《Land degradation, government subsidy, and smallholders conservation decisionthe case of the loess plateau in China》.pdfVIP

Shi et al. / J Zhejiang Univ SCI 2004 5(12):1533-1542 1533 Journal of Zhejiang University SCIENCE ISSN 1009-3095 /jzus E-mail: jzus@ Land degradation, government subsidy, and smallholders’ conservation decision: the case of the loess plateau in China SHI Min-jun (石敏俊)1,2, CHEN Kevin3 1 ( College of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China) 2 ( Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan) (3Department of Rural Economy, University of Alberta, Canada) E-mail: mjshi@; mjshi@sakura.cc.tsukuba.ac.jp; kevin.chen@ualberta.ca Received May 24, 2004; revision accepted Oct. 16, 2004 Abstract: Land degradation is one of the severe environmental problems in China. In order to combat land degradation, a soil conservation program was introduced since 2000 to reduce soil erosion by converting slope-cultivated land into forestry and pasture. This paper represents the first systematic attempt to investigate the impact of the soil conservation program on land degradation in the loess plateau. The results indicate that the soil conservation program to convert slope fields into forest or pasture is an effective way to combat soil erosion. However, a subsidy that is higher than profit of land use activity of slope fields before their conversion into forest and pasture is needed to encourage farmers to join the conservation pro- gram. A policy measure to encourage and assist farmers to develop sedentary livestock by using