Ecosystem water imbalances created during ecological restoration by afforestation in China, and lessons for other developing countries

Payoff of the Grain for Green policy

“…Statistical data were available for most costs, but the cost of water consumed by vegetation is difficult to obtain directly. Therefore, we used potential evapotranspiration to represent water consumption by vegetation, and calculated this water loss using seven previously developed evapotranspiration models that had been validated for China (Cao, Zhang, Chen, & Zhao, 2016). We then calculated the opportunity cost of this water by multiplying the consumption of water by the cost of water per unit of consumption.…”

Ecological Risks Arising from the Impact of Large-scale Afforestation on the Regional Water Supply Balance in Southwest China

“…Our study confirms this new characteristic of artificial afforestation. Furthermore, decreases in precipitation or increases in evapotranspiration have caused water shortages in most parts of Southwest China 18,19 . By comparing evapotranspiration between artificial and natural forests, we concluded that the evapotranspiration rate of artificial forests is higher compared to natural forests.…”

Trading Natural Riparian Forests for Urban Shelterbelt Plantations—A Sustainability Assessment of the Kökyar Protection Forest in NW China

“…The plantation thus should be labelled as a "net-deforestation" project that factually contributes to desertification. Such adverse effects are expectable wherever artificially introduced vegetation types have higher water consumption rates than the natural vegetation and an imbalance between water supply and water consumption is created [64].…”