An ecological footprint and emergy based assessment of an ecological restoration program in the Loess Hilly Region of China

Using ecological footprint accounting and emergy synthesis in the Feimahe catchment in the Loess Hilly Region of China as a case study, the goals of this study are synthetically to understand the ecological-economic process of an ecological restoration program and its implications for land use and environmental policy, and to provide insight into ecologically sound economic development occurring in the rural Loess Hilly Regions. The ecological footprint (and deficit) of this region experienced a decrease from 3.096 gha cap(-1) (and 2.083 gha cap(-1)) to 2.129 gha cap(-1) (and 1.326 gha cap(-1)) between 1998 and 2005. During this period there was a dramatic drop in indigenous non-renewable flows, the small increase in the emergy sustainability index (ESI), and the steady decline in the emergy to money ratio (EMR). However an ecological deficit, characterized by a high environmental loading ratio (ELR) (3.69 +/- 1.13, mean +/- standard deviation) and low ESI (0.345 +/- 0.083), and the overloading of a developed carrying capacity also demonstrated that the population's use of natural resources exceeds the ability of its supporting source base not only from the perspective of demand (ecological footprint accounting) but also with regard to endowment (emergy synthesis). This suggests that further actions of ecological restoration are necessary for optimizing the land use pattern (ecological footprint component), conserving environmental resources, improving the resources input structure of agricultural production and lifestyle changes of the local people living in the Feimahe catchment. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.