Characteristics of Steep Cultivated Land and the Impact of the Grain-for-Green Policy in China

The Grain-for-Green Policy in China could not only improve China＇s ecological quality, but also influence grain supplies for a short term. Based on data from the detailed nationwide land use survey in 1996 and the steep cultivated land survey update in 2000, a regression model for the driving forces affecting steep cultivated lands was developed, and cluster analysis was used to identify seven steep cultivated land types in order to analyze the grain availability impact of the project with land usage estimates for 2010 and 2030. The results suggested that consecutive days with minimum daily temperature over 10 ℃ and the dominant slope in a county constrained the spatial distribution of steep cultivated lands. In terms of socioeconomic factors, steep cultivated land was a complex interaction of population size, gross domestic production level, and the richness and quality of cultivated lands having slopes less then 15°. The trends for steep cultivated land in 2010 and 2030 were forecast using a driving forces model and China＇s grain security criteria and showed that the Grain-for-Green Policy at the national level would not cause a grain shortage or threaten food security criteria. However, if steep sloped lands were to be retired from production, some regions would need grain supplements as early as 2010. Also, assuming that only 60% of the cultivated land at the national level was needed, population and economic development pressures in 2030 would require some steep cultivated lands to be used for grain production.

Cultivated-land change in Mu Us Sandy Land of China before and after the first-stage grain-for-green policy

Mu Us Sandy Land(MUSL) of China, as a typical eco-fragile and farming-pastoral transitional region, shows great vulnerability to disturbances from cultivation activity. In this region, the conflict between cultivation activity and environmental protection has not attracted great importance until the implementation of China's Grain-for-Green Policy(CGGP) since2000. Here, using Landsat5 TM/Landsat7 ETM+ images from 1990, 2000, and 2010, we monitor the cultivation activity and land-use/cover changes(LUCC) resulting from cultivation activity in the MUSL region. Based on the data from images, we developed a series of databases of cultivated activity-induced LUCC and use them to discuss comparatively the spatio-temporal evolution trends of cultivation activity before and after CGGP implementation. These results provide evidence for managers to evaluate the implementation effectiveness of governmental policy and the influence of cultivation activity on the ecological environment of the MUSL region.

Dilemma for the Redevelopment of Village and Town Construction Land, Formation Mechanism and Policy Suggestions

Under the context of economy new normal and rapid urbanization, the shift of economic growth, structural adjustment pains as well as pre-stimulus digestion comes coincidentally. The boundary red line of urban growth, the red line of the number of basic farms and the ecology red line makes the local to conserve land. Land stock for village and town construction is a huge amount of potential resources. Redevelopment of land for village and town construction provides ensured land security for the smooth progress of urbanization. Combining village and town construction land use characteristics and making in-depth analysis of the difficulties in the redevelopment of village and town construction and its inner mechanism, policies and suggestions were proposed for the redevelopment of village and town construction land in terms of land property, land price, market allocation, planning, surveillance and so on, so as to provide valuable reference for the smooth redevelopment of village and town construction land, and the system design of villages and towns.

The role of land as the central piece to sustainable food systems:Lessons learned from Portugal national food-related policies

This paper discusses to what extent land is considered in food-related policies from a systemic perspective.Based on existing literature and international agendas priorities,we argue that access to and preservation of land for food along the food chain play a major role in sustainable food systems.To further explore this argument,we address the following question:Where does land stand in sectorial and national food-related policies?The mul-tiple dimensions and implications of food systems and the international agenda’s priorities namely the“Right to adequate Food”,“Food Sovereignty”and the“Right to Land”,were used as our conceptual framework.To work out how land is being considered in food sectorial policies,both quantitative and qualitative methods were applied to examine ten Portuguese national food-related policies.Results are showing a lack of consideration for land access and land preservation,needed all along the food chain to build a national sustainable food system.On the other hand,there is a gap between current grassroots priorities international agendas and food-related national policies.Such a situation strongly suggests that building a sustainable food system needs a clear food territorial perspective,still neglected,and shifting from sectorial policies towards a more integrated food system approach,that will include land as a central piece.

