Ecological Restoration Programs Research Articles

The environmental impact assessment of China's ecological migration from a social-ecological perspective.

When accounting for the social-ecological impact of an ecological restoration program, both objective environmental contexts and people's subjective perceptions are required. While this kind of environmental impact assessment lacks a comprehensive perspective. We use the difference-in-differences model to evaluate the effect of the greenness of the landscape after ecological migration in the Qilian Mountains in China; and analysis of variance and fixed effects models are used to evaluate the effects of such ecological restoration programs on local people's perceptions. The results show that the ecological migration program in the Qilian Mountains has been successful at not only significantly improving remotely sensed greenness at the landscape scale, but also at enhancing immigrants' environmental perceptions. These findings demonstrate the environmental impacts of ecological migration from a social-ecological perspective, and can provide methodological implications for landscape planning to support a better understanding of ecological restoration programs in the drylands.

Prevalence of vegetation browning in China's drylands under climate change

Vegetation greening has long been acknowledged, but recent studies have pointed out that vegetation greening is possibly stalled or even reversed. However, detailed analyses about greening reversal or increased browning of vegetation remain scarce. In this study, we utilized the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as an indicator of vegetation to investigate the trends of vegetation greening and browning (monotonic, interruption, and reversal) through the breaks for the additive season and trend (BFAST) method across China's drylands from 1982 to 2022. It also reveals the impacts of ecological restoration programs (ERPs) and climate change on these vegetation trends. We find that the vegetation displays an obvious pattern of east-greening and west-browning in China's drylands. Greening trends mainly exhibited monotonic greening (29.8%) and greening with setback (36.8%), whereas browning showed a greening to browning reversal (19.2%). The increase rate of greening to browning reversal is 0.0342/yr, which is apparently greater than that of greening with setback, 0.0078/yr. This research highlights that, under the background of widespread vegetation greening, vegetation browning is progressively increasing due to the effects of climate change. Furthermore, the ERPs have significantly increased vegetation coverage, with the increase rate in 2000–2022 being twice as much as that of 1982–1999 in revegetation regions. Vegetation browning in southwestern Qingzang Plateau is primarily driven by adverse climatic factors and anthropogenic disturbances, which offset the efforts of ERPs.

Differentiated impacts of environmental contexts on residents' environmental attitudes towards ecological restoration programs of China's drylands

Residents' environmental attitudes (EAs) towards ecological restoration programs are vital for evaluating program effectiveness and promoting environmental management. However, most local studies have neglected the indirect environmental contextual influences on residents' EAs, and have omitted the regional variations in the environmental contextual influences. To investigate the multilevel factors affecting residents' EAs, we conducted a transect survey that included the eastern, middle, and western regions in northern China's drylands, where have experienced ecological restoration. Multilevel linear models (MLMs) were applied to analyse the direct and indirect impacts of environmental contexts and individual characteristics on rural residents' EAs. The results showed the environmental context can indirectly impact EAs by amplifying the influence of individual characteristics such as family structure and income on EAs. The EAs are influenced by different local environmental contexts among the east, middle and west of China's drylands. The humidity attitude was influenced by precipitation only in the highly arid western and middle regions, while precipitation attitude is strongly influenced by land surface temperature and humidity in eastern China's drylands. These findings hold important implications for understanding the cross-scale impact of environmental contexts on EAs in drylands.

Response of ecosystem water-use efficiency to global vegetation greening

Global vegetation has been greening during the past two decades. However, relatively less is known concerning the change of carbon–water cycle coupling in response to vegetation greening. A key indicator that can characterize this coupling is water-use efficiency (WUE) of ecosystems. Therefore, we explored the impact of global vegetation greening on ecosystem WUE using Theil-Sen trend analysis, Mann-Kendall (M−K) test, stepwise regression and Lindeman Merenda Gold model (LMG) model based on the remote sensing data from 1982 to 2018. Our results showed that global vegetation greening had a positive effect on the gross primary productivity (GPP), evapotranspiration (ET) and WUE during the past thirty years. The WUE in 70 % of these vegetation greening areas, including India, China, Russia, Japan, North Korea, Europe and North America, was increased, and the WUE was increased by 0.002 g C kg H2O yr−1, which was twice as much as that of the global vegetation cover areas. Results of stepwise regression analysis showed that vegetation greening contributed 80 % of the changes in WUE, much higher than the contribution of the climate factors. GPP contributes approximately 81 % to the changes in WUE as a result of vegetation greening. In addition, we also found that, in the greening areas around the world, leaf area index (LAI) explained 80 % of the changes in WUE, and that vegetation has a positive effect WUE. Therefore, the WUE should be considered in the design of ecological restoration programs in the future, and vegetation of low water consumption would be favored to realize sustainable ecosystem services and regional development.

