Search Results (21)

Within the context of global desertification trends in arid regions, advancing afforestation and sand stabilization efforts are not only vital for human survival but are also key considerations in addressing the challenges of climate change and achieving sustainable development. This study, set against the backdrop of China’s new round of Grain-for-Green compensation policies implemented in 2014, investigates farmers’ behavior in planting economically valuable forests and grasslands driven by compensation incentives. Grounded in the principles of behavioral economics and assuming farmers as rational “economic agents”, this study focuses on farmers residing on the northern and southern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang. Employing the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) approach, it examines the intricate causal mechanisms that shape farmers’ involvement or lack thereof in economic forest and grassland activities. These mechanisms are analyzed through the lenses of resource endowment, psychological perception, and external environmental factors. The results indicate that perceived benefits and neighbor imitation serve as essential conditions for non-participation in planting economic forests and grasslands. Three configurational pathways account for participation: farmers motivated by perceived benefits, those guided by the combined influence of “psychological perception and external environment”, and individuals driven by ecological aspirations alongside neighbor imitation. Additionally, four configurational pathways explain non-participation, with two types of farmers identified: those facing a dual deficiency of psychological perception and external environment, and non-high income traditional farmers dependent on agricultural irrigation water. Full article

In the process of forest ecological benefit compensation, there are problems of information asymmetry and “misaligned incentives”, which will reduce the compensation efficiency. In order to improve the compensation efficiency, based on principal–agent theory, this study constructs incentive contract models for governmental forest ecological benefit compensation under three different scenarios, namely, information symmetry, single-sided information asymmetry, and double-sided information asymmetry. The study finds that the government can design different incentive contracts to motivate forest farmers with high and low forestry capabilities. And the government’s expected utility is influenced by the proportion of forest farmers with high and low forestry capabilities in reality. Due to the information gap between the government and forest farmers, it is inevitable that high-capability forest farmers will obtain an information rent. Under double-sided information asymmetry, the incentive coefficient for lower-capability forest farmers and their optimal actual public welfare forest conservation area decrease as the proportion of high-capability forest farmers increases. Furthermore, when the proportion of high-capability forest farmers exceeds a certain threshold, signing compensation contracts with low-capability forest farmers can harm the government’s interests. The research conclusions provide a scientific basis for the government to formulate differentiated incentive contracts for forest ecological benefits. This can effectively align forest farmers’ conservation behaviors with the improvement of public forest ecological benefits. As a result, it contributes to improving the efficiency of forest ecological benefit compensation. Full article

Green initiatives are popular mechanisms globally to enhance environmental and human wellbeing. However, multiple green initiatives, when overlapping geographically and targeting the same participants, may interact with each other, giving rise to what is termed “spillover effects”, where one initiative and its outcomes influence another. This study examines the spillover effects among four major concurrent initiatives in the United States (U.S.) and China using a comprehensive dataset. In the U.S., we analysed county-level data in 2018 for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), both operational for over 25 years. In China, data from Fanjingshan and Tianma National Nature Reserves (2014–2015) were used to evaluate the Grain-to-Green Program (GTGP) and the Forest Ecological Benefit Compensation (FEBC) program. The dataset comprises 3106 records for the U.S. and 711 plots for China, including several socio-economic variables. The results of multivariate linear regression indicate that there exist significant spillover effects between CRP & EQIP and GTGP & FEBC, with one initiative potentially enhancing or offsetting another’s impacts by 22% to 100%. This dataset provides valuable insights for researchers and policymakers to optimize the effectiveness and resilience of concurrent green initiatives. Full article

