Toward a socio-political approach to water management: successes and limitations of IWRM programs in rural northwestern China

Mao, KuoRay; Zhang, Qian; Xue, Yongji; Weeks, Nefratiri

doi:10.1007/s11707-019-0795-3

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Second, an elite-driven policy does not adequately address the different production goals of local institutions. This may be a common problem with top-down models of resource management programs and is consistent with findings from studies of water resources programs in China [ 71 ]. Third, this top-down implementation approach is costly and somewhat unstable in terms of human resources and management expenditures.…”

Section: Successes and Limitations Of Circular Agriculture Projects U...supporting

confidence: 80%

Toward a Socio-Political Approach to Promote the Development of Circular Agriculture: A Critical Review

Yang

Zhang

Xue

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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Under the dual pressure of ensuring global food security and coping with the effects of climate change, many countries have proposed projects of circular agriculture to mitigate the vulnerability of agricultural systems. However, due to the different utilizations of agricultural resources in different countries, there are still some important limitations and obstacles to the promotion of agricultural recycling technologies. This review discusses global circular agriculture projects from a social science perspective. We found that (1) current research on circular agriculture is concentrated in the field of natural sciences with a focus on technological upgrading, neglecting social, political and economic research; (2) top-down circular agriculture projects rely on infrastructure and technical inputs for management, which undermines the focus on public participation and is limited by the timing and intensity of state intervention; (3) the development model led by enterprises or associations relies on cooperation and benefit games with farmers, and its sustainability depends largely on changes in the regulation of the agricultural waste utilization system. Based on this, this review argues that circular agriculture projects are not only technical issues in the field of natural sciences, but also strongly influenced by social development. For future research, we strongly recommend cross-disciplinary cooperation, not limited to technology development.

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Section: Successes and Limitations Of Circular Agriculture Projects U...supporting

confidence: 80%

Toward a Socio-Political Approach to Promote the Development of Circular Agriculture: A Critical Review

Yang

Zhang

Xue

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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“…59 Additionally, the lack of coordination between administrative units led to falsification of compensation and excluded access to natural resources for the most underprivileged communities in China's hinterland. 60 The incentive structure often drove grassroots bureaucrats to implement the program on fertilized farmlands instead of slope lands, exaggerating outcomes, and loss of biodiversity. Long-term sustainability of these programs may be undermined as program funding depends on central government fiscal transfers; high administrative costs may reduce state investment in the provision of other rural public goods.…”

Section: Grain For Green (Gfg) Projectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rural Reform in Contemporary China: Development, Efficiency, and Fairness

Xue

Mao

Weeks

et al. 2020

Journal of Contemporary China

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This article examines the contradictory outcomes of China's rural reform since 1978. It traces four periods of rural reform policies through cyclical rounds of policy implementation, structural transformations, and economic, social, and environmental outcomes. The analysis reveals that contradictory outcomes are embedded within conflicting goals framing rural reform policies, specifically goals to modernize China's rural regions and fair resource allocation among its inhabitants. In addition, the Chinese central government has repeatedly resorted to a top-down, campaign-style approach, creating conflicting objectives between short-term quota fulfillment and sustainable structural adjustment policies. The research suggests that the socio-environmental contradictions emerging from rural transformations in China must be viewed within the global political economic context that favors growth oriented, efficiency-based development strategies.China celebrated the 40 th anniversary of its rural reform in 2018 and promulgated a new 'Rural Revitalization Development Strategy' to reduce persistent and concentrated rural poverty and promote the vertical and horizontal integration of its agriculture. 1 The celebration was the culmination of sweeping structural transformations throughout China's rural regions as the state has worked to develop and modernize its agriculture. Since 2010, the per capita grain output of China has exceeded international food security standards for self-sufficiency, fulfilling the difficult task of feeding 1.3 billion people. China has met the food demand of nearly 20 percent of the world's population with 'only 5 percent of the world's freshwater and 8 percent of its arable land.' 2 The nation has emerged as the world's second-largest economy and is the largest developing agricultural country in the world; as such, the reforms have been considered by some a success. 3 Nevertheless, these structural reforms are contradictory; as growth rates and modernization have advanced, so too have environmental degradation, stagnation in agricultural productivity, widespread dispossession, and rural-urban inequalities and regional disparities.This analysis explores the historical, global, and domestic context of China's agricultural development focusing on the cyclical rounds of policy implementation, structural transformations, and contradictory outcomes emerging after rural reforms. It aims to explore these contradictory CONTACT Yongji Xue

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“…Nevertheless, research on environmental governance in China reveals that the effectiveness of the state's environmental policies has been weakened by a fragmented governing structure, where national policy goals became diluted by competition among government departments (Kostka & Mol, 2013;Mao et al, 2022;Zhu et al, 2015). Moreover, the contradiction in environmental governance can be traced to political decentralization, which has caused lower-level governments to prioritize economic interests and social stability over environmental protection (Ran, 2013;Mao et al, 2020a). Due to promotion requirements, grassroots cadres often interpret environmental policies differently from the central government.…”

Section: Environmental Governance In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In recent years, China's environmental governance has undergone a significant wave of "centralizing trends", which utilize binding policy goals and cadre evaluations within the top-down bureaucracy to strengthen the implementation of environmental regulations at the local level (van Rooij et al, 2017;Kostka & Nahm, 2017;Xu, 2017). Consequently, external support from political leaders has strongly shaped policy design and implementation (Mao et al, 2020a;He, 2019).…”

Section: Environmental Governance In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

Top-Down Implementation and Fragmented Bureaucracy: An Analysis of the Livestock Waste Prevention Regulation in China

Jin¹,

Mao²,

Han³

et al. 2022

JSS

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Livestock and poultry raising is the largest source of agricultural non-point source pollution and an essential aspect of environmental governance. To resolve the issue, China has introduced a series of policies to promote the recycling of livestock and poultry excrement since 2014. This study uses data from government documents, policy papers, and official husbandry statistics to understand the effects and policy implications of husbandry waste regulations from 2014 to 2019. We examined the planning and implementation guidelines of husbandry waste control programs and supplemented the archival data with 29 in-depth interviews with local environmental protection officers as well as husbandry operators in five provinces from 2015 to 2018. Our findings indicate that the new regulatory regime has three fundamental issues: First, the inconsistency between national and ministerial policy goals; Second, the binding targets of these policies create unforeseen consequences in their implementation, which has hindered the establishment of a national resource recycling system; Third, the regulations provide few incentives to promote the development of sustainable husbandry industry.

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Toward a socio-political approach to water management: successes and limitations of IWRM programs in rural northwestern China

Cited by 7 publications

References 32 publications

Toward a Socio-Political Approach to Promote the Development of Circular Agriculture: A Critical Review

Toward a Socio-Political Approach to Promote the Development of Circular Agriculture: A Critical Review

Rural Reform in Contemporary China: Development, Efficiency, and Fairness

Top-Down Implementation and Fragmented Bureaucracy: An Analysis of the Livestock Waste Prevention Regulation in China

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