Ecological Footprint Analysis Based on Changing Food Consumption in a Poorly Developed Area of China

Abstract

Abstract:The per capita ecological footprint (EF) is a useful tool to compare consumption with nature's ability to support this consumption. Guyuan is an economically impoverished region in China, where EF provides important insights into whether human consumption can be sustained by the local per capita biological capacity (BC), which represents the environment's ability to support resource use. We estimated the EF of food consumption using local equivalence and yield factors, and compared EF in 1998 and 2013 with BC, which represented the existing biologically productive area (including cultivated land, grassland, forest, and water bodies) that supports this consumption. Data were collected from household surveys, government statistics, and land use maps. We found that food consumption changed, with decreasing consumption of staple foods and increasing consumption of meat, eggs, milk, edible oils, fruit, and vegetables. Decreased staple food consumption decreased the EF for this food group, but the large increase in meat consumption greatly increased EF from meat production (to more than 41 times the 1998 value). Cultivated land contributed greatly to both EF and BC, and staple foods and vegetables were the main EF components for this land. Overall, EF from food consumption decreased from 1998 to 2013, but local BC remained 188,356 ha below EF (i.e., current consumption is not sustainable based on local resources). The Grain for Green program, which focuses on increasing the BC of forest and grassland by replacing degraded cultivated land with these land use types, decreased the BC of cultivated land, leading to wide spatial variation in both EF and BC. These results will inform policy development by revealing the condition of each region's use of the locally available production resources.

Assessing the effects of ecological restoration approaches in the alpine rangelands of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

“…Shi et al 2009, Zhang and, and then consequence to the changes in livestock grazing and income (e.g. Alam 2013, Li et al 2015, Zhen and Du 2017. The external (natural) factors of ecosystem states (e.g.…”

“…Xu et al 2013 and socio-economic conditions (e.g. Brown et al 2013, Zhen et al 2014, Koenig et al 2015, Zhen and Du 2017, in order to better understand the coupled human-earth system (e.g. Folke et al 2002, Chen et al 2015, Lee et al 2015, Monier et al 2017, Tong et al 2017.…”

Comparison of ecosystem services provided by grasslands with different utilization patterns in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

“…To maintain multiple ecosystem services, it is necessary to seek an optimal spatial allocation of human activities that will minimize their negative environmental impacts. Growing recognition of the need for such analyses has led to the incorporation of ecosystem analysis as a mandatory component of ecosystem management in many countries (Pan et al, 2013;Zhen and Du, 2017). In addition, there is also a critical need for new studies that reveal the simultaneous changes in provision of multiple services so that managers can better understand the tradeoffs involved in the delivery of ecosystem services and look for solutions and synergies (Bennett et al, 2009).…”

Sustainability Evaluation Based on a Three-Dimensional Ecological Footprint Model: A Case Study in Hunan, China

“…Fan, et al [22] took non-renewable resources and water resources into consideration, presented a modified ecological footprint accounting model to appraise the environmental impact of an industrial park-Hefei economic and technological development area. Zhen and Du [23] estimated the ecological footprint of food consumption in Guyuan City of Ningxia Hui Autonomous region by using ecological footprint models. Dai, et al [24] modified the EF model by using component analysis and considering the main features of a historic district, then they constructed the ecological footprint model of historic districts in two dimensions: residents and tourists.…”

“…The results showed that the per capita EF and ecological deficit of Guyuan significantly decreased after the project. Zhen and Du [23] suggested that the Grain for Green program increased the biological capacity (BC) of forest and grassland, but it also decreased the BC of cultivated land. In addition, some literatures has investigated the new agricultural animal husbandry projects (such as the "hog-biogas-fish" system) [37], national nature reserves [38], the ecological footprint of food consumption of residents [39,40].…”