Dynamics of land cover changes and driving forces in China’s drylands since the 1970 s

The land cover in China’s drylands has undergone dramatic changes due to rapid economic development and ecological restoration; however, the long-term and detailed land cover and land use change (LCLUC) focus on this unique region remains inadequate. Based on a temporally continuous and spatially high-resolution ChinaCover dataset from 1975, as well as climatic and socioeconomic data, this study analyzed the spatiotemporal pattern of LCLUC in China’s drylands over 45 years, revealed the land conversions in the secondary category and explored its major driving factors in different periods. The results show that the rate of LCLUC is accelerating, and the trajectory of LCLUC is slowly changing although stable land is dominant. There are complex conversions among land covers, with each type of change affecting an average of 12 other types, and the LCLUC in drylands was mainly determined by the mutual conversions among shrub, desert shrub, steppe, sparse grassland, built-up, upland, and barren land. Anthropogenic land has grown rapidly, especially in the ethnic autonomous regions of Xinjiang, Ningxia, and Inner Mongolia, while ecological restoration programs have led to significant growth of natural land in the remaining regions. The widespread rapid expansion of artificial surfaces, western growth of agricultural land and eastern recovery of woodland have been supported by the continued decline of grassland and unused land. LCLUC in China’s drylands was more influenced by population in the 1980 s, while economic development had a stronger influence in the 1990 s. In the 2000 s and 2010 s, however, population and cultivation had a stronger influence. All drivers are backed by macro policies. It was observed that resolution has a significant impact on the LCLUC when the resolution increases from 30 m to 10 m. These findings provide decision support for sustainable policy making and further promote the exploration of complex human-land relationships in drylands.

Exploring social-ecological system resilience in South China Karst: Quantification, interaction and policy implication

China’s Grain to Green Program (GTGP), which is one of the largest payments for ecosystem services (PES) in the world, has made significant ecological improvements to the environment. However, current understanding of its outcomes on the social-ecological system (SES) remains limited. Therefore, taking the South China Karst as an example, a SES resilience evaluation index system was constructed followed by an exploratory spatial analysis, root mean square error, and Self-Organizing Feature Map to clarify the spatiotemporal changes and relationship of SES resilience, achieve the zoning of SES resilience and provide restoration measures. The results showed an upward trend in social resilience from 2000 to 2020, especially its subsystem of social development. Regional ecological resilience was stable, owing to a slightly declined ecosystem services and increased landscape pattern. Spatially, nearly half of the counties exhibited a distribution mismatch in SES resilience. There was an obvious inverted U-shaped relationship of SES resilience, indicating a clear threshold effect, and the constraint relationship of SES resilience eased over time, demonstrating the effectiveness of the ecological restoration program. GTGP played a positive role in reducing regional SES trade-off, but this positive effect was limited, reflecting the limitations of overemphasizing the conversion from farmland to forest and grassland. Regional SES resilience can be divided into four clusters, which were the key optimization zone for social system, the SES resilience safety zone, the key restoration zone for SES resilience, and the key optimization zone for ecological system. Adaptive adjustments for the GTGP in these zones should be taken to achieve maximum SES benefits in the future.

Distinct Contributions of Climate Change and Anthropogenic Activities to Evapotranspiration and Gross Primary Production Variations over Mainland China

In recent decades, China has experienced substantial climate change and significant vegetation greenness due to the extensive implementation of artificial ecological restoration programs. However, the quantitative contributions of climatic and anthropogenic drivers to the national variations in associated evapotranspiration (ET) and gross primary productivity (GPP) over China at different climate zoning sub-regions remain unclear. Based on the analysis of climate factor and vegetation disturbance trends created by anthropogenic activities, this study constructed a remote sensing-based ecological model consisting of Penman–Monteith–Leuning (PML) and light use efficiency (LUE) components. The proposed model simulated the spatiotemporal changes in ET and GPP between 1999 and 2018 over China. The contributions of climatic factors and anthropogenic activities to ET and GPP variations were quantitatively calculated by ridge regression. The results show that (1) both interannual ET and GPP markedly increased, by 1.32 mm yr−1 and 8.01 g C m−2 yr−1, respectively; (2) vegetation changes due to anthropogenic disturbance made the dominant contribution to GPP variations over China, while the dominant factor influencing ET changes differed by sub-region due to the joint effects of vegetation and climate; (3) temperature and precipitation positively affected ET, while wind speed, humidity, and solar radiation negatively contributed to ET in most parts of Mainland China. These findings may provide a workable, scientific reference for further ecological restoration decision-making processes in China.

