ecological restoration in west china: problems and proposals

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Ecological Restoration in West China: Problems and ProposalsAuthor(s): Xiuhong Wang and Yuancun ShenSource: AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 38(3):177-179. 2009.Published By: Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447-38.3.177URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1579/0044-7447-38.3.177

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Synopsis

This synopsis was not peer reviewed.

Ecological Restoration in West China:Problems and Proposals

China has undergone rapid economicdevelopment since the 1978 reforms,which resulted in most Chinese havingraised their living standards. Unfortunate-ly, frequent floods, droughts, sandstorms,and soil erosion in West China in recent 15years have not only directly threatened thelocal people’s daily life but also seriouslyaffected the nation’s sustainable develop-ment. These serious environmental prob-lems have aroused the attention of theChinese government to speed up theecological restoration in West China.Many large ecological restoration projectsand related scientific research have beencarried out. However, the result is not verysatisfactory. This is because there aresome neglected problems that need to besolved.

The topography of China, from themighty and towering Tibetan Plateaueastward, is broadly arranged into threegreat steps: i.e., the Tibetan Plateau, thewestern and central mountains and pla-teaus, and the eastern plains. Located onthe first and second great topographicsteps, West China occupies more than 70%of the nation’s total land area. Theenvironment in West China is fragilebecause of the high altitude, widely dis-tributed mountains and plateaus, greatdifference in daily or seasonal tempera-ture, frequent droughts, and strong westwind.

Based on ecological and geographicconditions (1, 2), West China can beroughly divided into five regions (Fig. 1).i) Tibetan Plateau. With an extremely highaltitude (regarded as the roof of theworld), very rugged topography and se-vere climate, the Tibetan Plateau is proneto strong freeze-thaw erosion (3). Thesoutheastern part of the plateau, whichconsists a series of high mountains sand-wiched between deep gorges, is seriouslyaffected by water erosion and mud flow.ii) Northwest China. Located in theEurasian continent and surrounded by aseries of lofty mountains, NorthwestChina has an extremely dry and windyclimate. In spring and winter, cold and drynorthwesterly or northerly winds predom-inate. Thus, serious wind erosion directlyaffects the fragile environment. Oasesoccupy only about 3–5% of the total areabut support more than 90% of the totalpopulation and more than 98% of thecities and towns in Northwest China.However, these oases are frequently influ-enced by sandstorms and soil salinization.iii) Loess Plateau. With widely developed

vertical cleavage fractures, the LoessPlateau is prone to serious water erosion.In the northern part of the plateau thatborders on the northwest arid China, winderosion becomes strong. iv) Sichuan Ba-sin. Surrounded by high mountains andplateau, the basin is mainly composed oflow mountains and hills. Serious watererosion, mud flow, and flood disastersalways occur, because purple sandstonesand hillocks are widely distributed andprecipitation is highly concentrated to afew months. v) Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau.High and rugged ground surface cut bydeep gorges and high waterfalls andcrossed by towering mountains make upmost of the region. Upper Paleozonicthick-bedded limestone strata are widelydistributed and karst topography is welldeveloped, which results in the regionbeing prone to strong stony desertifica-tion. Because of unstable soil-formingconditions, other mountainous regionswithout limestone strata are also subjectto serious water erosion, mud flow, andhill creep.

The fragile ecological balance in WestChina is easily broken, because of chang-ing climatic conditions and human im-pacts. In the recent 10 decades, the airtemperature of China has increased by0.4–0.58C, with a higher warming rate inWest China (4). The rise of air temperaturehas resulted in serious environmental

problems, such as glacier and frozen-soilrecessions, flood and mud flow, an in-crease of evaporation and decrease ofwater resources, and land desertification.

In addition to changing climatic condi-tions, a growing population and hugenegative human impacts have placed greatpressure on West China. China is acountry with a long history of civilization.Relocation of civilization centers from thenorthwest to the southeast in ancientChina also shows that the degradation offragile environment in the west has a longhistory with the anthropogenic environ-mental impact as one of the decisivecontributing factors (5). In the most recent50 years, large-scale cropland expansion,grassland overgrazing, forest denudation,and irrational use of water resources,together with the climate warming, haveaccelerated the land degradation.

West China has about 1.63 106 km2 ofsandy desertified land, which occupies 95%of the nation’s total sandy desertified landarea. Serious land sandy desertificationmainly occurs in farming-grazing ecotonesand edges of oasis. The expanding rate ofsandy desertified land area has increasedbecause of climatic changes and humanimpacts (4). For example, NorthwestChina had an expanding rate of 1560km2 y�1 from the late 1950s to the mid1970s, 2100 km2 y�1 during 1975–1987,

Figure 1. Division of West China

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and 3600 km2 y�1 during 1988–2000,respectively (6).

