Study Of Priority Area Delineation And Strategies For Forest Landscape Restoration In The Miyun Reservoir Catchment Of Beijing

As the sole surface water source for the city of Beijing,the Miyun Reservoir Catchment(MRC)is suffering from multiple challenges,including ecosystem services(ES)degradation and economic disparity between jurisdictions.The study used the multi-discipline quantitative methods to centrally explore the two key questions,namely priority area delineation and technical strategies for Forest Landscape Restoration(FLR)in the MRC.The study’s results will provide more technical solutions and quantified support for the city’s water security.In terms of priority areas delineation,this study used the methods of Bayesian Network model and Ordered Weighted Averaging(OWA)to delineate the priority areas for FLR.Finally,the study conclusions can be drawn as follows.(1)The majority of priority areas are located in Chao and Bai River watersheds within the upstream Hebei of MRC.As such,the following FLR efforts should be focused in this area.(2)The current forest landscape degradation(FLD),mainly caused by soil erosion,in general remains relatively high occurrence rate,while the lower occurrence of cropping and build-up disturbances may be due to the stringent policies of water source conservation implemented in the MRC since 1998.Thus,soil erosion control should be a priority in the following FLR efforts.(3)It is also found that community livelihood activities and climate change have been the other two dominant drivers for FLD.Thus,the corresponding measures for addressing these disturbances should be taken.Based on the delineation results,this study used the AHP-SA software to analyze the criteria and the matrix sensitivity for the deciding on priority sub-catchments.We can draw the following conclusions.(1)The sensitivity of bio-physical criteria is significantly higher than that of socio-economic criteria,indicating that the bio-physical criteria are particularly important for the FLR decision.(2)With the variations of criteria weights or scales for pairwise comparison,the priority(L1 and L2 levels)and the non-priority(L3 level)areas in general remain stable and there are few inter-changes between them.The spatial decision result of the Chao and Bai River watersheds upstream of the MRC having higher priority for FLR,is relatively robust.With respect to the restoration technical strategies,this study further explored the specific restoration strategies from the perspectives of bio-physical and socio-economic,respectively.A number of conclusions about restoration technologies can be drawn as follows.(1)To address various natural and anthropogenic disturbances to largest extent,the technical concept of Nature-Based Solutions(NBS)should be introduced to the following program.(2)For either timber production or forest carbon management,long-term forest management planning(more than 50 years)can effectively realize the designed goals relative to short-term planning(less than 50 years)so that the forest resources can be managed in sustainable way.(3)The importance of geographical location and forest landscape characteristics of the MRC determines that a single FLR objective is unable to satisfy the needs for ES.(4)Under the goal of forest carbon management,forest carbon is positively associated with timber harvest in the longer term.Thus,a certain amount of timber harvest can be designed to transform the carbon stock of mature forest into the wood products(e.g.construction materials etc.).As such,not only can the lifetime of forest carbon be prolonged,which avoids the losses of forest carbon due to natural decomposition or anthropogenic disturbance(e.g.forest fire etc.),but economic benefits can also be gained via timber production.Finally,the goal of sustainable forest management can be achieved successfully.To encourage the participation of community in the FLR programs and ensure the restoration effects,a number of policy measures can be suggested as:(1)Along with FLR program implementation,secure and complete land tenure should be offered to the rural households as part of a complete and intensive forest land tenure reform.(2)The shortage of young and qualified laborers generates risks for program implementation and benefits(e.g.low survival rate).To encourage migrant labors to return home,more local off-farm employment opportunities would need to be created.(3)A scientific performance-based monitoring system,that is integrated with and balances financial incentives and penalties,would benefit the program more.(4)Based on different levels of willingness to participate within a different area,program managers should consider specific conditionality,differentiation,and relevant mechanisms to increase the probability of program success.(5)To motivate more active willingness to participate while saving program costs,the governance model of comprehensive community-involvement is needed.This model should include many specific policy interventions,including pre-program consultations with rural households,alternative contractual arrangements,rational performance-based program monitoring,incentive mechanisms,and intensive capacity building services.