Household-level effects of China's Sloping Land Conversion Program under price and policy shifts

This study examined how agricultural households involved in China's Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) could respond to expected changes in environmental and livestock policies and changing commodity prices. We calibrated a farm household model using 2009 survey data collected in northeast Gansu Province, China, and examined the responses of four different household groups. Household groups were distinguished based on the resources they possessed for either cropping, livestock husbandry or off-farm employment. We also calculated the opportunity cost of converting sloping land from grain crop production to perennial grass production and included the net value of the replacement crop in these calculations. Our model simulations indicated that subsistence-oriented households were most likely to participate in the SLCP, and that SLCP payment reductions could have large negative income effects for this group. Reductions in SLCP payments increased income inequality among households in the study area. Migration- and cropping-oriented households have fewer incentives to participate in the SLCP. With rising commodity prices, SLCP payments need to rise to avoid that subsistence-oriented households reconvert their land from perennial grasses to annual grain crops. Local government policies related to livestock production are being devised in Gansu as a method to lift incomes, and these policies could also have positive environmental benefits by increasing grass production on sloping land. The introduction of these livestock promotion policies had modest income effects but did not alter the area grown with grasses under the SLCP.     

中国退耕还林工程对粮食产量影响分析与测度

基于改善生态环境恶化局面的初衷而推出的退耕还林工程已实施近10年,工程的实施对我国的粮食生产是否有影响是很受关注的一个问题。利用全国31个省(市区)1997～2005年的面板数据,从不同的角度分析了退耕还林工程对我国粮食生产的影响。研究结论表明:退耕还林工程对粮食产量带来了一定的负面影响(大约0.0040);对不同区域的影响不尽相同;对东部和粮食主产区的粮食产量负面影响较大。政策建议:根据不同区域的影响,需要采取不同的政策选择,如允许东部地区和一些粮食主产区的退耕地造林复耕,鼓励开展荒山匹配造林;适度扩大西部地区退耕地造林规模。     

Environmental impact assessment of urban land use transitions—A context-sensitive approach

Land consumption due to residential development, economic growth and transportation belongs to the most serious environmental pressures on landscapes worldwide, in particular in urbanised areas. Accordingly, the aim of containing the development of land is rated increasingly high on the agenda of environmental policy, at least in densely populated countries such as Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands or the UK. As a result, different strategies and instruments to prevent excessive land consumption are being discussed. However, many of these strategies and instruments adopt a rather general approach, while it seems more effective to define the particular areas where the goal of reducing land consumption is to be pursued. Such an approach must draw on information about how detrimental specific land use transitions are with regard to, for instance, the functionality of soils, water balance or habitat quality at specific locations. This paper introduces a conceptual framework for the impact assessment of land use transition in urban areas which highlights how such information can be acquired. This framework includes the differentiation of two levels of impact assessment: the level of the single land unit and the context level which takes into account regional and aggregated impacts of land use transition bound to the spatial context. The conceptual framework provides a basis to disaggregate (supra-)national policy targets regarding land use, to scale them down to the regional level, and thus to clarify the spatially explicit implications of land use policies.     

Potential hazards of land policy: Conservation,rural development and fire use in the Brazilian Amazon

With growing awareness of fire hazard as an environmental threat within tropical rainforests, the state of Brazil initiated a set of fire control policies aimed at monitoring and ameliorating fire hazard in the Amazon region. These policies were developed in the aftermath of large-scale fire events and reflect a conservationist discourse that responded to internal as well as international environmental concerns. In doing so, the policies have framed the “fire problem” around those who use fire in their land use practices, in particular small-scale agriculturalists. Yet, land policy in general has repeatedly failed to address the institutional arrangements which compel small-scale farmers to use fire in their agricultural practices and the underlying development processes that have made the landscape more vulnerable to accidental spread of fire. Using regional level data on small-scale farmers, I suggest that the conservation oriented approach of fire policy may not be enough to curtail accidental fire events and instead that the fire issue needs to be positioned within rural development as well.     

Land acquisition compensation in post-reform China: Evolution,structure and challenges in Hangzhou

This paper focuses on evolving land acquisition compensation policy and practice in Hangzhou, a better-developed coastal city in the Yangtze River Delta Region, by assessing the evolution of land acquisition compensation and the interplay among the main actors, especially the local government and affected individual villagers and rural collectives. It evaluates the hybrid compensation governance that includes monetary compensation, employment alternatives, share-holding co-operative, social security assurance, and rural collective retained land. The study reveals that while land acquisition compensation has been gradually improved in many aspects, land-lost villagers are still subject to various uncertainties in sustaining their lives, competing in the labor market, and adapting to urban life. Furthermore, markedly improved land acquisition compensation in Hangzhou has created newly emerging socio-economic problems amongst dislocated rural villagers. The paper reveals how different compensation measures have redefined rural collectives and land-lost rural villagers in the urbanization process.     