Natural soil erosion of the westernmountains and plateaus leads to theformation of eastern plains. However,human-induced soil erosion (referring towind, water, and freeze-thaw erosions)usually leads to serious damage to thenation’s environment, e.g., sandstormsand floods not only threaten the peoplein West China but also occasionallythreaten those in East China. The soilerosion area once reached 4.13 106 km2 inthe early 1990s, which accounted for 83%of the nation’s total erosion area, of which1.0 3 106 km2 was caused by watererosion, which amounted to 58% of thetotal water erosion area in China (4). Therate of human-induced water erosion ismuch higher than that of natural watererosion, especially in the Loess Plateau,upper reaches of Yangtze River, and karstdistributed regions. Freeze-thaw erosionhas frequently occurred on the frigidTibetan Plateau as a result of the increaseof air temperature.

Soil salinization mainly endangers oa-ses, which is mainly caused by irrationaluse of water resources. According tostatistical report, West China had asalinized cropland area of 20 754 km2,which occupied 6.5% of its total croplandarea, and amounted to 27.2% of thenation’s salinized cropland area (7). Var-ious human-induced montane disasters,such as hill creep, krystic slide, and mudflow generally lead to 2.53109 to 3.03109

kg of grain loss, 4.8 3 108 to 6.0 3 108 USdollars of economic loss, and thousands oflives lost annually (4).

Frequent human-induced natural disas-ters have increased the local people’sawareness of the importance of the eco-logical restoration in West China. Atpresent, many super-large projects forecological restoration are under way.However, the ecological conditions arealways described as ‘‘improved in partbut deteriorated as a whole.’’ Some pro-posals are put forward based on theneglected problems.

Ecological restoration is not entirelybased on land suitability. Particularly, theecological function of native grass andshrub has been undervalued. For variousreasons, China has limited forest resourc-es. Therefore, afforestation is usuallyregarded as a better way for both ecolog-ical restoration and economic develop-ment. However, native grass and shrubcan live in a considerable portion of thearea mainly limited by scarce precipita-tion, whereas forests may survive inlimited places with better water conditionsin West China (8). Overmuch artificial treeplanting, in particular, planting trees in theplaces where forests were once distributedwithout concern for current land suitabil-ity, not only lead to a potential threat tothe environment (such as an increase ofevapotranspiration and vegetation degra-dation caused by wild rats and hares) but

also result in serious waste of manpowerand money (9). Compared with artificialforests, as well as artificial grass andshrub, native drought-enduring grass andshrub need a shorter cycle and much lowerinvestment, and are favorable to most areaof the west.

Local people are the main force in theecological restoration in West China.However, not only land degradation, butalso the underdeveloped agricultural econ-omy seriously endangers the local people’sdaily life. Except for some special regionsnot fit for human habitation, large-scaleecological emigration eastward from thewest is impossible. Thus, development oflocal agricultural economy is as importantas ecological restoration (9, 10). Withoutlocal economic development, the localpeople have to destroy the fragile environ-ment for their subsistence. For bothecological and economic benefits, thefollowing need to be taken into account.First, prime cropland needs to be protect-ed by laws for food security, and marginalcropland should be converted for ecolog-ical purposes; second, cash shrub plantingneeds to be developed, whereas blindlydeveloping of tree-grain intercrop shouldbe controlled; third, animal husbandryshould be shifted from grazing to confinedfeeding for grassland protection (9, 11);and fourth, sand or salt soil can beregarded as special materials or resourcesto develop.

Different departments or organizationsusually compete with each other forvarious interests from related projects,which result in separate or repeatedinvestments and indecisive responsibilitiesfor ecological restoration (12). Thus, it isimperative to establish an integrated man-agement system for ecological restorationentirely controlled by the central govern-ment. However, local participation is notenough (13). Ordinary peasants and herds-men should be regarded as participants(not obedient multitudes) for perfectingsome concrete plans; moreover, marketmechanisms should be used, which willarouse people’s enthusiasm for ecologicalrestoration. The effective combination ofintegrated management and local partici-pation is also helpful in stopping somecorruption, e.g., preventing some localgovernors from carrying out demonstra-tion or roadside projects, returning ‘‘newlycreated cropland by deliberately destroy-ing forests’’ to forests and grassland, ormaking false reports on the achievementsin ecological restoration to get moreinvestments, more compensatory funds,and higher promotion.

