HSD: An Integrative Impact Evaluation of China's Ecological Restoration Programs

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

Through international agreements like the Kyoto Protocol, the Convention to Combat Desertification, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Millennium Development Goals, China and other nations have affirmed their commitment to rehabilitating ecosystems and sustaining the value of ecosystem services. Deforestation, desertification, and cropland degradation in China have contributed to serious floods, droughts, sand storms, and habitat losses. In response, the Chinese government has, among other things, initiated the Natural Forest Protection Program and the Sloping Land Conversion Program to restore its forest, range and farm ecosystems. The goal of this research project is to gain a clear understanding of the successes and difficulties associated with the implementation of these unprecedented programs aimed at ecological restoration. To that end, the investigators will evaluate the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of these programs over the next three years. Erosion and desertification control, biodiversity protection, and carbon storage will be among the environmental impacts to be addressed, while socioeconomic impacts to be examined include livelihood change, targeting efficiency, and cost effectiveness. The investigators will analyze spatially explicit data to identify the environmental impacts of the two programs, use primary survey and census data to ascertain their socioeconomic impacts, and develop treatment effect analysis models to evaluate to what extent the environmental and socioeconomic impacts have been brought about by the two programs. Addressing the major issues of China's ecological restoration programs is of great interest and broad significance to the international community. This project will advance the scientific knowledge of their potential impacts as well as the appropriate approaches to evaluating them. It will also provide the needed policy support and thus an enhanced ability for China to carry out the two programs more efficiently and effectively. Success in the conduct of these programs will contribute to domestic environmental improvement, poverty reduction, and adaptation strategy in China itself but also to the fulfillment of major global initiatives. Moreover, the research experience and findings will benefit the pursuit of similar interdisciplinary research undertakings by scholars in China and elsewhere. Finally, the project will engage communities and stakeholders in policy deliberation, U.S. graduate and undergraduate students in primary research and experiential learning, and Chinese academic institutions in capacity building. An award resulting from the FY 2006 NSF-wide competition on Human and Social Dynamics (HSD) supports this project. All NSF directorates and offices are involved in the coordinated management of the HSD competition and the portfolio of HSD awards.