Rules for the governance of coastal and marine ecosystem services: An evaluative framework based on the IAD framework

There is an increasing need for a comprehensive institutional understanding pertaining to ecosystem services (ESs) in coastal and marine fields. This paper develops a systematic framework to inform coastal and marine governance about the integration of ES concepts. First, as a theoretical basis, we analyze the generic rules that are part of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. Second, by an extensive literature review, we formulate a set of ES-specific rules and develop an evaluative framework for coastal and marine governance. Third, we examine this evaluative framework in a specific action situation, namely coastal strategic planning concerning Qingdao, China. Results from the literature review and the case study reveal that when designing ES-specific rules for coastal and marine governance, there are several socio-spatial and economic aspects that should be taken into account: (1) conceive of stakeholders as ES users, (2) capture the effect of ecological scaling, (3) understand ES interactions and clarify indirect impacts and causalities, (4) account for ES values, and (5) draw on economic choices for use rights to deal with ES issues.     

Evaluation and simulation of the impact of land use change on ecosystem services trade-offs in ecological restoration areas,China

To restore China’s degraded environment and improve ecological balance, the government launched a land use policy known as the Grain for Green Program (GFGP), which is the largest ecological construction project in China or anywhere else. It has greatly increased the vegetation cover on the Loess Plateau but occupied the space of agricultural development (AD) over the years. Research on the impact of policy implementation on ecosystem services (ESs) and their trade-offs can support scenario analyses that provide realistic guidance for decision makers to formulate future regional ecological restoration planning. Our focus is Ningwu County and Jingle County on the Loess Plateau, a typical ecologically fragile and impoverished area where expansion of vegetation cover has driven extensive loss of farmland and its benefits to farmers.In this study, soil conservation (SC), water yield (WY), habitat quality (HQ), and food supply (FS) were selected to assess the change of ESs and their trade-offs in different scenarios that represent ecological restoration and land reclamation policies. The results revealed that overall ESs had the largest increase but there were more trade-offs among ESs under the GFGP scenario. For a single ESs, SC and HQ were increased while FS and WY were decreased under the GFGP scenario. From the view of trade-offs, the GFGP scenario exhibited more trade-offs than the AD scenario. Furthermore, compared to the GFGP scenario, the numbers of sub-watersheds with trade-offs of ESs decreased under the AD scenario. With more concern about the contradiction between implementing GFGP and protecting farmland, we confirm that it is extremely unwise to incessantly implement GFGP to improve overall ESs without considering the trade-offs among ESs. Given the certain sub-watersheds mainly developing agriculture, the AD scenario appears to best reduce trade-offs among ESs and ensure the improvement of ESs. Therefore, it is of great significance to realize the win-win situation of regional ecological and resource demand to find the most suitable development direction in the future.     

Effects of industrial plantations on ecosystem services and livelihoods: Perspectives of rural communities in China

This paper addresses the current research void on local community views of changes in ecosystem services associated with rapid land use transformation in the context of plantation-based forestry. This interview-based study, conducted in southern China, aims at assessing the perspectives of local communities of: 1) the effects of Eucalyptus industrial plantations on selected ecosystem services and on local development; and 2) opportunities for future community livelihood development, based on the relations with the government and with forest industry operating locally. We analysed data from semi-structured interviews with 70 villagers for their views on changes in ecosystem services after the establishment of plantations, and their future expectations on the local livelihood development. Most interviewees mentioned some negative development on environmental quality after the establishment of the industrial plantations, especially on soil and water. Furthermore, the reduced productivity of cropland surrounding industrial plantations, coupled with other financial drivers, induced several villagers to switch from agricultural crops to household plantations. In the absence of destructive typhoons, household plantations can provide owners more free time, higher income, while industrial plantations provided some employment opportunities. Interviewees’ expectations for the future included receiving financial support and capacity building for household plantations and crops, support to local roads and schools, and higher employment opportunities. Some interviewees suggested that solutions should be implemented for improving degraded water quality, while others suggested reducing forestry operations. Even though being highly context-specific, our findings open up the discussion about the further community development opportunities in the context of plantation forestry. In particular, the potential of value sharing mechanisms between the private sector and the local communities should be further studied.     

