TY - JOUR
T1 - Tree plantations displacing native forests
T2 - The nature and drivers of apparent forest recovery on former croplands in Southwestern China from 2000 to 2015
AU - Hua, Fangyuan
AU - Wang, Lin
AU - Fisher, Brendan
AU - Zheng, Xinlei
AU - Wang, Xiaoyang
AU - Yu, Douglas W.
AU - Tang, Ya
AU - Zhu, Jianguo
AU - Wilcove, David S.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Y. Yao, W. Hua, P. Li, M. Xu for logistical support. Special thanks go to our field assistants from Sichuan University: Y. Yuan, X. Bao, Q. Gu, L. Qin, F. Yu, L. Zhang and T. Zhu. Funding for this study was provided by the High Meadows Foundation and the 111 Project of China (B08037). FH was supported by the Newton Fund and the British Royal Society (NF160839), and by the High Meadows Foundation at the time of the study. LW and JZ were supported by funds from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31272327 and 31560599), and by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA19050201). DWY was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31400470, 41661144002, 31670536, 31500305, GYHZ1754), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2012FY110800), the State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution at the Kunming Institute of Zoology (GREKF14-13, GREKF16-09), and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. We thank Professor Richard Corlett and two anonymous reviewers, whose comments and suggestions greatly improved the former version of this article.
Funding Information:
We thank Y. Yao, W. Hua, P. Li, M. Xu for logistical support. Special thanks go to our field assistants from Sichuan University: Y. Yuan, X. Bao, Q. Gu, L. Qin, F. Yu, L. Zhang and T. Zhu. Funding for this study was provided by the High Meadows Foundation and the 111 Project of China ( B08037 ). FH was supported by the Newton Fund and the British Royal Society ( NF160839 ), and by the High Meadows Foundation at the time of the study. LW and JZ were supported by funds from the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 31272327 and 31560599 ), and by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences ( XDA19050201 ). DWY was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 31400470 , 41661144002 , 31670536 , 31500305 , GYHZ1754 ), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China ( 2012FY110800 ), the State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution at the Kunming Institute of Zoology ( GREKF14-13 , GREKF16-09 ), and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences . We thank Professor Richard Corlett and two anonymous reviewers, whose comments and suggestions greatly improved the former version of this article. Appendix A
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2018/6
Y1 - 2018/6
N2 - China is credited with undertaking some of the world's most ambitious policies to protect and restore forests, which could serve as a role model for other countries. However, the actual environmental consequences of these policies are poorly known. Here, we combine remote-sensing analysis with household interviews to assess the nature and drivers of land-cover change in southwestern China between 2000–2015, after China's major forest protection and reforestation policies came into effect. We found that while the region's gross tree cover grew by 32%, this increase was entirely due to the conversion of croplands to tree plantations, particularly monocultures. Native forests, in turn, suffered a net loss of 6.6%. Thus, instead of truly recovering forested landscapes and generating concomitant environmental benefits, the region's apparent forest recovery has effectively displaced native forests, including those that could have naturally regenerated on land freed up from agriculture. The pursuit of profit from agricultural or forestry production along with governmental encouragement and mobilization for certain land uses – including tree planting – were the dominant drivers of the observed land-cover change. An additional driver was the desire of many households to conform with the land-use decisions of their neighbors. We also found that households’ lack of labor or financial resources, rather than any policy safeguards, was the primary constraint on further conversion of native forests. We conclude that to achieve genuine forest recovery along with the resulting environmental benefits, China's policies must more strongly protect existing native forests and facilitate native forest restoration. Natural regeneration, which thus far has been grossly neglected in China's forest policies, should be recognized as a legitimate means of forest restoration. In addition, social factors operating at the household level, notably the pursuit of profit and conformation to social norms, should be harnessed to promote better land-cover, biodiversity, and environmental outcomes. More generally, for China and other countries to succeed in recovering forests, policies must clearly distinguish between native forests and tree plantations.
AB - China is credited with undertaking some of the world's most ambitious policies to protect and restore forests, which could serve as a role model for other countries. However, the actual environmental consequences of these policies are poorly known. Here, we combine remote-sensing analysis with household interviews to assess the nature and drivers of land-cover change in southwestern China between 2000–2015, after China's major forest protection and reforestation policies came into effect. We found that while the region's gross tree cover grew by 32%, this increase was entirely due to the conversion of croplands to tree plantations, particularly monocultures. Native forests, in turn, suffered a net loss of 6.6%. Thus, instead of truly recovering forested landscapes and generating concomitant environmental benefits, the region's apparent forest recovery has effectively displaced native forests, including those that could have naturally regenerated on land freed up from agriculture. The pursuit of profit from agricultural or forestry production along with governmental encouragement and mobilization for certain land uses – including tree planting – were the dominant drivers of the observed land-cover change. An additional driver was the desire of many households to conform with the land-use decisions of their neighbors. We also found that households’ lack of labor or financial resources, rather than any policy safeguards, was the primary constraint on further conversion of native forests. We conclude that to achieve genuine forest recovery along with the resulting environmental benefits, China's policies must more strongly protect existing native forests and facilitate native forest restoration. Natural regeneration, which thus far has been grossly neglected in China's forest policies, should be recognized as a legitimate means of forest restoration. In addition, social factors operating at the household level, notably the pursuit of profit and conformation to social norms, should be harnessed to promote better land-cover, biodiversity, and environmental outcomes. More generally, for China and other countries to succeed in recovering forests, policies must clearly distinguish between native forests and tree plantations.
KW - Biodiversity
KW - Ecosystem services
KW - Forest policy
KW - Natural regeneration
KW - Reforestation
KW - Social norms
KW - Tree planting
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U2 - 10.1016/j.biocon.2018.03.034
DO - 10.1016/j.biocon.2018.03.034
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85045084673
SN - 0006-3207
VL - 222
SP - 113
EP - 124
JO - Biological Conservation
JF - Biological Conservation
ER -