Evaluating China's Slope Land Conversion Program as sustainable management in Tianquan and Wuqi Counties

Increased soil erosion on sloped land has become a significant environmental concern in China that has been attributed to human activities such as deforestation, over-cultivation, and over-grazing of livestock. In order to reduce soil erosion on sloped lands, the Chinese government has responded by implementing large-scale, ecological rehabilitation programs, including the "Grain for Green" reforestation project. This program involves financial incentives to transition farmers into other economic activities with the goal of reducing ecological pressures and degradation. Because of the scope and potential impacts from these programs, detailed research is needed to understand their social and ecological effects. This paper reports on research conducted in Tianquan County, Sichuan Province, and Wuqi County, Shaanxi Province, that evaluates the effects of the program upon local economies and household livelihood systems. The paper argues that the successful conversion of farmland under "Grain for Green" depends upon local government involvement, local economic development, and funding for local projects. Without economic development within rural economies, we conclude that farmers will remain dependent upon continued subsidy assistance to meet the policy's ambitious environmental restrictions, thereby undermining the program's long-term sustainability.     

Land Degradation Problems and Their Implications for Food Shortage in South Wello, Ethiopia

/ Understanding the problems of land degradation and seeking long-lasting solutions to these problems should be one of the central concerns of countries such as Ethiopia where agriculture is the mainstay of no less than 85% of the population. To this end, the collaboration of policy makers, researchers, donor agencies, and the local people is indispensable. In this paper an attempt is made to discuss the causes of land degradation and the reasons for the failure in the endeavors made to solve the problems. Possible solutions, which may help to ameliorate the situation, are also suggested. The study deals with South Wello (a region in northern Ethiopia), but the assessment is, by and large, a reflection of most of the highlands in the country. KEY WORDS: Agroforestry; Donor agencies; Food for work; Hillside closures; Land rehabilitation; Local participation; Population growth; Reforestation     

Learning Machines Applied to Potential Forest Distribution

The clearing of forests to obtain land for pasture and agriculture and the replacement of autochthonous species by other faster-growing varieties of trees for timber have both led to the loss of vast areas of forest worldwide. At present, many developed countries are attempting to reverse these effects, establishing policies for the restoration of older woodland systems. Reforestation is a complex matter, planned and carried out by experts who need objective information regarding the type of forest that can be sustained in each area. This information is obtained by drawing up feasibility models constructed using statistical methods that make use of the information provided by morphological and environmental variables (height, gradient, rainfall, etc.) that partially condition the presence or absence of a specific kind of forestation in an area. The aim of this work is to construct a set of feasibility models for woodland located in the basin of the River Liébana (NW Spain), to serve as a support tool for the experts entrusted with carrying out the reforestation project. The techniques used are multilayer perceptron neural networks and support vector machines. Their results will be compared to the results obtained by traditional techniques (such as discriminant analysis and logistic regression) by measuring the degree of fit between each model and the existing distribution of woodlands. The interpretation and problems of the feasibility models are commented on in the Discussion section.     

An integrated assessment model of carbon sequestration benefits: a case study of Liping county, China

This research attempts to model the complexity of planting trees to increase China's CO(2) sequestration potential by using a GIS-based integrated assessment (IA) approach. We use the IA model to assess the impact of China's Grain for Green reforestation and afforestation program on farmer and state incomes as well as CO(2) sequestration in Liping County, Guizhou Province. The IA model consists of five sub-models for carbon sequestration, crop income, timber income, Grain for Green, and carbon credits. It also includes a complementary qualitative module for assessing program impacts by gender and ethnicity. Using four scenarios with various assumptions about types of trees planted, crop incomes by township, CO(2) credit prices, state subsidies, methods for estimating carbon sequestered, and harvesting of trees, we find great variation in the impact of the Grain for Green program on incomes and on carbon sequestered over a 48 year period at both the county and township levels.     

Rainfall Response of Degraded Soil Following Reforestation in the Copper Basin, Tennessee, USA

2 Copper Basin in southeastern Tennessee became the site of increasingly extensive and successful reforestation efforts. To determine the effectiveness of more than 50 years of reforestation efforts, we compared rainfall infiltration, sediment detachment, and soil organic matter of reforested sites to those properties of unvegetated sites and forested reference sites outside the basin. Results of 54 rainfall simulation experiments conducted in zones of the basin known to have been planted during different decades demonstrate that hydrologic recovery of soils in the Copper Basin lags significantly behind the establishment of tree cover and the protection offered by vegetation against soil erosion. Soils in new “forests” have significantly less organic matter and lower infiltration than forests more than 50 years old. The long-term persistence of low infiltration rates serves as a reminder that, at sites where the A and B soil horizons have been lost, restoration of the hydrologic function of a landscape requires decades, at least.     

