Search

Based on the data of 849 rural households in the Loess Plateau of China, this paper uses exploratory factor analysis to study farmers' participation in collective action from the aspects of information, participation, organization and effect of action. Through Bootstrap mediation effect test, this paper investigates the direct and indirect impacts of land transfer area and period on the soil and water conservation measures of farmers, respectively. The results show that the area of land transfer directly affects the use of terraced fields, plastic film and afforestation, but not the use of water-saving irrigation techniques. The transfer period has a significant direct impact on the adoption of the four measures mentioned above. Although the mediating effect of collective action in the process of land transfer area affecting the use of terraced fields, afforestation and water-saving irrigation techniques is significant, it is not significant on the use of plastic film. The mediating effect of collective action in the process of land transfer period affecting the use of terraced fields and water-saving irrigation techniques is significant, while it is not significant on the use of plastic film and afforestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has undergone forest transition at the national level during the past decades. Previous studies, which have used econometric models with restrictive assumptions of slope homogeneity across provinces, might present statistically biased results on provincial forest cover change. This paper aims to examine whether provincial forest cover changes follow the same path in China by using an up-to-date panel data on forest cover rates for 29 provincial regions from 1978 to 2013 and an econometric model allowing for slope heterogeneity across provinces. Empirical results suggest that forest cover changed along U-shaped curves in most provinces, but there is no "one size fit all" curve for these provinces, whose forest cover rates at the forest transition point ranged from less than 1% to more than 40% and per capita GDPs varied from 2,114 CNY to 28,403 CNY (in 2013 CNY). In future study, both similarities and differences in forest cover change across provinces should be taken into account, main provincial contributors of national forest cover change needs to be identified, and an extended model that incorporates more explanatory variables affecting deforestation, reforestation or afforestation should be adopted to comprehensively investigate the mechanism underlying forest cover change in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research shows that China is experiencing significant greening, with afforestation initiatives being the main cause. Quantitative calculation of vegetation change influencing factors and evaluation of the contribution of afforestation to vegetation greening in China are critical to coping with climate change and improving the implementation and efficacy of forestry projects. We investigated the temporal and spatial dynamics of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from 1982 to 2020, and quantified the contribution of afforestation initiatives, a typical human activity, to the dynamic changes of vegetation. The results showed that NDVI in China has primarily increased in the last 39 years. 57% of the pixels increased, 27% were stable and unchanged, and 16% decreased. Climate change was responsible for 72.34% of vegetation restoration, while human activities were responsible for 27.36% of vegetation restoration, according to residual analysis. In the future, only 14% of the regions showed continuous growth of the NDVI, while the remaining regions showed obvious antipersistence (59% will go from increasing to decreasing, and 22% will go from decreasing to increasing). The contribution of climate factors to vegetation change will decrease in the future, and human activities will become more complex. Except for Huaihe River and Taihu Lake (SPHRTL), other forestry projects showed an increasing trend of NDVI after the implementation of ecological engineering. However, due to differences in climate conditions and ecological engineering implementation, there are differences in the benefits of forestry projects. Some forestry project areas still have obvious vegetation degradation, and appropriate forestry management is necessary. This work provides a quantitative analysis of vegetation change and its driving factors in China, which will help to cope with future climate change and provide a reference for the implementation and management of ecological projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Desertification is among the most severe global environmental and the socio-economic problems in the world. This paper is a first attempt to link scientific research to national policymaking on desertification in China. We aim to trace scientific research findings in the national policies and strategies of desertification prevention in China. One example is the large-scale plantation programme in the dust source region threatening Beijing and Tianjin since 1998. It has been suggested that the recent increased forest cover due to plantations in North China has helped reduce dust storm emissions and contributed to mitigating dust storm weather in Beijing and Tianjin. Reforestation/afforestation policy remains in the Chinese national environmental strategies for the new national forestation programme (2011-2020). Overgrazing during recent decades has been blamed for land degradation