To achieve a sustainable development path that harmonizes ecological and economic considerations, China has advocated the “two mountains” concept: “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”. This idea posits that those who protect the environment can economically benefit by selling pristine landscapes and utilizing rich ecological resources. This paper use “the equivalence factor method” to calculate ecological benefits, introduces a technical measure—the conversion rate of ecosystem service value—and analyzes its temporal and spatial evolution from 2003 to 2020 in the operational areas of 87 state-owned forestry enterprises in Northeast China. The findings show: (1) a significant improvement in ecosystem-service quality, with its value increasing from 404.7 to 850.2 billion CNY between 2003 and 2020. The restoration of the ecological environment in China’s KSFR provides a foundation for economic and social development. (2) A decrease in the economic gains derived by operators from developing protected ecosystems, with the most significant decline observed in economic benefits generated from the supply product, including timber harvesting. However, the industrial structure in KSFR shifted from being dominated by timber production to diversified development, with non-timber forest resources becoming an important part of regional economic growth. (3) Significant potential for realizing the value of ecosystem services, evidenced by an increasing trend in the conversion rates of cultural, regulatory, and supporting services. These findings underscore the effectiveness of China’s natural forest protection and restoration policies in optimizing forest ecology and realizing the “two mountains” concept through appropriate market transactions and ecological compensation mechanisms. Full article

Enhancing the total factor productivity in forestry is an important part of deepening the reform of the collective forest rights system. Based on the survey data of 295 forest plots in 12 towns of Liuyang City, Hunan Province, China, the study utilized a three-stage DEA model to assess the total factor productivity of forestry at the plot level. The empirical study employs Tobit and fractional regression models to investigate the effects and differences of forestry subsidies and forestry regulatory policies on the heterogeneous total factor productivity of different types of forests. The study found that: (1) the mean value of plot-scale forestry total factor productivity is 0.127, and there are obvious differences in total factor productivity among timber forests, economic forests, and mixed forests; and (2) afforestation subsidies and nurturing subsidies significantly positively influence high-level TFP. Ecological benefit compensation positively affects high-level TFP, but is not significant at any level of TFP. Forestry regulatory policies negatively impact high-level TFP, but are not significant at any level of TFP. This paper puts forward countermeasure suggestions to improve forestry subsidy policies, optimize forestry regulatory policies, and improve forestry total factor productivity from the perspective of heterogeneous forest types. Full article

Forest ecological benefit compensation protects the ecological environment, increases enthusiasm among forest ecological builders, protects the legitimate economic interests of forest landowners, and maintains environmental security. In this study, a systematic analysis was conducted on 4062 publications in the field of international forest ecological benefit compensation identified using the Web of Science core collection Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) databases alongside CiteSpace optical measurement software. The research status and influence of countries were tracked, scientific research institutions and important authors were identified, and interdisciplinary and scientific hotspots were analyzed. The results show that the number of studies in this field has significantly increased over time and has strong development potential. The journals and articles presenting cutting-edge research in this field are all considered highly professional. The selected research is highly interdisciplinary but primarily involves environmental science and ecology. Despite the publication volume of China ranking second among the top 10 countries, its average citation volume was the lowest, indicating the urgent need to increase the international influence of China. Forest biodiversity, ecosystem services, and climate change are current research hotspots in this field. Dynamic changes in forest ecological benefit compensation and the driving forces behind its evolution are of great concern to researchers. Full article

The ecological environment in loess hilly regions is fragile, and the contradiction between the development of human society and ecological environment protection is becoming more and more prominent with the intensification of human interference. In order to give full play to the role of ecosystem adaptation in ecological restoration, this study seeks natural conditions that are suitable for the stable existence of ecosystems in the Wanhuigou catchment using the reference ecosystem method and uses these conditions as constraints of the GeoSOS-FLUS model for multi-scenario simulation. Based on ecosystem service value and ecological compensation mechanisms, the comprehensive benefits of different scenarios are compared, and economic development is taken into account while ensuring that ecological protection remains a priority. The results show the following: (1) The unstable ecosystems concentrated on a gentle slope (5–15°) at altitudes of 1201–1379 m, 1201–1594 m, 1379–1715 m and 1715–1856 m are suitable for restoration to farmland, shrub, grassland and forest ecosystems, respectively, and the change characteristics of soil and vegetation communities also verify the above conclusions. (2) The scenario of agricultural development from 2020 to 2030 and the early stages from 2030 to 2050 is the best among the three scenarios, while the scenario of ecological protection is the best in the middle and late stages of 2030–2050. Formulating relevant policies and ecological protection measures according to the scenario of ecological protection is more conducive to promoting the harmonious coexistence of humans and nature. (3) Under the scenario of ecological protection, the unstable ecosystem distributed along the gentle slope (5–15°) of 1379–1483 m and 1483–1594 m achieves the most significant improvement in ecosystem service value by focusing on and giving priority to the restoration of natural conditions that are suitable for the stable existence of ecosystems. This study provides ideas and references for the formation of ecosystem restoration and development strategies for small watersheds in loess hilly regions, and it is of great significance for the promotion of a harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. Full article

