TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing human-environment system sustainability based on Regional Safe and Just Operating Space
T2 - The case of the Inner Mongolia Grassland
AU - Fang, Xuening
AU - Wu, Jianguo
AU - He, Chunyang
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Yongfei Bai, Qingxu Huang, Xiangyang Hou, Jianming Niu, Qing Zhang, and Zhifeng Liu for their comments on an earlier version of the paper. This research was supported by a grant from National Basic Research Program of China ( 2014CB954303 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2021/2
Y1 - 2021/2
N2 - China's grassland policy has changed substantially since the country's “reform and opening up” about four decades ago, with profound impacts on both herder's wellbeing and grassland conservation in Inner Mongolia. However, whether the herder-grassland system of Inner Mongolia has become more sustainable has not been quantitatively assessed against established sustainability standards. Thus, this study aimed to quantify the sustainability gaps of the herder-grassland system of Inner Mongolia from 1982 to 2015, based on the Regional Safe and Just Operating Space (RSJOS) framework and landscape sustainability science. Specifically, we evaluated grassland productivity by combining the envelope of variability and spatial explicit landscape analysis methods, and assessed herder's wellbeing using the minimum standards of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our main findings are: (1) the grassland productivity of Inner Mongolia returned to a safe operating state after experiencing unsafe changes between 2000 and 2009; (2) the hotspots of grassland degradation during 1980s-2015 were mainly located in desert steppes and the agro-pastoral transitional zone; (3) herder's income, education, safe drinking water, and social equality did not reach the internationally agreed minimum standards of SDGs, although the overall wellbeing improved during recent decades; and (4) herder's livelihood became less reliant on grasslands as their economic gains from raising livestock declined rapidly. We conclude that, while Inner Mongolia has made substantial progress in economic development during recent decades, improving the basic needs of herders (especially socioeconomic equity and high-quality education) and restoring severely degraded grasslands remain the most urgent and challenging issues that hinder a sustainability transition in the region.
AB - China's grassland policy has changed substantially since the country's “reform and opening up” about four decades ago, with profound impacts on both herder's wellbeing and grassland conservation in Inner Mongolia. However, whether the herder-grassland system of Inner Mongolia has become more sustainable has not been quantitatively assessed against established sustainability standards. Thus, this study aimed to quantify the sustainability gaps of the herder-grassland system of Inner Mongolia from 1982 to 2015, based on the Regional Safe and Just Operating Space (RSJOS) framework and landscape sustainability science. Specifically, we evaluated grassland productivity by combining the envelope of variability and spatial explicit landscape analysis methods, and assessed herder's wellbeing using the minimum standards of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our main findings are: (1) the grassland productivity of Inner Mongolia returned to a safe operating state after experiencing unsafe changes between 2000 and 2009; (2) the hotspots of grassland degradation during 1980s-2015 were mainly located in desert steppes and the agro-pastoral transitional zone; (3) herder's income, education, safe drinking water, and social equality did not reach the internationally agreed minimum standards of SDGs, although the overall wellbeing improved during recent decades; and (4) herder's livelihood became less reliant on grasslands as their economic gains from raising livestock declined rapidly. We conclude that, while Inner Mongolia has made substantial progress in economic development during recent decades, improving the basic needs of herders (especially socioeconomic equity and high-quality education) and restoring severely degraded grasslands remain the most urgent and challenging issues that hinder a sustainability transition in the region.
KW - Grassland policy
KW - Grassland restoration
KW - Herder's wellbeing
KW - Landscape sustainability
KW - Sustainability assessment
KW - Sustainability gap
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U2 - 10.1016/j.envsci.2020.12.007
DO - 10.1016/j.envsci.2020.12.007
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85098935289
SN - 1462-9011
VL - 116
SP - 276
EP - 286
JO - Environmental Science and Policy
JF - Environmental Science and Policy
ER -