and desertification in Northwest China by many scholars. Small field experiments prove that vegetation in desertified/degraded land could recover if isolated from human activities. Since 1998, natural recovery has become one powerful national force to prevent land desertification and recover natural vegetation. One example is selected at Cele County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to showcase how vegetation could thrive at large scale in natural arid and semi-arid climate if isolated from human intervention. The plantation project has pushed the stakeholders to better understand their negative impact on the environment, especially the overgrazing behaviour. After that, the household income and living level have also been significantly enhanced; however, it is not clear whether the project induced labour migration. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports change in forest carbon stocks and their relationship to investment in forestry fixed assets in silviculture in China employing the forest stock volume conversion method for carbon stocks and annual sinks. The paper establishes carbon stock estimates, and then analyses recent carbon stock trends of main coniferous species based on the latest inventory of China’s forest resources. The inventory data cover the seven dominant coniferous species from 1989 to 2008. The paper shows that investment in forestry fixed assets in silviculture and forest carbon stocks of some species have a significant effect with a lag of 3–7 years; and there is discussion of various problems regarding forest carbon stocks and sinks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on the features of environment and the fact of successful artificial afforestation, the paper points out that the restoration of vegetation in Arid-hot valleys along the Jinshajiang River should be implemented mainly by planting sparse — arbor/ shrub/ tussock Combination. Four ways to restore vegetation in the area are given in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the application of an auction scheme for the allocation of funds for environmentally improving land use change (LUC) amongst farm households in Sichuan Province, China. Competing bids were ranked using their benefit to cost ratios. Results show that the auction approach can be both practically feasible and efficient in the Chinese context. The auction approach was 15% more cost-effective than the status quo fixed payment afforestation programme. The auction approach was also more closely targeted to achieve environmental improvements. Potential improvements to the auction process would be achieved through increased heterogeneity across bids and lower transaction costs from taking bids from aggregations of farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

a stage of rapid economic development and urbanization in China, most cities are faced with serious problems caused by environment deterioration such as pollution, space press, afforestation degradation, and disordering. Kunshan City, one of the most economically vigorous regions in China, has suffered a more prominent conflict between urbanization and environmental safety. In this paper, urban land expansion in Kunshan City in the Yangtze River Delta was measured with reference to the Landsat data recorded in 1982, 1991, 1995, and 2003 and change in land-use pattern in 1981, 1991, 1995, and 2004 as well as that in nutrients in soils of different purposes between the periods were analyzed to study the effect of urban land-use expansion on soil characteristics. To get a better understanding of soil nutrients, heavy metal content, and pollution, on-the-spot investigation, sampling and laboratory analysis were all conducted, and the geo-accumulation factors and revised Nemerow comprehensive index method were adopted for evaluation of the findings. The results show that the content of organic matter, total nitrogen, rapidly available nitrogen, and available phosphorus in the soil (except available potassium) all increased, and the average content of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Ni, Hg, Se, and Zn prove to be 8.61, 0.12, 83.53, 32.49, 29.93, 30.45, 0.27, 0.24, and 93.3 mg kg, respectively, showing degradation in soil quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the implementation of carbon neutrality strategies in China, both carbon emissions reduction and carbon sequestration should be considered. In order to exert the carbon neutrality potential of forest carbon sinks, it is necessary to calculate the cost of them in China. Based on the basic principles of land use opportunity cost and net present value from previous research, this paper constructs a forest carbon sink cost estimation model based on the afforestation cost method. Empirical analysis of the carbon sequestration cost is explored at the city level in China. According to the results, the regional distribution of carbon sink costs varies greatly. On the whole, Southwest China is suitable for afforestation to create carbon sinks since its cost is relatively low. It can obtain carbon benefits from forest carbon sinks projects, while there are higher carbon sink costs in the eastern coastal areas. Furthermore, it dynamically analyzes the impact of the rotation period, timber price, discount rate and afforestation cost on the cost of carbon sinks. The rotation period and afforestation cost have more sensitivity for the forest carbon sink cost. Therefore, it should implement different low-carbon policies in different