Grassland Greening and Water Resource Availability May Coexist in a Warming Climate in Northern China and the Tibetan Plateau

AbstractGreening of Northern China and the Tibetan Plateau (NCTP) has been observed by increases in the remotely sensed leaf area index (LAI), driven primarily by CO2 fertilization effects, anthropogenic warming, and the implementation of ecological restoration programs. Continued growth of LAI throughout the 21st century is also projected by the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) scenarios. However, the question of whether local water resources can sustain ongoing grassland greening has not been adequately investigated. Here we assessed the sustainability of water resources under grassland greening across NCTP under various climate scenarios using water yield (WY, defined as precipitation minus actual evapotranspiration) as the key metric. Unexpectedly, we observe the coexistence of increases in LAI and WY in most of NCTP. In a warming climate with increasing precipitation and CO2, we find that grasses maintain high water use efficiency to sustain their growth, contributing to continued local water resource availability. Thus, livestock production may also continue to increase under the simultaneous growth of LAI and WY in the future.

Understanding ecological restoration potential: The role of water resources and slope gradient limits

Ecological restoration is one of the most feasible ways to mitigate climate change and conserve ecosystems. However, the scope, intensity, effectiveness, and future potential of ecological restoration are restricted by unfavorable environmental conditions, especially limited water resources and complex topography. This paper proposes an assessment framework of ecological restoration potential under the coupled limits of water resources and slope gradient to quantitatively assess ecological restoration potential (ERP) under these two limiting factors. Results indicate that the current vegetation plantation in 20%, 0.19% and 32% areas of China's 31 provinces are larger, equal, and lower than the vegetation threshold permitted by local water resources respectively, which represents about 0.299 billion ha potential for additional restoration area. The ecological restoration potential under the integrated water resources and slope gradient constraints is 0.4 Pg C, less than half (47%) of the potential under the single limit of water resources (0.856 Pg C). However, this potential and China's existing carbon sink capacity related to terrestrial ecosystems is estimated to offset up to 8% of its current carbon dioxide emissions. Ecological restoration programs in areas with slope >5° will require additional economic investment to support Soil and Water Conservation programs, estimated to average about 212 trillion yuan. Succinctly, it is critical to integrate field investigations, process-based assessments and landscape design for sustainable ecological restoration. This work can provide techniques support for quantitative measurement of ecological restoration potential considering multiple limiting factors and guidance for sustainable implementation of ecological restoration programs.

Carbon potential of China's Grain to Green Program and its contribution to the carbon target

Afforestation and reforestation are deemed promising strategies for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. Here, we estimated the impact of China's Grain for Green Program (GFGP) on carbon storage and carbon sink capacity over the past 20 years. We then projected the carbon potential of the GFGP under expansion and management scenarios for 2030 and 2060. Our results showed that the GFGP contributed to 1482.62 Tg of a carbon sink from 2000 to 2020. By 2030 and 2060, the carbon sink induced by the GFGP reached 47.59–75.85 Tg per year, and 38.67–73.67 Tg per year, respectively. This sink offset 0.74–1.19 % and 0.98–1.87 % of the CO2 emissions from all of China in 2030 and 2060, respectively. Our results indicate that national ecological restoration programs can mitigate China's extensive carbon emissions in China, and highlight new solutions for removing CO2 from the atmosphere in other countries.

Intraspecific variation in fruit production of African mahogany (Khaya anthotheca) in a semi‐deciduous East African rainforest

AbstractRestoring valuable timber trees is a necessary part of regaining many ecosystem services and products provided by degraded tropical forests. However, knowledge of seed production, a regeneration prerequisite, is limited for many tropical timber tree species. We studied the fruit production of African mahogany (Khaya anthotheca) in a semi‐deciduous rainforest in East Africa, to provide information for ecological restoration programs. First, we quantified population variability and synchrony in fruit production. Then, we assessed how reproductive status and output were influenced by tree size, neighbourhood crowding, exchangeable cations, liana presence, and crown exposure. We found fruit production at the population level was weakly synchronised, with high interannual variability at the population and individual levels. Tree size determined reproductive status. Individual quantity of fruit produced increased with tree size but decreased with neighbourhood crowding. Our results indicate that K. anthotheca does not meet the criteria for mast fruiting. Our findings suggest that reproductive output in mahogany is regulated by tree size and competition. In addition to active protection, thinning to reduce competition around seed trees may boost fruit production at the individual tree level to provide seed for forest enrichment.

