Ever since the disastrous floods of 1998, the Chinese government has used the Natural Forest Protection and Sloping Land Conversion Programs to promote afforestation and reforestation as means to reduce runoff, contro...Ever since the disastrous floods of 1998, the Chinese government has used the Natural Forest Protection and Sloping Land Conversion Programs to promote afforestation and reforestation as means to reduce runoff, control erosion, and stabilize local livelihoods. These two ambitious programs have been reported as large-scale successes, contributing to an overall increase in China’s forest cover and to the stated goals of environmental stabilization. A small-scale field study at the project level of the implementation of these two programs in Baiwu Township, Yanyuan County, Sichuan, casts doubt upon the accuracy and reliability of these claims of success; ground observations revealed utter failure in some sites and only marginal success in others. Reasons for this discrepancy are posited as involving ecological, economic, and bureaucratic factors. Further research is suggested to determine whether these discrepancies are merely local aberrations or represent larger-scale failures in reforestation programs.展开更多
Payments for Ecosystem Services(PES)programs have been implemented in both developing and developed countries to conserve ecosystems and the vital services they provide.These programs also often seek to maintain or im...Payments for Ecosystem Services(PES)programs have been implemented in both developing and developed countries to conserve ecosystems and the vital services they provide.These programs also often seek to maintain or improve the economic wellbeing of the populations living in the corresponding(usually rural)areas.Previous studies suggest that PES policy design,presence or absence of concurrent PES programs,and a variety of socioeconomic and demographic factors can influence decisions of households to participate or not in the PES program.However,neighborhood impacts on household participation in PES have rarely been addressed.This study explores potential neighborhood effects on villagers'enrollment in the Grain-to-Green Program(GTGP),one of the largest PES programs in the world,using data from China's Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve.We utilize a fixed effects logistic regression model in combination with the eigenvector spatial filtering(ESF)method to explore whether neighborhood size affects household enrollment in GTGP.By comparing the results with and without ESF,we find that the ESF method can help account for spatial autocorrelation properly and reveal neighborhood impacts that are otherwise hidden,including the effects of area of forest enrolled in a concurrent PES program,gender and household size.The method can thus uncover mechanisms previously undetected due to not taking into account neighborhood impacts and thus provides an additional way to account for neighborhood impacts in PES programs and other studies.展开更多
文摘Ever since the disastrous floods of 1998, the Chinese government has used the Natural Forest Protection and Sloping Land Conversion Programs to promote afforestation and reforestation as means to reduce runoff, control erosion, and stabilize local livelihoods. These two ambitious programs have been reported as large-scale successes, contributing to an overall increase in China’s forest cover and to the stated goals of environmental stabilization. A small-scale field study at the project level of the implementation of these two programs in Baiwu Township, Yanyuan County, Sichuan, casts doubt upon the accuracy and reliability of these claims of success; ground observations revealed utter failure in some sites and only marginal success in others. Reasons for this discrepancy are posited as involving ecological, economic, and bureaucratic factors. Further research is suggested to determine whether these discrepancies are merely local aberrations or represent larger-scale failures in reforestation programs.
基金National Science Foundation under the Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems Program,No.DEB-1212183,No.BCS-1826839Financial and Research Support from San Diego State University,Population Research Infrastructure Program,No.P2C,No.HD050924。
文摘Payments for Ecosystem Services(PES)programs have been implemented in both developing and developed countries to conserve ecosystems and the vital services they provide.These programs also often seek to maintain or improve the economic wellbeing of the populations living in the corresponding(usually rural)areas.Previous studies suggest that PES policy design,presence or absence of concurrent PES programs,and a variety of socioeconomic and demographic factors can influence decisions of households to participate or not in the PES program.However,neighborhood impacts on household participation in PES have rarely been addressed.This study explores potential neighborhood effects on villagers'enrollment in the Grain-to-Green Program(GTGP),one of the largest PES programs in the world,using data from China's Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve.We utilize a fixed effects logistic regression model in combination with the eigenvector spatial filtering(ESF)method to explore whether neighborhood size affects household enrollment in GTGP.By comparing the results with and without ESF,we find that the ESF method can help account for spatial autocorrelation properly and reveal neighborhood impacts that are otherwise hidden,including the effects of area of forest enrolled in a concurrent PES program,gender and household size.The method can thus uncover mechanisms previously undetected due to not taking into account neighborhood impacts and thus provides an additional way to account for neighborhood impacts in PES programs and other studies.