Urban forests can alleviate the urban heat island effect, improve air quality, and improve residents’ mental health. By studying urban forests, these resources can be better used and managed to create more livable urban environments. Therefore, the urban forest in the Taishan region is taken as the research object, and the ecological compensation and sustainable development of urban forest in Tai’an City are deeply analyzed by GIS. It divided the area into forest land, water bodies, wetlands, grasslands, and shrubs as the basic ecosystem types. And through secondary interpretation and combination, a complete urban forest information database was established. To evaluate the comprehensive benefits of urban forests, the analytic hierarchy process was utilized to establish a corresponding evaluation index system. Based on the assessment outcomes of the comprehensive benefits of urban forests in the area, a standard accounting method for urban forest ecological compensation was proposed. The results showed that each index of the comprehensive benefits of urban forests and the random consistency ratio were both less than 0.1. This indicated that the matrix calculation results of various indicators of urban forest comprehensive benefits had good consistency. At the target level, the comprehensive evaluation score of urban forests in the study area was 7.69. At the factor level, the weight value of the urban forest landscape structure was 0.675, and the comprehensive score was 7.62. The weight value of urban forest comprehensive benefits was 0.325, and the comprehensive score was 7.82. The quantitative weight value of urban forest greening in the study area was 0.6138, with a comprehensive score of 7.57. Based on the analysis of the issues in urban forests and ecological compensation in the research area of Tai’an City, corresponding ecological compensation strategies have been proposed. It is of great value to study the urban forest of Tai’an city, which can help to formulate more effective urban planning and sustainable development strategies. The research results can also provide a valuable reference and inspiration for the improvement of urban forest ecological environment and biodiversity protection in other areas. Full article

Freshwater scarcity is increasingly threatening social development and human survival, and more effective watershed environmental management measures are yet to be developed. Market-based payment is an innovative tool to coordinate the relationship between ecosystem services’ supply and demand sides in watersheds, emphasizing the market (rather than government intervention) as the main means to regulate and control the behavior of interest-related subjects. We proposed a marked-based plan for forestry water purification service and stimulate the potential benefits of this plan under the zero transaction cost assumption. We applied and demonstrated the approach in the Loess Plateau of the Yellow River Basin (LPB) in China. By constructing the relationship between the higher reaches of annual forestry investment and the corresponding lower reaches of sediment concentration, we established forestry water purification service supply function (R² = 0.956). Then, connecting the agents’ cost function of water treatment plants in the lower reaches with the forest water purification service, we obtained the forestry water purification service demand function (R² = 0.943). Combining both the service supply and demand functions, we stimulated the market equilibrium state. The results show that higher reaches will provide 13.164 kg/m³ of water purification service by afforestation, and lower reaches can save RMB 2.131 billion annually via this service. This study suggests that marked-based payment between areas is feasible for a watershed ecosystem service, and promoting the establishment of watershed compensation market is a rewarding development direction. All of these insights provide a valuable reference point for Chinese horizontal ecological compensation practice. Full article

This paper focuses on the issue of balancing interests between stakeholders and ecosystems in the process of wildlife habitat conservation. By employing evolutionary game theory, an analysis framework for the socio-ecological system of wildlife habitats is constructed, comprising four main entities: central government, farmers, local government, and ecosystems. This framework explores the influencing factors of habitat protection strategies adopted by various stakeholders and the conditions required for the socio-ecological system to evolve towards an ideal state. In this paper, we analyze how the central government can design cost–benefit-based policy mechanisms, control the evolution of the socio-ecological system by altering conditions, and achieve a balance of interests among all parties involved in the habitat protection process. In this study, we find that the central government should establish disturbance monitoring indicators for human activities and ecological restoration, based on different compensation standards. Moreover, the hierarchical management of wildlife habitat according to different management levels can enhance the probability of the socio-ecological system evolving towards an ideal state, while achieving the sum of social costs. Additionally, shifting the compensation strategies for farmers and local governments from cost compensation to benefit compensation will reduce the harmful costs that the ecosystem imposes on the social system, thereby facilitating the realization of an ideal wildlife habitat protection and management model. Therefore, the central government should intensify compensation efforts and design reasonable compensation standards, transitioning the compensation function from cost recovery to income generation. Simultaneously, guidance should be provided to farmers for the rational utilization of forest resources to increase their income. The alignment of agricultural activities with habitat protection goals should be encouraged, and local governments should establish mechanisms for realizing the value of ecological products, making relatively implicit long-term social welfare explicit. Full article

