a lack of empirical evidence on FCSE and its influencing factors. Here, a superefficiency slacks-based measurement model was applied to estimate FCSE for 66 counties in Zhejiang Province, China. The influencing factors and spatial spillover effects of FCSE were also analyzed using a spatial autocorrelation model. The findings showed that over the sample observation period, county FCSE ranged from 0.199 to 1.258, with considerable gaps. The global Moran’s I index showed that county-level FCSE was markedly spatially autocorrelated. Spatially, forestland use, cutting, pests, and diseases had negative spatial spillover effects on FCSE, whereas average annual temperature and precipitation displayed positive spillover effects. These findings suggest that the overall coordination of forest resource supervision and management among counties should be strengthened. The implementation of forestry management models aimed at consolidating or increasing forest carbon sequestration should be emphasized to improve forest quality, thereby promoting FCSE enhancement.
... Implemented in the late 1990s, this initiative was designed to facilitate reforestation and ecological restoration nationwide (He and Sikor, 2015). Immense in scope and considered one of the largest conservation schemes in the world at the time, the implications of the 'Grain for Green Programme' continue to impact small-scale farmers in Yunnan (Weyerhaeuser et al., 2005;Delang and Yuan, 2015;Gao et al., 2020). The second campaign is the designation of 'National Nature Reserves' (NNRs). ...
... Implemented in the late 1990s, this initiative was designed to facilitate reforestation and ecological restoration nationwide (He and Sikor, 2015). Immense in scope and considered one of the largest conservation schemes in the world at the time, the implications of the 'Grain for Green Programme' continue to impact small-scale farmers in Yunnan (Weyerhaeuser et al., 2005;Delang and Yuan, 2015;Gao et al., 2020). The second campaign is the designation of 'National Nature Reserves' (NNRs). ...
... Implemented in the late 1990s, this initiative was designed to facilitate reforestation and ecological restoration nationwide (He and Sikor, 2015). Immense in scope and considered one of the largest conservation schemes in the world at the time, the implications of the 'Grain for Green Programme' continue to impact small-scale farmers in Yunnan (Weyerhaeuser et al., 2005;Delang and Yuan, 2015;Gao et al., 2020). e second campaign is the designation of 'National Nature Reserves' (NNRs). ...
... The objective of the program is to improve the ecological conditions and the livelihood of millions of people in rural China. See Delang and Yuan [45] for a review of the program). Future research directions include investigating the optimal subsidy or ecocompensation for farmers reverting sloping or marginal farmland to forests or grass, where timber harvesting or ranching is not allowed indefinitely. ...
This study investigated the potential financial benefits that private forest famers can derive when participating in a larch carbon sink plantation project in the northwestern Chinese province of Gansu. A decision matrix was developed to help forest farmers justify participation in forest carbon sink projects relative to the traditional land-use goal of timber production under various carbon trading prices, site conditions, and contract terms. The results showed that when the carbon trading price is at the theoretically optimal carbon price (CNY 110/tCO2e, equivalent to USD 17/tCO2e), Chinese business entities are willing to pay for forest carbon credits under the current global carbon emissions level, and forest farmers who participate in a 25-year forest carbon sink plantation project on high-productivity sites would generate the greatest financial benefit compared with the net income from pure timber production forests. Thus, the government does not need to provide a carbon sink subsidy for participating tree farmers. However, at the current average carbon trading price (CNY 19.8/tCO2e or USD 3/tCO2e) in the domestic market, a minimum additional subsidy of CNY 735/ha (USD 113/ha) is required upfront to motivate forest farmers to convert timber production forests into carbon sink forests. The results of this study can help policymakers and forest managers formulate optimal eco-compensation strategies for enrollment in forest-based carbon sequestration programs.
... In the past two decades, through a series of environmental restoration measures such as the Grain for Green Program, the vegetation coverage in the basin has been improved, the spatial distribution of land-water resources has undergone significant changes, and soil erosion has been effectively curbed (Delang and Yuan 2015). However, problems of water shortage, water use conflicts, and ecosystem degradation in the basin still exist. ...
As an important indicator of vegetation coverage, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) reflects the changing pattern and evolving trend of the environment. In the Loess Plateau, vegetation plays a critical role in soil and water conservation, which strongly affects the achievement of sustainable development goals. The study of the spatial distribution and temporal trends of NDVI is of great practical importance for the planning of soil and water conservation measures and the evaluation of the environmental situation. In this study, the NDVI, precipitation, land use and land cover data of the Jing River Basin were collected, the emerging hot spot patterns of the NDVI analyzed, the characteristics of spatial distribution and temporal variation of the NDVI in the basin obtained, and the impacts on NDVI from the climate changes and the land cover changes discussed. The results show that the NDVI in Jing River Basin represents a spatial trend of decreasing from northwest to southeast. The emerging hot spot analysis results show that diminishing cold spot, oscillating hot spot and intensifying hot spot are predominant patterns in the basin. The whole basin shows a statistically significant upward trend of high value aggregation of NDVI. The temporal trend of NDVI in the basin varies from − 0.0171 to 0.0185 per year. The increasing trend of vegetation coverage in the basin is statistically significant. The positive correlation between the NDVI and the precipitation mainly observed upstream of the basin reveals that the growth of vegetation in the Loess Plateau is more dependent on the water supply from the precipitation. Land cover transition patterns and the land use patterns also impact the spatial–temporal trends of the vegetation coverage in the basin. The study results may be helpful for the vegetation restoration, soil and water conservation and sustainable development of the Jing River Basin.
... China has launched a series of large-scale ERPs since the end of the twentieth century to address sustainability emergencies (Bryan et al., 2018;Zhao et al., 2020). Initiated in the year of 1999, the Grain for Green Program (GGP) is the largest reforestation program and payment for ecosystem services scheme around the world, affecting 124 million people and 32 million households in China (Ahrends et al., 2017;Delang & Yuan, 2015). The main objectives of the GGP are to reduce soil erosion, improve tree cover and alleviate poverty by converting cropland on slopes to forests and subsidizing farmers (Bryan et al., 2018). ...