Forestry administration and policies in the Philippines

This article begins by summarizing the importance of the forestry sector in the Philippine economy It provides an overview of the multiplicity of Philippine governmental institutions involved in forestry in 1982 Then it discusses forestry laws in the country and concludes by examining fifteen critical forest policy issues: sustained yield management; area-specific logging bans; increased use of wood wastes; revision of forest charges; unprocessed log export ban; rationalization of the forest industry, acceleration of reforestation; protection of watersheds; recognition of the social dimensions of slash- and-burn agriculture; fuelwood supply; public land classification for forestry and agriculture, development of plantations for dendrothermal electricity; multiple-use management; preservation of mangrove areas, and improvements in administration and implementation.Research for this paper was supported by the East-West Center Environment and Policy Institute. The author would like to acknowledge the assistance of the Natural Resources Management Center of the Philippine Ministry of Natural Resources.     

Managing Abandoned Farmland: The Need to Link Biological and Sociological Aspects

The lack of a particular use associated with abandoned farmland provides real opportunities with respect to the various land-use pressures occurring in productive territories. These environments remain generally poorly known and, because of this, require in-depth studies on the feasibility of management options, on biological as well as social grounds. This study, based on research on the biophysical potential and the perceptions by the owners of abandoned farmlands, analyzes the feasibility of silvicultural management options to improve forestry potential. Using a questionnaire, we surveyed abandoned farmland owners on different aspects of the status of their abandoned farmland in order to determine their willingness toward the management of these private lands. The land owners were also asked to express their interests and their constraints toward various types of interventions, with an emphasis on silvicultural work. The data were analyzed using multivariate methods to establish relationships between the questionnaire data and the characteristics of the land owners (socioeconomic profile and value system toward the environment). The results show that, in general, abandoned farmland is an unwanted space, is generally little used, is poorly known, and has little importance in the plans of its owners. We have found three types of owner profiles; the owners with a farmer’s profile are those who are the most interested in managing their abandoned farmland, whether for agriculture or silviculture. The desire to improve abandoned farmland seems less important to owners with an ecocentric profile (high awareness of the environment) and to older owners. Finally, by associating the type of abandoned farmland owned and the characteristics of the owners, it is possible to propose different management options that reconcile the wishes of the owners as well as the biophysical potential of their abandoned farmland.     

The Kyoto Protocol: provisions and unresolved issues relevant to land-use change and forestry

This paper describes the relevant text of the Kyoto Protocol and its implications for land-use change and forestry (LUCF) activities and addresses some of the technical issues that merit further consideration and clarification before the treaty comes into force. Although the phrasing of the Protocol is sometimes ambiguous and the opportunities limited, the Protocol does provide for some selected forest-related activities to be used to meet national commitments for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. To implement the forest-related portions of the Protocol, most importantly: (1) a clear definition for the word ‘reforestation' is required, (2) contradictory wording in Article 3.3 needs to be clarified to establish how credits are to be measured, (3) further thought should be given to the sentence in Article 3.7 which provides that countries with a net carbon sink in LUCF in 1990 cannot include emissions from land-use change in their 1990 baseline, whereas countries with a net carbon source in LUCF can include those emissions in their 1990 baseline, (4) the rules and baseline issues for joint implementation and the clean development mechanism need to be clarified and (5) inclusion of additional forest management activities needs to be considered.     

Land Area Eligible for Afforestation and Reforestation within the Clean Development Mechanism: A Global Analysis of the Impact of Forest Definition

Within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Kyoto Protocol, countries have significant latitude to define a forest. The most important parameter affecting area designated as forest is the minimum crown cover which can be set between 10 and 30%. The choice will have implications for the amount of land available in a country for afforestation and reforestation activities within the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM-AR). In this paper, we present an analysis of the regional differences in land availability for CDM-AR projects. We then examine how the choice of a high or low threshold value for crown cover will affect the area available for CDM activities and how the limitations imposed by this element of the definition compares to other factors that are likely to limit CDM activities. Results represent a global analysis that included all countries not included in Annex I of the Kyoto Protocol, and examined the effect on land availability of a range of crown cover thresholds ranging from 10–30%. Of the 140 Non-Annex One countries, 107 countries were found to have a potential for CDM-AR projects. Asia had the largest amount of combined area suitable for CDM-AR at the 10% crown cover threshold level. However, at 30%, South America had the greatest amount of land available, and a large change in available land area, which increased by almost five times compared to what was available at the 10% threshold. The area available in Africa increased by a factor of 5.5. Central America showed the largest increase, to almost 10 times more at the 30% threshold. By contrast, within Asia, the area increase was comparatively less, but still the area nearly doubled. Globally, a low threshold of 10% crown cover excluded almost 2/3 of the land identified that was eligible at 30%, over 5 million km². The spatial analyses showed not only the effects of the choice of the crown cover criterion, but also where the land was available for CDM activities within each country at different thresholds. Protected areas account for 10–20% of the CDM-AR eligible area in most countries.     

Greening China Naturally

China leads the world in afforestation, and is one of the few countries whose forested area is increasing. However, this massive "greening" effort has been less effective than expected; afforestation has sometimes produced unintended environmental, ecological, and socioeconomic consequences, and has failed to achieve the desired ecological benefits. Where afforestation has succeeded, the approach was tailored to local environmental conditions. Using the right plant species or species composition for the site and considering alternatives such as grassland restoration have been important success factors. To expand this success, government policy should shift from a forest-based approach to a results-based approach. In addition, long-term monitoring must be implemented to provide the data needed to develop a cost-effective, scientifically informed restoration policy.