Evaluation Of The Social Benefits Of The Project Of Conversion Of Cropland To Forest

For the status of current academic research on the Project of Returning Farmland to Forest stressing the evaluation of ecological and economic benefits but lighting social benefit, this paper chose the T- village which was in County of Zhenyuan, Gansu Province. We tried to evaluate the social benefits of the Project of Returning Farmland to Forest. Conducting this study, its main difficulty is how to define the measure of social. Based on the drawing of the results of previous studies and combining with the actual situation of the T village, the paper made 6 contents: social structure, economic development, population quality, the quality of life, social progress, social stability, and established of the evaluation index system. Using questionnaire survey and depth interviews, we get with a combination of research methods the final research data.The study found, returning farmland had a positive effect to forest communities and residents' life. It adjusted and optimized the social structure, Promoted the economic development, social progress and social stability of the returning farmland area. It improved farmers' quality and their life quality. Therefore, Its social benefits are significant, However, there are some problems hid in the behind of the effective: Forestry production was hard to replace by farming, the farmers' sustainable livelihoods exist some hidden. Forest management funds and supervision mechanism were not imperfect. The gap exist between the interests groups, it is difficult to coordinate their interests. Grant ages are too short, and the standard was too low. There is a certain return to farming crisis.Study showed that because the implementation of the project is merely a reliance on investment and the operation of national policy actions. In the course of the entire project, it is failed to establish the ecological protection, and develop a win model of development mechanism. Also, it did not fundamentally enhance the capacity of the farmers' sustainable livelihoods. So during the subsidies the farmers were strong dependence of state subsidies, the farmers' future livelihood of the villagers' development existed certain issues. The conclusion is: the project of returning farmland to forest contains a huge policy risks, the effectiveness and sustainability are faced with enormous challenges.