An Environmental Rationale
Strategies to reconcile the graduated sovereignty of northern China’s eco-modernization programs
AU YOUNG Chung Yan Samantha | The University of Hong Kong | Thesis 2018 Spring
Statement of Academic Integrity
This thesis is the copyrighted work of the author, Au-Young Chung Yan. Any errors or omissions contained within are the responsibility of the author. I declare that this thesis represents my own work, except where due acknowledgment is made, and that it has not been previously included in a thesis, dissertation or report submitted to this University or to any other institution for a degree, diploma or other qualification. The material in this thesis has not been formally published elsewhere
I
Table of Contents
Statement of Academic Integrity Table of Contents Acknowledgements Abstract Abbreviations and Acronyms
I II III IV VI
1.1 Thesis Statement
2-3
1.3 Precedent Studies
6-10
1 Positioning
1.2 Literature Reviews
4-5
1.4 Annotated Bibliography
11
1.5 Disciplinary Context
12-13
2 Speculation 2.1 Background
16-19
2.2.2 Sloping Land Conversion Program
22-23
2.2.1 Natural Forest Protection Program
20-21
2.2.3 Three North Shelterbelt Program
24-25
2.2.4 1236 Yellow River Irrigation Program
26-27
2.2.5 Converting Pasture to Grassland Program
28-29
2.3 Synthesis
30-38
3 Design Proposal 3.1 Thesis Framework
42-45
3.3 Case 2 Conservation Refugee relocates first
50-53
3.2 Case 1 Both Refugees relocate at the same time
46-49
3.4 Case 3 Eco-refugee relocates first
54-57
3.5 Conclusion
58-61
4 Appendices 4.1 Bibliography
64-65
4.2 Documentation of Case Models 4.3 List of Images
66-69 II
70
Acknowledgements This thesis could not have been accomplished without the support of many people.
I must first thank Mr. Ashley Scott Kelly, my thesis advisor. He has been leading intellectually stimulating conversation all the time, kept pushing me to dig deep into the complications of the issue, and guided me through the process. He has shown enormous patience. I am really grateful to have such an inspiring advisor. He spent a lot of effort editing my work even in his busiest time, he has shown great enthusiasm in research and teaching. He has demonstrated his conscientious and meticulous to every detail of my work. No words can express my gratitude to Ashley. The completion of my thesis could not have been made possible without the criticism by Emily Yeh. I deeply respect Ms Yeh’s work on China’s environmental policies and has provided me eye-opening insight to resettlement project in China. This thesis is based on Yeh’s arguement on China’s greening work. Without her solid research and critical response, I could not have clearly justified my position.
I would like to express my deepest thank to people who have helped in the production of my thesis. I thank all the reviewers who have listened to my presentation, especially Xiaoxuan LU and Joshua BOLCHOVER who have reviewed my work more than once, thank for the useful and critical comments that lead the completion of my thesis. I thank Yingyu WONG and Sabrina CHAU for the beautiful models. I thank my friends Monique WONG, Nick YAU, Natalie LAW and Bethany LAI for their constructive comments. I am grateful to have unlimited love and support from my family. They are always my strongest backing. Last but not least, I could never thank this person enough, Chun Kit CHIU, thank you for all the unconditional love and time you have given me, thank for staying up late with me finishing my thesis, thank for being a good listener to all my struggles. Thank you all.
III
Abstract From 1980 to 2010, the Chinese government introduced a set of environmental programs across western China. These programs include Three North Shelterbelt Program, Suspended Village Migration, Natural Forest Protection Program and Sloping Land Conversion Program. The thesis examines the implementation and effect of these state-led eco-modernization programs in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region that resettled millions of people. An ecomodernization framework associates ecology with enlightened self-interest and economy, whose desires may or may not align with those desired by the state institutions. (Foster, 2002) A Chinese Political Ecology scholar Emily Yeh (2009) has claimed the outcome of these large-scale environmental programs as exercising a form of graduated sovereignty. Graduated Sovereignty is defined as the different modes of governing segments of the population, how these groups relate to global markets, and the different mixes of legal compromises and controls tailored to the requirements of special environmental zones. The dogmatic approach in various policies executed in the area suggested both a uniformity and disjuncture, the differences is referred as graduated sovereignty in the project. The thesis investigate and demonstrate some of the limitations of these programs in the ecological modernisation framework, it ignores the heterogeneity of ecosystem and spatial continuity. and to argue for insights from political ecology that directs our attention to the distributive effects of the targeted resources and people. Keywords: Northern China; Ningxia; Eco-modernization Programs; Political Ecology; Graduated Sovereignty; Resettlement
IV
Abbreviations and Acronyms ACD CPTG Diaozhuang Eco ECS GDP NFPP
NHAR PE PES PRC SLCP
TNSBP
1236 Project
Agricultural Comprehensive Developement Converting Pasture to Grasslands Program, aka Retire livestock and Restore Grassland in direct translation (退牧還草 ‘tuimu huancao’) Suspended Village Migration, a policy for the migrants in Ningxia to have two homes between which one can freely move Ecological Ecological Compensation Scheme Gross Domestic Product Natural Forest Protection Program (天然林保護工程 ‘tianranli baohu gongcheng’) Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Political Ecology Payment of Ecosystem Services People’s Republic of China Sloping Land Conversion Program (退耕還林 ‘tuigeng huanli’) Three North Shelterbelt Program, aka Green Great (三北防護林 ‘sanbei fanghulin’) The largest resettlement project in Ningxia that aimed to resettle 1 million poor people from Southern Ningxia, constructing 2 million mu of irrigation area for the settlers. The planned investment was 3 billion yuan and will take 6 years to complete.
