Towards the ecological civilisation: conservation and afforestation

The long-term occupancy of the land by the Chinese across the millennia has left many of the country’s ecosystems degraded and numerous species of the surviving flora and fauna in danger of extinction. This deterioration of ecosystems was accentuated by many of the policies in first three decades of the PRC, especially the loss of forests as wood was used in large quantities in industrial processes. More recently the massive industrialisation post-1980 has hugely impacted agroecosystems, causing not only loss of farmland but also major environmental problems in areas with fragile soils and lack of reliable surface water. However, there have also been some significant attempts to remediate degraded lands, and hence this chapter focuses on restoration and remediation against the background of previous resource depletion and environmental destruction. One of the world’s largest and costliest environmental restoration programmes is the Grain for Green (GfG) Programme, launched in 2002 largely in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow and Yangtze River basins. This chapter draws upon numerous studies of the impacts of GfG to assess how effective the programme has been at both preventing further degradation and restoring the environment, notably through large-scale reafforestation. A key aspect of GfG has been payment for ecological services (PES). Again, there have been numerous studies of how PES has unfolded in the Chinese context, which are summarised in the chapter. This includes consideration of the Chinese Rangelands, which are extensive in the north-west and especially in Inner Mongolia. Under a ‘returning grazing land to grassland’ policy, farmers’ livelihoods have been affected, though there has been a subsidy and reward policy for grassland ecological conservation. Some studies have concluded that to date policies have been insufficient to prevent ongoing deterioration of grasslands. China is the world’s largest producer and exporter of forest products, and so has a vested interest in ensuring that its commercial forests are well managed and productive. To this end, there has been a strong emphasis on increasing the forested area and so reversing the centuries’ long occurrence of deforestation. However, this has not been a smooth process, but rather one where substantive new legislation was required in the 1990s to prevent further loss of forest and to advance the cause of sustainable forestry. This objective has been subsumed into numerous major forestry schemes across the country, perhaps the most ambitious being the Great Green Wall, initiated in 1978 and planned to run until 2050. It aims to reforest 3% of the Chinese land area, and operates across 13 provinces. The chapter evaluates this project and other key programmes addressing the forest sector. Agroforestry is an important part of the rural economy in some of the poorer parts of the country. It involves a combination of agriculture and forestry that often involves the generation of non-wood forest products, including various foods, fibre, oils, seeds and animal products. The importance of this sector is discussed, including attempts to develop it and bring economic growth to poor areas. One of the keys to increased agricultural productivity has been maintaining and upgrading irrigation systems, with many parts of China heavily reliant on irrigation to maintain crop growth. One recent estimate is that irrigation lands occupy 51% of China’s cultivated land, produce three-quarters of its grain and over 90% of its economic crops. The chapter looks at innovations in irrigation and water management, linking this to the wider modernising agenda. The key role of water user associations (WUAs) is highlighted.