Recent progress in visible light photocatalytic CO2 conversion with H2O, H2 or CH4 was deeply evaluated with emphasis on the development of catalysts.

It is attractive to convert CO2 greenhouse gas into valuable compounds via photocatalysis with solar energy.

The utilization of visible light for direct photocatalytic methane conversion remains a huge challenge. Here, we developed a thermo-photo catalytic process with a visible-light-responsive Pt/WO3 catalyst and realized highly efficient visible-light driven methane conversion for the first time. The conversion efficiency was enhanced by 4.6 and 14.7 times compared to room-temperature photocatalysis and thermal catalysis at 150 °C, respectively. Furthermore, the production of liquid oxygenates (mainly CH3OH) was found to proceed via photocatalysis with high apparent quantum efficiencies of 5.9%, 4.5%, and 1.9% at 350, 420, and 450 nm, respectively, while CO2 evolution was contributed by photoassisted thermal catalysis. Solid isotope evidence further confirmed that CH3OH, HCHO, and CO2 were produced via parallel rather than sequential reactions. These observations provide a valuable guide for designing a visible-light driven system for methane conversion with high efficiency and controllable selectivity.

H4SiMo12O40/TiO2 was demonstrated to be an excellent catalyst for photocatalytic methane oxidation to liquid oxygenates. This provides the first successful example of polyoxometalate-based catalysts for photocatalytic methane conversion.

This paper describes two payment for ecosystem services (PES) programs to restore grassland ecosystems in Inner Mongolia in Northern China. A key challenge is to sustain the livelihood of local residents, who earn most of their income from traditional animal husbandry. We surveyed 240 herders and 36 government representatives in 2 years. We used contingent valuation and logistic regression to analyze the resulting data. Since the PES implementation, income from cultivation and animal grazing decreased, whereas income from compensation and off-farm activities increased. The herders preferred an annual payment of 625 Chinese yuan (CNY) ha −1 for participating in conservation activities, but the government prefers to provide 528 CNY ha −1 , resulting in an annual gap of 97 CNY ha −1 . The current too-low payments may lead some herders to expand their grazing into restricted grassland or increase their number of animals, particularly if either payment program ends. The herders were most concerned about their economic loss, whereas the government considered both grassland restoration and income protection to be important. To create an improved and sustainable PES scheme, we recommend solutions that will let the herders sustain their livelihood while conserving the grasslands. Our findings will help to establish more effective PES schemes for the grasslands of Inner Mongolia and similar regions.

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Photocatalytic ethane conversion into value-added chemicals is a great challenge especially under visible light irradiation. The production of ethyl hydroperoxide (CH3CH2OOH), which is a promising radical reservoir for regulating the...

© iForest -Biogeosciences and Forestry Introduction"Land use" is understood to mean human activities that exhibit a spatial dimension and that change the bio-geophysical conditions of land and the associated environment (Helming et al. 2008). Land use is a key factor that determines a landscape's performance with respect to socioeconomic functions such as land-based production, infrastructure, and housing (Mander et al. 2007). Significant changes in land use and land management have taken place in China since 1978, and one of the most important drivers of these changes has been human intervention through the implementation of land-use policies. One particularly dramatic example is the Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP), the initial phase of China's Grain for Green program, which was initiated in 1999 by the State Council (1998) and which was fully implemented in 2000. Excessive reclamation of land for agriculture in environmentally fragile frontier regions had led to a series of natural disasters (Lin & Samuel 2003). For instance, severe flooding in areas surrounding the Yangtze River in 1998 caused an economic loss of respectively 13.5 billion RMB (renminbi) in Shandong Province and 156.8 billion RMB (US$ 19.6 billion) overall, and at least 1526 people died (Zhang & Yang 1998, Li 1999, Jiang & Shi 2003. In response, the Chinese government realized that it had become necessary to take immediate action to alleviate these water-related problems and the related soil erosion that occurred in agricultural land on steep slopes (Xu & Cao 2001). Based on their experience with the pilot program, the government recognized that far more marginal agricultural land should be retired from agricultural use and revegetated using either trees or grassland vegetation (Du 2001). Therefore, the original program evolved into a more widespread program to combat soil erosion, alleviate the deterioration of natural ecosystems, safeguard water resources, and promote sustainable development in rural China .The goal of the SLCP is to convert agricultural land on steep slopes or heavily degraded land into forest or grassland (Ramankutty et al. 2002, Feng et al. 2005, and to restore degraded forest and grassland; the ultimate goal is to prevent soil erosion by reducing the area of exposed soil. The steepness of the slope (15° or above) is one of the main criteria for the selection of farmlands to be converted into forest or grassland. The SLCP stipulates that farmers who convert degraded farmland on steep slopes into either grassland or "ecological forests" (orchards or plantations of trees with medical value, and timber-producing forests that will not be harvested because of their role in protecting slopes) will be compensated with: (1) an annual in-kind subsidy of grain to compensate them for their lost crops; (2) a cash subsidy; and (3) free seedlings and grass seed for use in revegetation at the beginning of the planting period. To account for differences in regional average yields, the grain subsidy was set at 2250 kg ha -1 in the ...