V
1 Positioning
1.1 Thesis Statement
Image 1.1.1 Map of Northern China
The thesis explores the overlaps and friction between China’s large environmental programs. Ningxia, an autonomous region in the northwest where the central government has recognized problems of over-grazing, desertification and a widening rural-urban income gap, to understand these programs. These eco-modernization programs included the Three North Shelterbelt Program in 1978, Suspended Village Migration and 1236 Yellow River Irrigation Project in 1990, Natural Forest Protection (NFPP) in 1999, Sloping Land Conversion Programs (SLCP) also in 1999, and Converting Pastures to Grasslands Program (CPTG) in 2005. Together, these programs constitute a form of reterritorialization that partition and relocate its subjects based on environmental and economic factors such as slope, water availability and GDP by administrative region. Geographer Emily Yeh claims these large-scale environmental programs produce a graduated sovereignty. Graduated sovereignty is defined by Aiwah Ong (1999) as the different modes of governing segments of the population and different mixes of legal compromises and controls tailored to the requirements of special zones. The term graduated suggests a wide range of classifications, likely driven by the main tools of these programs, which are resettlement and compensation. These environmental projects are accomplished through investment in major infrastructure, facilitated by private and foreign investment, and linking these places more tightly to the global economy. These eco-modernisation programs, although aiming to restore and improve rural environment, have resulted in different classes of people and modes of sovereignty, which I will illustrate in a moment. Back in 1960, the Ministry of Agriculture, in order to increase productivity, defined three broad zones in northwest China that have helped coordinate the implementation of China’s eco-modernization programs over the last half century. These zones are the restricted, protected and prioritised zone. These zones guided the 5 programs and their rationale for resettlement.
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An Environmental Rationale
NFPP, constitutes 50% of collectively owned forest and 20% of local-funded forest, which causes conflict between central and local government priorities, results in policies that do not translate down to the ground. TNSBP, funded mostly by the World Bank, will last for 50 years; the program itself to a large extent is guided by international standards and regulations; the subsidies received by these people may differ greatly from other program with less or different standards. Generally, NFPP and SLCP are more environmentally driven; I’ve classified people under these programs as conservation refugee; they are relocated because they endangered the environment. NFPP targets mountainous forest area while SLCP targets cropland on slopes over 25 degrees. In this thesis, I’ve categorized the other three programs (TNSBP, Irrigation Program and CPTG) as eco-refugee. These people are relocated because the environment endangered them; the government considers this as poverty. The shelterbelt program targets the fringe of the desert, the irrigation program on poverty based on village GDP, and the Converting pasture to grassland targets ethnic Hui people that herd on barren ground. While the central government has ambitious plans for these environmental projects, these policies and actual practices multiply due to heterogeneous governance, the overlapping power between hierarchies (for instance, the Autonomous Region’s dual party-government governing system) and between different agencies at the same level, such as the crop division for Irrigation Programs, agriculture for SLCP and husbandry for CPTG. These governance has sorted citizens into different categories of worth. Environmental programs are always more than protection and restoration; they are linked to a broader political economic processes. Through overlaying resettlement of conservation refugee and eco-refugee, I show the graduated sovereignty, where people in the same area are treated differently because they fall under different schemes and also at different times. There are common principles that have emerged from development discourse over the last 30 years. While not necessary true in every specific context, I have used principles, such as preferring long-term payouts over oneoff compensation or collective ownership of infrastructure rather than stateoperated projects, to rank, in terms of opportunity, the drivers of graduated sovereignty found in these programs. These drivers are shown as black arrows in this diagram. By phasing out some of the negative components or introducing opportunity to either the origin or the destination of resettlement, we can smooth out and take advantage of the existing graduated sovereignty conditions. In simpler terms, this is to ensure people, collectively across programs, live and work in places with best opportunity and which also causes minimal harm to the environment. While the principles I follow to explore strategies can be generally applied, the specific context determines the degree of changes to be applied to the site. The conservation-/eco-refugee binary is a useful framework for analyzing and designing new programs. It allows me to review the five programs systematically across 200 sites on the context map. I was able to group them and make decision accordingly. The binary framework can avoid multiple treatment or ignorance to a certain group. Importantly, the strategies I develop are built on the outcomes and resources of the many diverse eco-modernization programs implemented over that last few decades; they are designed assuming complex interaction and overlapping histories from these coexisting programs. 3