Key issues of land use in China and implications for policy making

The paper aims to comprehensively analyze key issues of current land use in China. It identifies the major land-use problems when China is undergoing rapid urbanization. Then, the paper interprets and assesses the related land-use policies: requisition-compensation balance of arable land, increasing vs. decreasing balance of urban-rural built land, reserved land system within land requisition, rural land consolidation and economical and intensive land use. The paper finds that current policies are targeting specific problems while being implemented in parallel. There is lacking a framework that incorporates all the policies. The paper finally indicates the current land-use challenges and proposes strategic land-use policy system to guide sustainable land use in the future.     

Land use transitions: Socio-ecological feedback versus socio-economic change

The concept of land use transition highlights that land use change is non-linear and is associated with other societal and biophysical system changes. A transition in land use is not a fixed pattern, nor is it deterministic. Land use transitions can be caused by negative socio-ecological feedbacks that arise from a depletion of key resources or from socio-economic change and innovation that take place rather independently from the ecological system. Here, we explore whether the sources of land use transitions are mostly endogenous socio-ecological forces or exogenous socio-economic factors. We first review a few generic pathways of forest transition as identified in national case studies, and evaluate the varying ecological quality of expanding forests associated with these pathways. We then discuss possible explanatory frameworks of land use transitions. We use the case of the recent forest transition in Vietnam as an illustration. Socio-ecological feedbacks seem to better explain a slowing down of deforestation and stabilization of forest cover, while exogenous socio-economic factors better account for reforestation. We conclude by discussing the prospects of accelerating land use transitions in tropical forest countries.     

我国土地利用和管理形势政策研判

目前土地利用和管理的政策重点为:调结构、调过剩产能、完善城乡统筹中土地制度,严格保护耕地.针对资源供应的刚性影响逐步扩大,全社会的发展理念发生着深刻的变化,为提高资源利用效率、走节约集约道路提供了良好的外部环境.应该供需双向调节,加速结构调整、统筹城乡发展,促进城市转型,加快宜居城市建设、实施建立差别化供地政策、强化耕地建设性保护专项工作.对2011年来讲,促进经济发展方式转变,节约集约用地是关键,严格保护耕地是硬任务,应推动土地利用方式根本转变.促进经济发展方式转变和经济社会又好又快发展.     

Land degradation in the Lao PDR: Discourses and policy

While there is an important body of research on environmental discourses and policy in Southeast Asia, the situation in the Lao PDR remains understudied. This paper builds on debates related to environmental change and knowledge production and examines the socio-political construction of the current mainstream discourse on land degradation in Laos. It highlights that, despite significant uncertainties as regard the extent and severity of the issue, land degradation in the uplands is represented by the Laotian authorities and many of their development partners as a major and imminent threat to the development of the country. The paper also examines the way this perspective is translated into policies specifically aimed at resolving the upland issue and proposes an alternative reading of this process where mainstream discourse and associated policy appear partly shaped by the subjectivities and political economic projects of Laos’ policy-makers. Finally, drawing on the case of Laos, the paper provides a critical reflection on conventional approaches to assessing socio-environmental issues and defining policy interventions.     

Land use conflict in Kajiado District, Kenya

This study explores land use conflict in S.E. Kajiado District, Kenya. The conflict reflects ongoing competition over access to scarce land and water resources between herding, farming and wildlife, that has been conspicuous for over 30 years and is intensifying. While the complexity of the dynamic interactions and land use conflicts can be described, and significant driving forces identified, future outcomes are uncertain. The existing land use pattern represents the contemporary imprint of these interactions and it sets the basis for the future. Understanding the conditions that have created the present should, therefore, assist in devising future development strategies.     

Urbanization strategies, rural development and land use changes in China: A multiple-level integrated assessment

This paper links urbanization strategies to changes in land use and associated impacts on rural communities and agro-ecosystems in a rural area of China. Energy, monetary and human time variables as well as information on environmental pressures, have been combined to compare different typologies of households and the metabolism of different patterns of land use from an integrated perspective. The results show that urbanization strategies, aimed at shifting the current land use and at displacing the local population, while increasing the economic efficiency is also associated with an increase in fossil energy consumption and environmental pressure, as well as a reduction of the multifunctional characteristic of the area under investigation. Based on these findings the paper also offers a critical discussion of the Chinese rural development policy arguing that the multifunctionality of rural areas should be taken into account by Chinese policy-makers and planners as a viable strategy to achieve rural development targets.     

