Impact of Rural Land Transfer on Land Use Functions in Western China’s Guyuan Based on a Multi-Level Stakeholder Assessment Framework

Zhichao Xue,Lin Zhen

doi:10.3390/su10051376

Abstract

To achieve sustainable rural development, it is necessary to simultaneously protect ecologically important land and efficiently use existing agricultural land. Land use functions (LUFs) are widely used to assess regional sustainable development. Guyuan is located in a typical hilly and gully region of western China, with ecologically fragile land. Rural land transfer (RLT) has been advocated to prevent abandonment of agricultural land and promote rational, effective utilization of the land. In this study, we used LUFs in a multi-level stakeholder assessment framework to integrate the opinions of all stakeholders in an evaluation of the impact of RLT on regional sustainable development. We employed the framework for participatory impact assessment, key informant interviews, and questionnaires to obtain data to support the development of scenarios to compare the impacts on LUFs. We found that RLT had positive impacts on each LUF in Guyuan, especially for the land-based production and food security LUFs. Importantly, the measures required to support RLT must vary among landforms and location conditions to successfully develop the LUFs and ensure sustainable development. We found that the integrated multi-level stakeholder assessment framework can comprehensively assess the impacts of land use measures on sustainable development and support regional land-use decision-making.

Highlights

The approaches being used to support the use, management, and evaluation of land resources are changing rapidly [1,2,3]
We proposed three scenarios in the phase II of FoPIA workshop: 1. Rural land transfer (RLT) scenario: The experts believed that the RLT would be the most effective way to achieve the goals of increasing land use efficiency and dealing with abandonment of agricultural land
Government statistics suggest that the number of rural workers who moved to cities increased from 180,000 people in 2003 to 308,800 in 2015, a 71.6% increase that amounted to 27.7% of the total agricultural workers in 2015

Summary

Introduction

The approaches being used to support the use, management, and evaluation of land resources are changing rapidly [1,2,3]. Estimates by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2011 indicated that up to 25% of all land worldwide is highly degraded, 36% is slightly or moderately degraded [9]. This condition threatens the sustainable land management at local, regional, as well as global level [10,11]. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) released by UN in 2016 address highlights, in its 7 out of 17 goals, the importance of sustainable land use [14] In line with this consideration, “Land Degradation Neutrality” is proposed by United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) to contribute to the majority goals of the SDGs and deliver co-benefits for most of them [11,15]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion