Abstract
Following the implementation of the Green for Grain Project in 2000 in Guyuan, China, the decrease in cultivated land and subsequent increase in forest and grassland pose substantial challenges for the supply of biological products. Whether the current biologically productive land-use patterns in Guyuan satisfy the biological product requirements for local people is an urgent problem. In this study, the ecological footprints of biological resource consumption in Guyuan were calculated and analyzed based on the ‘City Hectare’ Ecological Footprint (EF) Method. The EFs of different types of biological resource products consumed from different types of biologically productive land were then analyzed. In addition, the EFs of various biological resource products before and after the implementation of the Green for Grain Project (1998 and 2012) were assessed. The actual EF and bio-capacity (BC) were compared, and differences in the EF and BC for different types of biologically productive lands before and after the project were analyzed. The results showed that the EF of Guyuan’s biological resource products was 0.65866 ha/cap, with an EF outflow and EF inflow of 0.2280 ha/cap and 0.0951 ha/cap, respectively. The per capita EF of Guyuan significantly decreased after the project, as did the ecological deficit. Whereas the cultivated land showed a deficit, grasslands were characterized by ecological surplus. The total EF of living resource consumption in Guyuan was 810,941 ha, and the total BC was 768,065 ha. In additional to current biological production areas, approximately 42,876 ha will be needed to satisfy the demands of Guyuan’s people. Cultivated land is the main type of biologically productive land that is needed.
Highlights
With the rapid industrialization and population growth of China, the most urgent environmental problems arise from increasing volumes of nationwide production, consumption, and the associated use of natural resources
0.0951 ha/cap, respectively, and were mainly consumed from the cultivated land, grass, and forest. In addition to these three bio-productive land types, there was water space consumed in the Ecological Footprint (EF) of bio-resources from production and inflow
The cultivated land’s EF consumption was the largest at more than 86%; grassland accounted for the largest proportion of the outflow, and forest accounted for a large proportion of the production and the inflow
Summary
With the rapid industrialization and population growth of China, the most urgent environmental problems arise from increasing volumes of nationwide production, consumption, and the associated use of natural resources. The Ecological Footprint (EF), a quantitative measure of human utilization of natural resources, is a function of population and the per capita consumption of biologically productive land area. Comparing the EF with the area of biologically productive land can help determine the level of sustainable development of a country or region [1,2,3,4] and contribute to a reasonable and effective model for the sustainable utilization of human resources while meeting living requirements. Most researchers have only accounted for a total population of a nation or local city’s EF at the macro-scale and compared different regions; relatively less consideration of EF consumption has been given to resources at the micro-scale (city or county).
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