China's Grain for Green Program (GGP) is the largest reforestation program in the world. Previous studies lacked targeted assessments regarding its effectiveness in vegetation conversion. Using the time series of Vegetation Continuous Fields in southwest China, we derived the spatiotemporal variations in total vegetation cover, short vegetation (SV) cover and tree canopy (TC) cover during the period from 2000 to 2016. By conducting residual trend analyses independently on the SV and TC cover time series, the trends in human-induced SV cover (SV H) and TC cover (TC H) were detected. Then, we performed overlay analyses to derive the human-induced SV-TC conversion in cropland. The study found that the SV in southwest China showed a net browning trend whereas the TC presented a net greening trend. Approximately 69.5% of the pixels with a significant browning trend in SV H showed a significant greening trend in TC H. Furthermore, 50.6% of the human-induced SV-TC conversion in southwest China occurred in cropland, and the proportion was even larger for the eastern provinces. Our study provides a targeted evaluation of the performance of the GGP and highlights that the implementation of the GGP has caused widespread SV-TC conversion that potentially mitigates global climate change.
... [29,30]. As mountains and hills dominate Chongqing and several projects on the conversion and consolidation of sloping land have been underway for many years, e.g., the "Grain for Green" program [31], we were careful to use 30° as a threshold to initially extract some forest and shrubland areas. The relatively high threshold of 30° was used to minimize the risk of classifying cropland as woodland. ...
Protecting areas of important ecological value is one of the main approaches to safeguarding the Earth’s ecosystems. However, the long-term effectiveness of protected areas is often uncertain. Focusing on China’s ecological conservation redline policy (Eco-redline policy) introduced in recent years, this study attempted to examine the effectiveness of alternative policy interventions and their implications on future land-use and land-cover (LULC) patterns. A scenario analysis was employed to elucidate the implications of different policy interventions for Chongqing capital, one of the most representative cities in China. These interventions considered the spatial extent of Eco-redline areas (ERAs) and the management intensity within these areas. LULC data for two different periods from 2000 (first year) to 2010 (end year) were derived from satellite images and then used for future (2050) LULC projections, incorporating the various policy interventions. Furthermore, several landscape indices, including the shape complexity, contrast, and aggregation of forest patches were calculated for each scenario. After comparing the scenarios, our analysis suggests that the current extent of ERAs may not be sufficient, although their management intensity is. Therefore, we suggest that during the optimization of the Eco-redline policy, ERAs are gradually increased while maintaining their current management intensity.
... Woodland coverage is expected to continue to increase because a considerable amount of farmland is still located on sloping hills in southwestern China (Yue et al., 2020). It is important to note, however, that the SLCP often involves planting any tree species for timber/orchards on sloping land, which not only reduces erosion but also creates income for local farmers (Delang and Yuan, 2014), but this approach is sometimes inappropriate (Yin and Yin, 2010). Barlow et al. (2007) pointed out that, if commercial forest plantations are components of a heterogeneous landscape mosaic, they could play a role in landscape restoration and native biodiversity conservation. ...
Ecological restoration programs (ERPs) have greatly expanded forested areas in China to mitigate environmental problems. Unfortunately, this general increase in forest cover has not revealed clear changes in the states of fragmentation and loss of connectivity of forested habitats, and few studies have investigated the effects of ERPs on the spatial patterns of forests. Taking the Three Gorges Reservoir Area as a case study, we assess and quantify how the dynamics of the spatial patterns of forest following massive ERPs from 1990 through 2015 by morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA). We examine possible landscape structure thresholds in the forest restoration gradient. The results indicate that dramatic decreases in forest fragmentation and patchiness have occurred since ERP implementation. Among the seven MSPA forest types, core forests show the highest increase of 513.91 km 2 ⋅yr − 1. ERPs promote the defragmentation of forests via two pathways: (1) Old forests are preserved and expanded by building new forests around existing patches and closing perforations within forests; and (2) new core forests are gradually created in areas far from older forests. However, isolated forest patches surrounded by cropland production areas formed after the conversion of croplands into forests have appeared across the study area. Furthermore, at least two points of nonlinear changes in the landscape structure with increasing forest cover are identified. These nonlinear trajectories can be used as indicators of critical shifts in ecosystem states, and relevant thresholds support the identification of specific conservation actions. Our findings demonstrate the importance of ERPs for the defragmentation of forest patches and provide a basis to establish a more effective arrangement of patches necessary to mitigate fragmentation effects. Given that landscape structural changes are not expected in ERP design, future ERPs should focus on remaining isolated forest patches and on maintaining the health and sustainability of landscapes.
... Policies in support of expanding agriculture, including land use conversion from boreal forests, wetlands, and grasslands can be found in northern jurisdictions from Mongolia, to Russia and across Canada (Stevenson et al. 2014; Government of Mongolia 2018; Government of Yukon 2016; Government of Newfoundland and Labrador 2017; Government of Ontario 2011; Belyaeva and Bokusheva 2018;Schou et al. 2017). In other jurisdictions, such as in China, Norway, or Finland, northern agriculture is mainly expressed in adapting current agriculture to climate change (Niemi and Väre 2018; Government of Norway 2017; Delang and Yuan 2015). This is partly due to the limited land available for further agricultural expansion in these regions (Hohle et al. 2016). ...
Link: https://rdcu.be/chuRF
Under food security concerns and accelerated global warming, northern regions are becoming new agricultural frontiers. While diverse regional, national, and local policies support northern agricultural intensification and expansion through land use conversion, the scope and environmental consequences of northern agriculture are yet to be fully understood. As northern agriculture is poised to increase its role in both the local and global food production, its sustainable growth depends on a comprehensive understanding of opportunities and challenges. To evaluate the current perception of the status of northern agricultural research and the extent to which there is a need for a coordinated approach to its growth, we developed a targeted survey delivered online. Questions are aimed at revealing similarities and discrepancies in the awareness of northern agriculture and obtaining feedback on the need for a global synchronization of research and development. Out of 309 respondents, a curated dataset of 238 respondents was employed for analysis. This included respondents with knowledge and expertise in boreal and/or Arctic agriculture (41%), of temperate and/or alpine agriculture (37%), and other respondents (22%). Most are involved in agricultural (60%) or applied environmental (23.5%) sciences. Results revealed that scientists working in the northern regions are cautiously optimistic about climate change–driven expansion of northern agriculture while also realistic about the need for environmentally sustainable agricultural systems. Respondents with limited exposure to northern agriculture were more pessimistic about its expansion. Surprisingly, there was a limited and inconsistent knowledge of extant networks and research entities focusing on northern agriculture research. Nevertheless, there was a strong consensus that a concerted approach among multiple disciplines and across global regions would benefit northern agriculture and its ongoing growth. The survey’s results illuminate for the very first time the need for better coordination and a greater emphasis on northern agriculture under climate change.
