TY - JOUR
T1 - Prospects for the sustainability of social-ecological systems (SES) on the Mongolian plateau
T2 - Five critical issues
AU - Chen, Jiquan
AU - John, Ranjeet
AU - Sun, Ge
AU - Fan, Peilei
AU - Henebry, Geoffrey M.
AU - Fernández-Giménez, María E.
AU - Zhang, Yaoqi
AU - Park, Hogeun
AU - Tian, Li
AU - Groisman, Pavel
AU - Ouyang, Zutao
AU - Allington, Ginger
AU - Wu, Jianguo
AU - Shao, Changliang
AU - Amarjargal, Amartuvshin
AU - Dong, Gang
AU - Gutman, Garik
AU - Huettmann, Falk
AU - Lafortezza, Raffaele
AU - Crank, Connor
AU - Qi, Jiaguo
N1 - Funding Information:
‘Planting the right trees in the right place for a clear function’ was proposed recently by the IUFRO expert panel on forests and water and provides guidance for future ecological restoration efforts to address forest-water issues. The pros and cons pertinent to the socio-economic and ecological impacts must be evaluated in designing local restoration plans so that long term negative consequences may be avoided (Chen et al 2015a). This admonition is especially important given the rapid changes of climate and land use (figure 6) that have profound influence on ecosystems located within water-sensitive zones (Mátyás and Sun 2014). Global warming and/or extreme droughts are likely to cause more water stress by increasing water demand and, thus, reduce the areas appropriate for afforestation. This situation is further complicated by conflicts over water supplies as human populations, standards of living, and water consumption all rise in the 21st century (Sun and Vose 2016, Qi et al 2017). Although there are not large-scale poplar plantations in Mongolia, lessons learned from IM could be valuable for the Mongolian government that has the intention to promote poplar plantations. More importantly, the large-scale afforestation project was promoted and funded by the central government. While there have been many news media reports on the socioeconomic costs/benefits of the program, there remains a major knowledge gap on the socio-economic impacts of the project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.
PY - 2018/12
Y1 - 2018/12
N2 - The Mongolian Plateau hosts two different governments: the Mongolian People's Republic and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, a provincial-level government of the People's Republic of China. The divergence between these governments has widened in the past century, mostly due to a series of institutional changes that generated different socioeconomic and demographic trajectories. Due to its high latitude and altitude, the Plateau has been highly sensitive to the rapid changes in global and regional climates that have altered the spatial and temporal distributions of energy and water. Based on a recent workshop to synthesize findings on the sustainability of the Plateau amidst socioeconomic and environmental change, we identify five critical issues facing the social-ecological systems (SES): (1) divergent and uncertain changes in social and ecological characteristics; (2) declining prevalence of nomadism; (3) consequences of rapid urbanization in transitional economies; (4) the unsustainability of large-scale afforestation efforts in the semi-arid and arid areas of Inner Mongolia; and (5) the role of institutional changes in shaping the SES on the Plateau. We emphasize that lessons learned in Inner Mongolia are valuable, but may not always apply to Mongolia. National land management policies and regulations have long-term effects on the sustainability of SES; climate change adaptation policies and practices must be tuned to local conditions and should be central to decision-making on natural resource management and socioeconomic development pathways.
AB - The Mongolian Plateau hosts two different governments: the Mongolian People's Republic and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, a provincial-level government of the People's Republic of China. The divergence between these governments has widened in the past century, mostly due to a series of institutional changes that generated different socioeconomic and demographic trajectories. Due to its high latitude and altitude, the Plateau has been highly sensitive to the rapid changes in global and regional climates that have altered the spatial and temporal distributions of energy and water. Based on a recent workshop to synthesize findings on the sustainability of the Plateau amidst socioeconomic and environmental change, we identify five critical issues facing the social-ecological systems (SES): (1) divergent and uncertain changes in social and ecological characteristics; (2) declining prevalence of nomadism; (3) consequences of rapid urbanization in transitional economies; (4) the unsustainability of large-scale afforestation efforts in the semi-arid and arid areas of Inner Mongolia; and (5) the role of institutional changes in shaping the SES on the Plateau. We emphasize that lessons learned in Inner Mongolia are valuable, but may not always apply to Mongolia. National land management policies and regulations have long-term effects on the sustainability of SES; climate change adaptation policies and practices must be tuned to local conditions and should be central to decision-making on natural resource management and socioeconomic development pathways.
KW - global change
KW - institutional change
KW - land use
KW - mongolian plateau
KW - social-ecological systems
KW - sustainability
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U2 - 10.1088/1748-9326/aaf27b
DO - 10.1088/1748-9326/aaf27b
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85060137733
SN - 1748-9318
VL - 13
JO - Environmental Research Letters
JF - Environmental Research Letters
IS - 12
M1 - 123004
ER -