Urban spill over vs. local urban sprawl: Entangling land-use regulations in the urban growth of China's megacities

Rather than a bad case of urban sprawl, the physical expansion of China's megacities may be viewed as a combination of ‘urban spill over’ and ‘local urban sprawl’. This paper reviews land use regulations in their institutional context and argues that conflicts in land use regulation are related to ideologies of land ownership and embedded in different planning doctrines. These hypotheses are investigated with special reference to Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province in southern China. The evidence suggests that entangled land use regulations for “urban” and “rural” land have imposed serious constraints on urban growth, while the contradictions of different policies and regulations in the use of rural lands for urban construction have led to intensive and unhealthy competition among stakeholders. As a result, not only have the costs of land conversion from rural to urban uses increased, but the spatial development of Guangzhou has been distorted. The implications of these failures for future policy are discussed with emphasis on the reform of the land use regulation system.     

The interface between land use systems research and policy: Multiple arrangements and leverages

In recent years, interest in the policy-informing role of research organisations has grown considerably. It has been argued from within the science domain that the management of land, whether at the field, farm or regional scale, can benefit from computer-based systems analysis. This proposition was examined through 26 semi-structured interviews, by conducting a workshop on modelling support in policy decision-making and investigating 11 European-based cases of policy-oriented modelling research. On basis of these materials, we assess approaches towards policy-oriented modelling within the domain of agricultural production and other environmental services of land. First, we define the boundary arrangements for our field of interest, i.e. computer-based systems analysis of agricultural production and ecosystems services. Such ideotypical classification of boundary arrangements makes explicit the institutional space in which system scientists function. This space enables certain activities, and at the same time constrains other initiatives, dependent on who is perceived to initiate and/or control research activities and to formulate objectives, and whether it is considered appropriate to integrate scientific knowledge development with policy work. Five ideotypical boundary arrangements are proposed: ‘Civil mandate’; ‘Trickle out’; ‘Janus face’; ‘Critical participant’; and ‘Knowledge broker’. In a second step, a number of critical leverage points are identified based on the 11 cases and these are addressed in relation to the five boundary arrangements. The term ‘leverage point’ covers means, conditions and methods that foster use of modelling work that can be changed, and thus may be part of a strategy to increase the chances that a model is used. The leverage points were: reputation of research institute and/or scientists; raising and balancing expectations; communication about and investment in the scientific basis of the modelling work; participation in model development; heterogeneous and extensive social network in policy domain; institute mandate that secures availability of ‘stepping stones’. We conceive of two applications of our research for modellers who are interested in the use of their work in the policy sphere. First, the boundary arrangement classification helps to interpret the experiences of others and to assess the relevance of lessons and suggestions for their own context. Secondly, the combination of the boundary arrangement perspective and critical leverage points presents a basis to design an institutional pathway for enhancing impact of modelling research in the policy sphere. For those researchers functioning in a science-domain-oriented environment, the analysis in this paper suggests that there are more options than the frequently proposed ‘more participation’ for increasing the likelihood that their policy-oriented work is used. These include establishing contacts with research groups or institutes that are in a position to function as ‘stepping stones’, or engaging with others to develop a social network in the policy sphere.     

Zionism and agricultural land: National narratives,environmental objectives,and land policy in Israel

The 1990s saw two different and even contradictory trends in Israel. On the one hand, there was a substantial increase in environmental awareness, on the part of both the general public and decision-makers, that led to a change in the land use planning policy at the national level. On the other hand, the Israel Lands Council (ILC), the body empowered by law to shape the national land policy, made a series of decisions that severely violated the principle of preserving agricultural land and led to massive conversion of agricultural land and open space for commercial, industrial, and residential development. Thus the national land policy became incompatible with the land use planning policy and the rise in environmental awareness it reflected.     

基于CA-Markov模型的大连市旅顺区土地利用变化及预测研究

实时监测土地利用及其变化(LUCC)的状况对于经济增长、社会进步、环境保护以及生态文明建设具有重要的意义。本文基于IDRISI软件中的CA-Markov模型,分析了大连市旅顺区1994年-2014年的土地利用变化,同时预测了2024年的土地利用状况。结果表明:旅顺自1994年来,建筑用地面积逐年增加,并主要集中在中南部和西部沿海地区,与此同时,耕地面积也逐年增加,但由原来的西部逐渐演退至北部区域的丘陵地带,林地面积逐步萎缩,面积大幅下降,其主要被开垦为耕地或建筑用地,在本区域中南、西南部,林地大多直接转变为建筑用地或先转变为耕地再转变为建筑用地,而北部则主要转变成了耕地和相对较小的居民点,水域(湖泊、河流)的面积逐年减少,湖泊、水库面积萎缩,随着城镇化的加快和人口数量的不断增加;由于不断地城市用地开发和林地的砍伐以及耕地的弃用等综合因素导致,未利用地减少。总体上,旅顺的土地利用变化由于经济建设的力度不断加大,人工自然景观用地越来越多,生态安全压力不断增大,未来十年间,旅顺土地利用将持续20年来的趋势,但变化速度放缓。     

