Grassland conservation programs,vegetation rehabilitation and spatial dependency in Inner Mongolia,China

Three nationwide grassland conservation programs have been implemented in Inner Mongolia since 2000. All aim to relieve grazing pressure, hence to reverse the grassland degradation trend. The different timings and spatial configurations of these programs present an unusual setting of quasi-natural policy experiment for exploring their effectiveness and interactions with other drivers on a regional scale. In this paper, a spatial panel model was developed to examine the effects of the programs on vegetation rehabilitation, meanwhile to detect the spatial interdependent relationship among grassland management units occurring in the process of program implementation. The methodology used a panel dataset of SPOT-VEGETATION NDVI data, multi-station surface meteorological observations, and socio-economic statistics across 88 counties from 2000 to 2013. The modeling results suggested that these programs in general significantly facilitated grassland vegetation rehabilitation. Enrollment in the Beijing–Tianjin Wind/Sand Source Control Program and in the Grazing Withdrawal Program was predicted to increase the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) value by an amount equivalent to the effects of 136 mm and 56 mm additional annual precipitation, respectively. The positive and significant coefficient of spatial lag term indicated that there was a synergistic relationship in the vegetation variations of neighboring counties, and a unit increase in the weighted sum of all neighboring counties’ NDVI values could approximately increase a target county's NDVI value by 0.2, after controlling for other factors’ effects. Certain spatial spillover mechanisms may function to generate this effect, such as benign competition, mutual cooperation and coordination, or sharing of successful experiences among neighboring counties in carrying out the programs. Nevertheless, the actual mechanisms need to be confirmed by field surveys in future studies.     

Understanding grassland rental markets and their determinants in eastern inner Mongolia,PR China

Grassland rental markets function as a venue for balancing production factors of herder households. This paper jointly determines the socioeconomic factors affecting herders’ grassland rent-in and rent-out behaviors by applying Bivariate Probit Model with clustering standard errors on 422 households’ data from Eastern Inner Mongolia. Results reveal that imbalances in “people-grassland (grass)-livestock-productive assets” are the major determinants of the herder households’ participation in grassland rental markets. Given other factors, an increase of 10 thousand yuan in a household’ productive assets renders an increase/decrease in their rent-in/rent-out participation likelihood by 1.0% and 2.0%, respectively; an increase of 100 standard sheep unit may bring about 4% increase in rent-in participation and 0.6% decrease in rent-out participation; an increase of 100 hm² in hayfields may decrease and increase the likelihood of rent-in and rent-out participation by 13% and 3%, respectively; an increase of 1.0% in ratio of non-livestock income may decrease propensity of rent-in by 0.34%, and increase propensity of rent-out by 0.2%. In addition, the education and Chinese level of household head, and the available family labor encourage participation in grassland rent-in market. Main findings help facilitate better allocation of herders’ livelihood assets by participating the functional grassland rental markets.     

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.     

Impacts of socio-economic policies on agriculture in the mountainous upland of the Dalinghe river watershed,Northeast China

Ghana, as the second largest global producer of cocoa, is strategically positioned on the world market. Consumer concerns over ethical and environmental issues associated with cocoa production are a potential threat to its position. These concerns have given rise to certification. Certification dictates the way cocoa can be produced and consequently affects producers’ incomes and environmental services. The expected profitability, yield, and environmental impact of Rainforest Alliance certified shade-grown cocoa production (RA-Cocoa) is estimated and compared to an extensive shaded production system (Ext-Cocoa) and an intensified full sun production system (High-Tech). Ext-Cocoa represents most cocoa production systems in Ghana, while High-Tech is promoted by the government as a tool for attaining its target output of 1 million tons. Under the baseline assumptions High-Tech was the most profitable; RA-Cocoa generated positive returns, while Ext-cocoa was a break even proposition. Simulation of different policy scenarios did not affect the rank order of the baseline outcome. The Ext-Cocoa yield was 28% of the RA-Cocoa yield, which was 78% of the High-Tech yield. The environmental services maintained at the plot level of RA-Cocoa production system are greater than those of the High-Tech production system. However, the 228,000 ha of additional forest land required to produce 1 million tons with RA-Cocoa questions which system would impact environmental services the least.     

A social-media-based approach to assessing the effectiveness of equitable housing policy in mitigating education accessibility induced social inequalities in Shanghai,China

Social inequalities induced by education accessibility are widespread and concern land use policy makers globally. Yet much of existing research heavily emphasizes on uncovering the spatial patterns of housing price in relation to education resources. This paper aims to renew our understanding of this classical topic by bringing the importance of temporal and institutional dynamics to the fore. Specifically, this research presents a detailed examination of the relationship between school quality and housing rental dynamics under the intervention of equitable housing policy, with special reference to Shanghai, the most developed megacity in China, also one of the first Chinese cities granting equal rights for renters to access schools within the catchment area. Based on time-series housing rental data collected from social media, the t-test discovers that school quality has a significant impact on housing rental prices after the introduction of this new housing policy. Moreover, housing rental prices within high-quality school districts are significantly higher than those within ordinary school districts. The hedonic model and variance partitioning further confirm that school quality is capitalized into housing rental prices, and its relative contribution varies with temporal periods. More specifically, how the relative contribution of school quality changes over time is consistent with the schedule of primary school enrollment and sensitive to policy intervention. The difference in difference model foregrounds that the equitable housing policy does result in rental prices hike in high-quality school districts, i.e., a 13.5 % rental premium of housings within high-quality school districts compared with those within ordinary ones. We conclude that the equitable housing policy fails to achieve the expected goal and propose alternative suggestions for mitigating social inequalities in education accessibility. This study demonstrates a novel methodological framework for evaluating the social consequence of equitable housing policy based on social media data. It unravels how housing rental changes with school district division and the capitalization effect of school quality in housing rental prices.