Temporal and spatial assessment of natural resource use in China using ecological footprint method

China has about 20% of the world's population. With rapid economic development and substantial population increase, China is now faced with severe conflicts between limited natural resources and increasing resource requirements. In this study, we used the ecological footprint method to assess the resource demand and supply conditions of each land use in China between 1978 and 2003. In order to provide insight into the spatial heterogeneity of resource demand and supply conditions, we also assessed the ecological footprint at provincial level in 2002. An ecological footprint curve method was introduced to compare differences in natural resource use, economic development and technological progress among different countries and provinces. The results showed that the ecological footprint, biocapacity and ecological deficit per capita for China have all been increasing during 1978–2003. The ecological footprints per person in northern and eastern China were larger than those in southern and western China. The ecological deficits per person in southern and eastern China were more severe than those in northern and western China. Though the resource use efficiency has increased considerably during 1978–2003, it was still much lower than those of the Netherlands, France, South Korea, Mexico, the Philippines and India.     

The ecological dynamics of low external input agriculture: A case study of hill farming in a developing country

This paper on Low External Input Agriculture (LEIA) has explored how indigenous hill farming systems in a developing country setting of rural Nepal are functioning and which ecological properties of such systems could contribute to the development of Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA). Three cases were studied using direct field observation, group discussion and interviews, and the important practices of LEIA were ranked into eight classes to analyse the ecological sustainability of the hill farming systems. The study shows that the hill farming system is complex, diverse, heavily reliant on local resources and focuses on the renewability of production resources within the farm. All this can greatly contribute to make the system ecologically sustainable. However, demands for increased production put considerable pressure on farmers to apply external inputs which, if in excess, may jeopardise the whole system. A prerequisite for guidance in careful soil management is the strengthening of supportive research aimed at teaching farmers how to use external inputs. This must agree with the principles of sustainable agriculture and take into account the site-specific variations which are characteristic of Nepalese hill farming systems. We defined the term Ecological Dynamics as 'the pattern of changes in structure and/or forces in processes which govern the development of natural and artificial ecosystems'. This definition assists in identification of trends in ecological sustainability. Understanding indigenous farming systems reveals important ecological clues essential for the development of sustainable agriculture.     

Indigenous ecological knowledge of Borana pastoralists in southern Ethiopia and current challenges

Indigenous ecological knowledge (IEK) of Borana pastoralists on strategies of sustainable resource utilization, forage species, ecological interactions, rangeland condition and trend was documented using discussions, a semi-structured questionnaire survey and analytical workshops. Traditional strategies of rangeland and water management were described and the most important forage species identified. Pastoralists' perceptions were compared across age, gender and site. There was a positive correlation between pastoralists' preference ranking of forage species and crude protein content of the species. IEK of men and women was complementary. The process of rangeland degradation was described as shortage of grass and decrease in density and frequency of highly palatable grass species, leading to low milk production and reduced conception rates in cows. The results confirmed that the IEK of these pastoralists could still provide the basis for sustainable resource utilization and rangeland rehabilitation. However, the young generation in the area had not only limited knowledge but also showed less interest to learn and apply the traditional resource management strategies. Therefore, there is high need to perpetuate, document and use this IEK for sustainable development. On the other hand, shortage of forage resources as a result of rangeland shrinkage (leading to rangeland degradation and woody plants encroachment), less application of IEK, the gap between traditional and formal systems, and trends of disobeying traditional rules and regulations were identified as current challenges for the Borana pastoralists.     

Methodology for an urban ecological footprint to evaluate sustainable development in China

The ecological footprint (EF) is a method for measuring sustainable development through ecological impact. A methodology is presented for predicting urban ecological footprints. Urban energy use and natural resource consumption were analyzed to calculate an EF based on land type (arable, pasture, forest, fossil energy land, built-up area and water area) and consumption (food, housing, transportation, goods, services and waste). The result was then compared with the local ecological carrying capacity to develop criteria for sustainable ecological footprints. Case studies of four cities in China (Guangzhou, Ningbo, Suzhou and Yangzhou) illustrate the urban EF approach. The time series of EF in a case study of Guangzhou for 1991–2001 was analyzed and the consumption–land-use matrix of urban EF was established. The results show that the cities are ecologically unsustainable, with average ecological conflicts per capita of more than 2 ha. The urban EF method is useful to measure urban sustainable development and provides policy proposals for decision-making. However, the EF method still has limitations and weaknesses.     

Ecological restoration,social-economic changes and sustainable development in the Three Gorges Reservoir area: A case study in Yunyang,Chongqing Municipality

The Three Gorges Reservoir area contains high mountains and deep valleys. The fragile mountainous ecosystems are facing problems such as overpopulation, less available farmland, ecological degradation and poverty. The construction of the Three Gorges Project and a series of ecological restoration activities and social-economic changes have influenced the present and future viability of this area. The measures which have been taken indicate that restoring and renewing the degraded ecosystems and improving the economy is a prerequisite and is possible. Yunyang, a typical county, both in terms of poverty and ecological degradation in the Three Gorges Reservoir area of Chongqing Municipality, was chosen for the case study. This paper discusses the impacts of the Grain-for-Green project, ecological agriculture, urban and infrastructure building and ecological immigrants on the regional sustainable development through detailed field investigation and a questionnaire survey.     

