Realizing the values of natural capital for inclusive, sustainable development: Informing China’s new ecological development strategy

Abstract

A major challenge in transforming development to inclusive, sustainable pathways is the pervasive and persistent trade-off between provisioning services (e.g., agricultural production) on the one hand and regulating services (e.g., water purification, flood control) and biodiversity conservation on the other. We report on an application of China’s new Ecological Development Strategy, now being formally tested and refined for subsequent scaling nationwide, which aims to mitigate and even eliminate these trade-offs. Our focus is the Ecosystem Function Conservation Area of Hainan Island, a rural, tropical region where expansion of rubber plantations has driven extensive loss of natural forest and its vital benefits to people. We explored both the biophysical and the socioeconomic options for achieving simultaneous improvements in product provision, regulating services, biodiversity, and livelihoods. We quantified historic trade-offs between rubber production and vital regulating services, finding that, over the past 20 y (1998–2017), there was a 72.2% increase in rubber plantation area, leading to decreases in soil retention (17.8%), water purification [reduced retention of nitrogen (56.3%) and phosphorus (27.4%)], flood mitigation (21.9%), carbon sequestration (1.7%), and habitat for biodiversity (6.9%). Using scenario analyses, we identified a two-pronged strategy that would significantly reduce these trade-offs, enhancing regulating services and biodiversity, while simultaneously diversifying and increasing product provision and improving livelihoods. This general approach to analyzing product provision, regulating services, biodiversity, and livelihoods has applicability in rural landscapes across China, South and Southeast Asia, and beyond.

Identifying Nature–Community Nexuses for Sustainably Managing Social and Ecological Systems: A Case Study of the Qianjiangyuan National Park Pilot Area

“…According to the SWY approach, runoff can be categorized as either quick or base flow. Base flow stays within a narrow range in the seasonal runoff variation, which can be used to determine the level of the water retention service [46]. The water balance principle [39], the core theoretical basis of SWY, is presented below.…”

Rural Household Livelihood and Tree Plantation Dependence in the Central Mountainous Region of Hainan Island, China: Implications for Poverty Alleviation

“…and oil palm) increase household income from wood and biofuel production [7,8]. Unlike monocultures with a single objective, polyculture has the potential to fulfill a variety of objectives [7], such as increased income, reduced vulnerability to volatile global markets for forestry products [9], better regulating services and nature conservation [10]. Polycultures could be designed to accomplish diverse and context-specific goals.…”

Supply–Demand Coupling Mechanisms for Policy Design

“…This might lead to many problems such as insufficient stakeholder participation, difficulty in determining compensation payers and recipients, and a lack of a scientific basis for determining compensation standards [7]. Thus, the application of ES research in policy design and management decision-making is still subject to certain constraints [1,18], especially in effectively regulating key factors and identifying strategies affecting ESs to improve ESs and reduce unwanted trade-offs [19].…”