regions, and encourage forest management to create carbon sinks in areas rich in forest resources. In addition, an inter-regional carbon sink trading mechanism can play the economic value of forest carbon sinks effectively and achieve win-win cooperation between regions. • Analysis of the carbon sink cost is explored at the city level in China. • The regional distribution of carbon costs varies greatly. • Southwest China is suitable for afforestation to make carbon sequestration. • Rotation period, discount rate and afforestation cost have higher sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of afforested area in environmental protection was emphasized in the 12th Five Year Period. Therefore, we first synthetically assess the afforested efficiency by non-oriented Network SBM model. The overall process is divided into two stages, and PM2.5, NOx, and SO2 are viewed as the linkage between two stages. Moreover, the afforested area is used as the final output in the second stage. According to the empirical results, the energy efficiency is higher than the afforested efficiency, and the low overall efficiency mainly due to the bad performance of afforested efficiency. The average afforested efficiency score was less than 0.42 in these five years, indicating that although the average afforestation area increased gradually, the afforestation efficiency did not improve significantly. Most provinces should take effective measures to control the emissions of PM2.5, NOx, and SO2 and gradually improve the afforested area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, the use of modern technologies is increasing along with carbon emission due to the consumption of fossil fuels to operate modern technologies. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between carbon emission, renewable energy consumption, forestry, and agricultural value added per capita from 1998 to 2018. The auto-regressive distribution lag model was estimated for long-run and short-run correlation analysis. The results of this study revealed that carbon emission decreases owed increases in forest areas in the long and well as short-run nexus. Furthermore, in the short run, carbon emission decreases due to an increase in renewable energy consumption. In addition, the carbon emission was run in an upward direction parallel to agricultural financial development. Furthermore, this study confirmed that the unidirectional causality between variables by estimating the non-Granger causality test. Therefore, this study suggests that to combat carbon emissions with carbon emission, it is necessary to switch from nonrenewable energy to renewable energies and organic fertilizer consumption along with afforestation to make the climate free from carbon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Annual land use land cover (LULC) change information at medium spatial resolution (i.e. at 30 m) is required in numerous subjects, such as biophysical modelling, land management and global change studies. Annual LULC information, however, is usually not available at continental or national scale due to reasons such as insufficient remote sensing data coverage or lack of computational capabilities. Here we integrate high temporal resolution and coarse spatial resolution satellite images (i.e., Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Global Inventory Modelling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)) with high spatial resolution datasets (China's Land-Use/cover Datasets (CLUDs) derived from 30-meter Landsat TM/ETM+/OLI) to generate reliable annual nominal 30 m LULC maps for the whole of China between 1980 and 2015. We also test the performance of a statistical based change detection algorithm (Breaks for Additive Seasonal and Trend), originally designed for tracking forest change, in classifying all-type LULC change. As a result, a nominal 30 m annual land use/land cover datasets (CLUD-A) from 1980 to 2015 was developed for the whole China. The mapping results were assessed with a change sample dataset, a regional annual validation sample set and a three-year China sample set. Of the detected change years, 75.61% matched the exact time of conversion within ±1 year. Annual mapping results provided a detail process of urbanization, deforestation, afforestation, water and cropland dynamics over the past 36 years. The consistent characterization of land change dynamics for China can be further used in scientific research and to support land management for policy-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes 31 provincial administrative units in China as the research object, selects a number of disaster index, and uses AHP method to weight the absolute index and relative index of disasters in China during 2010–2016, respectively, so that the intensity of disasters and the regional The degree of influence was quantified; spatial spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of natural disasters in China were analyzed using spatial interpolation analysis, time series analysis, and gravity model; Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze waste water, waste gas, solid waste, and urban gardens. In terms of afforestation and other aspects, a number of social factors are selected to analyze the correlation between these social factors and the changes in disaster conditions. The research shows that in the study period, the southwestern region of China is the region with the highest intensity of disasters, and the northwest and southwest regions are the regions with