Impact evaluation of a payments for ecosystem services program on vegetation quantity and quality restoration in Inner Mongolia. (1st February 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhou, Ting; Shen, Weiwei; Qiu, Xiao; Chang, Hong; Yang, Hongbo; Yang, Wu
• Is Part Of: Journal of environmental management. Volume 303(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-02-01
• Subjects: Counterfactual baseline -- Natural Forest Conservation Program -- Matching method -- Environmental protection -- Impact evaluation; Environmental policy -- Periodicals; Environmental management -- Periodicals; Environment -- Periodicals; Ecology -- Periodicals; 363.705
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.114113
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0301-4797

Abstract

Abstract: Globally, the payments for ecosystem services (PES) program has become a helpful tool that serves the purpose of mitigating ecosystem degradation and protecting ecosystem services. However, the ecological effects of existing PES programs based on counterfactual baselines, quantification and sophisticated statistical analyses are still poorly understood. Taking Inner Mongolia as an example, this study evaluated the ecological effectiveness of the Natural Forest Conservation Program (NFCP) using the matching approach. The findings are as follows. First, 49.8% and 41.5% of the townships had significant gains in vegetation quantity and quality between 2000 and 2015, respectively; while 9.5% and 13.7% of the townships had significant losses in vegetation quantity and quality, respectively. Second, for forest quantity recovered townships, comparing to the NFCP unenrolled townships, the enrolled townships had increased forest quantity by additional 0.377 million ha (5.2%) from 2000 to 2015. Third, for forest quality recovered townships, the enrolled townships on average additionally increased forest quality by 465.513 Gg carbon (3.6%) from 2000 to 2015. Our study helps to promote sophisticated impact evaluation of conservation policies, which would improve the understanding and management of conservation practices in China and abroad. Graphical abstract: Image 1 Highlights: Quasi-experimental designs can successfully evaluate the impact of payments for ecosystem services programs. Approximately 77.4% and 65.2% of the forest-covered townships have significantly recovered in forest quantity and quality. The Natural Forest Conservation Program (NFCP) has additionally increased forest quantity recovery by 5.2% . The NFCP enrolled forest has additionally increased forest quality recovery by 3.6%.