Abstract
Due to large land demand and insufficient economic incentives, stakeholders have little motivation to protect cropland during rapid urbanization. The considerable loss of cropland poses a serious threat to food security and ecological sustainability. This research proposes a framework of payment for ecosystem services (PES) to reconcile the large land demand and the need for cropland protection during economic development by identifying whom to compensate, what to pay, how much to pay, the mechanisms for payment, and verification of service delivery. Using the Yangtze River Delta as an example, the features of the PES based on supply-demand analysis, compensation quality and value standards, and payment regulation are demonstrated. The results show the effectiveness of this PES framework for handling the externality of environmental protection compared to traditional regulatory approaches. The framework will also aid in the protection of cropland by coordinating the benefits of stakeholders.
Highlights
Over the past 30 years, China has experienced tremendously rapid economic growth, with unprecedented industrialization and urbanization [1,2]
To propose a conceptual payment for ecosystem services (PES) framework for cropland protection, we extended the idea presented by Naeem [38]
Due to differences in population, gross domestic product (GDP), and cropland quality, cropland demands can differ among regions
Summary
Over the past 30 years, China has experienced tremendously rapid economic growth, with unprecedented industrialization and urbanization [1,2]. Most of the urban expansion has occurred in the coastal areas of eastern China [3], such as the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta. An excessive loss of arable land has occurred, from a total of 1,282,431 km in 2000 to 1,217,333 km in 2010 [4]. The loss of arable land is expected to accelerate in future decades [5,6,7]. The quality of the cropland has degraded due to occupation during urban expansion [8]. It is critically important for policy makers to protect the limited cropland in China
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