Final Report - Asian Development Bank

46
TA 4721-PRC: Preparing the Shaanxi-Qinling Mountains Integrated Ecosystem Management Project
Final Report Appendix 5
Table 14: Forestry Department of Shaanxi Plans for New Nature Reserves by Year-End 2010
No. Name Level* Year*
Location
(county)
Area (ha)
1 Huanboyuan Province 2006 Taibai 25,409
2 Pingheliang Province 2006 Ningshaan 17,275
3 Niangniangshan N/D N/D Foping 17,000
4 Panglong N/D N/D Chenggu 18,844
5 Banqiao N/D N/D Yang 36,130
Total 114,658
N/D = not decided
b. Sloping Land Conversion Program (Grain for Green)
183. The Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP; also known as Grain for Green program) was
implemented in 1999 by PRC as a cropland set-aside program to increase forest cover and prevent
soil erosion on sloped croplands. Farmers discontinue farming on all or part of their steeply sloping
croplands and instead plant seedlings to grow trees. In return, government compensates participating
farmers with in-kind grain allocations, cash payments, and free seedlings. 53,54 The program covers 25
provinces and over 2,000 counties, and continues in 2007. The steepness criterion in southwest
China targets croplands on slopes of 25 degrees or more and in northwest China the target is
croplands on slopes of 15 degrees or more. The total SLCP budget exceeds $40 billion and the goal
is to set aside or rehabilitate 146,700 km 2 of farmland to forest by 2010 55 . This would affect 40-60
million rural households. A second goal is to convert an equivalent area of degraded or “wasteland” to
forest by 2010.
184. By 2003, the program had converted a cumulative 7.19 million ha of cropland and farmers
had afforested 4.92 million ha of barren land. In general, farm incomes did not fall due to
intensification of farmer effort on non-SLCP plots. Farmers use better seed, switch from single to
multi-cropping, and/or increasing livestock production on non-SLCP plots.
185. SLCP was found by Xu et al. (2005) to account for less than 10% of the decline in national
grain production in 1999-2003 and less than 1% of the subsequent rise in grain prices during that
period. SLCP impacts on grain production and grain prices are considered too small to merit
consideration when evaluating whether to continue the set-aside program. Early reports concluded
that environmental benefits of SLCP on a national scale (improved water quality, reduced siltation,
carbon sequestration in planted trees) vastly exceed any national economic costs due to slight rises in
grain prices 56 . Later reports (Bennet and Xu 2006) concluded that SLCP suffers many fundamental
problems and that if it is not restructured and extended beyond the initial eight year duration, the
planned environmental benefits will not be realized.
53 Xu, J., E. Katsigris and T. A. White (eds.). 2002. Implementing the natural forest protection program and the
sloping land conversion program: Lessons and policy implications. CCICED-WCFGTF. Beijing: China Forestry
Publishing House.
54 Xu Zhigang, Xu Jintao, Deng Zheng, Huang Jikun, E. Uchida and S. Rozelle. 2005. Grain for Green versus
Grain: Conflict between Food Security and Conservation Set-Aside in China. World Development 34(1):130-
148.
55 Bennett, M. T. and J. T. Xu. 2006. China’s Sloping Land Conversion Program: Institutional innovation or
business as usual? Workshop on “Payments for Environmental Services (PES) – Methods and Design in
Developing and Developed Countries”, Chinese Center for Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Beijing
56 Xu, J., E. Katsigris and T. A. White (eds.). 2002. Implementing the natural forest protection program and the
sloping land conversion program: Lessons and policy implications. CCICED-WCFGTF. Beijing: China Forestry
Publishing House.