Remote sensing approach in evaluating anthropogenic impacts on the spatiotemporal changes in net primary productivity of the Niger river basin, from 2000 to 2020

Deterioration of the environment can be examined by utilizing a statistical evaluation of the effects of anthropogenic activities (beneficial or detrimental) on net primary productivity. The Niger River Basin's net primary productivity is significant both theoretically and practically for the management of the natural environment. It is important for her member countries to understand vegetation dynamics, maintain carbon balance, and ensure food security in the region. The research applied remote sensing to determine the relative impact of human activities on the net primary productivity of the Niger River Basin from 2000 to 2020. The study simulated the actual and potential net primary productivity using the Carnegie Ames Stanford Approach and Thornthwaite's Memorial Model respectively, while the result of the simulations was used to calculate human-influenced net primary productivity. The slope of the three simulations was calculated and merged in several scenarios using ArcGIS 10.8 to determine the impact of human activities on net primary productivity of the study area. The negative impacts of human activities were recorded in 89.88 % of the investigated area, while 10.12 % of the NRB had signs of positive impacts. Amongst the biomes, urban areas and bare land experienced the largest negative impacts (97.2 % and 99.8 %, respectively). The study advised the effectiveness of ecological restoration programs, through sound scientific and technical methods, such as those used in rural development, nomadic herding, environmental protection, and natural resource management policies.

How are nature-based solutions contributing to the improvement of ecosystem quality in China: A systematic review

Nature-based solutions (NbS), an upgraded version of ecological restoration concept, has developed as an integrated approach to encompass a broad range of actions that protect, restore, or sustainably manage ecosystems to provide benefits to people. However, it is challenging to obtain a thorough understanding of the effectiveness of NbS because of the uncertainty of the assessment in different regions based on ecosystem services. Here, we conduct a synthesis analysis of the effects of ecological interventions on ecosystem quality within China. We systematically analyze 76 studies selected from 275 peer-reviewed papers, which were undertaken at regional scale and published between 2011 and 2022. Average values of ecosystem services before and after the ecological interventions are extracted to quantify the ecosystem changes. Results show that ecological restoration purposefully contributes to the improvements of ecosystem services with an increase in Net Primary Productivity (NPP) of 31% and an increase in soil conservation (SC) of 21%. Effects on water yield (WY), carbon storage (CS) and habitat quality (HQ) are all not significant. Restoration interventions have a mixed effect on ecosystem service trade-offs which may vary by regions. Trade-offs primarily exist between WY and other ecosystem services on the Northeastern Forest Belt and the Southwestern Karst, while synergies mainly exist among NPP, SC and CS on the Loess Plateau and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Moreover, utilizing grey correlation analysis methods, factor analysis reveals that temperature and precipitation are highly correlated with the changes of the five ecosystem services. Natural factors contribute more to the changes of NPP, SC and WY than the human factors. This research is aimed at obtaining an overall perception of the effectiveness of ecological restoration programmes implementation in different regions across China, which will provide references for reducing ecosystem services trade-offs and adjusting the layouts of regional ecological restoration programmes.

Is green eco-friendly? How cognitive biases affect residents’ willingness to participate in natural rubber plantation ecological restoration programs in Hainan, China

Is green eco-friendly? How cognitive biases affect residents’ willingness to participate in natural rubber plantation ecological restoration programs in Hainan, China

Spatial variations and mechanisms for the stability of water use efficiency in China.

