Rapid and far-reaching development transition has triggered corresponding restructuring in rural China especially since the turn of the new millennium. Recently, there has been an increasing trend emphasizing regional resources in formulating rural development policy and restructuring rural…
Livestock grazing is the principal land use in arid central Asia, and range degradation is considered a serious problem within much of the high-elevation region of western China termed the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP). Rangeland degradation on the QTP is variously attributed to poor livestock…
Although efforts in improving forest rights across developing countries are growing, de jure property rights and physical ownership of forests do not automatically enable farmers to obtain benefits from forests. Their access to forest benefits is limited by a range of legal and extralegal…
Rapid and periodic assessment of the impact of land cover change and climate variability on ecosystem services at regional levels is essential to understanding services and sustainability of ecosystems. This study focused on quantifying and assessing the changes in multiple ecosystem services in…
The relationships between migration and agriculture represent a key aspect of rural restructuring in China and many other developing countries. Previous research largely generated mixed and incomplete findings on the effects of rural out-migration on agricultural change. Meta-analysis is…
Minimizing the ecological impact of land development is a fundamental principle of sustainable development. Ecological suitability assessment is the key to realizing sustainability and is also significant for optimizing spatial patterns of territorial development. Especially in mountainous areas…
The most common scientific approach to numerical landscape-level forest management planning is combinatorial optimization aimed at finding the optimal combination of the treatment alternatives of stands. The selected combination of treatments depends on the conditions of the forest, and the…
Due to the accelerated growth of society, the gaps between the capacity of ecosystems to provide services and human needs are steadily widening. Natural, semi-natural, or managed ecosystems had been able to provide ecosystem services to meet the needs of social development. Four agricultural…
Extensive economic growth, tourism activities and over-exploitation of resources have become the common causes of environmental degradation in Langkawi. The sudden development leap resulting from UNESCO's recognition of Langkawi Archipelago as a Global Geopark in 2007, leads to continuous…
Observational evidence of the impacts of land use/land cover change (LULCC) on changes in surface solar radiation (SSR) in eastern China (EC) during 1979–2008 are identified by using diurnal temperature range as a proxy of SSR and by using observation minus reanalysis approach to disentangle…
The Simple Biosphere Model (SiB2) and the 2 × 2 km resolution National Land use/Land Cover database were used to investigate the effects of Land Use/Cover Change (LUCC) on land surface energy balance and climate in Jilin Province, northeast China, from 1990 to 2005. The spatial patterns of the…
China has a long history of deforestation and environmental degradation. Because China is also lacking biological reserves, off-reserve conservation is a major contributor to its conservation efforts. Off-reserve conservation in China is primarily being achieved within afforestation and low-…