Being one of the super-large projectsfor ecological restoration in China, return-ing cropland to forests, shrub, or grassland(grain for green policy) greatly affects thesubsistence and income for the localpeople. Thus, the Chinese governmenthas established a regulation to compensatethe local farmers for their cropland loss.However, the implementation of grain for

green policy is not very successful. Forexample, some prime cropland has beenconverted, whereas some marginal crop-land is still cultivated. Therefore, thecompensatory regulation needs to bemodified. The compensatory criterionsystem should be perfected based onregional differentiation to encourage thelocal people to return cropland to shrub orgrassland (not only to forests) and toavoid excessive conversion of cropland inthe Yellow River Valley or reluctantconversion of cropland in the YangtzeRiver Valley only for economic benefit.Long-term and diversified compensationsare needed to avoid repeatedly damagingthe reconstructed ecosystems, especiallyincluding the investments for capacitybuilding, agricultural infrastructure, andagricultural integrated development (9,10). In addition, some related punitivelaws should be established for implement-ing the grain for green policy.

Noticeably, land degradation has oc-curred on vast expanses of land becauseirrational land use and climate deteriora-tion have taken place on a large scale.However, ecological restoration projects(described as construction of ‘‘GreenGreat Wall’’) have only been carried outin limited key areas (8). Therefore, it isunderstandable that the ecological condi-tions are always described as ‘‘improved inpart but deteriorated as a whole.’’ In thissituation, perfecting all the related land-use policies and legal systems is necessary,which can be described as construction of‘‘Green Great Wall in local people’sminds.’’ The perfected land-use policymust assure the local people that thefragile environment not only belongs totheir country or the world but also belongto themselves and their offspring. Theperfecting of a legal system concerningthe land use refers to the following:intensifying fairness and operability ofland-use laws, enhancing independence ofa land-use law enforcement organizationfrom the local government, training thelaw enforcement personnel in legal knowl-edge, and perfecting the supervisory sys-tem for enforcement of land-use laws. Theconstruction of the aforesaid two types of‘‘Green Great Wall’’ may effectively pro-tect the fragile environment in WestChina.

References and Notes

1. Zhao, S.Q. (ed). 1994. Geography of China: Environ-ment, Resources, Population and Development. JohnWiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 332 pp.

2. Shen, Y.C., Zhang, H.Y. and Wang, X.H. 2003. Therole of agriculture in the development of western Chinaand eco-agriculture division. J. Arid Land Resour.Environ. 17, 1–6. (In Chinese with English abstract).

3. Wang, X.H. and Fu, X.F. 2004. Sustainable manage-ment of alpine meadows on the Tibetan Plateau:problems overlooked and suggestions for change.Ambio 33, 169–171.

4. Qin, D.H., Din, Y.H., Wang, S.W., Wang, S.M., Dong,G.R., Lin, E.D.E., Lin, C.Z., She, Z.X., et al. 2002.Ecological and environmental change in West Chinaand its response strategy. Adv. Earth Sci. 17, 314–319.(In Chinese with English abstract).

5. Duan, C.Q., Gan, X.C., Wang, J. and Chien, P.K.1998. Relocation of civilization centers in ancientChina: environmental factors. Ambio 27, 572–575.

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6. Wang, T. 2007. The status of aeolian desertification andits control in China. Chinese J. Nat. 29, 203–211. (InChinese with English abstract).

7. Li, F.X. 2002. Degenerative reality and controllingcountermeasure of cultivated land in western region ofChina. J. Soil Water Conserv. 16, 1–5. (In Chinese withEnglish abstract).

8. Shi, Y.C. 2002. Avoid misunderstanding the relation-ship between returning of farmland to forests anddesertification control. Pratacultural Sci. 19, 70–72. (InChinese).

9. Wang, X.H., Lu, C.H., Fang, J.F. and Shen, Y.C. 2007.Implications for development of grain-for-green policybased on cropland suitability evaluation in desertifica-tion-affected north China. Land Use Policy 24, 417–424.

10. Zhang, J.B. and Zhou, G.Y. 2003. Establishing andperfecting on the compensation mechanism for thereconverting arable land back into forests and grass-land. Problems For. Econ. 23, 249–252. (In Chinese withEnglish abstract).

11. Wang, X.H., Zheng, D. and Shen, Y.C. 2007. Land usechange and its driving forces on the Tibetan Plateauduring 1990–2000. CATENA 72, 56–66.

12. Yang, H. 2004. Land conservation campaign in China,integrated management, local participation and foodsupply option. Geoforum 35, 507–518.

13. Shen, Y.C. and Jing, K. 2002. Study on speeding upecological building of soil and water conservation in theLoess Plateau. Soil Water Conserv. China 12, 22–24. (InChinese).

14. This study was supported by Ministry of Sciences andTechnology (973 Program: 2009CB421307,2007BAC15B03, and 2006BAD26B0204–1).

Xiuhong WangInstitute of Geographic Sciences and

Natural Resources ResearchChinese Academy of Sciences

11A Datun Road Anwai Beijing100101

P. R. Chinawangxh@igsnrr.ac.cn

Yuancun ShenInstitute of Geographic Sciences andNatural Resources Research

Chinese Academy of Sciences11A Datun Road Anwai Beijing100101

P. R. Chinashenyc567@163.com

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