By Suzanna Dayne
cifor.org-11 Jan 2018
Massive flooding in 1998 along China’s Yangtze River killed thousands, left millions more homeless and caused billions of dollars worth of damage. Much of the flooding has been blamed on upland deforestation – where land was cleared to grow food to feed the country’s huge population.
China’s response was just as massive. Just a year later, an initiative known as ‘Grain for Green’ — or the Conversion of Cropland to Forest Program (CCFP) — was launched. Today more than 28 million hectares of land have been restored, making it the largest reforestation project in the world.
At the core of the program is a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) mechanism, which rewards farmers for planting trees on sloping landscapes. To date, the country has spent more than USD 50 billion on the program, which includes cash incentives to 124 million farmers in 25 provinces.
There have been numerous studies of the program, but scientists from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and partner institutions, including China’s National Forestry Economics and Development Research Center (FEDRC), wanted to find out more.
“We wanted to take a closer look at the PES system to see how it affected farmers and to shed light on how this huge program is managed,” says Zhang Kun, Deputy Director of Monitoring, Division for Key Forestry Programs, FEDRC.
The scientists say by understanding more about the structure of the CCFP program, they can better understand how a successful PES program works.
The results of the study were published a Special Issue of International Forestry Review on Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR), launched at the recent Global Landscapes Forum in Bonn, Germany.