1.2 Literature Reviews Mao’s War against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China (Studies in Environment and History)
Author Judith Shapiro Publisher Cambridge University Press Publication Year (Print) 2001 (Online) 2009
In this book, Shapiro went over some of the most dominating social concept during Mao’s era, on how Mao’s view on man will conquer nature affected the Image 1.2.1 Mao’s War against society and how its aftermaths shaped Nature Book Cover new perspective on the relationship between man and nature. In the past 20 years, geologist and anthropologist see economic reform as the greatest cause to environmental damage. Yet Shapiro argues the root lies in the political campaigns during Mao’s era that violently degraded the environment. Shapiro uses four core themes to organize her arguements, they include the study of the Anti-rightist movement, the Great Leap Forward, the movements to ‘take grain as the key’ and to ‘learn from Dazhai’, and the relocation of youths to frontier areas to ‘open the wilderness’. She suggested that these dogmatic resettlement and policies twisted the guidance from Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Mao and his colleagues mobilized people in a utopian frenzy to catch up development in the west, relocation of large numbers of factories to the interior under the Third Front Program that dispatched millions educated youth. With the growing concern over environmentalism and policies on payments of ecosystem services such as NFPP and SLCP, we begin to question whether these policies are following Mao’s footsteps, using a single pattern without considering local conditions just to boost its economy through development. Mao’s policies devalue human life, susppresed intellectuals and scientific knowledge in order to gain control over large territory. This narrative may have been less obvious nowadays, but the market oriented policies and the pursuit of private profit in a way is still manipulating people the way it is before. The negative example of Mao’s ruling showed the importance of political participation, intellectual freedom and the respect for regional variation and local wisdom. China’s environmental future rests on its ability to integrate environmental education into practice, and to monitor and facilitate conservation rather than controlling possible damage to the environment from a more liberal society. The Chinese government should be more environmentally responsible to the mistakes they had in the past and be more responsive to the growing concern in the future.
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An Environmental Rationale
Greening western China: A Critical View
Author Emily Yeh Journal Geoforum Vol 40 (5) Pages 884-894 Publisher Elsevier Publication Year 2009
Modernization has been seen as the easiest way to solve environmental problem and poverty in China. Yet Emily Yeh demonstrated the limitation of an eco-modernization framework that it takes for granted both a crisis of ecological degradation, and the premise that the ‘greening’ Image 1.2.2 Geoforum 40 in 2009 of the state will have environmental improvement as its primary outcome (Yeh, 2009) North western China, used to be territorialized as the provider of natural resources, are now acting as a provider for ecological services through some of the most significant eco-modernization programs. Yeh claimed the environmental policies implemented in the past 20 years are a set of discursive practice that has been applied through different interventions to the same types of people. The differences in these interventions have sorted citizens into different categories of worth, whose desires may or may not align with those desired by state institutions. These programs in many of the cases had further marginalized citizens politically and economically without a definite benefit to the environment. People that are not an interest to the state will be seen as targets of intervention of these eco-modernization projects. Yeh took Converting Pasture to Grassland Program (tuimu huancao) as an example, suggesting this program has politicized grassland. To what extent the state see a land with sparse vegetation as grassland or pasture is ambiguous. Unlike SLCP, CPTG does not seek to privatize resources from herders but to remove them from the land altogether. The differences in treatment is mainly caused by the overlapping power between hierarchies and between agencies at the same level. Yeh regarded these ecological migrations especially CPTG are components of a broader reterritorialization of China into zones of graduated sovereignty (Ong, 2006) Yeh called for grounded work to assess the implementation of China’s environmental programs, how these people experienced differentiation and more importantly the effects of these differences to the biophysical context, to the society and to environmental justice. Instead of using an eco-modernization framework to examine these the effectiveness of these program, she argues for a critical political ecology analysis, which examines the distributive effects of these programs and government.