Linking ecosystem services trade-offs,bundles and hotspot identification with cropland management in the coastal Hangzhou Bay area of China

Understanding the co-occurrence of multiple ecosystem services within farming systems and how they are associated across space are relatively new topics. Quantifying ecosystem services and their interactions as dependent on cropland management can help to formulate a more effective and sustainable land use management system. However, current academic efforts and cropland management practices based on the perspective of ecosystem services bundles and tradeoffs remain limited, especially in developing countries. This paper aimed to integrate ecosystem services into cropland protection and functional zoning. Taking Cixi County in the Hangzhou Bay area, China, as the case study area, five typical ecosystem services (food supply, carbon sequestration, hydrological regulation, soil fertility and recreation potential) delivered by croplands and their correlations were quantitatively assessed. The results demonstrated a heterogeneous spatial pattern of multiple ecosystem services and diverse interactions between them, which depended on regional specific conditions and agricultural activities. Further, we adopted the framework of ecosystem services bundles as a planning tool to support the spatial strategy of cropland management. Cropland protection priority and functional zoning were determined by hotspot analysis and clustering algorithms, respectively. The croplands in Cixi were classified into three protection grades and a zoning scheme comprising four functional types with policy guidelines was proposed based on the spatial cluster results. The integrative approach used in this study is applicable to supplement the current cropland management actions by incorporating the perspective of ecosystem services tradeoff and bundles.     

Public preferences for biodiversity conservation and climate-change mitigation: A choice experiment using ecosystem services indicators

Potential conflicts exist between biodiversity conservation and climate-change mitigation as trade-offs in multiple-use land management. This study aims to evaluate public preferences for biodiversity conservation and climate-change mitigation policy considering respondents’ uncertainty on their choice. We conducted a choice experiment using land-use scenarios in the rural Kushiro watershed in northern Japan. The results showed that the public strongly wish to avoid the extinction of endangered species in preference to climate-change mitigation in the form of carbon sequestration by increasing the area of managed forest. Knowledge of the site and the respondents’ awareness of the personal benefits associated with supporting and regulating services had a positive effect on their preference for conservation plans. Thus, decision-makers should be careful about how they provide ecological information for informed choices concerning ecosystem services tradeoffs. Suggesting targets with explicit indicators will affect public preferences, as well as the willingness of the public to pay for such measures. Furthermore, the elicited-choice probabilities approach is useful for revealing the distribution of relative preferences for incomplete scenarios, thus verifying the effectiveness of indicators introduced in the experiment.     

Impact of local payments for ecosystem services on land use in a developed area of China: A qualitative analysis based on an integrated conceptual framework

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) have increasingly been applied as economic incentives for improving ecosystem services around the world. However, due to difficulties in measuring and attributing ecosystem services provisioning, a land-based approach has been popularly adopted as a proxy for the desired ecosystem services. In this study, we demonstrate the impact mechanism and outcomes of locally financed PES programs on conservation-based land use in a developed area of China. We present this work using a PES-land use proxy framework that is examined empirically through a variety of qualitative assessments. Our framework illustrates that, within the ecological, socioeconomic, and institutional conditions of developed areas, land use class, pattern and function would be impacted by (a) conservation effect, (b) stakeholder response, and (c) institutional adaptation mechanisms of local PES programs, with multiple land use trends as potential outcomes. We examine the framework using materials from Suzhou, China, which has implemented a top-down, partly involuntary (ecosystem services supply side), land based PES program. Our results show that, expected land use class, land use pattern and land use function are observed in areas where the PES programs were implemented. We also find that the conditions of developed areas and locally financed payments mechanism indeed played a crucial role in promoting conservation-based land use in Suzhou.     

Monitoring cropland transition and its impact on ecosystem services value in developed regions of China: A case study of Jiangsu Province

Cropland use is experiencing an intense transition in both depth and breadth with rapid development of the Chinese economy. Unwarranted land use transitions can affect the ecosystem services value (ESV) and ecosystem functions significantly. This paper reports the dynamic patterns of cropland transition (CLT) and its impact on ESV in Jiangsu Province based on land-use data from 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2013, crop yield data, empirical data related to ESV, some revisions adapted to the situation of Jiangsu, and Geo-information Tupu methods. Jiangsu has experienced rapid economic growth and urbanization, which can be seen as a microcosm of China's development. Results showed that the total area of cropland decreased markedly from 1990 to 2013. This loss of cropland took place mainly through the expansion of construction land and water area, accounting for 83.78% and 13.71%, respectively. The gain in cropland came mainly from construction land, water area, grassland, and woodland, accounting for 58.92%, 19.92%, 11.46%, and 10.22%. The transitions from 2000 to 2010 were much more significant than during 1990–2000 and 2010–2013. CLTs were accompanied by relatively concentrated distributions near towns and cities and the distributions in southern and central Jiangsu were more than in northern Jiangsu. Between 1990 and 2013, CLTs gave rise to a decrease of 6.78 million US$ ESV that was mostly caused by the transition from cropland to construction land and water area to cropland. Based on this information, some of the major implications for improving the land use policy and ecological protection policy in China were discussed. These include increased emphasis on land quality and ecological environment in balance between cropland addition and conversion, introducing ESV measures to evaluate the ecological effect of land-use planning, and establish an all-around ecological compensation mechanism.     

