Challenges to Sustainable Development in China: A Review of Six Large-Scale Forest Restoration and Land Conservation Programs

Xi, Weimin; Wang, Fugui; Shi, Peili; Dai, Erfu; Anoruo, Ambrose O.; Bi, Huaxing; Rahmlow, Alexander; Li, Tianyang; Li, Wenhua

doi:10.1080/10549811.2014.899503

Cited by 23 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…China's Priority Forest Programs (PFPs) are being implemented since the 1990s and are the world's largest programs in terms of scale, duration, and payments (Xi et al . ). The SCLP is the largest among them, using payments to convert marginal croplands (low productivity) into forests, “involving millions of mountain‐dwelling households as core agents of its implementation” (He : 30).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Impacts of large‐scale forest restoration on socioeconomic status and local livelihoods: what we know and do not know

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Forests are sources of wood, non-timber forest products and ecosystems services and goods that benefit society as a whole, and are especially important to rural livelihoods. Forest landscape restoration (FLR) has been proposed as a way to counteract deforestation and reconcile the production of ecosystem services and goods with conservation and development goals. But limited evidence indicates how large-scale forest restoration could contribute to improving local livelihoods. Here, we present a conceptual framework to analyze the effects of large-scale restoration on local livelihoods, and use it to review the scientific literature and reduce this knowledge gap. Most of the literature referred to case studies (89%), largely concentrated in China (49%). The main theme explored was income, followed by livelihoods diversification, off-farm employment opportunities, poverty reduction, equity and the provision of timber and energy as ecosystem services. Nearly 60 percent of the papers discussed the importance of governance systems to socioeconomic outcomes. The reforestation/restoration programs and policies investigated in the studies had mixed socioeconomic effects on local livelihoods depending on other variables, such as availability of off-farm jobs, household characteristics, land productivity, land tenure, and markets for forest products and ecosystem services. We conclude that the effects of large-scale restoration initiatives on local livelihoods may vary due to several factors and is still not clear for many situations; therefore, monitoring over time with clear indicators is needed.Abstract in Portuguese is available with online material.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Impacts of large‐scale forest restoration on socioeconomic status and local livelihoods: what we know and do not know

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Several articles and reports mention a variety of financial barriers and, therefore, strategies for FLR implementation in ways that resonate with an ecological modernization narrative. Authors mention few or short-term funding initiatives, high cost, perverse incentives, limited returns, lack of a value chain, lack of access to credit and high investment risks [6,15,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]. To overcome these barriers, authors propose a better design of funding and incentive strategies, restoration on marginal lands, and win-win restorative interventions that can achieve environmental and productive goals, such as agroforests, and public private partnerships, among others (Table 1).…”

Section: Global Narratives On Barriers and Strategies For Flr Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narratives Across Scales on Barriers and Strategies for Upscaling Forest Restoration: A Brazilian Case Study

Schweizer

Kuijk

Meli

et al. 2019

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Several countries worldwide have committed to forest and landscape restoration (FLR) through ambitious pledges in numbers of hectares to be restored. As the implementation of these commitments happens within countries, different actors from global to local scales must negotiate the “what, where and how” of specific forest restoration projects. We interviewed actors at national, state and local scales to gather their narratives regarding barriers and strategies for upscaling forest restoration and compared the narratives among them and with those that prevail in the global literature on FLR. We based the local scale in four Atlantic Forest landscapes. We classified the narratives gathered according to three discourses commonly used in environmental policy arenas: (1) ecological modernization, advocating market solutions; (2) green governmentality, with its emphasis on technocratic solutions; and (3) civic environmentalism promoting governance. Brazilian legislation with its mandate of forest restoration in private lands appeared as the main restoration driver in the interviews. However, when political will for enforcement weakens, other strategies are needed. An ecological modernization narrative, around increasing funding, incentives, market and investments, prevailed in the narratives on barriers and strategies for all actors from the global to the local scales. Similarities nevertheless diminished from the global to the local scale. The narratives of national actors resembled those found in the global literature, which emphasize strategies based on increased capacity building, within a green governmentality narrative, and governance arrangements, a civic environmentalist narrative. These narratives appeared less at state scales, and were almost absent at local scales where forest restoration was perceived mostly as a costly legal mandate. Similar narratives across all actors and scales indicate that a focus on improving the economics of restoration can aid in upscaling forest restoration in Brazilian Atlantic Forest landscapes. However, discrepant narratives also show that inclusive governance spaces where the negotiation of FLR interventions can take place is key to increase trust and aid implementation.

show abstract

“…The SLCP was designed to reduce soil erosion and expand forest cover by afforesting denuded mountains and wasteland and by converting farmland into forests [10,38]. This was to be accomplished by providing incentives to farmers or landowners, in exchange for converting farmland to forests.…”

Section: Changing National Forest Policies In the Research Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

How Societal Values Determine the Local Use of Forest Resources—Findings from the Rural Community Kegong (Northwest Yunnan, China)

Nassl

Löffler

2019

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The transition from net deforestation to net reforestation in China has received much scientific attention, in the hope that, by understanding the underlying drivers and processes, it might be reproduced in other regions of the world. The scientific literature has suggested that this process was driven by the creation of off-farm opportunities and huge state afforestation programs by economic growth. Recent publications, however, have noted a lack of inclusion of local dynamics in this analysis. We used the social-ecological interactions (SEI) framework, designed for the assessment of ecosystem services in socio-ecological systems, to trace the causes and patterns of the local use of forest biomass in a village in Northwest Yunnan. Our results suggest that societal values, in particular, are key to understanding the local resource use underlying the forest transition in Yunnan. However, societal values have been neglected, both in the analysis of forest transition as well as in social-ecological systems research, in general.

show abstract

Challenges to Sustainable Development in China: A Review of Six Large-Scale Forest Restoration and Land Conservation Programs

Cited by 23 publications

References 20 publications

Impacts of large‐scale forest restoration on socioeconomic status and local livelihoods: what we know and do not know

Impacts of large‐scale forest restoration on socioeconomic status and local livelihoods: what we know and do not know

Narratives Across Scales on Barriers and Strategies for Upscaling Forest Restoration: A Brazilian Case Study

How Societal Values Determine the Local Use of Forest Resources—Findings from the Rural Community Kegong (Northwest Yunnan, China)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About