... On the other hand, the Chinese government has been prompted to take an important ecosystem restoration program, called the Grain-to-Green Program (GTGP), after the serious strike by the massive floods in 1998 [15]. GTGP is the biggest forest ecological construction program worldwide due to its large scale, huge investments and enormous effects [16,17]. Stopping soil and water loss and minimizing the negative impacts of farmland on ecosystems are the ultimate goals of GTGP. ...
Landscape connectivity can largely affect the level of biodiversity and it is a key concern in conservation planning. Considering that protected areas (PAs) may become functionally isolated “islands” under rapid land-use change, there is an urgent need to expand and connect protected areas to prevent further biodiversity loss and improve PAs effectiveness. The Grain-to-Green Project (GTGP) is the largest reforestation program worldwide with the aim of controlling water and soil loss; however, the opportunities for connectivity gains through GTGP have been widely ignored. Here we provided a three-stage hierarchical framework incorporating soil erosion analysis, cropland suitability analysis and network analysis to prioritize agricultural patches for reforestation under the scheme of GTGP. The potential reforestation patches were identified in the first two stages. Then, four different GTGP strategies were designed, and a set of network metrics were used to determine the best strategy and prioritize patches that significantly enhance PAs connectivity. A typical GTGP region, Wanzhou district (Southwest China), was taken as the study area. We found that: (1) the agricultural patches with high reforestation suitability cover an area of c. 40 km2 (1% of the study area); and (2) the efficiency of GTGP strategies varies by species, species with intermediate and high mobility benefit more from a strategy that continuously adds reforestation patches close to PAs, while for species with low dispersal ability, the amount of patches added should also be taken into account to decide the appropriate strategy. We conclude that our framework can provide guidance to restore PAs connectivity with limited land resources in the context of GTGP.
... By most accounts, the program has been successful and by 2010 about 15 million hectares of farmland and 17 million hectares of barren, mountainous wasteland were converted back to "natural" vegetation cover. This has involved > 120 million people, mainly farmers and land owners (Delang and Yuan 2015). In many respects, the Green for Grain program may be the largest national program to reduce soil erosion and sediment transport to date, and sediment monitoring stations have been central to both its creation (by identifying the need) and its evaluation. ...
Purpose
Humanity has been modifying the planet in a measurable way for thousands of years. Recently, this influence has been such that some feel we are in a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. This review will describe how soil erosion and sediment dynamics have (i) been used to assess the impact of humans on the planet and (ii) affected the global climate and influenced water security. Emphasis is placed on changes since the middle of the twentieth century, as this coincides with what many suggest is the start of the Anthropocene Epoch.
Results and discussion
The use of sediment archives has been instrumental in our understanding of how environmental systems have developed over time, both naturally and in response to anthropogenic activities. Additional information has come from measurement and monitoring programs, and tracing and fingerprinting studies. In turn, models have been developed that enable forecasting. Some of the main global impacts of enhanced soil erosion and changes in sediment dynamics and sediment composition include: changes in radiative energy balances and impacts on the cryosphere; the global carbon cycle; and greenhouse gas emissions. Impacts on water security include: effects on freshwater biota, including wild salmon populations; fluxes of contaminants, including microplastics; and reservoir and river channel sedimentation, including flooding. Sediment archives and monitoring programs have also been used to document the effect of mitigation measures and environmental policies.
Conclusion
Sediment archives enable us to assemble information over a variety of timescales (i.e., 10⁰ to 10⁵ years and longer) and a range of spatial scales (from sub-watershed to continental), in addition to environments ranging from arid to tropical to polar. Often the temporal resolution is better than other paleoenvironmental reconstruction approaches. As such, sedimentary records, when combined with measurement and monitoring approaches and other sources of information, have enabled us to determine changes in atmospheric, terrestrial, and aquatic systems, especially over the last 100 years. While soil erosion and sediment dynamics have provided a wealth of information and greatly enhanced our understanding of the role of humanity in modifying the planet, suggestions are given for further research.
... This nation-wide reforestation and ecological restoration initiative was introduced in the late 1990s so that 'cultivated lands in environmentally fragile areas are retired from crop production (mainly grains), and converted to pasture or forest' (OECD, 2011: 229; see also He and Sikor, 2015). Once described as the largest ecological programme in the world, Grain for Green ended in 2007 as planned, but has resulted in a number of negative long-term impacts for small-scale farmers' livelihoods in mountainous Yunnan (Weyerhaeuser et al., 2005;Delang and Yuan, 2015). Second, National Nature Reserves (NNRs) were initiated in China in 1956 but have rapidly increased in number in recent years (Zhou and Grumbine, 2011). ...
Commodity crops are redefining land use and rural smallholder livelihoods across Asia. These crops often have boom‐bust cycles with important implications for the drivers of farmer entry into and exit from particular cash crop opportunities. This paper offers a comparative analysis of the boom‐bust processes of three popular spice crops cultivated in Yunnan Province, southwest China. Drawing from agrarian frontiers and rural livelihoods literature, we disentangle the vulnerability contexts associated with black cardamom, cinnamon and star anise production, finding that farmers cultivating these spices face a combination of interlocking forms of vulnerability. Despite the monetary potential that each crop offered during its ‘boom’, the associated environmental, economic and political vulnerabilities caused most farmers to exit their production, responding with myriad on‐farm and off‐farm diversification strategies. Using a multi‐sited ethnographic approach, we draw on 52 in‐depth interviews with ethnic minority cultivators, spice traders and local government officials to untangle the complexities associated with cash crop production in this agrarian frontier, the interwoven vulnerabilities that result in their ‘busts’ and the coping and adaptation strategies that smallholder farmers employ. Our findings underline the importance of disaggregating farmer vulnerabilities and the need for more nuanced policy responses to adequately support small‐scale farmers.
... Especially in the more upland parts of the province, land consolidation programs have not yet significantly disturbed the fragmented nature of agriculture. Where land consolidation has been more substantive, it has started to reduce farm diversification by individual farm households, generating greater focus on productivism(Li et al., 2018).2.4 | Chinese MFA as a product of agri-environment measuresChina's GfG program, also known as the Sloping Land Conversion program, one of six major national reforestation schemes, is one of the world's largest ecological restoration schemes, receiving US$61.9 billion of government funds by 2016(Delang & Yuan, 2016).Introduced in 2002, the program was initially intended to convert about 15 million ha of low-yield farmland to forest and to afforest another 17 million ha of barren mountains and non-productive land largely in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow and Yangtze river basins. Areas affected cover large parts of western and north-western China, especially on slopes exceeding 25 , including 867 counties and over half of China's land mass as part of a broader strategy for the western half of the country. ...