Auction winning,social dynamics and non-compliance in a payment for ecosystem services scheme in Indonesia

Conservation auctions for payment for ecosystem services (PES) are useful to identify the levels of incentives that will cover the opportunity costs of farmers supplying ecosystem services. Although auctions are increasingly used for allocation in PES schemes, the factors that lead to their successful implementation and eventual environmental outcomes are poorly understood in developing countries. We investigated the socio-economic and institutional contexts that led to smallholders' auction winning and eventual compliance using linear mixed-effects models, and post-auction and post-contract surveys. We employed a case study of a conservation contract preceded by a sealed-bid, multiple round, uniform price auction for watershed services from coffee farmers in Lampung, Indonesia. The auction participants presented low education levels, low asset endowments and small plot sizes. The study obtained evidence that farmers with larger plot areas were more likely to win the contracts, suggesting economies of scale. Most farmers considered the auction a fair self-selection mechanism to allocate contracts where allocation was not influenced by power or social rank. Non-compliance was associated with labor availability constraints, short duration of land ownership and existence of previous conservation applications, suggesting lax of capability to invest in applying conservation agriculture. Final bids were however not good predictors of compliance, among other factors, calling into question the potential of auctions to elicit the actual incentive from the farmers. Ensuring that farmers understand the purposes of auctions for effective contract allocation beyond a mere game and identifying farmers that might encounter difficulties fulfilling the contract could increase the likelihood that such a PES scheme would be successful.     

Economic benefit and ecological cost of enlarging tea cultivation in subtropical China: Characterizing the trade-off for policy implications

Cash crop expansion has become a global land use issue in recent decades. While the enlarging cash crop cultivation brings promising profitability, it can impair the delivery of various ecosystem services, with a risk of threat to sustainability and human well being. In order to make well-informed land use policy decisions, it requires elaborate efforts to characterize the trade-off between the benefit and cost of cash crop cultivation. This paper focuses on the enlarging tea cultivation in subtropical China, using a case of Anji County. We first monitor tea expansion from 1985 to 2016 based on time-series Landsat imageries, and then analyze the subsequent changes of water conservation service through an in-field survey of soil loss. Monetary approach is finally employed to evaluate the trade-off between economic benefit and ecological cost associated with the growing age of tea plantations. Results show that tea plantations expanded rapidly from 1985 to 2016 in Anji County. Delivery of water conservation service has been significantly impaired by the conversion from natural forests to tea plantations, but it can be gradually improved during the long rotational life cycles of tea plantations. For a given plot (1 ha at moderate slope), in theory, the economic benefit and ecological cost exhibit opposite trend associated the growing age of tea plantations, and an equilibrium point is approximately achieved at the 12-year growing age. In reality, ecological cost exceeds the economic benefit throughout the study period in Anji County. More specifically, the net difference increases from 11575 Yuan in 1985–1469167 Yuan in 2016. It denotes that economic benefit fails to compromise the ecological cost of the enlarging tea cultivation in Anji County. Conflicting land use policies (ecological conservation vs cash cropping promotion) and ‘household contract responsibility’ system should account for the unbalanced relationship between economic benefit and ecological conservation. We finally propose four major options towards the win–win possibilities between economic gain and ecological conservation associated with tea cultivation.     

Effects of payments for ecosystem services programs in China on rural household labor allocation and land use: Identifying complex pathways

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) is increasingly used in developing countries to secure the sustainable provision of vital ecosystem services. The largest PES programs in the world are embedded in China’s new forest policies, which aim to expand forest cover for soil and water conservation and improve livelihoods of rural people. The objective of this study is to identify the complex pathways of the impacts of two PES programs , the Conversion of Cropland to Forest Program (CCFP) and the Ecological Welfare Forest Program (EWFP), on household livelihood decisions, and to quantify the direct and indirect impacts along the identified pathways. We fulfill this objective by developing an integrated conceptual framework and applying a Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM), based on household survey data from Anhui, China. Labor allocation (for on-farm work, local paid work, local business, or out-migration) and land use decisions (i.e., rent in, maintain, rent out, or abandon cropland) for participating households are key to understand PES program effects on livelihoods. Results show that the PES programs have only small direct effects but significant indirect effects via the mediating factor of capital assets. Moreover, group heterogeneity analysis shows that lower-income households do not benefit more than the better-off households from the PES programs, while households with medium wealth increase dependence on agriculture. In addition, household demographics, individual attributes, and geographic settings differ in their impacts on labor allocation and land use decisions. We conclude that CCFP and EWFP would be more efficient in conserving the environment while improving the economic welfare of lower-income households if capital assets were taken into account in the design of compensation schemes.     

