This case study explores some of the large-scale programmes through which China has responded to a national land system sustainability emergency. The authors review 16 sustainability programmes, which invested US$378.5 billion (in 2015 US$), covered 623.9 million hectares of land, and involved more than 500 million people.
The study finds overwhelming evidence that these programmes’ interventions improved the sustainability of China’s rural land systems and contributed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but the impacts are nuanced and adverse outcomes have occurred. Specifically, it finds that there have been substantial increases in forest cover and grassland, along with fewer dust storms, reduced soil erosion, a reversal in the desertification trend, improved water resources management, and a slowdown in the decline of biodiversity. In addition, there were positive socioeconomic outcomes that could be partially ascribed to the sustainability programs, including growth in agricultural production, increased incomes, and reduced poverty. The study finds that these outcomes contribute to 13 of the 17 SDGs, including especially SDG 15 (Life on land), SDG 2 (Zero hunger), and SDG 1 (No poverty), although there are synergies and co-benefits across multiple SDGs. However, there remains room for continued improvement across these environmental and economic outcomes, particularly with regards to the protection of biodiversity and ecological migration programmes, which have sometimes led to adverse socioeconomic outcomes.
Key characteristics of the 16 programmes’ success include the provision of long-term investment at scale, addressing systemic socioeconomic and environmental causes, the implementation of a diverse range of policy instruments, and evidence-based and coordinated policy making. Going forward, ensuring the long-term success of these sustainability programmes will require continued efforts with regards to the maintenance and diversification of household incomes, improved planning and targeting to capture win-win socioeconomic and environmental opportunities, and better consideration of local differences in policy formulation.
Related Case Studies
This study examines the relationships among attitudes to climate change, risk perceptions, and coping behavioral intentions in different townships of Yunlin County in Taiwan, which has relatively high vulnerability to the consequences of climate change.
This study examines the ecological and socioeconomic effects of the Chinese Natural Forest Conservation Programme (NFCP) and the Grain to Green Programme (GTGP), which initially invested more than US$95 billion in forest conservation and related economic development efforts over thirteen years (1998 to 2010). The NFCP conserves natural forests through logging bans and afforestation with incentives to forest enterprises, whereas the GTGP converts cropland on steep slopes to forest and grassland by providing farmers with grain and cash subsidies.
This paper presents the major tourism management issues in Xishuangbanna Prefecture, with a particular focus on Xishuangbanna Biosphere Reserve (XBR). It emphasizes the integration of social, economic, and environmental goals for effective tourism planning and development. The situation analysis was patterned after the principles of the 7Es Environmental Management model for nature-based tourism management—Environment, Economics, Enforcement, Experience, Engagement, Enquiry, and Education.
This case study quantifies ecosystem services in several land use scenarios, relative to actual land use change, over a nine-year period. These scenarios were developed in an effort to maintain agricultural production while improving water quality and increasing water quantity in the watershed of the Miyun Reservoir—the only source of surface water currently available for domestic use in Beijing, China.