State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China.
J Environ Manage. 2021 Jun 15;288:112387. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112387. Epub 2021 Mar 23.
Forest ecosystem conservation practice frequently sacrifices human livelihood, since there exists a structural conflict between both aspects in the degraded forest ecosystem. To reconcile the conflict has been widely viewed as a core issue, in which the payment of ecosystem service (PES) may play a critical role in solving this issue. In order to better understand the practical effectiveness of PES and explore the solution to reconcile the contradiction between conservation and livelihood, we investigated the decadal changes in the Sloping Land Conversion Program as a PES strategy in the Qilian Mountains, a degraded forest ecosystem of northwest China, and its effects on natural and social systems across the 10-year implementation period (2001-2011). The regional NDVI of study site was promoted from 46.24% to 61.28%, showing that vegetation cover had a massive increase during the whole implementation period. Also, the PES strategy had impelled more labor forces as migrant workers into the non-agricultural industries or urban areas. The migration dynamics in three industries demonstrated that the population of primary industry followed a gradually declining trend, and its percentage in total population was lowered from 33.44% to 19.82%. According to our household survey, local farmers reduced the economic investment in agriculture, and this enabled more labor forces to be released from agricultural industry. Interestingly, the attitudes towards the PES program for local inhabitants were gradually shifted from negative at initial stage to acceptable at middle stage, and finally to positive at late stage, as a consequence of PES application. In such case, the PES-led vegetation restoration strategy has been effectively implemented, which can reconcile the contradiction between conservation and livelihood, and ultimately achieve a win-win consequence. Our study provided a successful practical paradigm of coupled human and natural system (CHANS) in forest ecosystem restoration.
森林生态系统保护实践往往会牺牲人类的生计，因为在退化的森林生态系统中，这两个方面存在结构上的冲突。调和这一冲突被广泛认为是一个核心问题，而生态系统服务付费（PES）可能在解决这一问题方面发挥关键作用。为了更好地了解 PES 的实际效果，并探索协调保护和生计之间矛盾的解决方案，我们调查了作为 PES 策略的坡耕地退耕还林计划在过去十年（2001-2011 年）中的实施情况及其对自然和社会系统的影响。研究区的区域 NDVI 从 46.24%提高到 61.28%，表明整个实施期间植被覆盖度有了显著增加。此外，PES 策略促使更多的劳动力作为农民工进入非农产业或城市地区。三个产业的迁移动态表明，第一产业的人口呈逐渐下降趋势，其在总人口中的比例从 33.44%下降到 19.82%。根据我们的家庭调查，当地农民减少了对农业的经济投资，这使得更多的劳动力从农业中释放出来。有趣的是，随着 PES 的应用，当地居民对 PES 项目的态度逐渐从最初的负面转变为中期的可接受，最终转变为后期的积极。在这种情况下，PES 主导的植被恢复策略得到了有效实施，能够协调保护和生计之间的矛盾，最终实现双赢的结果。我们的研究提供了一个成功的森林生态系统恢复中耦合人地系统（CHANS）的实践范例。
