Assessing China's Ecological Restoration Programs: What's Been Done and What Remains to Be Done?

Abstract

This article surveys the recent literature that assesses China's ecological restoration programs, including the Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) and the Natural Forest Protection Program (NFPP). Our presumption is that the performance of these programs should be determined by their effectiveness of implementation and significance of impact. Implementation effectiveness can be measured with such indicators as land area converted or conserved, and survival and stocking rates of restored vegetation, while impact significance can be gauged by the induced changes in ecosystem productivity and stability, and socioeconomic conditions. Coupling this matrix with an exhaustive search of the publications, we find that: (1) the implementation effectiveness has not been examined as extensively as the impact significance; (2) efforts to assess the impact significance have concentrated on the SLCP, particularly its socioeconomic effects: growth of income, alternative industry, and employment, and likelihood of re-conversion; and (3) most of the socioeconomic studies are based on rural household surveys, and discrete choice and difference in differences models. Future work should pay more attention to the NFPP and other programs, and the environmental impacts and the implementation effectiveness of all of them. To these ends, analysts must gather more field data regarding the evolving ecosystem conditions and socioeconomic information of higher aggregation, and conduct their research across scales and disciplines, with better application of geospatial technology and more effective collaboration.

Changes in ecosystem services and an analysis of driving factors for China's Natural Forest Conservation Program

“…The factors D 3 , D 4 , P 1 , and P 2 were closely related to construction of forested areas and income of workers, which are representative of social and economic development. The improvement in workers’ incomes gives the forest people higher requirements for the ecological environment, while construction of the forest roads is conducive to the development of forest tourism and other industries, and further enhances the economy of the area (Xie, Zhang, Zhen, & Zhang, ; Yin, Yin, & Li, ).…”

“…The weights of one factor were changed sequentially, and the weights of other factors remained unchanged. The sensitivity of TA B L E 5 Annual ecosystem services of different ecological function monitoring and assessment areas of the implementation period for NFCP in key state-owned forest areas in Northeast and Inner Mongolia further enhances the economy of the area (Xie, Zhang, Zhen, & Zhang, 2017;Yin, Yin, & Li, 2010).…”

“…Currently, there are obvious deficiencies in the basic data for the evaluation of the NFCP ecosystem services (Ke, Chen, Robson, Wen, & Tian, 2015;Yin et al, 2010). First, the forest resources data of the basic implementation units need to be determined in the NFCP area.…”

“…The biggest problem facing enterprises stopped after cutting is the reorienting workers (Ke et al, 2015;Yin et al, 2010). Therefore, forest industry enterprises should actively encourage employees through forest tending, management and development of the forest economy, multi-channel development of entrepreneurial opportunities and jobs (Huang, Liu, & Tian, 2014;Zang, Zhang, & Hao, 2014).…”

The biodiversity benefit of native forest over Grain-for-Green plantations

“…Two other major land-sustainability programs are the Natural Forest Protection Program (NFPP, also known as Natural Forest Conservation Program) and the Grain for Green Program (GFGP, also known as the Sloping Land Conservation Program and the Farm to Forest Program), which were implemented after widespread flooding in 1998 (Liu et al, 2008; Xu, Yin, Li, & Liu, 2006; Yin, Yin, & Li, 2009). The NFPP aims to reduce soil erosion and flooding by protecting native forests in the upstream watersheds of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers (Liu et al, 2008; Ren et al, 2015).…”