Evaluation for sustainable land use in coastal areas: A landscape ecological prospect

Evaluation of sustainability is the core of research on sustainable land use. To a certain extent, traditional social, economic and ecological evaluation for sustainable land use can be regarded as an appraisal on the temporal scale without evaluation of spatial patterns. Landscape ecology can help to realize spatial evaluation for sustainable land use. In this paper, we construct landscape ecological indicators for evaluating sustainable coastal land use from the aspects of landscape productivity, threats and stability, to realize a synthetic temporal-spatial evaluation. These cover the five pillars of sustainable land use, i.e. productivity, security, protection, viability and acceptability. The results of applying landscape ecological evaluation to a case study in Wudi County in China show that land use sustainability is somewhat low and there are great regional differences between its 11 villages. We classified the 11 villages into 5 grades: strong sustainable land use, sustainable land use, weak sustainable land use, weak unsustainable land use, and strong unsustainable land use. Each grade has different land use characteristics and differs in the counter-measures required. But the core countermeasures in all the grades are to improve landscape productivity, to reduce human threats and to optimize landscape patterns.     

Ecological properties of soil water and effects on forest vegetation in the Loess Plateau

In the Loess Plateau of China, soil water has three ecological properties: high infiltration capacity, high storage capacity and availability to deep plant roots. Soil desiccation is the most serious problem for forest vegetation in the Loess Plateau. Arid soils are the result of intensified soil desiccation caused by disturbances in plant succession, which constitute the ecological foundation of soil water. The negative effects of the arid soil layer on surface water infiltration for recharging underground water are discussed in terms of ecological hydrology. The arid soil layer disrupts the link between surface water and underground water and prevents vertical precipitation infiltration from supplementing underground water. Forest vegetation has a significant runoff-retaining efficiency that reduces total runoff from forest areas leading to low surface and ground runoff which affect the water cycle on a watershed scale.     

Designing for nature and sustainability

Humankind is now using natural resources more rapidly than natural systems can replace them and has been doing so for approximately two and a half decades. Moreover, both natural capital and the ecosystem services it provides are being diminished at an unprecedented rate. Finally, the human population is expected to increase by three billion by 2050. This situation is clearly unsustainable, but it can be made less so by redesigning societal wastes so that they benefit the biospheric life-support system. Nature initiates and maintains a system of energy and nutrient cycling and, if the system integrity is maintained, provides alternative and redundant means that help stabilize functional capacity. The system is composed of opportunistic individuals that compete with other individuals to acquire the resources essential to their survival. The interrelationships within this aggregation of individuals (i.e. system components) are based on energy flow. This self-organizing and self-maintaining system is increasingly stressed by human activities. Humans are a part of, not apart from, this system and are governed by the same laws of nature. In short, an ecologically-based economic system is essential to sustainable use of the planet. The planet's life-support system has been a superb model of sustainability, which humans should emulate and become a part of more than they now are. When the biospheric life-support system is stressed to the point of disequilibrium, the results are disastrous for societies, individuals and ecosystems. Evolutionary processes have produced replacement systems following the five great biological extinctions. However, the probability is high that the next replacement system will not be as suitable for humankind as the present system. Sustainable practices are intended to prevent biospheric disequilibrium and maintain the present environmental conditions so favorable to humankind, including posterity.     

Living with living systems: The co-evolution of values and valuation

This article explores features of the environmental valuation process through a co-evolutionary approach. Based on established works concerning complexity, living systems, and social, economic, evolutionary and hierarchy theories, it is argued that a special form of recursive co-evolution takes place between articulated values and methods of value articulation, within the environmental valuation system. It is proposed that this co-evolutionary approach provides new insights into (1) the process of environmental preference formation and (2) the phenomenon of value incommensurability. Finally, it is suggested that this approach also reveals that monetary unit-based environmental valuation methods are counter-productive to their own purpose of 'taking the economic worth of un-priced environmental goods and service into account.' This constitutes a new critique of monetary valuation, which is not addressed by a pragmatic defence of the practice. It is suggested that, in lieu of monetary valuation, taking the economic worth of these phenomena into account may be better served by focusing efforts on the design of new value articulation methods that are capable of expressing their priceless economic worth.     

Ecological footprint and biological capacity time series assessment for a forest region in northeastern China

Anthropogenic disturbances have caused major landscape changes in the forests of northeastern China during the past 50 years. In particular, continuous over-deforestation has greatly decreased the region's forest quality. Ecological footprint analysis generates aggregated information about a population's demand on nature and the population regional biological capacity. To show the forest change and the population's ecological demand on the study area, this paper presents an ecological footprint time series for the Songling Forestry Bureau in northeastern China from 1965 to 2000. The paper shows conventional ecological footprint time series and area demand time series – under global, Chinese and local yearly yields – to study the biological productivity of Songling. In this study, biological capacity was calculated based on a conventional approach. The results demonstrate that the ecological footprint has increased slightly and continuously during the 35-year timespan, while the biological capacity has decreased dramatically. These effects have been caused mainly by the depletion of forest resources. The results also yield much information about natural changes and socioeconomic dynamics, as well as the driving factors for these changes, of which the most important is forest management policy.