Land change in the Brazilian Savanna (Cerrado), 1986–2002: Comparative analysis and implications for land-use policy

The Brazilian Cerrado, a biodiverse savanna ecoregion covering 1.8 million km² south and east of the Amazon rainforest, is in rapid decline because of the expansion of modern agriculture. Previous studies of Cerrado land-use and land-cover (LULC) change imply spatial homogeneity, report widely varying rates of land conversion, use ambiguous LULC categories, and generally do not attempt to validate results. This study addresses this gap in the literature by analyzing moderate-resolution, multi-spectral satellite remote sensing data from 1986 to 2002 in two regions with identical underlying drivers. Unsupervised classification by the ISODATA algorithm indicates that Cerrado was converted to agro-pastoral land covers in 31% (3646 km²) of the study region in western Bahia and 24% (3011 km²) of the eastern Mato Grosso study region, while nearly 40% (4688 km² and 5217 km², respectively) of each study region remained unchanged. Although aggregate land change is similar, large and contiguous fragments persist in western Bahia, while smaller fragments remain in eastern Mato Grosso. These findings are considered in the current context of Cerrado land-use policy, which is dominated by the conservation set-aside and command-control policy models. The spatial characteristics of Cerrado remnants create considerable obstacles to implement the models; an alternative approach, informed by countryside biogeography, may encourage collaboration between state officials and farmer-landowners toward conservation land-use policies.     

Property rights of urban underground space in China: A public good perspective

With the booming development of urban underground space in China, “fuzzy” property rights of this special form of land use type are not only the cause of ownership disputation and registration chaos, but also may seriously delay the undertaking of related underground land laws or regulations. China's emerging property rights issue of urban underground space, especially the delimitation of the surface and ground or underground, is facing such a challenge. This article aims to identify the property rights of urban underground space by using a practical method that classifies the underground space as economic goods, and to analyze attributes of different property rights of urban underground space within the theoretical framework of public goods. We use civil defense projects and underground parking lots as case studies. Both case studies are the most utilized types and controversial ownership cases of urban underground space in present China. Our case studies indicate that it is a feasible method to avoid the delimitation of the start-stop height of 3D property right vertically, and directly define the attributes of surface and underground property rights in line with the supply mode of goods. Our results show that the method proposed in this study can effectively solve the dispute of property rights against problems rising with unclear contract and lags in the legislation of urban underground space and clearly delimited the interests boundaries among different parties of property rights for urban underground space. Ultimately, this study may offer better insight into the utilization and registration work of urban underground space in China as well as reference for countries with similar property rights issues.     

Reflexive Interdisciplinary Research: The Making of a Research Programme on the Rural Economy and Land Use

This paper provides an account of the origins and formation of the UK Research Councils’ Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) programme and its approach to promoting interdisciplinary working between social and natural scientists. The programme is set in the context of broader developments in science policy, including a policy discourse centred upon sustainable development and the knowledge economy and associated demands for greater accountability in science. Interdisciplinarity promises research that will be more relevant and responsive to public needs and concerns. In describing the provenance of the RELU programme, therefore, the paper seeks to lay out the different stages in its initiation and design to show how, to varying degrees, these were open to external scrutiny and influence. The process of developing the programme illustrates that it is not straightforward to make research agendas and funding more transparent and accountable. It also provides insights into the challenges that interdisciplinarity and accountability present to established science institutions.     

Tackling landslide risk: Helping land use policy to reflect unplanned housing realities in the Eastern Caribbean

Landslide risk reduction in developing countries is preferable to disaster remediation and recovery, in both social and economic terms. The implementation of landslide preventative measures is closely related to the development of ‘good practice’ in land use management, at government and community levels, especially in the face of rapid and unplanned urbanisation. These areas of poverty and vulnerability to ‘natural’ hazards present a challenging environment for which to develop realistic land use policies and practices. There is little evidence of on-the-ground delivery of landslide risk reduction. However, scientifically based landslide risk reduction strategies can be effective. In the Eastern Caribbean construction of drainage networks in communities afforded an improvement in slope stability – after a 1 in 100-year rainfall event there were no landslides on previously unstable slopes in densely populated urban communities. This has been recognised in policy terms in the first ever Caribbean-wide, 5-year risk reduction programme. Such evidence represents an important first step in developing realistic land use policies for landslide-prone areas occupied by those migrating to urban centres in the Eastern Caribbean.