Li Jiahui, Huang Lin, Cao Wei, Wang Jian, Fan Jiangwen, Xu Xinliang, Tian Haijing
State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2023 Dec 20;905:167413. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.167413. Epub 2023 Sep 27.
Severe threats from ongoing degradation undermine the grasslands to support ecosystem services, biodiversity, and human well-being. Unfortunately, grasslands are often underappreciated and ignored in sustainable development agendas. Despite a series of projects for Grassland Ecosystem Conservation and Restoration (GECR) been implemented in China, the effects and cost-effectiveness of these efforts remain uncertain and untested. Therefore, we developed an integrated assessment framework to evaluate the benefits of GECR, considering ecological value accounting and input-output efficiency estimation. Additionally, we projected potential and risk areas for GECR in the future. The results showed that in 2020, the annual ecological value of China's grassland ecosystem was CNY 246 trillion. The investment in GECR exceeded CNY 7 billion, leading to an ecological benefit of CNY 3478 billion, with an input-output ratio of 1:446. Over the past 20 years, GECR positively impacted nearly 90 % of China's grassland. Furthermore, grasslands in southern provinces with favorable hydrothermal conditions exhibited significantly higher GECR efficiency, boasting an input-output ratio of >1:2000. The arid and semi-arid northern grasslands and the alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau, despite being the main regions for animal husbandry development and GECR, exhibited comparatively lower efficiency and input-output ratio in GECR. Moreover, the central and northwest parts of Tibet showed higher potential and lower risk, indicating their greatest likelihood of benefiting from GECR in the future. Meanwhile, Hulunbeier and Inner Mongolia deserve more special attention to reverse degradation and mitigate climate change due to their lower potential and higher risks. Our study provides an important basis for prioritizing and implementing effective and sustainable GECR treatment methods.
持续退化带来的严重威胁破坏了草原维持生态系统服务、生物多样性和人类福祉的能力。不幸的是，草原在可持续发展议程中常常未得到充分重视和关注。尽管中国已实施了一系列草原生态系统保护与恢复（GECR）项目，但这些举措的效果和成本效益仍不明确且未经检验。因此，我们制定了一个综合评估框架，以评估GECR的效益，同时考虑生态价值核算和投入产出效率估算。此外，我们还预测了未来GECR的潜在区域和风险区域。结果表明，2020年中国草原生态系统的年生态价值为246万亿元人民币。GECR的投资超过70亿元人民币，带来了34780亿元人民币的生态效益，投入产出比为1:446。在过去20年里，GECR对中国近90%的草原产生了积极影响。此外，水热条件良好的南方省份的草原GECR效率显著更高，投入产出比>1:2000。干旱和半干旱的北方草原以及青藏高原的高寒草原，尽管是畜牧业发展和GECR的主要区域，但在GECR方面的效率和投入产出比相对较低。此外，西藏中部和西北部显示出较高的潜力和较低的风险，表明它们未来从GECR中受益的可能性最大。与此同时，呼伦贝尔和内蒙古由于潜力较低和风险较高，需要更多特别关注，以扭转退化并缓解气候变化。我们的研究为优先实施有效且可持续的GECR治理方法提供了重要依据。
