Net value of farmland ecosystem services in China

Abstract

Farmland ecosystems are one of the most important landscapes in the world and provide many important ecosystem services for humans. However, most methods of calculating the value of ecosystem services (VES) for these ecosystems have neglected the costs of providing these services or have only considered direct costs. As a result, they have led to the adoption of uneconomical or suboptimal land use and environmental conservation strategies. Because it is increasingly necessary to identify approaches that will produce net benefits both for humans and for the environment that supports us, it is necessary to accurately account for these costs. In this paper, we propose a method for assessing the net value of ecosystem services (NES) for farmland ecosystems, which accounts for both direct and indirect costs, and apply this approach to agriculture in China to provide an improved basis for farmland management. We found that the NES of Chinese farmland decreased from 4.2 × 1012 RMB in 1952 to 3.7 × 1012 RMB in 2014 (1RMB=0.1628USD), in part due to reductions in the area of agricultural land. In addition, the NES in 2014 equaled only 47.4% of the VES, and this percentage would be even lower if more costs could be quantified. Because the direct and indirect costs differ among China's regions, the magnitude of this decrease also varies regionally. To protect China's food security and ecological health, the government will need to adjust farmland management in ways that account for these regional differences to ensure that both humans and our environment benefit.

An empirical and expert‐knowledge hybrid approach to implement farmland habitat assessment for birds

“…Agricultural ecosystems are one of the most important landscapes globally, covering nearly 40% of the terrestrial surface on Earth (Cao et al, 2018; Power, 2010). It is a human–nature coupling environment regulated by the interaction between anthropogenic activities and natural cycles that provides diverse ecosystem services.…”

“…Provisioning services, such as food, fiber, water, and wood, are not the only ecosystem services of agricultural ecosystems. Other services, including nutrient cycling, regulation of soil fertility, pollination, recreation, and biodiversity conservation, have been recognized (Cao et al, 2018; Costanza et al, 1997; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005; Power, 2010; Zhang et al, 2017). Thus, to maintain ecosystem services sustainably in an agricultural ecosystem, it is vital to maintain the high diversity and abundance of native species (Kremen & Merenlender, 2018).…”

“…To achieve mutual benefits of agricultural production and biodiversity conservation, different less intensive farming practices, such as organic farming (Muller et al, 2017; Ostandie et al, 2021), conservation agriculture (Palm et al, 2014; Wittwer Raphaël et al, 2021), and agroforestry (Jose, 2009; Martin et al, 2020), should be introduced to maintain diverse local fauna and flora on farmlands, instead of adopting other intensive management. Those eco‐friendly agricultural management strategies can effectively mitigate the impacts on organisms and interactions between species on farmlands (Batáry et al, 2020; Cao et al, 2018; Chris et al, 2010; Hardman et al, 2016; Zhang et al, 2017). However, the same management strategies for specific crops may not be appropriate for other regions with different climatic and geographic conditions (Benton et al, 2003).…”

Preferences in Farmland Eco-Compensation Methods: A Case Study of Wuhan, China

“…The farmland ecosystem is one of the most essential ecosystems in the world [1]. It is regarded primarily as a source of provisioning services, providing humans with agricultural products, bio-energy, landscape facilities and animal habitats [2,3].…”

Cost–benefit analysis of China's farming system

“…Although farming systems provide a wide range of ecosystem services, they also depend upon a wide variety of supporting and regulating services (Cao, Zhang, et al, 2018). These include soil fertility and natural or artificial pollination, and if these services are impaired, the farming system's productive capacity will be undermined (Swinton et al, 2007).…”