the deepest degree of disaster impact; the degree of disasters has spatial clustering in time series, in which the disaster situation presents Rise-Down-Rise. The center of China's absolute index of disasters is mainly located at the junction of Hubei, Shaanxi, and Sichuan. The relative index spatial center is located in the southeast of Shaanxi Province and the northern part of Chongqing. In the social elements, chemical oxygen demand emissions, sulfur dioxide emissions, industrial solid waste discards and disposal of domestic waste and park green space. The area and urban afforestation coverage are generally related to the disaster index. Among them, the greater the discharge of waste water, waste air and solid waste, the greater the intensity of the disaster; the larger the green area of the city, the greater the amount of solid waste disposal, and the lower the impact of the disaster on the development of the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of China's Grain for Green Program is to reduce soil erosion by subsidizing reforestation of farmland located on steep slopes with low crop productivity. I show theoretically that the incentives created by the program combined with insufficient oversight have led to afforestation of non-sloped highly productive farmland. With a unique land transition dataset, I show that this unintended land use effect has been substantial, amounting to nearly one-fifth of the total amount of cropland converted to forest. This unexpected displacement of highly productive farmland represents a form of slippage/leakage that has not been fully explored in the literature on payment for ecosystem services programs. This form of land displacement is significant in the context of China as well as other countries with limited arable land relative to population size as it can negatively impact national food production targets and self-sufficiency goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is investing immense resources for planting trees, totalling more than US$ 100 billion in the past decade alone. Every year, China reports more afforestation than the rest of the world combined. Here, we show that China's forest cover gains are highly definition-dependent. If the definition of 'forest' follows FAOcriteria (including immature and temporarily unstocked areas), China has gained 434 000 km² between 2000 and 2010. However, remotely detectable gains of vegetation that non-specialists would view as forest (tree cover higher than 5 m and minimum 50% crown cover) are an order of magnitude less (33 000 km²). Using high-resolution maps and environmental modelling, we estimate that approximately 50% of the world's forest with minimum 50% crown cover has been lost in the past approximately 10 000 years. China historically lost 1.9-2.7 million km² (59-67%), and substantial losses continue. At the same time, most of China's afforestation investment targets environments that our model classes as unsuitable for trees. Here, gains detectable via satellite imagery are limited. Conversely, the regions where modest gains are detected are environmentally suitable but have received little afforestation investment due to conflicting land-use demands for agriculture and urbanization. This highlights the need for refined forest monitoring, and greater consideration of environmental suitability in afforestation programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widespread afforestation programs sequester carbon from the atmosphere and mitigate the rising of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Meanwhile, afforestation carbon sequestration may cost soil water. However, changes in soil moisture content (SMC) after large-scale afforestation or reforestation have rarely been quantified. In this study, we measured changes in SMC following afforestation using a paired plots method with data from 757 plots in Northeastern China. We found a marginally significant decline in soil moisture content of the top 1-m soil (SMC0-1m) after afforestation (P = 0.08) at the regional scale. The SMC responses to afforestation also vary across species. For example, significant SMC decrease are found for Populus spp. plantations (P < 0.05) and plantations of Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica (P < 0.05). Splitting the first meter of the soil profile into different depth intervals revealed that SMC declined significantly in shallow layers (0–30 cm) for Populus spp. and Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica. We also found that when SMC in the control exceeded a specific threshold, SMC for all five tree species considered tended to decrease, suggesting that the effects of afforestation on soil hydrology vary across different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late 1970s, the Chinese government has implemented massive afforestation projects to address grievous environmental disasters, protect human health and provide long-term environmental security. Having a better understanding of the total carbon sink from the afforestation projects is fundamental to assess its global carbon benefit. Here, the sequestered carbon stock based on Chinese national forest inventory data is calculated by using three comparable volume-derived biomass models. Results show that the carbon sink contribution from these Chinese afforestation projects was 1.02 Pg C by the end of 2008 and 0.79 Pg C on average from 1981 to 2008 with a cumulative rate of 0.028 Pg C/a, which corresponds to 2 % of the total industrial carbon emissions