Participatory Community Development, Control And Treatment Of Soil Erosion And Rocky Desertification In Karst Area

The prevention and control to soil erosion, as well as rock-desertification has been the key to the entironment protection and social and economic development in southwestern part of China, centered by Guizhou. With the participatory community development, the research on the models and methods of preventing and controlling soil erosion and rock-desertification will provide new theories and practical experiences for preventing and treating soil erosion and rock-desertification. Analyzing inside and investigating in fields were combined in this research. Communities with different entironments were compared, with the methodology and theory of participation. The research on the community development and prevention and treatment to soil erosion and rock-desertification has been carried out in seven karst rural communities with different entironments structures, including landform and watershed. The study includes the analysis of sustainable livelihoods, participatory community development models and the evaluation of sustainable development ability, under the participation of community in the prevention and treatment to soil erosion and rock-desertification. The conclusions are drawn as following. (1) Analysis of sustainable livelihoods. The livelihoods strategies in karst plateau are mainly traditional agriculture, which leads to seriously destroy to entironments. The eco-agriculture model, based on the predominance of location and social resources in karst plateau basin where the natural capital is relatively rich, has remarkable effect on protecting entironments, preventing soil erosion and rock-desertification. The natural capital is lack in plateau gorge, and the traditional agriculture is destructive to the entironment. But the double-win has been realized of entioronment and social and economic development after the garden ecological economy construction under the good policy background. In the middle reach of Wujiang River, various kinds of capitals are rich, the production of the foodstuff is high, as well the commodity rate, and the livelihoods impact on the entironment is relatively lower. In the lower reach of Wujiang River, the livelihood is mainly rely on traditional agriculture and stockbreeding, which has high pressure on the entironment, and soil erosion is serious and the trend of the rock-desertification is obvious.(2) Models of participatory community development.①The ecological stockbreeding model in communities located in karst plateau hilly entironment enhances the activity of the community development, and is helpful for the economic development of the community and rehabilitation of the entironment. But limited community capital and traditional productive way also has some impact on the model.②The participatory garden ecological economy model in communities located in karst hilly basin entironment enhances the ability of development construction of the community, and promote the agricultural industrialization and environmental protection. But the organizations in the community are not good enough because of the impact of industrialization and the ability of the community elites.③The ecological husbandry model in communities located in karst hilly basin entironment enhances the development and participatory ability of the farmers in the community, promotes the economic level, and improves the entironments of the community.④The participatory garden ecological economy model in communities located in karst plateau gorge entironment improves the entironments of the community and promotes the economic level, but the decrease of grassland building and stockbreeding affect the integrity of the chain of garden ecological economy.⑤The new countryside construction model in communities located in karst hilly basin entironment in middle reach of Wujiang River increases the forest covering rate and the sustainable development ability of the community. But because of the impact of the increasing of the grain commodity rate, the livelihoods centered by agriculture of the community have some deficiency in entironment protection, which need to be improved through the adjustment of industrial structure and construction of community ability.⑥The ecological breeding community construction model in karst hilly valley entironment in lower reach of Wujiang River is helpful for improving the productive technology training and breeder improvement, but the ecological benefit and economic benefit of the breeding community are not distinct because of the effect of limited financial capital and participatory ability.⑦The participatory water resources management model in karst hilly valley entironment in lower reach of Wujiang River solves the problem of water resources and initiate the activity of the farmers in joining in the development of the community, decreases the cost of water management and increases the utilization rate of water, which provide important support for social and economic development of the community and entironment treatment. Because of the singleness and frangibility of the livelihoods, the perfect participatory mechanism is still not formed and the effect of the entironment treatment is not obvious. (3) Evaluation of sustainable development ability.①The high population density in karst communities located in plateau hilly entironment, the low productive field per person and the unadvanced production mode makes the ecological footprint be bigger than ecological carrying capacity. However, the construction of grasslands makes the ecological surplus bigger. So the ecological husbandry is a good method to promote the social and economic development and entironment rehabilitation. The community ecological capacity in karst plateau basin entironment is high, but the problem of balance between community industrialization development and ecological capacity of the entironment must be considered as the community development also. In karst plateau gorge entironment community, ecological capacity is low. By adjusting the industry structure, the the participatory garden ecological economy model was built. At last the economy was increased and sustainable ability improved.②In middle reach of Wujiang River, the community has high ecological capacity, but the high ecological footprint makes the sustainable ability low simultaneity. The communities of upper reach of Wujiang River, if the ways of its land utilization is adjusted has the big potential to enhance its sustainable ability. In the communities of lower reach of Wujiang River, with similar ecological capacity to the upper reach, the ecological surplus was decreasing, because of the lack of capital accumulation and rapidity in the process of industry adjustment.