School of Economics, Minzu University of China, No. 27 Zhongguancun South Street, Haidian District, Beijing, 100081, People's Republic of China.
Academy of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, No. 30 Shuangqing Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100084, People's Republic of China.
Ambio. 2021 May;50(5):1117-1122. doi: 10.1007/s13280-020-01448-z. Epub 2021 Jan 17.
Ecological restoration and conservation are primary components of sustainable development around the world, particularly during the contemporary era of climate change. However, restoration and conservation are not free; they consume huge amounts of resources that would otherwise support social and economic development. Therefore, excessive conservation creates a risk of creating rather than eliminating poverty. Unfortunately, scientists have largely ignored the balance between these contrasting goals. Here, we discuss the concept of finding the threshold that represents a suitable balance between ecological conservation and economic development, thereby maximizing the benefits for both humans and the environment and promoting sustainable development. To demonstrate the concept, we examined China's ecological restoration achievements and discussed some of the unforeseen negative consequences that accompanied these achievements to discuss how future policies could better balance ecological and socioeconomic goals.
生态恢复和保护是全球可持续发展的主要组成部分，特别是在当今气候变化的时代。然而，恢复和保护不是免费的；它们消耗大量资源，否则这些资源将支持社会和经济发展。因此，过度保护会带来创造而不是消除贫困的风险。不幸的是，科学家们在很大程度上忽视了这些相互矛盾的目标之间的平衡。在这里，我们讨论了找到代表生态保护和经济发展之间适当平衡的阈值的概念，从而使人类和环境都能获得最大利益，并促进可持续发展。为了说明这一概念，我们考察了中国生态恢复的成就，并讨论了伴随这些成就而来的一些意想不到的负面影响，以探讨未来的政策如何更好地平衡生态和社会经济目标。