Measuring the profit contribution of ecological benefits is an important prerequisite for the operation of the value-realization mechanism of ecological products. Based on the theory of ecological benefits and ecosystem services, combined with system dynamics and the project cost-benefit method, a forest-ecosystem-service capitalization of the resources and assets value and the realization of an ecological product-benefit system is constructed. The value-realization project of the national reserve-forest ecological products in Nan-ping City, Fujian Province, the National Ecological Civilization Pilot Zone, was selected to calculate the cost and income during the 30-year operational period of the project, and to calculate the profitability of the forest-ecosystem ecological benefits in the project, using different scenarios. Scenario 1: The project income will only be enough to cover the costs of the project operation, and the cost will be recovered at the end of the project operation. Scenario 2: With policy-based ecological compensation, compared with scenario 1, the total project-input line-of-revenue breakthrough and total project-cost line were advanced by 3 years and 2.5 years, respectively. Scenario 3: With the additive effect of the ecological benefit of the ecosystem, compared with scenario 2, the total project-input line-of-revenue breakthrough and total project-cost line were advanced by 3.5 years and 6 years, respectively. It is suggested that the guiding role should be that of policy-based ecological compensation, expanding the scope of ecological-market access, and attracting social investors to participate in the development of ecological products by means of diversified ecological compensation such as market-oriented tools, so as to fully realize the profit contribution of ecological benefits to the project through the realization of the value of ecological products. Full article

Ecosystem services (ES) have been shrinking due to unreasonable development and utilization for a long time. There are many studies on ES, but the ecological information for policymakers is still complex and obscure. To address this critical omission, based on remote sensing data, combined with meteorological data, land use data, and administrative division data, using GIS spatial analysis technology and some ecological process models, we develop an ecosystem services radiation assessment framework (ESRAF) that can provide policymakers with concise and reliable ecological information. We illustrate the measurement of ESRAF through an application to specific regions of China’s national ecological sheltering zone (NESZ), showing that the approach can effectively identify the beneficiary areas (SBA) for sand-stabilization service, soil conservation service, and water conservation service, and the degree of sharing of ES of SBA. ES produced by ecosystems in a specific region not only generates huge benefits locally but also a large number of ES benefit surrounding regions through cross-regional transmission. Specifically, in 2015, the area benefiting from sand-stabilization service provided by the Ordos’s ecosystem is about $1.66\times {10}^6 \mathrm{k}{\mathrm{m}}^2$, the amount of dust reduction in SBA would reduce by $28,738.67\times {10}^4$ tons. The Loess Plateau Ecological Screen (LPES) provides critical soil conservation service, the SBA of LPES includes two parts: LPES and the Yellow River. The Northeast Forest Belt (NFB) provides vital water conservation services. The water conservation service beneficiary area is mainly located near the NFB, with 266 hydrological response units, covering an area of $8.982\times {10}^4 \mathrm{k}{\mathrm{m}}^2$. This study also showed that the transmission distance is inversely proportional to the radiation effect, that is, the benefit level decreases with the distance from SPA. According to the degree of sharing of ES of SBA, the proposed cross-regional differentiated ecological compensation scheme is helpful to promote regional sustainable development. At the same time, this study also shows that NESZ is of great significance for ensuring China’s ecological security. Full article

