| Ecological vulnerable areas always have the dual demands for conservation and development,due to the complicated ecosystems of less resistance and resilience and also the severe ecological poverty issues caused by environment.And as the linkage between ecosystems and livelihood systems,Payments for Ecosystem Services(PES)policies have both natural and social attributes,which have potentials and implications to achieve ecological conservation and anti-poverty goals at the same time.China are also facing the double challenges from ecological environment conservation and poverty alleviation during the process of development.Causes of poverty were evolved from uni-dimensional income poverty to multidimensional factors of economy,social,culture,ecology,etc.“Five Batches”program,targeted anti-poverty strategies,ecological poverty alleviation,and rural revitalization strategies stressed the importance of PES in the war against poverty in China.Previous literature focused much on the case studies of watershed and protected areas,but less on ecological vulnerable areas.Thus,we aim to study the key realistic problem of PES policies and poverty alleviation in ecological vulnerable areas and explore the mechanisms of Sloping Land Conversion Program(SLCP)to alleviate poverty.The conclusions and suggestions would support the theory and governmental decisions.In this study,we established a framework for analyzing the mechanisms of SLCP to alleviate poverty,based on the theoretical and empirical studies on environment and poverty,PES policies and poverty alleviation.Then,we studied the targeting mechanism,impacting mechanism and sustaining mechanism of SLCP to reduce poverty,using the survey data from Ankang City and Yan’an City of Shaanxi Province,in two key policy phases.We also discussed the impacts of household heterogeneity,policy phases,and regional differences on these mechanisms.The main conclusion and contribution were listed as follows.First,we develop the framework for analyzing the mechanisms of SLCP to alleviate poverty,based on the studies and frameworks of PES and poverty alleviation.The developed framework stressed the linkage effects of SLCP between ecosystem services and human wellbeing,including not only the changes and potential ways in ecosystem and livelihood system to alleviate poverty,but also the interactions between two systems.Moreover,the framework systematically presents the key issues and the anti-poverty mechanisms in three phases of SLCP implementation,which would enrich the theoretical studies of PES and reveal the importance of PES in the policy innovation during the process of anti-poverty and rural development.It would also provide new ideas for long-term PES policy and its advantages in alleviating poverty.Second,we further studied the targeting mechanisms of SLCP to achieve multiple goals.It reveals the rules how the SLCP targeted the land plots and the households to minimize the tradeoffs among the ecological benefits,costs and pro-poor effects.Especially,it evaluates the effects of multidimensional poverty on households’ participation in the NSLCP and also comparatively analyzes the differences in targeting process and outcomes under different conditions of households’ autonomy.The results showed that the poor households still face obstacles from economy,technique,food security and rights to be able to participate in the NSLCP.And the autonomy of the households played crucial role in targeting effects and the realization of multiple goals.As the studies on PES targeting and its optimization are still at initial stage,both theoretical research and methodology are important contributions.With the development of the SLCP,it is necessary to rethink the design and implementation of policy targeting.This study updates the evidence of PES studies with the evaluation of the NSLCP.Third,we further explore the mechanisms of the SLCP affecting the participants’ poverty,including the direct effects on income poverty,and also the indirect effects through non-farm labor distribution and agro-forest production.The results showed that the SLCP had significant effects on income growth and equitable distribution.However,the SLCP still had several obstacles to facilitate non-farm labor transfer and increase the technical efficiency of agro-forest production,especially for the poor households with income poverty and multidimensional poverty.Moreover,from the nature of SLCP,we further analyze the supply of ecosystem services and households’ dependency on ecosystem services,which builds the foundation of interdisciplinary studies integrated with ecosystem and livelihood system.Fourth,we find the key factors affecting the sustainability of SLCP implementation and its achievements.Multidimensional poverty and households’ dependency on land had significant impacts on enrolled forestland management and reconversion decision.Income poverty had positive effects on consolidation of policy achievements,however,right poverty,education poverty and food poverty would hinder sustainability.Moreover,comparative analyses were made between different survey areas and policy phases,which would enrich and improve the related theoretical studies and provide valuable evidence and practical reference for efficient integration and coordination of PES and poverty alleviation policies. |