Evaluating how we evaluate success: Monitoring,evaluation and adaptive management in Payments for Watershed Services programs

Payments for Watershed Services (PWS) programs have become an increasingly popular policy mechanism both in the U.S. and abroad. These programs are used to meet a variety of objectives, including improving the quality and quantity of water supplies, protecting endangered species, and advancing rural livelihoods. Monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management are important for filling fundamental knowledge gaps and improving the efficacy of PWS on the ground. However, relatively little work has evaluated how programs themselves monitor and evaluate their impacts and whether adaptive management is utilized. Here, we seek to improve understanding of the factors that contribute to the adoption of monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management practices through a literature review and a survey of PWS programs. Based on qualitative and logistic regression analyses, financial, technical and institutional capacity and leveraging broad stakeholder coalitions emerged as important factors contributing to systematic PWS monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management. This research underscores the importance of investing additional resources to support such capacity and coalition- building in PWS to ensure programs can meet their desired objectives.     

Integrating soil survey,land use management and political ecology: A case study in a border area between Peru and Ecuador

In Latin America countries, competition for access to natural resources among different groups has been a major reason for the outburst of violence over the last decades. One of the main aims of the political ecology concerns the understanding of the environmental conditions that can underlies the social conflict among people. Such understanding needs to be based on a detailed investigation of the natural resources of the landscape, mainly the soils. Few years ago the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs financed a soil survey with a humanitarian purpose: the development of a peace plan between Peru and Ecuador by improving the socio-economic conditions of the rural populations living in the areas close to the border. To achieve such goal, the construction of an irrigation canal was planned to irrigate few hundred hectares in the province of Ayabaca, on the border between Peru and Ecuador. To be soundly planned and designed, the canal project was obviously based on a preliminary soil survey that is essential to assess the irrigation suitability of the land. In this work, the authors illustrate the soil characteristics within the study area, their suitability for irrigation and the key aspects for future land uses, highlighting the philosophy followed in applying the land evaluation system which took into consideration the social, cultural and humanitarian purposes of the soil survey. Results proved the feasibility of the financed project and the potential increase of the living conditions of the rural people.     

The identification and assessment of ecological risks for land consolidation based on the anticipation of ecosystem stabilization: A case study in Hubei Province,China

The purpose of this study is to identify and classify the ecological risks in land consolidation, and to develop a framework of the theory and method to assess the change of ecological risk degree before and after land consolidation. Environmental impacts and ecological risks of land consolidation have recently drawn much attention, and there are two opposing viewpoints to assess these impacts and risks in the academia of China. Both viewpoints result from the bias of assessment anticipation. Land consolidation includes four main engineering aspects in China, and ecological succession from start of land consolidation to ecosystem stabilization should pass three phases. Different ecological impacts and risks of land consolidation rise from different phases of ecological successions. According to the climax theory of ecology, we developed a framework of the ecological risk assessment based on the anticipation of ecosystem stabilization (ERABAES) for land consolidation. We applied analytical hierarchical processing (AHP) method to the data resources from the land consolidation project in Southern China to allocate weightings to the indices of ecological risk (ER), and to set up an integrated index system for the ecological risk identification. This integrated index system encompasses the ecological risks with three factors (water, soil and biology) and 14 indices. The results of the project show: (1) The ER is reduced from 58.02 to 28.8 after land consolidation and the degree of ecological risk is down from Degree III to Degree IV. (2) According to the element analysis, the water ER is reduced from 21.53 to 6.16, its contribution to reduce the ecological risk is 53%; the reduced ERs of soil and biology are respectively 12.79 and 1.06, their contribution of ecological risk reduce is lower than water.     

Modeling the effects of tourism and land regulation on land-use change in tourist regions: A case study of the Lijiang River Basin in Guilin,China

To a large extent, tourism development triggers an economic boost in certain regions. However, given its complex and dynamic forms of land use, tourism development also causes changes to land-use demands and patterns in tourist regions, which directly and indirectly interfere with local environments. The development of tourist regions must achieve a series of trade-offs to meet sustainability goals. This paper discusses the effects of tourism on land-use change and how land regulation policies integrate tourism development with land use. We employed a system dynamic-cellular automata hybrid model using the Lijiang River Basin as an example to translate tourism-affected land dynamics into spatial distributions and project their likely future changes under various development scenarios. We determined three major outcomes. (1) Tourism development causes a quantitatively increasing demand for construction land. With effective spatial regulations, the expansion of construction land does not necessarily suggest the loss of eco-land; rather, land-use pressures accordingly shift to cropland. Under these circumstances, land regulation policies help to balance land demand and optimize land-use patterns. (2) Tourism development causes a continuous spatial interference with landscapes. Land regulation policies have the positive and active effect of ignoring this interference rather than counteracting it. (3) The strict implementation of land regulation policies does not necessarily improve land-use patterns. Flexible policies achieve a better balanced land-use pattern than a combination of individual strict policies. However, the former cannot reduce as much vulnerability as the latter. Hence, policy assembly represents a trade-off with regards to balancing land demands, and it should vary based on regional land-use patterns and targets.