A clearer understanding of the stability of water use efficiency (WUE) and its driving factors contributes to improving water use efficiency and strengthening water resource management. However, the stability of WUE is unclear. Based on the EEMD method, this study analyses the spatial variations and mechanisms for the stability of WUE in China, especially in the National Forest Protection Project (NFPP) areas. It is found that the stable WUE was dominated by non-significant trends and increasing trends in China, accounting for 33.59% and 34.19%, respectively. The non-significant trend of stable WUE was mainly located in the Three-North shelterbelt program area, and the increasing trend of stable WUE was in Huaihe and Taihu, Taihang Mountains, and Pearl River shelterbelt program areas. Precipitation and soil moisture promoted the stable WUE in these project areas. The unstable WUE was dominated by positive reversals or negative reversals of WUE trends. The positive reversals of unstable WUE were mainly located in the Yellow River shelterbelt program areas, which was promoted by temperature and radiation, while the negative reversals of unstable WUE were mainly distributed in the Yangtze River and Liaohe shelterbelt program areas, which were mainly induced by saturation water vapor pressure difference (VPD). Our results highlight that some ecological restoration programs need to be improved to cope with the negative climate impact on the stability of WUE.

Recent change in ecosystem water use efficiency in China mainly dominated by vegetation greening and increased CO2

Over the last two decades, the significant vegetation increase caused by the execution of several ecological restoration programs has modified the integrated carbon and water cycles. However, the underlying mechanisms of ecosystem water-use efficiency (EWUE) change remain unclear. The current study estimates the annual and seasonal variations in the spatiotemporal patterns of EWUE from 2000 to 2018 and quantifies its driving factors to distinguish the impacts of vegetation and environmental factors across China. The contribution of driving factors to EWUE dynamics is quantified using PML_V2 gross primary productivity (GPP) and evapotranspiration (ET) products by employing the partial derivative (PD) equation. The results reveal that the leaf area index (LAI) is the major contributor in altering the EWUE of China, followed by CO2. The mean seasonal contribution of LAI is dominated by summer (0.0044 gC mm−1H2O yr−1) and spring (0.0035 gC mm−1H2O yr−1), followed by winter (0.0029 gC mm−1H2O yr−1) and autumn (0.0013 gC mm−1H2O yr−1), while the annual contribution is calculated to be 0.0017 gC mm−1H2O yr−1. The rate of CO2 contribution to EWUE was highest in spring (0.0022 gC mm−1H2O yr−1), followed by winter (0.0012 gC mm−1H2O yr−1), autumn (0.001 gC mm−1H2O yr−1) and summer (0.0007 gC mm−1H2O yr−1), while the annual rate was calculated to be 0.001 gC mm−1H2O yr−1. The relative contribution of climatic factors is the most considerable in the summer season, with 8.6%. The negative contribution of CO2 to EWUE along south China coast may not be influenced by CO2, rather because of the seasonal variations in GPP and ET trends. Our findings suggest that vegetation greening taken place in the last couple of decades has significantly enhanced EWUE trends in China and could help to develop future ecological restoration programs considering EWUE variations for effective ecosystem management and efficient water use.

Ecological restoration programs reduced forest fragmentation by stimulating forest expansion

Deforestation has led to substantial loss of natural forests worldwide, resulting in forest fragmentation, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, and carbon loss. In response to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, particularly the Global Forest Goals, China implemented a series of large-scale ecological restoration programs. In the context of coexisting forest restoration and forest loss, the effectiveness of long-term forest ecological restoration programs in optimizing forest fragmentation remains uncertain. Within the framework of long-term ecological restoration programs, we investigate the dynamics of forest fragmentation, analyze the spatial processes of forest expansion and loss, and assess the impact of forest fragmentation on core and edge forests in Panzhihua City using landscape metrics and Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis. At the statistical scale, the rise in AI and CONTAG indices, along with the decline in the SHDI index, signifies a reduction in forest fragmentation. Additionally, the findings of the Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) at the spatial scale corroborate this trend. These results demonstrate that long-term ecological restoration programs reduced forest fragmentation, primarily driven by forest expansion. We discovered that forest fragmentation decreased thanks to three ecological management practices: (1) expanding forest edges (sprawl); (2) converting farmland on the forest's edge to forestland (corridor or sprawl); and (3) closing perforations within forests (infill). Additionally, at the spatial pattern level, the reduction of forest fragmentation enhanced the core forest area (567.36 km2) and declined edge forest area (44.28 km2) in Panzhihua City from 1992 to 2020. Integrating the MSPA analysis with landscape indices enhances our understanding of landscape fragmentation in the region. Considering spatial complexity when analyzing the spatial processes of forest expansion and loss holds significant importance for formulating improvement strategies. Moreover, these findings emphasize the necessity of considering the spatial process of forest expansion while formulating effective forest restoration measures to mitigate fragmentation and minimize the negative impact of edge effects on forests.