Long-term Dynamics of Cultivated Land Resources and Their Driving Forces of Guyuan City in Upper Reaches of Jinghe River

The land use patterns in Guyuan City,Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China,have changed greatly over the years,due to population growth and farming and stock raising development.This study,using 50-year statis-tical data of cultivated land and 14-year spatial data of land use pattern,analyzed the developmental stages,the char-acter,and the spatial variance of farmland in the city,and discussed the driving forces of cultivated land changes based on empirical and conceptual statistical models.First,the change of cultivated land area went through different stages of rapid increase,fluctuating change,decrease and rapid decrease from 1949 to 2004,additionally,social and economic policies in different stages had an important impact on farmland variance.Second,from 1986 to 2000,the quantity of cultivated land increased,but its quality decreased.Third,social and economic factors are determinant factors in culti-vated land transition.Five constructed paths explain cultivated land transition.Factors that have direct or indirect ef-fects on farmland include the economy(Xeco),the population(Xpop),agricultural output(Xagr),and scientific input(Xsci).The sequence of impact was Xeco>Xpop>Xsci>Xagr.Among all these impacts,Xeco was the major positive one,and Xpop was the major negative one.It is urgent to take measures or adopt a policy to stop the vicious cycle in eco-environment and agriculture production.Otherwise,negative patterns of farmland use will increase,and high-quality cultivated land will continue to decline.

Land Use/Cover Change and Its Policy Implications in Typical Agriculture-forest Ecotone of Central Jilin Province,China

During the 21st century,policies toward agriculture,forestry,and urbanization have emerged to ensure food security,ecological restoration,and human well-being by managing land in Northeast China.However,the integrated effects and relationships of various policies are still not well understood.This study observed the land use land cover changes in Central Jilin from 2000 to 2019 and,by considering policy involvement,aimed to understand the effects and trade-offs of policies.Results showed that the cropland,including dryland and rice paddy,and the forest,including coniferous forest and deciduous forest,are dominant land types in Central Jilin.During 2000–2019,the land changed diversely,of which the main changes were the expanded dryland(+0.43 million ha),the increased deciduous forest(+22 million ha),the decreased coniferous forest(–0.08 million ha),and the expanded urban settlement(+0.04 million ha).With these changes,despite the unit grain yield showing a rising trend,the yield contribution of Central Jilin to the national total decreased.The poor cultivating structure made for the cropland expansion and reduced the implementation space of environmental restoration projects such as the Grain to Green.Thus,in Central Jilin that transits from the agri-food production zone to the eco-regulation zone,environmental projects coexisted in a trade-off manner with agricultural policies that aim to liberate agricultural productivity.In the key urban agglomerations of Central Jilin,the increase in the proportion of green space improved the thermal environment and carbon balance.The gross domestic product of the large city and its local proportion also rose.These improvements benefited from the promotion of development policies and urbanization policies at key time points.In the future,it is necessary to coordinate agricultural policies and environmental projects and promote the progress of small-and medium-sized cities to ensure the equality of regional development.This study has implications for making decisions to revitalize Northeast China and researchers who inform decisions.

Optimization and Regulation Policy for Land Use Changes Based on Low-carbon Emission in Developed Regions of China

Land use and cover change(LUCC) is one of the important causes of the Earth’s carbon cycle imbalances resulting from failure in optimizing land use. The solution to this problem has been the hotspot of research in land and environmental science. We took 'low carbon', 'energy saving' and 'high-efficiency' as the goals of land use optimization,and integrated Markov-CA(Cellular Automaton),the Grid-Fractal model and GIS,in order to study carbon emission objective function,to establish a simulation method for land use spatial allocation optimization,to evaluate the effect of the method on carbon emissions. Regulation policy on three types of land use spatial allocation was proposed,including 'low-carbon type', 'low-carbon-economic type' and 'economic type'. We applied the method to analyze the land use spatial allocation in Taixing City of the 'Yangtze River Delta' regions in China,and obtained the following results:(i) The three optimization types would improve carbon emissions by 3. 21%,1. 80% and 0. 36% respectively in 2020,compared with 2010;(ii) The actual planning for 2020 was close to the 'low-carbon-economic type';(iii) The optimization method and regulation policy,combining local optimization and global control,could meet the sustainable multi-objective requirements for low-carbon constraints of land use spatial allocation. The result of this research could also serve as a reference for exploration into patterns of regional low-carbon land use and measures for energy saving and emission reduction.

