IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i3p983-d316542.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing the Effects of Desertification Control Projects from the Farmers’ Perspective: A Case Study of Yanchi County, Northern China

Author

Listed:
  • Xuan Wei

    (Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)

  • Lihua Zhou

    (University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China)

  • Guojing Yang

    (Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China)

  • Ya Wang

    (Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China)

  • Yong Chen

    (Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China)

Abstract

Desertification has inflicted severe damage on the natural environment and social economy for decades, particularly in the arid and semi-arid regions of northern China. In Yanchi County, a series of projects were implemented to combat desertification after 2000. To assess the effects of these Desertification Control Projects from the farmers’ perspective, we divided Yanchi County into two regions (the northern and southern regions) according to their different environmental conditions. We collected data including basic family information, farmers’ perceptions and attitudes, and farmers’ suggestions, in a questionnaire investigation following the Participatory Rural Appraisal approach. Data analysis using the Mann–Whitney U test and Fisher’s exact test revealed that the Desertification Control Projects were generally successful, as the local environment and farmers’ incomes were both improved. Farmers were all satisfied with the effects of the projects, but the farmers in the southern region had a higher acceptance of the projects than those in the northern region. In addition, three problems with the Desertification Control Projects were noted: the farmers had a low degree of participation in the projects, the farmer’s low incomes affected the sustainability of the projects, and the implementation of the complete grazing ban had several adverse effects. We provided suggestions for solving these problems. Our findings have important implications for assessing the effects of environmental conservation projects, especially from a participant’s perspective.

