China's ecological rehabilitation: Unprecedented efforts, dramatic impacts, and requisite policies

China has undertaken two of the world's largest ecological rehabilitation projects-the Natural Forest Protection Program and the Sloping Land Conversion Program. This paper presents our historic perspective on the two projects, reports their preliminary impacts, and discusses the challenges in carrying them out, including the top-down administration, lack of interagency cooperation and long-term planning, and neglect of appropriate technical practices and market-based approaches. We argue that if properly implemented, these projects can contribute to China and the world in combating the pressing environmental problems of soil erosion, flooding, and desertification as well as climate change and loss of biodiversity. To implement the projects properly, however, major policy and technical changes must be made. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.