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1.3 Precedent Studies
Chinese Resettlement Case 1 Zhengzhou, Henan
The project resettled 16,200 people from 6 prefecture-level cities and 25 counties 208 resettlement village were built. Characteristics: Combined agricultural village model with new town model, accelerated the process of urban-rural integration.
Chinese Resettlement Case 2 Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
Suffer from severe soil erosion. Relocated people from poorest places: Du’an and Dahua.
Characteristics: Export labour as a means to alleviate poverty. Import foreign export with training facility built, teaching the migrant through migrant, introducing a roller employment concept.
Chinese Resettlement Case 3 Guizhou
It is a relatively poor and economically undeveloped province. The migration project aims to reduce poverty.
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Characteristics: It introduces labour immigrats to industrial parks, diversify businesses such as tourism, transportation, mining and trading, providing a stable source livelihood to the settlers near their home.
Image 1.3.1-5 Resettlement Cases Diagrams
An Environmental Rationale
Dazhai Model for Agriculture
In 1964, Mao called on the entire country to imitate the Dazhai model for agriculture, since it was able to turn its infertile soil into productive land by manpower and hard work. Located in Xiyang county, mountainous area of the Shaanxi province, this was a place to have refused state grain, state funds and state relief materials to rebuild after a regional flood in 1963. At first, Dazhai was simply illustrating the spirit of independence, later, Mao promoted Dazhai as an universal political paradigm for its revolutionary rigour which he claimed China had lost. The Dazhai model embodied Mao’s voluntaristic belief that revolutionary ideals can conquer nature, both the people in Dazhai and across the nation were forced to follow such example. The use of a single pattern regardless of its local conditions is referred as dogmatic uniformity later on. Such dogmatic uniformity has led to serious environmental damage. Inappropriate terracing on steep and thinly top-soiled slope brought deforestation, soil erosion and sedimentation, while encroachments
on lakes and rivers brought ecosystem imbalance and increased flooding. (Shapiro, 2001) The campaign intensified when there came the sign of war. ‘Prepare for war, prepare for famine, for the sake of the people’, a slogan in 1965 called for growing their own grain in preparation for war. This war-preparedness campaigns distorted the visionary idea on self-sustainability, it excluded other crops than grain in the model. When these dogmatic models were blindly implemented in ecological fragile region, it caused severe destruction to the environment, some of the mountain was never suitable for growing grain, the whole thing was exhausting and a waste of time. In Ningxia’s Yanchi County, such dogmatic application has started a vicious cycle of desertification and sandstorms to croplands.
Image 1.3.6 Dazhai Propaganda Poster
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1.3 Precedent Studies
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Diaozhuang Migration
In the 90s, the government began to help the residents of the southern mountainous region to alleviate poverty. With limited resources, the government implemented a migration project, by which people move voluntarily, they have home on both their origin and resettlement town where they may come and go freely. This style of migration is unique to Ningxia and is called ‘Diaozhuang’, suspended village in direct translation. It aimed to reach mutual understanding among people. ‘If we had known what it was like, we wouldn’t have moved here,’ said Ma Shiliang, a village doctor whose family was among some 7000 Hui Muslim whom the Chinese government had brought to this place from their water-scarce lands in the country’s Northwest. Officials promised they will get a prosperous life here in the new settlement. These people once herded sheep and goats over grassland now are uncertain of their future. In the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Resettlement Project, the world’s largest
environmental migrant resettlement project, 1.14 million residents have been displaced to Miaomiao Lake, where they struggle to establish a new livelihood. Settlers were asked to pay a $2100 resettlement fee and was promised a plot of land to farm as the families left behind plentiful fields and animals. But those who received plots ended up having to lease them to an agriculture company as the crop is not yielding. Some who have chosen to stay behind, defying the government order to resettle were published by denying them water access and subsides for raising sheep and cattle. A third of Ningxia’s population are Hui Muslim. Some Western scholars say that Chinese resettlement policies are aiming to control ethnic minority populations, and that officials may cite environmental reasons as a cover. The village is not well equipped with houses, roads and schools and most importantly, water facility. These people is struggling to live, they do not know how to plant crops on these infertile land. They will soon have to move again, from ecological migrant to labour migrant, finding a job in the city as cleaner or security guards in order to make a living.
Image 1.3.7 Settlers in Tengger Desert, China. The New York Times. 2016
Image 1.3.8 China’s Crazy Plan to Keep Sand From Swallowing the World. Mother Jones. 2017. Photo by Ian Teh.