from China during the same period. The financial value of carbon sequestration from these projects can be estimated by its value in carbon taxes of Finland and is potentially 190 billion RMB from 1981 to 2008, which is 43.4 % of the original investment. Hence although China's afforestation projects make only modest contributions to offsetting industrial growth in carbon, the carbon sequestered, if valued according to some markets, is a significant fraction of the total project costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reliable detection and attribution of changes in vegetation growth is a prerequisite for the development of strategies for the sustainable management of ecosystems. This is an extraordinary challenge. To our knowledge, this study is the first to comprehensively detect and attribute a greening trend in China over the last three decades. We use three different satellite-derived Leaf Area Index ( LAI) datasets for detection as well as five different process-based ecosystem models for attribution. Rising atmospheric CO2 concentration and nitrogen deposition are identified as the most likely causes of the greening trend in China, explaining 85% and 41% of the average growing-season LAI trend ( LAIGS) estimated by satellite datasets (average trend of 0.0070 yr−1, ranging from 0.0035 yr−1 to 0.0127 yr−1), respectively. The contribution of nitrogen deposition is more clearly seen in southern China than in the north of the country. Models disagree about the contribution of climate change alone to the trend in LAIGS at the country scale (one model shows a significant increasing trend, whereas two others show significant decreasing trends). However, the models generally agree on the negative impacts of climate change in north China and Inner Mongolia and the positive impact in the Qinghai-Xizang plateau. Provincial forest area change tends to be significantly correlated with the trend of LAIGS ( P < 0.05), and marginally significantly ( P = 0.07) correlated with the residual of LAIGS trend, calculated as the trend observed by satellite minus that estimated by models through considering the effects of climate change, rising CO2 concentration and nitrogen deposition, across different provinces. This result highlights the important role of China's afforestation program in explaining the spatial patterns of trend in vegetation growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim Little is known about the performance of plantations relative to natural forests of the same climate zone and age. China has more plantations than any other country as a consequence of massive afforestation efforts. We use data from China to comparatively examine tree biomass and productivity of planted and natural stands in relation to climate zone, latitude, elevation, age and species diversity (richness). Location Six forest climate/vegetation zones in China. Methods We used a database completed in 2007 and then updated in 2013 that contained extensive records of forest stands (10 m × 10 m plots) across China. The database records included a total of 6153 forest stands (1716 planted forests aged 0-80 years and 4437 natural forests of aged 0-400 years), located from 18.1 to 53.2° N and 75.53 to 131.8° E, and between elevations of 7 and 4240 m above sea level. These forests were grouped into six climate zones for comparisons. Results Under generally similar physical conditions (climate zones) to those in natural forests and despite having low diversity (i.e. often a single tree species), plantations aged 0-80 years already had similar biomass but much higher productivity, and thus much higher carbon sequestration rates, than natural forests. Tree biomass, productivity and their above/below ground ratios showed stronger latitudinal and elevational trends in natural forests than in planted forests. No difference in productivity was observed between the planted forests with one or two species; in natural forests, however, high diversity usually led to high productivity. Main conclusions The differences in performance between planted and natural forests were mainly explained by: (1) age (the plantations were in early succession), (2) elevation (plantations were located at lower elevations), and (3) species selection (only highly productive species were planted). As the plantations were all still young, closer monitoring of their performance is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We estimate the heat flux changes caused by the projected land transformation over the next 40 years across China to improve the understanding of the impacts of land dynamics on regional climate. We use the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to investigate these impacts in four representative land transformation zones, where reclamation, overgrazing, afforestation, and urbanization dominates the land use and land cover changes in each zone respectively. As indicated by the significant variance of albedo due to different land use and cover changes, different surface properties cause great spatial variance of the surface flux. From the simulation results, latent heat flux increases by 2 and 21 W/m2 in the reclamation and afforestation regions respectively. On the contrary, overgrazing and urban expansion results in decrease of latent heat flux by 5 and 36 W/m2 correspondingly. Urban expansion leads to an average increase of 40 W/m2 of sensible heat flux in the future 40 years, while reclamation, afforestation, as well as overgrazing result in the decrease of sensible heat