Unraveling Risk Networks of Cultivated Land Protection: An Exploratory Stakeholder-Oriented Case Study in Xiliuhe Town, Hubei Province, China

Abstract

The protection of cultivated land plays an important role in ensuring food security, maintaining social stability, and promoting economic development. The protection of cultivated land involves a range of stakeholders (e.g., governments at different levels, farmers, and land-use organizations) and entails intertwined risk factors (e.g., to economic, environmental, social, and political factors). Therefore, it is crucial to identify and assess key stakeholders and associated risks to better align land protection policies. However, previous studies of risk are fragmented, and there has been little research targeting the complex interactions among risk factors in the protection of cultivated land. Taking Xiliuhe Town as an example, this study analyzes complex and intertwined risk factors from a network perspective in an in-depth case study in a major grain-producing area. The results show that: (1) the risk-factor network of cultivated land protection is relatively sparse, with a total of 142 nodes and 253 links; (2) local governments and land flow-out farmers are the core stakeholders, with strong power and connectivity in the network; (3) taking into account key stakeholders and associated risk factors, a framework for mitigating risks is developed, and a network simulation is performed. Using the simulation results, the effectiveness of the risk-mitigation strategies is assessed and validated. These results shed new light on cultivated land protection and sustainable agricultural development in emerging countries.

Dynamic game and simulation for low-carbon development of industrial land under the Chinese decentralization: a case study in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region

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The Governance of Land Use: A Conceptual Framework

“…There are long-held critiques of the deficiencies in planning engagement practices, and the scope of these has ballooned as we come to consider not just whose voices are included today but also the rights and needs of future generations. As the article by Guo et al illustrates on the key stakeholders and risk factors for the cultivation of protected land in Hubei province, China, the need to mediate across diverse interests is equally a concern for rural land use governance [13]. In countries with Indigenous populations that have faced colonialism, dispossession and displacement, land use governance must address the rights to land and the self-determination of Indigenous peoples.…”

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