Multifunctional agriculture (MFA) has been supported in the European Union (EU) for over two decades, primarily as part of rural development policy in which agriculture is encouraged to deliver a range of economic, social and environmental outcomes. MFA has also grown in some countries without significant policy support, notably in peri‐urban fringes in North America and Australasia. Further expansion of this phenomenon is now apparent in China under strong central government policy directives from the early 2000s. Drawing upon a decade of studies of MFA in China, this paper examines some of the responses to various related policy initiatives, including major programs, such as Grain for Green, which have encouraged farmers to generate environmental services. It also refers to the scope for individual farm households to take initiatives leading to MFA via adoption of multiple functions on smallholdings (e.g., rural tourism, food processing). Various interpretations of MFA are explored, with a focus on how central government policy directives have driven take‐up of various MFA‐related initiatives.
... China has undertaken large afforestation programs in most provinces during the last three decades. In particular, in 1999 China introduced the Grain for Green (GfG), the largest reforestation program in the world, which pays farmers to reforest their marginal farmland (Delang and Yuan, 2016). However, farmers' payments come from the government, and therefore are limited in both time and space. ...
... Restoration of social culture requires maintenance of cultural landscapes, creation of proper habitats for biodiversity, and conversion of cropland to forest (Benayas et al., 2009;Adame et al., 2015;Rodriguez et al., 2015Rodriguez et al., , 2016Dawson et al., 2017). And improvement of infrastructures requires reconstruction of hazard-standing buildings, development of environment-friendly mining areas and coastal zones, construction of settlements for ecological refugees, urban parks and greenways, and exploitation of tourist land resources (Delang and Yuan, 2015;Sun et al., 2015;Wang et al., 2016;Yang et al., 2017), and so on. However, previous assessment methods, suggestions for remediation, and analytical tools have proven to be inherently weak when applied to terrestrial ecosystem research. ...
Ecological restoration of terrestrial ecosystems facilitates environmental protection and enhances sustainable development of land resources. With increasingly severe land degradation, new and effective methods must be developed for the restoration of ecological functions. In this study, we developed a regional risk assessment approach to support the planning of ecological restoration of a terrestrial ecosystem located in the Daye area in central China. The study area was divided into six sub-regions where ecological risks were characterized by building a non-linear model to represent ecological interactions among the risk components there. Socio-economic conditions in the areas were evaluated and presented using an analytic hierarchy process. Assessment of different stakeholders there was conducted based on multiple-criteria decision analysis. Then, integrated assessment was performed using the technique of order preference for an ideal solution. We divided the degraded land in Daye into areas with different priorities for restoration or rectification and presented corresponding sequential time intervals for the action. The results are as follows: (i) the top priority rectification areas (totaling 358 km²) are mainly distributed in northeast and northwest regions; (ii) the high priority rectification areas are concentrated in the central region spanning 226 km²; (iii) the medium priority rectification areas comprised a large amount of arable and forest land spanning 605 km²; and (iv) the low priority rectification areas cover the rest part of the Daye area spanning 195 km². The assessment tool was proven to be useful in planning regional ecological restoration in terrestrial ecosystems.
... In the past few decades, significant progress has been made in the control of leptospirosis including the provision of access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene, improvement in biosecurity by reducing of leptospiral infection in animal (livestock) hosts through vaccination, and vaccination of high-risk populations (Hu et al., 2014;Xu and Ye, 2018). In addition, this reduction could be linked with massive changes in land use along the Yangtze river (e.g., the development of Three Gorges Dam, land conversion due to urbanisation) and the introduction of agricultural mechanisation (Delang and Yuan, 2015;Chang et al., 2016), which may have directly or indirectly altered rodent/host diversity and reduced contact with a contaminated environment (Haake and Levett, 2015;Zhang et al., 2019). Our study extended knowledge by that improving prior model developed by Jagadesh et al. (2019) through the addition of relative importance on socioeconomic and animal factors along with environmental variables. ...
Background
Since 2011 human leptospirosis incidence in China has remained steadily low with persistent pockets of notifications reported in communities within the Upper Yangtze River Basin (UYRB) and Pearl River Basin (PRB). To help guide health authorities within these residual areas to identify communities where interventions should be targeted, this study quantified the local effect of socioeconomic and environmental factors on the spatial distribution of leptospirosis incidence and developed predictive maps of leptospirosis incidence for UYRB and PRB.
Methods
Data on all human leptospirosis cases reported during 2005–2016 across the UYRB and PRB regions were geolocated at the county-level and included in the analysis. Bayesian conditional autoregressive (CAR) models with zero-inflated Poisson link for leptospirosis incidence were developed after adjustment of environmental and socioeconomic factors such as precipitation, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI), land surface temperature (LST), elevation, slope, land cover, crop production, livestock density, gross domestic product and population density.
Results
The relationship of environmental and socioeconomic variables with human leptospirosis incidence varied between both regions. While across UYRB incidence of human leptospirosis was associated with MNDWI and elevation, in PRB human leptospirosis incidence was significantly associated with NDVI, livestock density and land cover. Precipitation was significantly and positively associated with the spatial variation of incidence of leptospirosis in both regions. After accounting for the effect of environmental and socioeconomic factors, the predicted distribution of residual high-incidence county is potentially more widespread both in the UYRB and PRB compared to the observed distribution. In the UYRB, the highest predicted incidence was found along the border of Chongqing and Guizhou towards Sichuan basin and northwest Yunnan. The highest predicted incidence was also identified in counties in the central and lower reaches of the PRB.
Conclusions
This study demonstrated significant geographical heterogeneity in leptospirosis incidence within UYRB and PRB, providing an evidence base for prioritising targeted interventions in counties identified with the highest predicted incidence. Furthermore, environmental drivers of leptospirosis incidence were highly specific to each of the regions, emphasizing the importance of localized control measures. The findings also suggested the need to expand interventional coverage and to support surveillance and diagnostic capacity on the predicted high-risk areas.
