TY - JOUR
T1 - Designing a sustainable land use scenario based on a combination of ecological assessments and economic optimization
AU - Cotter, Marc
AU - Berkhoff, Karin
AU - Gibreel, Tarig
AU - Ghorbani, Abdolbaset
AU - Golbon, Reza
AU - Nuppenau, Ernst August
AU - Sauerborn, Joachim
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors want to thank the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), Germany and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), PR China for funding the research. A special “Thank You” goes to all the field workers, the Ph.D. and M.Sc. students for their diligent and thorough work, the interpreters, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden for their assistance and last but not least to the administration and the people of Naban River Watershed National Nature Reserve for their hospitality and patience. And a final thank you to the editors and reviewers for their valuable input into this manuscript.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Land use change and the corresponding effects on ecosystems and their services has gained much interest in the recent past, particularly in areas with a significant reservoir of biodiversity, the so-called biodiversity hot spots. In order to assess the impact of possible future land use decisions in a watershed in Yunnan, Southwest China, we applied a method of combining ecological and socio-economic indicators to highlight key aspects concerning the current status of our research area. Data on species diversity, landscape matrix and erosion risk as well as agricultural and socio-economic activities were gathered and analyzed. We were able to locate the areas were conservation measures, erosion control and improved agricultural practices would have the strongest impacts. This information was used to develop a storyline for a "Go Green" scenario. Expert groups and interdisciplinary panels were used to critically review, enhance and expand this storyline in the area of conflict between nature conservation, rural livelihood and economic development. Based on the set of planning prerequisites, a village-household linear programming model was developed and solved with the General Algebraic Modelling System (GAMS) to identify factors driving landscape and land use changes for three different farming systems in the Naban River Watershed National Nature Reserve, mainly to contribute to the CLUE-Naban model by providing representative farm types and to analyze the decision making of land use (until 2025). In addition, this model is designed to provide policy makers with potential strategic intervention options for land use planning through the utilization of shadow prices. This process enabled us to reconcile the demands for nature conservation and economic wellbeing on a basis of an iterative and participatory working process that incorporates ecological and economic datasets, but also takes the sustainability of rural livelihood into account.
AB - Land use change and the corresponding effects on ecosystems and their services has gained much interest in the recent past, particularly in areas with a significant reservoir of biodiversity, the so-called biodiversity hot spots. In order to assess the impact of possible future land use decisions in a watershed in Yunnan, Southwest China, we applied a method of combining ecological and socio-economic indicators to highlight key aspects concerning the current status of our research area. Data on species diversity, landscape matrix and erosion risk as well as agricultural and socio-economic activities were gathered and analyzed. We were able to locate the areas were conservation measures, erosion control and improved agricultural practices would have the strongest impacts. This information was used to develop a storyline for a "Go Green" scenario. Expert groups and interdisciplinary panels were used to critically review, enhance and expand this storyline in the area of conflict between nature conservation, rural livelihood and economic development. Based on the set of planning prerequisites, a village-household linear programming model was developed and solved with the General Algebraic Modelling System (GAMS) to identify factors driving landscape and land use changes for three different farming systems in the Naban River Watershed National Nature Reserve, mainly to contribute to the CLUE-Naban model by providing representative farm types and to analyze the decision making of land use (until 2025). In addition, this model is designed to provide policy makers with potential strategic intervention options for land use planning through the utilization of shadow prices. This process enabled us to reconcile the demands for nature conservation and economic wellbeing on a basis of an iterative and participatory working process that incorporates ecological and economic datasets, but also takes the sustainability of rural livelihood into account.
KW - Biodiversity
KW - Greater Mekong Subregion
KW - Land use change
KW - Modelling
KW - Rubber
KW - Scenario design
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2013.01.017
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2013.01.017
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84889079469
SN - 1470-160X
VL - 36
SP - 779
EP - 787
JO - Ecological Indicators
JF - Ecological Indicators
ER -