As one of the most important agricultural production types in the world, orchards have high economic, ecological, and cultural value, so the accurate and timely mapping of orchards is highly demanded for many applications. Selecting a remote-sensing (RS) data source is a critical step in efficient orchard mapping, and it is hard to have a RS image with both rich temporal and spatial information. A trade-off between spatial and temporal resolution must be made. Taking grape-growing regions as an example, we tested imagery at different spatial and temporal resolutions as classification inputs (including from Worldview-2, Landsat-8, and Sentinel-2) and compared and assessed their orchard-mapping performance using the same classifier of random forest. Our results showed that the overall accuracies improved from 0.6 to 0.8 as the spatial resolution of the input images increased from 58.86 m to 0.46 m (simulated from Worldview-2 imagery). The overall accuracy improved from 0.7 to 0.86 when the number of images used for classification was increased from 2 to 20 (Landsat-8) or approximately 60 (Sentinel-2) in one year. The marginal benefit of increasing the level of details (LoD) of temporal features on accuracy is higher than that of spatial features, indicating that the classification ability of temporal information is higher than that of spatial information. The highest accuracy of using a very high-resolution (VHR) image can be exceeded only by using four to five medium-resolution multi-temporal images, or even two to three growing season images with the same classifier. Combining the spatial and temporal features from multi-source data can improve the overall accuracies by 5% to 7% compared to using only temporal features. It can also compensate for the accuracy loss caused by missing data or low-quality images in single-source input. Although selecting multi-source data can obtain the best accuracy, selecting single-source data can improve computational efficiency and at the same time obtain an acceptable accuracy. This study provides practical guidance on selecting data at various spatial and temporal resolutions for the efficient mapping of other types of annual crops or orchards. Full article

China has put forward a series of forestry-based poverty alleviation policies, aiming to alleviate poverty and improve the livelihoods of rural households, especially in backward and ecologically fragile areas with rich forest resources. Based on field survey data, we used an empirical analysis method to investigate the role of forestry-based policies in alleviating the relative poverty of rural households in the rocky desertification area in southwest China. The Logit regression results demonstrate that forestry-based poverty alleviation policies are significant at alleviating the relative poverty of rural households, and there are differences in the degree and significance of the impact of various forestry-based poverty alleviation policies. In particular, the forestry industry support (FIS) policy, the ecological forest rangers (EFRs) policy, and the Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) can significantly decrease the incidence of relative poverty of rural households, while the effect of the Public Benefit Forest Compensation Program (PBFC) on decreasing the incidence of relative poverty is not significant. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the role and effectiveness of China’s forestry-based poverty alleviation policies, and can provide a reference for optimizing the forestry poverty alleviation policies for the specific area and even the whole nation, as well as provide experience for worldwide poverty alleviation by forestry. Full article

Northeast China (NEC) produces 1/4 of the grain and 1/3 of the commercial grain in China, and is essential for food security and a sustainable socio-ecological system development. However, long-term annual crop type distribution in this vital area remains largely unknown, compromising the scientific basis for planting structure adjustment and sustainable agriculture management. To this end, we integrated 111-dimensional MOD09A1 features, feature optimization and random forest algorithms on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform to classify annual crop types in the NEC during 2000–2020, and adopted multi-source spatial data and geostatistical methods to reveal anthropogenic and natural characteristics of crop type changes. The results demonstrated that sample-based classification accuracies were 84.73–86.93% and statistics-based R² were 0.81–0.95. From 2000–2020, the sowing area of maize and rice increased by 11.92 × 10⁶ ha (111.05%) and 4.03 × 10⁶ ha (149.28%), whereas that of soybean and other crops decreased by 13.73 × 10⁶ ha (−64.10%) and 1.03 × 10⁶ ha (−50.94%), respectively. Spatially, maize expanded northwestward, rice expanded northeastward, and soybean demonstrated a south-north shrinkage. The soybean-to-maize shift was the main conversion type, and its area largely reduced from 8.68 × 10⁶ ha in 2000–2010 to 4.15 × 10⁶ ha in 2010–2020. Economic comparative benefit and climate change jointly affected crop types in NEC. Higher-benefits maize and rice were mainly planted in more convenient areas with more population and closer to settlements, roads and waterways. The planting of maize and rice required higher temperature and precipitation, and climate change in the NEC provided favorable conditions for their expansion toward high-latitude areas. The crop type changes in the NEC have boosted economic benefits, but increased water–carbon–energy costs. Thus, effective measures such as subsidy policies, ecological compensation, and knowledge-exchange should be implemented to aid crop type and rotation adjustment and ensure food-ecological security. Full article