Did the ecological engineering have a great impact on the land use change?

Overuse of land resources has increasingly contributed to environmental crises in China. To mitigate widespread land degradation, actions have been taken to maintain and restore the ecological environment through efforts such as ecological engineering. By analyzing trends in land use, the impact and effectiveness of ecological engineering can be determined. In this study, such changes in Huanjiang County in China were considered. In the early 1990s, an eco-immigration policy and “returning farmland to forest program” were implemented in the county, drastically impacting land use. Land use/land cover changes were detected and analyzed using remote sensing data recorded over 4 years (1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010). Land transfer flow and the rate of land use change elucidated the extent of changes, while nuclear density analysis indicated spatial agglomeration. The results indicate that, over a period of 15 years, farmland area increased, while forest area decreased initially before subsequently increasing. From 1995 to 2000, the highest transfer flow was observed in the grassland to farmland conversion (79.34%). From 2000 to 2005, the transfer flow of conversions was the highest for forest to farmland (56.79%). Land use changes were not prominent from 2005 to 2010. Direct drivers of land use change exert obvious impacts on land use, and indirect drivers impact direct drivers that are then channeled through direct anthropogenic drivers (e.g., land use policies). We found that ecological engineering has a very significant impact on land use change, and that impact varies from region to region.