Long‐term desertification process monitoring and driving factors analysis in rare earth mining area

With the exploitation of rare earth elements (REE) in southern China, desertification has become a serious ecological problem in this region. To accurately understand the desertification process in mining areas and formulate targeted ecological restoration programs, taking the Lingbei mining area in Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province as the study area, we explored desertification information extraction methods, desertification dynamics monitoring, and desertification drivers in REE mining areas using multisource data from 1986 to 2021. The results show that from the method of extracting desertification information, Random Forest is the prominent (83.33%), followed by Albedo–NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) space (74.44%), and thirdly Linear Spectral Mixture Model (65.56%). From 1986 to 2021, the desertification land area in Lingbei mining areas first increased and then decreased, showing a reverse trend, but it has not recovered to the pre‐mining level. The government's ecological reclamation measures are the key factors for the restoration of desertification land. There are still 17.81 km2 areas that have not been restored, of which 2.16 km2 are at the level of severe desertification. Moderate desertification and light desertification have not been completely curbed, which needs continuous attention. Vegetation coverage has the highest explanatory power to the distribution of land desertification in mining areas, followed by land use classification, indicating that human activities have a great influence on the spatial differentiation of land desertification in mining areas, and it is necessary to pay attention to regional balanced and sustainable development in the future.

Integrating landscape ecological risk into ecosystem service value assessment: A case study of Nanjing City, China

The scientific assessment of ecosystem service value (ESV) and landscape ecological risk (LER) is important for ecological security and sustainable development. However, existing studies often separate ESV and LER for a single evaluation, and the single evaluation is limited in guiding ecological conservation. Therefore, proposing an evaluation framework that integrates ESV and LER is urgent. Taking Nanjing City as an example, this study evaluated LER based on the risk evaluation cell and introduced it into ESV evaluation. Then, the influence of land use/land cover change on LER and ESV from 2000 to 2020 was analyzed. The results showed that built-up land and water body/wetland increased by 881.96 km2 and 41.41 km2, and farmland and forest land decreased by 875.46 km2 and 55.83 km2 from 2000 to 2020. The LER was low in the middle and high in the north and south. From 2000 to 2010, the LER increased from 0.67 to 0.68, and it then decreased to 0.61 in 2020. Medium-low risk regions decreased during 2000–2010, and low-risk regions increased and medium-high risk regions decreased during 2010–2020. The ESV increased by 0.77 billion United States dollars (USD) during 2000–2010 but decreased by 0.40 billion USD during 2010–2020. Under the impact of LER, the ESV per unit area of the farmland, forest land, and water body decreased during 2000–2020. The ESV of the water body dominated the total ESV and had an important influence on the change in total ESV. The ESV in Nanjing City during 2000–2020 mainly showed High-High autocorrelation and a few Low-High autocorrelations. Ecological restoration programs increased ESV during 2000–2010, but rapid urbanization reduced ESV during 2010–2020. Integrating social, economic, and ecological resources is necessary to realize the coordinated development of the economy and ecology. The results can provide an important reference for landscape planning and ecosystem management.

Influences of Ecological Restoration Programs on Ecosystem Services in Sandy Areas, Northern China

Ecosystem services (ESs) are important for supporting human development. However, a changing climate and anthropogenic impacts are resulting in the degradation of dryland ecosystems to varying degrees. While there has been the global implementation of Ecological Restoration Programs (ERPs) to restore degraded ecosystems, there remains limited comprehensive assessment of their impacts on ESs of drylands. In this study, the sandy areas of northern China were used as the study area. The RUSLE, RWEQ, CASA, and InVEST models were used to simulate four major ESs: soil conservation (SC), sand fixation (SF), carbon sequestration (CS), and water yield (WY). The study aimed to evaluate the influences of various ERPs on major ESs. The dominant factors affecting the overall benefits provided by ESs were also identified. Since ERPs were implemented, forest areas have increased by 2.8 × 104 km2, whereas the areas of cropland, shrubland, and grassland have decreased. There were generally increasing trends in SF, SC, and CS, whereas there was a decreasing trend in WY. We then used a scenario-based simulation approach to eliminate the influence of climate variability on ESs. The results showed increasing trends in SF, SC, and CS, whereas there were minimal changes in WY. The results suggested that although ERPs can significantly increase regional ESs, unregulated expansion in vegetation can result in a water crisis and affect regional water security.