Local perceptions of the conversion of cropland to forestland program in Jiangxi, Shaanxi, and Sichuan, China

Numerous land-use policies have been implemented in China in recent decades for ecological restoration and conservation to reduce environmental disasters and promote environmental sustainability.Many of these policies follow a top-down approach to implementation and as such,emphasize the hierarchical control within government structures.An understanding of local perceptions of land-use policies is important if the disconnect between policy makers and the target population is to be reduced and if program support is to improve.This study aimed to help improve local implementation,attitude toward,and engagement by examining the influence of socio-economic characteristics on the target population’s(local farmers)perception of the conversion of cropland to forestland program(CFPP)land use policy in Jiangxi,Sichuan,and Shaanxi provinces.It uses logistical regression models,with robust aspects of perception including confidence,support,transparency,prospects,fairness,and willingness to participate.Results indicate that social aspects as well as economic aspects are most important in influencing farmers’perceptions towards the CFPP.The farmers who have received technical support,rural male habitants,educated,and non-middle-aged farmers exhibit more positive perceptions of the program and are much more likely to support it,whereas farmers without any technical support or formal education,and female and middle-aged farmers are less likely to support the program.Importantly,this study also reveals the differences in responses,experiences and perceptions of the farmers living across different provinces.These empirical results provide insight into the influence of socio-economic characteristics on the perception of farmers towards land-use policies,which has important implications for designing targeted policy instruments and increasing farmer support for these policies.This knowledge can be harnessed and further evaluated in future research to improve citizen engagement,support,and understanding in order to help ecological restoration and conservation objectives be more effectively achieved.

On the Transmission Mechanism of the Chinese Land Policy in Macroeconomic-control: A Theoretical Study Based on Modified IS-LM Model

The purposes of this paper are to bring land factor into the general fame of national product and develop a new modified‘IS-LM equilibrium model',aiming to find out the impacts of land factor on the effective allocation of capital between total supply and total demand constituting gross national product,to analyze the relation mechanism among land factor and macroeconomic variables,and to discuss the theoretical mechanism under which land,fiscal and monetary policy are integrated. Methods employed include econometrics and model analysis. The results indicate that:( i) on the conditions that the equilibrium of supply and demand in land market,the modified IS-LM model taking into account land factor successfully performs transmission mechanism of land policy participation in macroeconomic-control by means of money capital regulation;( ii) the direction and intensity of land policy control are effected by elasticity of land supply and land price,meanwhile different characteristics of land supply elasticity exit in different stages of economic development;( iii) the realization of IS-LM equilibrium requires the aggregate effects of fiscal,monetary and land policy. It is concluded that land policies for macroeconomic-control drives land price higher,and land supply regulation would diminish financial effect. During the economic expansion or recovery period,the effect of expansionary land policy would be counteracted by high land price. During the economic transition or recession period,the government could control economical operation better through tightening land policy.

Mortgage of Land Management Right in the Rural Area Under the Policy Context

The aim of this study is to explore the necessity to consider the specialty of policy context in ethnic minority area during the policymaking process.Case analysis is applied to study the policy context in microscopic aspect.The information came from two sources:questionnaires or phone calls,and related documents.Study suggested that the mortgage of land management lies in the negligence of temporal dynamic balance when it comes to the mastering of policy context.Optimal plan of method design was given in the end of this paper.

Research on Converting Cultivated Land into Forests and Regional Sustainable Development

The capability of sustainable development of Wuchuan County is evaluated comprehensively with theories and methods of regional sustainable development capability evaluation, which are extensively applied at home and abroad. The results indicate that the developing speed and patterns of Wuchuan County cannot satisfy the demand of the regional sustainable development. Moreover, the patterns, distributions, tree species, growing patterns, and other aspects must consider the restriction of ecological water utilization. It is put forward that the standards for selecting the converting lands are slope, desertification degree, and rainfall.In addition, the control of soil erosion and the prevention of land desertification are selected as the dualpurpose of the converting project.

基于Landsat影像的雄安新区2013−2021年土地利用变化检测和生态政策评估

利用2013−2021年共9期Landsat8影像,采用面向对象的监督分类方法,得到新区逐年土地利用与覆盖分类结果,进行LUCC分析及生态品质评价.结论:1)分类结果总体精度>86.8%,K为0.81~0.88,优于同期FROM-GLC及GLC_FCS全球分类产品;2)雄安新区设立至今耕地面积减少,不透水面和林地面积增长,蓝绿空间面积占比由12%增加至30%,雄安3县(雄县、容城县和安新县)建设严格遵循了新区《规划纲要》中植树造林、城市发展、湿地涵养3项不同的建设任务,各县主要土地利用覆盖变化分别为耕地向林地的转变、耕地与不透水面的相互转变以及耕地向水体和水生植被的转变;3)不透水面扩张与城市建设对生态品质的负面影响正逐步被森林覆盖率、蓝绿空间面积增加带来的正面影响所抵消.总体看,雄安新区土地利用/覆盖变化遵循新区规划要求,体现了经济社会发展和生态建设的成果.

The Use of VHSR Imagery for Wildland Fire Prevention: Application to Land-Clearing Management in the South of France

Every year, the French Mediterranean area is subject to wildland fires. The prevention policy promotes the major role of forest layout, for which it is necessary to build appropriate facilities such as reducing ignition and fire propagation risks near the borders of roads and tracks, creating forest tracks to allow firefighters to move safely through the forest during a fire, creating fuel breaks in order to divide up forests and limit the propagation of fire. Land-clearing along a forest track consists in creating discontinuity between the herbaceous stratum and the tree stratum by eliminating the shrubby stratum and cutting tree crowns. It avoids fire propagation by convection, and enables firefighters to deal with the fire in safety. The main difficulty for forest officers is to identify an optimized method to select appropriate tracks to clear, because it is impossible to clear all the tracks each year. Remote sensing tools would seem to be particularly useful for obtaining the best strategic and economic overview of forest tracks at departmental scale. This theme “land-clearing evaluation method” was selected as a target application for the images derived from the new Pleiades sensors: products and services required by end users. The objective of this work is to assess the real potentiality of such Very High Spatial Resolution (VHSR) imagery for land-clearing management. The methodology used consists in image classification and spatial analysis in order to extract land-clearing quality, and also evaluation of land-clearing quality based on field questionnaires validated through interactions with firefighters and rangers. The development of this methodology and its application to QuickBird images-used as Pleiades data simulations-successfully showed that VHSR Imagery is useful for preventing fire risk. It seems to be a good perspective for providing operational mapping services to help land-clearing management.

Land Use Changes of an Aeolian-Loessial Soil Area in Northwest China: Implications for Ecological Restoration

China has experienced dramatic land use changes over recent decades, with marked environmental and socio-economic consequences. Hengshan County, located in the aeolian-loessial area of Northwest China, was investigated to illustrate land use changes and their implications for environmental and long-term rural economic development. The farmland in Hengshan County significantly decreased during 1990–2003, whereas forest land and grassland increased. The conversion rates of farmland, orchard land, forest land and construction land varied markedly among different periods: 1990–1995, 1995–2000 and 2000–2003. Conversion of orchard land, grassland and construction land was dominant in 1990–1995, whereas the conversion of farmland to forest land mainly occurred in 2000–2003. The results suggested a profound transition in institutional policy and political economy of land management, including implementation of integrated soil erosion control projects, adoption of a market-oriented economy and the ‘Grain-for-Green’ policy, during this period in China. To achieve long-term sustainable land use in Hengshan County, efforts should aim at increasing off-farm income of rural families as well as establishing land-economizing mechanisms to promote land productivity, in addition to conservation measures.

Land Use Change and Anthropogenic Driving Forces:A Case Study in Yanhe River Basin

Human activities alter land use patterns and affect landscape sustainability. It is therefore very important to investigate the relationship between land use change and human activities. This study focuses on the detection of changing land use patterns in the Yanhe River Basin in northern Loess Plateau of China between 1995 and 2008. Landscape metrics were used to analyze the changing land use patterns and to explore the related anthropogenic driving forces. Results show that:1) Totally, 186 590 ha of croplands were converted into alternate land-use types (equivalent to 61.7% of the original cropland area). The majority of cropland areas were found to be converted into grassland and woodland areas (accounting for 55.9% and 4.9% respectively of the original cropland areas). 2) Both cropland and woodland demonstrated an increasing fragmentation tendency while grasslands showed a decreasing fragmentation tendency. 3) Multiple driving forces of land use change were thought to act together to changes in landscape metrics in the Yanhe River Basin. The anthropogenic driving forces were analyzed from four perspectives:ecological conservation policy, labor force transfer, industrial development, and rural settlement. The policy of the GfG (Grain for Green) project was the main driving factor which expedited the conversion from cropland to woodland and grassland. Industrial development was also found to affect land use change through the direct impact of economic activities such as oil exploration and agricultural production, or through indirect impacts such as the industrial structures readjustment. Labor force transfer from rural to urban areas was found to follow the industrial structure readjustment and further drove land use change from cropland to off-farm land use. Establishment of new tile-roofed houses instead of cave-type dwellings in rural settlements has helped to aggregate the original scattered land-use type of construction.

