Gully erosion is the destructive and dramatic form of land degradation in Northeast China. The region is the grain production and ecological security base of China where the fertile and productive Mollisols are distributed. Though the region was agriculturally developed relatively recently, it went through high intensity cultivation and fast succession processes within short-time scales. Coupled with irrational farming practice choice and land use, hillslope erosion and gully erosion are seriously threatening agricultural production and environmental stability in the region.

Land degradation is a multifaceted phenomenon. In many mountainous and hilly areas that are marginal in terms of their economic and social sustainability, degradation is closely linked to population decline through ageing and outmigration, and to the abandonment of land, leading to a loss of community resilience. These processes acting together can produce positive feedback loops, with the consequential loss of socio-economic resilience at larger spatial scales that can ultimately lead to the disintegration of entire territories.

Landscapes settled by indigenous communities represent nuanced inter-relationships between culture and environment, where balance is achieved through Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). Through IKS, native peoples worldwide live, farm, and consume resources in a manner that is responsive to natural systems and, as such, their lands present less deforestation and more sustainable production per capita than is exhibited by non-indigenous practices.