TY - JOUR
T1 - A multilevel analysis of effects of land use policy on land-cover change and local land use decisions
AU - Zhang, Jing
AU - Niu, Jianming
AU - Buyantuev, Alexander
AU - Wu, Jianguo
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank two anonymous reviewers for invaluable suggestions useful for improving the earlier version of our paper. This study was supported by funds from the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) ( 2012CB722201 ), National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 31060320 and 30970504 ), National Science and Technology Support Program ( 2011BAC07B01 ), National Department Public Benefit Research Foundation of Ministry of Environmental Protection ( 201109025-3 ).
PY - 2014/9
Y1 - 2014/9
N2 - Drylands, which occupy more than 40% of the Earth's land surface, are highly susceptible to degradation. It is important to understand causes, mechanisms, and environmental consequences of dryland ecosystem degradation. Land use policies are known to play a critical role in driving land cover changes, as well as in mitigating land degradation and promoting sustainable development in drylands. We analyzed the effects of different policies on vegetation cover and the attitude of local people toward policy changes in Uxin county, Inner Mongolia, China, based on remote sensed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series and household surveys. Overall vegetation in the study area was found to recover during 1987-2007. Multilevel statistical modeling results demonstrated that NDVI, density of agricultural population, density of livestock, land use, accessibility to market, and mean annual precipitation all had significant effects on re-vegetation. Changes in land use policy, which restricted farmers and herdsmen in certain land use practices and eliminated rangeland overload, were found to be an important driver of vegetation recovery during 1997-2007. Local households in the area generally approve the policy but adjust it according to their cultural traditions or land use practices.
AB - Drylands, which occupy more than 40% of the Earth's land surface, are highly susceptible to degradation. It is important to understand causes, mechanisms, and environmental consequences of dryland ecosystem degradation. Land use policies are known to play a critical role in driving land cover changes, as well as in mitigating land degradation and promoting sustainable development in drylands. We analyzed the effects of different policies on vegetation cover and the attitude of local people toward policy changes in Uxin county, Inner Mongolia, China, based on remote sensed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series and household surveys. Overall vegetation in the study area was found to recover during 1987-2007. Multilevel statistical modeling results demonstrated that NDVI, density of agricultural population, density of livestock, land use, accessibility to market, and mean annual precipitation all had significant effects on re-vegetation. Changes in land use policy, which restricted farmers and herdsmen in certain land use practices and eliminated rangeland overload, were found to be an important driver of vegetation recovery during 1997-2007. Local households in the area generally approve the policy but adjust it according to their cultural traditions or land use practices.
KW - Desertification
KW - Household
KW - Multi-scale drivers
KW - Multilevel statistical model
KW - Policy change
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2014.04.006
DO - 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2014.04.006
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84899890100
SN - 0140-1963
VL - 108
SP - 19
EP - 28
JO - Journal of Arid Environments
JF - Journal of Arid Environments
ER -