Suggested Citation

  • Xuan Wei & Lihua Zhou & Guojing Yang & Ya Wang & Yong Chen, 2020. "Assessing the Effects of Desertification Control Projects from the Farmers’ Perspective: A Case Study of Yanchi County, Northern China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-15, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:3:p:983-:d:316542
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/3/983/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/3/983/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McGinlay, J. & Gowing, D.J.G & Budds, J., 2017. "The threat of abandonment in socio-ecological landscapes: Farmers’ motivations and perspectives on high nature value grassland conservation," Environmental Science & Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 39-49.
    2. Teder, Meelis & Kaimre, Paavo, 2018. "The participation of stakeholders in the policy processes and their satisfaction with results: A case of Estonian forestry policy," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 54-62.
    3. van Leeuwen, Cynthia C.E. & Cammeraat, Erik L.H. & de Vente, Joris & Boix-Fayos, Carolina, 2019. "The evolution of soil conservation policies targeting land abandonment and soil erosion in Spain: A review," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 174-186.
    4. Yang Zhang & Jing Shen & Yu Li, 2018. "Atmospheric Environment Vulnerability Cause Analysis for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolitan Region," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-21, January.
    5. Yuzhe Li & Jiangwen Fan & Hailing Yu, 2019. "Grazing Exclusion, a Choice between Biomass Growth and Species Diversity Maintenance in Beijing—Tianjin Sand Source Control Project," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-18, April.
    6. Zhang, Daojun & Jia, Qiqi & Xu, Xin & Yao, Shunbo & Chen, Haibin & Hou, Xianhui, 2018. "Contribution of ecological policies to vegetation restoration: A case study from Wuqi County in Shaanxi Province, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 400-411.
    7. Amanda Jiménez & Martha C. Monroe & Natalia Zamora & Javier Benayas, 2017. "Trends in environmental education for biodiversity conservation in Costa Rica," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 221-238, February.
    8. Tianyi Zhou & Tomohiro Akiyama & Masahide Horita & Ali Kharrazi & Steven Kraines & Jia Li & Ken Yoshikawa, 2018. "The Impact of Ecological Restoration Projects in Dry Lands: Data-based Assessment and Human Perceptions in the Lower Reaches of Heihe River Basin, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-18, May.
    9. Qianru Yu & Chen-Chieh Feng & NuanYin Xu & Luo Guo & Dan Wang, 2019. "Quantifying the Impact of Grain for Green Program on Ecosystem Service Management: A Case Study of Exibei Region, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-17, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rares Halbac-Cotoara-Zamfir & Andrea Colantoni & Enrico Maria Mosconi & Stefano Poponi & Simona Fortunati & Luca Salvati & Filippo Gambella, 2020. "From Historical Narratives to Circular Economy: De-Complexifying the “Desertification” Debate," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-18, July.
    2. Nausheen Mazhar & Safdar Ali Shirazi, 2023. "Community perceptions of the impacts of desertification as related to adaptive capacity in drylands of South Punjab, Pakistan," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 549-568, June.
    3. Jiayi Sun & Deqing Tan, 2023. "Non-cooperative Mode, Cost-Sharing Mode, or Cooperative Mode: Which is the Optimal Mode for Desertification Control?," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 61(3), pages 975-1008, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xu, Xin & Zhang, Daojun & Zhang, Yu & Yao, Shunbo & Zhang, Jinting, 2020. "Evaluating the vegetation restoration potential achievement of ecological projects: A case study of Yan’an, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Qianru Chen & Hualin Xie & Qunli Zhai, 2022. "Management Policy of Farmers’ Cultivated Land Abandonment Behavior Based on Evolutionary Game and Simulation Analysis," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-23, February.
    3. Zhang, Daojun & Jia, Qiqi & Xu, Xin & Yao, Shunbo & Chen, Haibin & Hou, Xianhui & Zhang, Jinting & Jin, Gui, 2019. "Assessing the coordination of ecological and agricultural goals during ecological restoration efforts: A case study of Wuqi County, Northwest China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 550-562.
    4. Petr Marada & Jan Cukor & Rostislav Linda & Zdeněk Vacek & Stanislav Vacek & František Havránek, 2019. "Extensive Orchards in the Agricultural Landscape: Effective Protection against Fraying Damage Caused by Roe Deer," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-12, July.
    5. García-Ruiz, J.M. & Lasanta, T. & Nadal-Romero, E. & Lana-Renault, N. & Álvarez-Farizo, B., 2020. "Rewilding and restoring cultural landscapes in Mediterranean mountains: Opportunities and challenges," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    6. Chenying Li & Tiantian Zhang & Xi Wang & Zefeng Lian, 2022. "Site Selection of Urban Parks Based on Fuzzy-Analytic Hierarchy Process (F-AHP): A Case Study of Nanjing, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-27, October.
    7. Zhaodi Lu & Zhengfeng Zhang, 2022. "Dynamics of Territorial Spatial Pattern and Landscape Impact under Different Economic Gradients: A Case Study of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) Region, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-23, December.
    8. Carolina Perpiña Castillo & Eloína Coll Aliaga & Carlo Lavalle & José Carlos Martínez Llario, 2020. "An Assessment and Spatial Modelling of Agricultural Land Abandonment in Spain (2015–2030)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-23, January.
    9. Yang, Qi & Zhang, Daojun, 2021. "The influence of agricultural industrial policy on non-grain production of cultivated land: A case study of the “one village, one product” strategy implemented in Guanzhong Plain of China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    10. Jaime Martínez-Valderrama & Gabriel del Barrio & María E. Sanjuán & Emilio Guirado & Fernando T. Maestre, 2022. "Desertification in Spain: A Sound Diagnosis without Solutions and New Scenarios," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-13, February.
    11. Morteza Akbari & Hadi Memarian & Ehsan Neamatollahi & Masoud Jafari Shalamzari & Mohammad Alizadeh Noughani & Dawood Zakeri, 2021. "Prioritizing policies and strategies for desertification risk management using MCDM–DPSIR approach in northeastern Iran," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 2503-2523, February.
    12. Atmiş, Erdoğan & Yıldız, Damla & Erdönmez, Cihan, 2024. "A different dimension in deforestation and forest degradation: Non-forestry uses of forests in Turkey," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    13. Veronika Vaseková, 2022. "How do people in China perceive water? From health threat perception to environmental policy change," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 12(3), pages 627-645, September.
    14. Zhang, Zhihui & Ghazali, Samane & Miceikienė, Astrida & Zejak, Dejan & Choobchian, Shahla & Pietrzykowski, Marcin & Azadi, Hossein, 2023. "Socio-economic impacts of agricultural land conversion: A meta-analysis," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    15. Ding, Zhenmin & Yao, Shunbo, 2021. "Ecological effectiveness of payment for ecosystem services to identify incentive priority areas: Sloping land conversion program in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    16. Zhang, Daojun & Yang, Wanjing & Kang, Dingrong & Zhang, Han, 2023. "Spatial-temporal characteristics and policy implication for non-grain production of cultivated land in Guanzhong Region," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    17. Holden, Petra B. & Ziervogel, Gina & Hoffman, M. Timm & New, Mark G., 2021. "Transition from subsistence grazing to nature-based recreation: A nuanced view of land abandonment in a mountain social-ecological system, southwestern Cape, South Africa," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    18. Liu, Jingming & Chen, Haibin & Hou, Xianhui & Zhang, Daojun & Zhang, Hui, 2021. "Time to adopt a context-specific and market-based compensation scheme for a new round of the Grain for Green Program," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    19. Arnould, Maxence & Morel, Laure & Fournier, Meriem, 2022. "Embedding non-industrial private forest owners in forest policy and bioeconomy issues using a Living Lab concept," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    20. de Groot, Rudolf & Moolenaar, Simon & de Vente, Joris & De Leijster, Vincent & Ramos, María Eugenia & Robles, Ana Belen & Schoonhoven, Yanniek & Verweij, Pita, 2022. "Framework for integrated Ecosystem Services assessment of the costs and benefits of large scale landscape restoration illustrated with a case study in Mediterranean Spain," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:3:p:983-:d:316542. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.