Trends and driving forces of China’s virtual land consumption and trade

Abstract

Land resources are important for China's rapid economic development, especially for food and construction. China's land resources are under tremendous pressures, and therefore land use is increasingly displaced to other parts of the world. This study analyses the evolution and driving forces of China's land consumption from 1995 to 2015. The main results show that China's land footprint increased from 8.8% of the global land resources under human use in 1995 to 15.7% in 2015. China's domestic land resources are mainly used for serving domestic consumption. Moreover, China needs to import virtual land from foreign countries to satisfy 30.8% of its land demand. Among the three land use types of cropland, grassland and forests, grassland had the largest fraction in China's land footprint from 1995 to 2000, while forest has become the largest one from then on. Trends in China's virtual land trade reveal a sharp increase in net imports from 9.4E+04 km 2 in 1995 to 3.4E+06 km 2 in 2015. Observing China's virtual land network by a cluster analysis, this study concludes that China keeps tight relationships with Australia, Japan, Brazil and Korea for its cropland consumption, and Canada, USA, Mexico, Australia, Korea and Japan are relevant for its grassland consumption. In addition, a decomposition analysis shows that affluence is the major driving factor for China's land consumption, while changes in land use intensity could mitigate some of the related effects. Lastly, governance implications and policy recommendations are proposed so that China can move toward sustainable land management.

Examining the role of BRICS countries at the global economic and environmental resources nexus

“…However, in 2015, the above expenditures are 31%, 7%, 6%, 7%, 13%, 22% and 13%. This expenditure transition increased the demand of related commodities, which embodied high virtual CO2 emissions and virtual land (Tian et al, 2019a;Tian et al, 2019b).…”

Regional-Scale Virtual Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium Factors of Potato Production in China

“…With the rising frequency and amount of food trade among different regions, numerous studies have focused on resource inputs and outputs linked to the production and consumption of food in a given region [1,5,6], or virtual resources' inputs and environmental impacts of food system of a given region, e.g., the trade of N, water, land, and natural resources embodied in food trade [7][8][9]. Other research has centered on quantifying N and P losses for producing per unit of available N and P in the final consumed food items at their production stages [10,11], as well as assessing the resource use and GHG emissions connected with food trade or waste within a given region from a global perspective [12][13][14][15].…”

When, where, and how can land governance overcome path dependency? A trajectory of land governance change

“…When land is seen as a resource, it refers to its inherent value and potential for various uses such as natural resources, agriculture and forestry resources, or land conservation (Karrasch et al, 2019;Helming and Pérez-Soba, 2011). Land as infrastructure is viewed as a part of broader physical infrastructure that support human activities (Tian et al, 2019). The construction of roads, buildings, and other infrastructure can lead to habitat loss, fragmentation of ecosystems, and changes in land use patterns (Röder et al, 2015).…”