Abstract
China leads the world in afforestation, and is one of the few countries whose forested area is increasing. However, this massive “greening” effort has been less effective than expected; afforestation has sometimes produced unintended environmental, ecological, and socioeconomic consequences, and has failed to achieve the desired ecological benefits. Where afforestation has succeeded, the approach was tailored to local environmental conditions. Using the right plant species or species composition for the site and considering alternatives such as grassland restoration have been important success factors. To expand this success, government policy should shift from a forest-based approach to a results-based approach. In addition, long-term monitoring must be implemented to provide the data needed to develop a cost-effective, scientifically informed restoration policy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Cao, S., B. Zhong, H. Yue, H. Zeng, and J. Zeng. 2009. Development and testing of a sustainable environmental restoration policy on eradicating the poverty trap in China’s Changting County. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106: 10712–10716.
Cao, S., C. Xu, L. Chen, D. Shankman, C. Wang, X. Wang, and H. Zhang. 2011. Excessive reliance on afforestation in China’s arid and semi-arid regions: lessons in ecological restoration. Earth-Science Reviews 104: 240–245.
Changting County Government. 2004. Reaching out to combat soil erosion and construct a beautiful landscape of Changting County. Fujian Soil Water Conservation 16(4): 1–7. (in Chinese).
Guan, L., G. Sun, and S. Cao. 2011. China’s bureaucracy hinders environmental recovery. AMBIO 40: 96–99.
Jackson, R.B., E.G. Jobbagy, R. Avissar, S.B. Roy, D.J. Barrett, C.W. Cook, K.A. Farley, D.C. le Maitre, B.A. McCarl, and B.C. Murray. 2005. Trading water for carbon with biological carbon sequestration. Science 310: 1944–1947.
Jiang, G., X. Han, and J. Wu. 2006. Restoration and management of the Inner Mongolia Grassland requires a sustainable strategy. AMBIO 35: 269–270.
Li, W. 2004. Degradation and restoration of forest ecosystems in China. Forest Ecology and Management 201: 33–41.
Lindenmayer, D.B., J. Fischer, and R.B. Cunningham. 2005. Native vegetation cover thresholds associated with species responses. Biological Conservation 124: 311–316.
Liu, J., S. Li, Z. Ouyang, C. Tam, and X. Chen. 2008. Ecological and socioeconomic effects of China’s policies for ecosystem services. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105: 9477–9482.
McVicar, T.R., T.G. Van Niel, L. Li, Z. Wen, Q. Yang, R. Li, and F. Jiao. 2010. Parsimoniously modelling perennial vegetation suitability and identifying priority areas to support China’s re-vegetation program in the Loess Plateau: Matching model complexity to data availability. Forest Ecology and Management 259: 1277–1290.
Mitchell, A.T., and G.H. Ricardo. 2004. Globalization, migration, and Latin American ecosystems. Science 305: 1915–1916.
Normile, D. 2007. Getting at the roots of killer dust storms. Science 317: 314–316.
Radford, J.Q., A.F. Bennett, and G.J. Cheers. 2005. Landscape-level thresholds of habitat cover for woodland-dependent birds. Biological Conservation 124: 317–337.
Sasaki, T., T. Okayasu, U. Jamsran, and K. Takeuchi. 2008. Threshold changes in vegetation along a grazing gradient in Mongolian rangelands. Journal of Ecology 96: 145–154.
State Forestry Administration. 2010. China forestry yearbook. Beijing: China Forestry Press. (in Chinese).
Stone, R. 2009. Nursing China’s ailing forests back to health. Science 325: 556–558.
Sun, G., G. Zhou, Z. Zhang, X. Wei, S.G. McNulty, and J.M. Vose. 2006. Potential water yield reduction due to reforestation across China. Journal of Hydrology 328: 548–558.
Wang, X., F. Chen, E. Hasi, and J. Li. 2008. Desertification in China: An assessment. Earth-Science Reviews 88: 188–206.
Wang, X., C. Zhang, E. Hasi, and Z. Dong. 2010. Has the three-Norths forest shelterbelt program solved the desertification and dust storm problems in arid and semiarid China? Journal of Arid Environments 74: 13–22.
Wang, Y., and S. Cao. 2011. Carbon sequestration may have negative impacts on ecosystem health. Environmental Science and Technology 45: 10.1021/es200042s htt://dx.doi.org/.
Zhang, X.P., L. Zhang, J. Zhao, P. Rustomji, and P. Hairsine. 2008. Responses of streamflow to changes in climate and land use/cover in the Loess Plateau, China. Water Resources Research 44: 1–12.
Zhou, G., and X. Wei. 2002. Impacts of eucalyptus (Eucalyptus exserta) plantation on soil erosion in Guangdong Province, Southern China—a kinetic energy approach. Catena 49: 231–251.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (HJ2010-3) and the CAS/SAFEA International Partnership Program for Creative Research Teams of “Ecosystem Processes and Services”. We thank Geoffrey Hart (Montréal, Canada) for editing an early version of this article.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This synopsis was not peer reviewed.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cao, S., Sun, G., Zhang, Z. et al. Greening China Naturally. AMBIO 40, 828–831 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0150-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0150-8