... China has undertaken large afforestation programs in most provinces during the last three decades. In particular, in 1999 China introduced the Grain for Green (GfG), the largest reforestation program in the world, which pays farmers to reforest their marginal farmland (Delang and Yuan, 2016). However, farmers' payments come from the government, and therefore are limited in both time and space. ...
Forest has great value both in storing carbon and timber production. Afforestation has been widely undertaken across countries to achieve their goals in poverty alleviation and environment protection, specifically in mitigating the atmosphere carbon concentration. This study determines the optimal rotations of different forest types in China's afforestation projects considering the costs of benefit of afforestation and the carbon value under two different carbon accounting rules, tCER and lCER accounting. The optimal rotation periods of three tree species, Eucalyptus, Chinese fir and Poplar, were estimated using data from various Chinese regions. We apply a modified Hartman rotation model to calculate the optimal rotation period. Results show that at carbon price of 15 USD per t CO 2 for a 5-year validation period, the optimal rotation period are all extended with the highest increase (5 years or 29%) found for Chinese fir (E, N, NE) under tCER accounting after considering the value of carbon sequestration. However, the optimal decision for Eucalyptus is extended to 3 years or 60% under lCER accounting. Poplar plantation is less influenced by either tCER or lCER accounting. We further examine the sensitivity of the optimal decision to carbon price and interest rate. Results show the optimal decision of Chinese fir is highly sensitive to the changes of carbon price or interest rate under tCER accounting, while that of Eucalyptus is the most sensitive under lCER accounting. We demonstrate the significant effects of carbon accounting methods and plantation species on the determination of optimal rotation period for afforestation projects. The findings can contribute to the sustainable management of carbon sequestration projects. The methodology can also be applied to other regions in the developing world.
... Payment of subsidies is conditional to 75 percent survival rate of the planted trees, which are annually inspected by the county forestry officers. 83 Farmers receive the payments directly in their bank accounts, which promotes the modernization of household finances and use of digital banking technologies. 84 Furthermore, participating households are provided with forest land-use rights certificates, thus making tenure reform a crucial element of the A/R program, and encouraging famers' participation and compliance. ...
The fifth edition of the NYDF Progress Assessment released in 2019, takes stock of overall progress on the fifth anniversary of the launch of the NYDF. The report highlights progress toward stopping deforestation (Goal 1) and implementing restoration (Goal 5), while tracking the development of all ten goals to present an overall picture of progress.
... Sichuan Basin has been at the forefront of rural land use transitions nationwide since the turn of the new millennium, guided by a series of top-down initiatives, including the 'Grain for Green' 2 , ecological migration, and also the rural land consolidation (Delang and Yuan, 2014;Liu et al., 2018bLiu et al., , 2014. Chengdu and Chongqing, two national megacities located in Sichuan Basin, have been designated as National Experimental Sites for Integrated Urban-rural Development since 2007. ...
Rural settlement pattern in Sichuan Basin, whatever the terrain, is an extraordinary dispersion, i.e. ‘diffuse and dense in spatial distribution’, and ‘uniform and small in size’. From the perspective of Chinese lineage, a regional comparison was elaborately conducted between Sichuan Basin and a typical area characterized by lineage culture in Southern China, to reveal the socio-cultural roots of the rural settlement dispersion (RSD). Regional differences were articulated by field surveys, including 698 household questionnaires and in-depth investigations on four case villages. Statistical analysis by 431 villages indicated the RSD in Sichuan Basin was positively associated with the lineage diversity and cultivation rate. We deduced that a trigger event of the lineage diversification and high cultivation rate was the rapid immigration into Sichuan Basin in early Qing Dynasty. It is portrayed that Sichuan Basin deviates from the lineage society of traditional China. The settlement dispersal and high cultivation rate represent an aggressive paradigm of land-use strategy. Our findings highlight the role of lineage in determining rural settlement patterns which mirror the socio-cultural fabrics in traditional China. This study would provide new insights into the understanding of rural settlement patterns and offer valuable policy implications for land use transitions in urbanizing China.
... The GGP in China is known as the Sloping Land Conversion Program or the Conversion of Cropland to Forest Program [11,12]. The main goal of the GGP is to motivate farmers to convert farmland on steep slopes and other ecologically sensitive areas into forests by paying the equivalent of lost crop income [11]. ...
Large-scale deforestation and abandoned planting will bring about the destruction of the ecological environment and the deterioration of the climate. In 1999, China initiated its “Grain for Green” Program (GGP) to improve the ecological environment, control soil erosion, and adjust the agricultural industrial structure to promote the sustainable development of the rural economy. In this paper, economic statistics, rainfall, and remote sensing data are used to analyze the impact of the GGP on agricultural and rural economic development and regional precipitation in the hilly and gully regions of the Loess Plateau. The results show that since the implementation of the program, the employment structure of the labor force has changed and the regional economic growth and farmers’ income have increased. From 2000 to 2016, the total gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita GDP of the Yan River Basin increased. The conversion of large-scale sloping farmland to forestry and grassland resulted in the decrease of farmland area and the increase of forestry area. The maximum, minimum, and mean value of vegetation coverage increased year by year. With the increase of vegetation coverage, the surface roughness, soil water content, and evapotranspiration improved and annual average precipitation grew significantly after the implementation of the program (2000 to 2018). From 1970 to the implementation of the project (1999), the annual average rainfall decreased at the trough from 1988 to 1999, and there was an overall upward trend from 1970 to 2018. The GGP has an important impact on the economy and people’s income in the Yan River Basin, and the vegetation change caused by the variation of land use types has a certain impact on regional rainfall. Under the background of global and regional climate change, it is of great significance to fully understand the impacts of vegetation conversion on climate and its mechanism for objective assessment of driving factors in regional and global climate, as well as for scientific planning of future land use.