Rural collective construction land use in China: Policy issues and options

Land policy in China has been changed dramatically in the past two decades. Though the reform of rural farm land and the urban construction land has been launched successively, little has been done about the rural construction land by now, which has made a negative impact to the land utilization. This paper fi rst reviews the policy terms about the rural construction land, then gives a brief critique on them under the background of social-economic transformation in China, and discusses the driving forces and implications of institutional changes in the end. We think the further reform on the rural collective construction land is imperative. Firstly, as a production factor, it should be endowed with property attribute, and secondly the use right of rural construction land should be separated from its ownership so that it can be transacted in a competitive market, which will benefi t the building of harmonious society.

The Relationship between Landless Farmers and Land Adjustment,Land Transfer,Land Inheritance

Based on the household survey of nine villages in Guangdong Province and Hunan Province,we research the relationship between landless farmers and land adjustment,land transfer in the context of rural land contract rights on a long term basis.We demonstrate that the existence of landless farmers does not pose a serious problem for the current rural community.We also explain the reason why the land is no longer readjusted:the expected return of land adjustment is low and the organizational costs are high.

Assessment of Conflicts between Forestry and Agricultural Land Uses in Nigeria and Ghana

The study was conducted in four states of the Southwest geo-political zone in Nigeria and four regions in Ghana.. The results showed that the existing forest, agricultural and land use decree/policies in Nigeria and Ghana indicated lack of integration between Forestry and Agricultural land uses. The main conflicting areas were obsolete land use decree in Nigeria and lack of national land use policy in Ghana. The causes and effects of the conflicts had policy enunciation, stakeholders, and institutional and managerial dimensions. Some of the causes of the conflicts were lack of national land use policies for coherent and integrated forest and agricultural sectors; high population growth, de-reservation of forest reserves, unsustainable agricultural practices and technologies, land hunger, encroachment of forest reserves with cash crops and stakeholders＇ litany of demands and other diverse interests. Consequences of conflicts in the study locations included disharmony between forestry officials and farmers, antagonism between timber concenssionnaires and communities, wanton destruction of economic trees and seedlings, extinction of tree species, expansion of illegal farm lands and an attendant poverty. The logistic regression model for conflicts between forestry and agricultural land uses in Nigeria and Ghana indicated significant fit to the data judging from chi square value （df, 9） = 3174.1 that is significant at P 〈 0.05. The final loss of the model indicated a value of 92.47.

Investigation of Climate and Land Use Policy Change Impacts on Food Security in Eastern Sudan, Gadarif State

The aims of this research were to investigate the impacts of climate variations on land use policies, food security and vegetation cover in Gadarif State (eastern Sudan) during 1961 to 2013. Analysis of precipitation and temperature time series revealed that the annual precipitation was decreasing while the temperature was increased in the study area. Precipitation was decreasing at a rate of −50.3 mm/10a, while the temperature was increasing at a rate of 0.02°C/10a. The result of both SPEI and SPI showed that the Gadarif State has been changed to a high frequency of drought during 1961-2013. Sorghum yield showed a significant positive relationship with precipitation during July and October (CC = 0.364 and 0.321, respectively), moreover, a significant positive relationship between Sesame yield and precipitation was observed during July (CC = 0.335). A significant negative relationship between Sorghum yield and mean temperature was observed during the rainy season (July to October) with CC = −0.278. The yield productivity of Sorghum and Sesame had decreased significantly (from more than 800 kg/ha in the 1960s to less than 200 kg/ha in 2000s for Sorghum, while 500 kg/ha in 1960s to 100 kg/ha in 2000s for Sesame). The Mechanized Rain-fed Agriculture (MRA) area of Sorghum and Sesame in the Gadarif State had been increased from 1,058,241 ha to 2,799,655 ha during 1961 to 2013. Thus, we ultimately suggest that in the Gadarif State, policy makers must strive for an increase in yield per unit area by using sufficient fertilizers along with the gradual increment in tendencies of grain production through expansion of the cultivated area.

Federal and State Land Acquisition in Hawaii: Conservation in the Epicenter of Extinction

The Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965, reinstated in 2018 through the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, provided the United States Federal Government the ability to acquire and fund land acquisition for the purpose of preservation, development, and public enjoyment. In 2005, the state of Hawaii passed Act 156 which was later amended by Hawaii Revised Statues §173A. Established through this legislation is a land conservation fund providing the state government of Hawaii analogous land acquisition abilities to that of the federal government. It is through these laws that the federal government and state of Hawaii can reinforce the conservation of the fragile Hawaiian tropical rainforest ecosystem. This paper will identify discontinuities as well as opportunities in the implementation of this legislation to provide recommendations to improve the ability of both state and federal government to protect and conserve at risk ecosystems and lands like those present in Hawaii.