flux. Results also show that reclamation and overgrazing lead to net radiation decrease by approximately 4 and 7 W/m2 respectively, however, afforestation and urbanization lead to net radiation increase by 6 and 3 W/m2 respectively. The simulated impacts of projected HLCCs on surface energy fluxes will inform sustainable land management and climate change mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimation of the capacity of provincial forest carbon sinks in Chinese mainland using the CO2FIX model provides data support for the effective management of provincial regions. According to China's Sixth National Forest Inventory, we estimate the capacities of original and new afforestation carbon sinks under the assumption of using the country's non-forest land for afforestation and reforestation to achieve a new forested area of 57323200 ha. The carbon absorption capacity of China's forest ecosystems estimated from 2005 to 2050 reaches 8.4 GtC. The absorption capacities of original forest and new afforestation respectively are 4.9 and 3.5 GtC. The annual capacity of all forest carbon sinks has a roughly decreasing trend. Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Yunnan, Sichuan and Heilongjiang provinces make major contributions to the carbon sink capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase of coverage of forest/vegetation is imperative to improve the environment in dry-land areas of China, especially for protecting soil against serious erosion and sandstorms. However, inherent severe water shortages, drought stresses, and increasing water use competition greatly restrict the reforestation. Notably, the water-yield reduction after afforestation generates intense debate about the correct approach to afforestation and forest management in dry-land areas. However, most studies on water-yield reduction of forests have been at catchment scales, and there are few studies of the response of total evapotranspiration (ET) and its partitioning to vegetation structure change. This motivates us to learn the linkage between hydrological processes and vegetation structure in slope ecosystems. Therefore, an ecohydrological study was carried out by measuring the individual items of water balance on sloping plots covered by different vegetation types in the semiarid Liupan Mountains of northwest China. The ratio of precipitation consumed as ET was about 60% for grassland, 93% for shrubs, and >95% for forestland. Thus, the water yield was very low, site-specific, and sensitive to vegetation change. Conversion of grassland to forest decreased the annual water yield from slope by 50-100 mm. In certain periods, the plantations at lower slopes even consumed the runon from upper slopes. Reducing the density of forests and shrubs by thinning was not an efficient approach to minimize water use. Leaf area index was a better indicator than plant density to relate ET to vegetation structure and to evaluate the soil water carrying capacity for vegetation (i.e., the maximum amount of vegetation that can be supported by the available soil water for an extended time). Selecting proper vegetation types and plant species, based on site soil water condition, may be more effective than the forest density regulation to minimize water-yield reduction by vegetation coverage increase and notably by reforestation. Finally, the focuses in future research to improve the forest-water relations in dry-land areas are recommended as follows: vegetation growth dynamics driven by environment especially water conditions, coupling of ecological and hydrological processes, further development of distributed ecohydrological models, quantitative relation of eco-water quota of ecosystems with vegetation structures, multi-scaled evaluation of soil water carrying capacity for vegetation, and the development of widely applicable decision support tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest ecosystems are in serious trouble globally, largely due to the over-exploitation. To alleviate environmental problems caused by deforestation, China has undertaken a series of key forestry ecological development programs, including the Natural Forest Protection Program (NFPP), the Conversion of Cropland into Forests Program (CCFP), the Desertification Combating Program around Beijing and Tianjing (DCBT), the Key Shelterbelt Development Programs in the Three-North Region and in the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River (KSDP) and the Nature Reserve Development Program in Forestry Sector (WCNR). This article aims to make a documentation of the specific contents (duration, major aims, geographic coverage and investment), and environmental impacts of these programs from peer-reviewed literature, official reports and journals. Environmental impact is measured with land area afforested (except the WCNR) and the consequent changes in ecosystem function. Overall, with the huge investment and long-term efforts, these programs have made tremendous progress in increasing vegetative coverage, enhancing carbon sequestration, controlling soil erosion, conservation of biodiversity, etc. For proper implementation and remarkable achievement, a more balanced approach with flexible planning, suitable measures and proper management should be adopted. Meanwhile, the scientific communities need to be more actively involved in execution and assessment of these programs. The environmental impact of the DCBT, the KSDP, and the WCNR deserve more research concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]