... This theory argues that after losing much of their forest cover and feeling the impacts of the consequent loss of forest ecosystem services, countries begin to take better care of their remaining forests and start to reforest, resulting in an increase in forest area (Gumartini 2009). The forest transition theory is supported by the experience of China, where the cutting down of the forest on hillsides for cultivation in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze and Yellow river basins contributed to devastating floods and four billion tonnes of soil being lost annually through erosion (Delang, Claudio, and Yuan 2015). Spurred by the impacts of this environmental damage, the Chinese government launched six forestation programmes targeting over 100 million ha. ...
https://pub.iges.or.jp/system/files/publication_documents/pub/book/6911/NRE%20Flagship%20all_Web%20Final%20May2019.pdf
The Asia-Pacific region faces a fundamental dilemma. Over recent decades the region has achieved tremendous economic growth that has lifted millions of its people out of poverty and raised living standards, but in many places the way land is being used to generate this growth is unsustainable. Land has been exploited – growing economies regardless of the costs to biodiversity and ecosystem services. For biodiversity, the impacts are alarming – almost 25% of the region’s endemic species are at risk – and threats are growing. For ecosystem services, the impacts are no less severe: over 2,500 million ha of land are degraded, four fifths of rivers are polluted and the region is quickly losing its major terrestrial sinks and stores of greenhouse gases, namely its forests and peat lands. If the causes of unsustainable land use are not addressed with a greater sense of urgency, the consequences will become increasingly severe. Unsustainable land use is driving climate change, and simultaneously increasing the region’s vulnerability by decreasing options for adaptation.
This report – “Asia-Pacific landscape transformations – Solutions for sustainability” – was motivated by the stark and rapid changes in landscapes that can be observed across the region and their consequences. It was also motivated by a lack of appropriate visions of sustainable landscapes in policy and decision-making, and the need for better understanding of integrative approaches that can help realise these visions. It argues that a vision of sustainable landscapes can guide policymaking and administration towards more effective cross-boundary management of interdependent ecosystems.
... Uptake is subject to relatively static conditions in some cases (such as subsidy schemes) and influenced by social, economic, technological and political changes in others (crop areas, for example). Data from: agricultural insurance policies, Brazil (2006Brazil ( -2016 93 ; Grain for Green subsidies, China (1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011) 94 , Woodland Grant Scheme subsidies, Scotland (1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005) 95 , genetically engineered crop areas, USA (2000- 2017) 96 , Conservation Reserve Program, USA 97 , oilseed rape areas, UK 98 , soy areas, Brazil 99 , maize area, UK 100 and Conservation Agriculture areas, global 56 . ...
Achieving the Paris Agreement’s aim of limiting average global temperature increases to 1.5 °C requires substantial changes in the land system. However, individual countries’ plans to accomplish these changes remain vague, almost certainly insufficient and unlikely to be implemented in full. These shortcomings are partially the result of avoidable ‘blind spots’ relating to time lags inherent in the implementation of land-based mitigation strategies. Key blind spots include inconsistencies between different land-system policies, spatial and temporal lags in land-system change, and detrimental consequences of some mitigation options. We suggest that improved recognition of these processes is necessary to identify achievable mitigation actions, avoiding excessively optimistic assumptions and consequent policy failures.
... However, the government has been doing much to address the problem. Demographic factors have virtually disappeared, as economic growth and the Grain for Green have made many rural dwellers migrate to cities (Delang and Yuan 2014); China gradually cut the agricultural land tax, and by 2006 abolished it (Wang and Shen 2014); the excessive use, and low quality, of fertilisers is being addressed through field trial-based extension work that results in enhanced management practices (Cui et al. 2018); land ownership and usufruct laws are being reformed, even though the government's communist ideology makes this somehow complicated (Ye, 2015). To address soil degradation, the government has undertaken a number of measures, in particular reforestation and vegetation restoration programs in the most degraded -and least agriculturally productive -areas. ...
More than 40% of China’s arable land is degraded. This paper reviews the direct and indirect consequences of soil degradation in China. Soil degradation has observable and measurable impacts, which include soil nutrient loss, salinization, acidification, and desertification. It also has a number of indirect consequences, in particular, a reduction of the agricultural output due to a drop in soil nutrient; an increase in the frequency and magnitude of floods and landslides; a decline in livestock production due to a decrease in grass density available to roaming livestock; an intensification of dust storms and sandstorms which affects health, the productivity of the land, and visibility; and a faster accumulation of silt in dams, which damages their structure, reduces their water storage capacity, and compromises their original functions, in particular their electricity generation capacity.
... Of note, over the past three decades, China experienced a large-scale modification in landscape due to industrialization and urbanization [39][40][41] , which may have impacted directly or indirectly the spatial distribution of leptospirosis. China's land cover has substantially impacted by national-scale reforestation policy known as Grain for Green Program 42 which to some extent this might have changed vegetation structure and the diversity and population dynamics of host animals including rodents, lead- ing to changes in the distribution of leptospirosis risk. In addition, ecological impact due to the development of Three Gorges Dam might have also altered rodent abundance 43 and this might reduce the transmission risks in that affected areas. ...
Abstract Human leptospirosis outbreaks still persistently occur in part of China, indicating that leptospirosis remains an important zoonotic disease in the country. Spatiotemporal pattern of the high-risk leptospirosis cluster and the key characteristics of high-risk areas for leptospirosis across the country are still poorly understood. Using spatial analytical approaches, we analyzed 8,158 human leptospirosis cases notified during 2005–2016 across China to explore the geographical distribution of leptospirosis hotspots and to characterize demographical, ecological and socioeconomic conditions of high-risk counties for leptospirosis in China. During the period studied, leptospirosis incidence was geographically clustered with the highest rate observed in the south of the Province of Yunnan. The degree of spatial clustering decreased over time suggesting changes in local risk factors. However, we detected residual high-risk counties for leptospirosis including counties in the southwest, central, and southeast China. High-risk counties differed from low-risk counties in terms of its demographical, ecological and socioeconomic characteristics. In high-risk clusters, leptospirosis was predominantly observed on younger population, more males and farmers. Additionally, high-risk counties are characterized by larger rural and less developed areas, had less livestock density and crops production, and located at higher elevation with higher level of precipitation compare to low-risk counties. In conclusion, leptospirosis distribution in China appears to be highly clustered to a discrete number of counties highlighting opportunities for elimination; hence, public health interventions should be effectively targeted to high-risk counties identified in this study.
... As China's great acceleration in sustainability investment continues with new development strategies launched, such as ''Beautiful China'' and ''rural vitalization strategy'', it is important that the science community continues to contribute overall syntheses of the impacts and effectiveness of multiple programs and support future planning (Delang and Yuan 2014;Rodríguez et al. 2016). Future syntheses are needed globally at regional, national and transnational levels, combining diverse analyses (including case studies, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses of individual program impacts). ...
... Both of these factors, along with tariff reductions under the WTO accession agreement, resulted in China's farmers facing increasingly stiff competition from imports. With limited land, greater emphasis on environmental quality through the 'Grain for Green Program' (Delang and Yuan 2015), greater competition for labor, and cheaper imports, it is little surprise that the relative importance of agriculture has diminished in the Chinese economy-despite dramatic growth in subsidies for farming (Gale 2013). Indeed over the period: 2000 to 2014, imports of soybeans grew six-fold and the area devoted to cropland declined by about 2 million hectares (FAO 2014). ...
Land use change and leakage effects stemming from technological change, conservation programs, and other policy interventions have received considerable attention in the scientific literature in the past decade. Economists have offered important insights about these linkages, yet much of the analysis undertaken by the land change science community does not fully avail itself of these insights. Similarly, many of the economic contributions to this field have ignored important findings from the land change science community. This paper, written by an economist, seeks to better communicate to members of the land change science community the key economic mechanisms behind land use, leakage and spillovers and how they might contribute to shaping future analyses. It does so using a series of successively more complex economic models, with each new model illustrating the importance of an added economic channel for land use change. The paper concludes by revisiting key insights which have emerged from research in the land change science community and their implications for economists conducting research into land use change and leakage.
... Leptospirosis remains a significant public health problem in the country where a broad range of potential reservoirs and serovars are still circulating in the country. Furthermore, rapid population growth, poverty, and industrialization have led to excessive urbanization and environmental changes such as deforestation and urban expansion [9][10][11][12][13], which might influence disease nidality through direct impacts on the natural habitat of reservoirs and affects the spillover of infection between wildlife animals, domestic animals, and humans. Also, extreme weather events such as flooding following typhoons may significantly impact impoverish communities with lack of access to safe water and sanitation and health services [6], leading to an increased risk of Leptospira exposures. ...
Abstract Background Leptospirosis morbidity and mortality rates in China have decreased since the 2000s. Further analyses of the spatiotemporal and demographic changes occurring in the last decade and its implication on estimates of disease burden are required to inform intervention strategies. In this study, we quantified the epidemiological shift and geographical heterogeneity in the burden of leptospirosis during 2005–2015 in China. Methods We used reported leptospirosis case data from 1st January 2005 to 31st of December 2015 that routinely collected by the China Information System for Disease Control and Prevention (CISDCP) to analyze the epidemiological trend and estimate the burden in terms of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) over space, time, and demographical groups. Results A total of 7763 cases were reported during 2005–2015. Of which, 2403 (31%) cases were the laboratory-confirmed case. Since 2005, the notified incidence rate was gradually decreased (P 0.05). During 2005–2015, we estimated a total of 10 313 DALYs were lost due to leptospirosis comprising a total of 1804 years-lived with disability (YLDs) and 8509 years-life lost (YLLs). Males had the highest burden of disease (7149 DALYs) compared to females (3164 DALYs). The highest burden estimate was attributed to younger individuals aged 10–19 years who lived in southern provinces of China. During 2005–2015, this age group contributed to approximately 3078 DALYs corresponding to 30% of the total DALYs lost in China. Yet, our analysis indicated a declining trend in burden estimates (P
... By the end of the program (end of 2016), a total of 49 billion USD (431.8 billion Yuan) had been invested (Delang and Zhen, 2015). Being successful in terms of sediment retention and rural poverty alleviation, GfG falls short in restoring local and regional biodiversity pattern (Hua et al., 2016). ...
As a cradle of ancient Chinese civilization, the Yellow River Basin has a very long human-environment interrelationship, where early anthropogenic activities re- sulted in large scale landscape modifications. Today, the impact of this relationship has intensified further as the basin plays a vital role for China’s continued economic development. It is one of the most densely-populated, fastest growing, and most dynamic regions of China with abundant natural and environmental resources providing a livelihood for almost 190 million people. Triggered by fundamental economic reforms, the basin has witnessed a spectacular economic boom during the last decades and can be considered as an exemplary blueprint region for contemporary dynamic Global Change processes occurring throughout the country, which is currently transitioning from an agrarian-dominated economy into a modern urbanized society. However, this resourcesdemanding growth has led to profound land use changes with adverse effects on the Yellow River social-ecological systems, where complex challenges arise threatening a long-term sustainable development. Consistent and continuous remote sensing-based monitoring of recent and past land cover and land use change is a fundamental requirement to mitigate the adverse impacts of Global Change processes. Nowadays, technical advancement and the multitude of available satellite sensors, in combination with the opening of data archives, allow the creation of new research perspectives in regional land cover applications over heterogeneous landscapes at large spatial scales. Despite the urgent need to better understand the prevailing dynamics and underlying factors influencing the current processes, detailed regional specific land cover data and change information are surprisingly absent for this region. In view of the noted research gaps and contemporary developments, three major objectives are defined in this thesis. First (i), the current and most pressing social-ecological challenges are elaborated and policy and management instruments towards more sustainability are discussed. Second (ii), this thesis provides new and improved insights on the current land cover state and dynamics of the entire Yellow River Basin. Finally (iii), the most dominant processes related to mining, agriculture, forest, and urban dynamics are determined on finer spatial and temporal scales. The complex and manifold problems and challenges that result from long-term abuse of the water and land resources in the basin have been underpinned by policy choices, cultural attitude, and institutions that have evolved over centuries in China. The tremendous economic growth that has been mainly achieved by extracting water and exploiting land resources in a rigorous, but unsustainable manner, might not only offset the economic benefits, but could also foster social unrest. Since the early emergence of the first Chinese dynasties, flooding was considered historically as a primary issue in river management and major achievements have been made to tame the wild nature of the Yellow River. Whereas flooding is therefore largely now under control, new environmental and social problems have evolved, including soil and water pollution, ecological degradation, biodiversity decline, and food security, all being further aggravated by anthropogenic climate change. To resolve the contemporary and complex challenges, many individual environmental laws and regulations have been enacted by various Chinese ministries. However, these policies often pursue different, often contradictory goals, are too general to tackle specific problems and are usually implemented by a strong top-down approach. Recently, more flexible economic and market-based incentives (pricing, tradable permits, investments) have been successfully adopted, which are specifically tailored to the respective needs, shifting now away from the pure command and regulating instruments. One way towards a more holistic and integrated river basin management could be the establishment of a common platform (e.g. a Geographical Information System) for data handling and sharing, possibly operated by the Yellow River Basin Conservancy Commission (YRCC), where available spatial data, statistical information and in-situ measures are coalesced, on which sustainable decision-making could be based. So far, the collected data is hardly accessible, fragmented, inconsistent, or outdated. The first step to address the absence and lack of consistent and spatially up-to-date information for the entire basin capturing the heterogeneous landscape conditions was taken up in this thesis. Land cover characteristics and dynamics were derived from the last decade for the years 2003 and 2013, based on optical medium-resolution hightemporal MODIS Normalized Differenced Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series at 250 m. To minimize the inherent influence of atmospheric and geometric interferences found in raw high temporal data, the applied adaptive Savitzky-Golay filter successfully smoothed the time series and substantially reduced noise. Based on the smoothed time series data, a large variety of intra-annual phenology metrics as well as spectral and multispectral annual statistics were derived, which served as input variables for random forest (RF) classifiers. High quality reference data sets were derived from very high resolution imagery for each year independently of which 70 % trained the RF models. The accuracy assessments for all regionally specific defined thematic classes were based on the remaining 30 % reference data split and yielded overall accuracies of 87 % and 84 % for 2003 and 2013, respectively. The first regional adapted Yellow River Land Cover Products (YRB LC) depict the detail spatial extent and distribution of the current land cover status and dynamics. The novel products overall differentiate overall 18 land cover and use classes, including classes of natural vegetation (terrestrial and aquatic), cultivated classes, mosaic classes, non-vegetated, and artificial classes, which are not presented in previous land cover studies so far. Building on this, an extended multi-faceted land cover analysis on the most prominent land cover change types at finer spatial and temporal scales provides a better and more detailed picture of the Yellow River Basin dynamics. Precise spatio-temporal products about mining, agriculture, forest, and urban areas were examined from long-trem Landsat satellite time series monitored at annual scales to capture the rapid rate of change in four selected focus regions. All archived Landsat images between 2000 and 2015 were used to derive spatially continuous spectral-temporal, multi-spectral, and textural metrics. For each thematic region and year RF models were built, trained and tested based on a stablepixels reference data set. The automated adaptive signature (AASG) algorithm identifies those pixels that did not change between the investigated time periods to generate a mono-temporal reference stable-pixels data set to keep manual sampling requirements to a minimum level. Derived results gained high accuracies ranging from 88 % to 98 %. Throughout the basin, afforestation on the Central Loess Plateau and urban sprawl are identified as most prominent drivers of land cover change, whereas agricultural land remained stable, only showing local small-scale dynamics. Mining operations started in 2004 on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which resulted in a substantial loss of pristine alpine meadows and wetlands. In this thesis, a novel and unique regional specific view of current and past land cover characteristics in a complex and heterogeneous landscape was presented by using a multi-source remote sensing approach. The delineated products hold great potential for various model and management applications. They could serve as valuable components for effective and sustainable land and water management to adapt and mitigate the predicted consequences of Global Change processes.
Land fallowing policy reduces the negative resource-use externalities, including water resources. Previous studies of land fallowing policies identified different factors that explain the willingness of farmers to participate in these programmes. However, less attention was placed on farm size as an important explanatory variable. We develop a theoretical model to explain the role of farm size in decisions to participate in land fallowing programmes. We then apply the theory to the Seasonal Land Fallowing Policy (SLFP), enacted to reduce agricultural groundwater use by fallowing the cultivated land of winter wheat in Hebei Province, China. Both small- and large-scale farmers participate in the programme. Using survey data, we examined whether farm size matters in decisions to participate as part of a set of variables, including farm and farmer characteristics and government requirements. Our results indicate that farm size significantly affects participation in the programme— the larger the farm, the more likely it will participate. The results are robust to various specifications. We also find that government requirements largely impact the decisions of small-scale farmers to participate. The findings have important implications for policy formulation and distinction among small- and large- scale farms.
The effect of reforestation on carbon sequestration has been extensively studied but there is less understanding of the changes that stand age and vegetation types have on changes in biomass carbon and soil organic carbon (SOC) after reforestation. In this study, 150 reforested plots were sampled across six provinces and one municipality in the Yangtze River Basin (YRB) during 2017 and 2018 to estimate carbon storage in biomass and soil. The results illustrate that site-averaged SOC was greater than site-averaged biomass carbon. There was more carbon sequestered in the biomass than in the soil. Biomass carbon accumulated rapidly in the initial 20 years after planting. In contrast, SOC sequestration increased rapidly after 20 years. In addition, evergreen species had higher carbon density in both biomass and soil than deciduous species and economic species (fruit trees). Carbon sequestration in evergreen and deciduous species is greater than in economic species. Our findings provide new evidence on the divergent responses of biomass and soil to carbon sequestration after reforestation with respect to stand ages and vegetation types. This study provides relevant information for ecosystem management as well as for carbon sequestration and global climate change policies.
The diverse empirical literature on the Chinese Sloping Land Conversation Programme's effecs on rural poverty provides heterogeneous results. This thesis makes an attempt to discuss the empirical findings and formulte conditions necessary for the SLCP to alleviate rural poverty. The thesis concludes that the characteristics (age, education level) and households' resources (income, capital) must match the local geographic and economic context in order for the intended effects of the SLCP to occur and to alleviate rural poverty. Before households can supply work, correspondent work must be demanded. In addition, households must be able to supply work depending on their endowment and characteristics. It is also important that an increase in labour time and income should not derive from a deterioration in the living conditions of the affected households due to the programme. To make sure the real income of the respective households increases the programme needs to enable them to invest in their land or technology. In addition, the production pattern must match the geographical context in order to increase agricultural productivity. Moreover, the SLCP can jeopardize the food security of subsistence households in particular. Compensation payments must accordingly enable households to meet their consumption needs through other means. Non-participating households may also be negatively affected by the SLCP. Consequently, these effects must also be taken into account when the program speaks generically of rural poverty alleviation. Local government agencies can increase the effectiveness of the SLCP through appropriate substitution, training programs and effective monitoring. The SLCP is implemented locally, but is centrally planned and coordinated. The program can support production change and the employment structure in rural areas of China. However, it has to be kept in mind that the more a region diverges from the conditions formulated in this work, the more effort the households and local authorities have to make to achieve the conditions. In this sense, decision-makers should assess whether the SLCP is appropriate in all regions to achieve both environmental protection and poverty reduction, or whether other concepts would be more suited for that cause. For this assessment, the conditions elaborated in this paper may be helpful, for the SLCP in particular and for other PES in general.
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