Inner Mogolia Zaruud Banner Resettlement Project
Hundreds of ethnic Mongolian herding families in China’s Inner Mongolia region are calling on the international community for help following their forced eviction from a huge area of their traditional grazing lands, local residents said on Thursday. Several hundreds of people from Zaruud Banner demonstrated outside Tongliao municipal government office on what they said were forced and violent evictions from their homelands in June. Herders said, ‘After we returned to our grazing lands in June to graze our sheep and cattle, the Arkund township government dispatched large numbers of riot police and grasslands management officials,’ ‘They pushed over the herders’ yurts and snatched away their livestock, using violence to force 62 herders off their grazing lands,’ ‘Herders who tried to resist were threatened and beaten up by police,’ Dagula, a resident of Heyehua village
in Zaruud Banner said she was there at the time. ‘On June 25, they forcibly evicted us,’ she said. ‘They went into the sheep pens and started grabbing the sheep.’ ‘When we saw our property being snatched away, of course we couldn’t stand it, and we tried to stop them.’ ‘There were some clashes,’ she said. ‘They behaved like bandits. They didn’t even produce any paperwork.’ Ethnic Mongolians, who make up almost 20 percent of Inner Mongolia’s population of 23 million, regularly complain about environmental destruction and unfair development policies in the region. Clashes between Chinese companies and ethnic Mongolian herders protesting the exploitation of their grasslands are increasingly common in the region, which borders the independent country of Mongolia. Rights activists say grasslands on which the herding communities depend for a living are constantly being taken over for China’s mining and tourism industries and for national development projects, forcing them to take action to stand up for their rights.
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1.3 Precedent Studies
Strategic transformation of regionalization of the agricultural comprehensive development: The example of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in China
Written by Shi, W., Hu, Y. Wang, Z et al. Written in 2016 Published on the Journal of Geographical Science, 26 (12): 1675-1688
In 1960, the Ministry of Agriculture demanded regionalisation in each province to accelerate the development of agricultural productivity through solving the problems of regional development and the rational allocation of agriculture, the preliminary plan divided the region into three major zones: the restricted, protected and prioritised zone. According to the Central Government, the zoning in ACD can be helpful in the top-down scientific design of projects for national or local agricultural development,
so that development policies can be made according to local conditions. The project argues for an ecological function regionalization approach, that divides geographical space into different regions according to sensitivity to regional eco-environment process, feedback of ecosystem stress and the its value in ecosystem functioning. Through regionalizing Ningxia by its value in ecosystem services, it promotes a change from extensive management to sustainable intensive development targeting corresponding zones instead of people, it can be helpful in the top-down scientific design of projects for national or local agricultural development. Through incorporating International environmental programs into the current scheme, it provides specific strategy to a particular region to improve the region’s competitiveness. More importantly, it will help to promote integration and allocation of investment, so that the combination of policies has minimal effect to the central government sovereignty.
Image 1.3.9-10 The spatial distributionof regionalization types and subtypes. Shi, 2016
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1.4 Annotated Bibliography
An Environmental Rationale
Heggelund, G. (2017). Environment and Resettlement Politics in China: The Three Gorges Project. King’s SOAS Studies in Development Geography. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781351939768. Ho, E. (2012). ‘Refugee’ or ‘returnee’? The ethnic geopolitics of diasporic resettlement in China and intergenerational change.’ Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 38(4): 599-611. Ho, E. Madokoro, L. & Peterson, G. (2014). Global Displacements and Emplacement: The Forced Exile and Resettlement Experiences of Ethnic Chinese Refugees. Journal of Chinese Overseas, 10(2): 131-136 Lei, Y.; Finlayson, C.M.; Thwaites, R.; Shi, G.; Cui, L. (2017). Using Government Resettlement Projects as a Sustainable Adaptation Strategy for Climate Change. Sustainability 9(8): 1373 Li, C. Feldman, M. Li, J. et al. (2017). The impact on rural livelihoods and ecosystem services of a major relocation and settlement program: A case in Shaanxi, China. Ambio Modi, R. (2009). Beyond Relocation: The Imperative of Sustainable Resettlement. SAGE Publications Ltd. Rogers, S. & Xue, T. (2015). Resettlement and climate change vulnerability: Evidence from rural China. Global Environmental Change 35: 62 Wilmsen, B. & Wang, M. (2015). Voluntary and involuntary resettlement in China: a false dichotomy? Development in Practice 25(5): 612 Wu, Z. Penning, M. Zeng, W. (2016) Relocation and Social Support Among Older Adults in Rural China. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. 71(6): 1108 Xue, L. (2013). ‘Voluntary’ Poverty Alleviation Resettlement in China. Development and Change, 44:1150-1180. John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This collection addresses the issue of development-induced resettlement in China, with a particular emphasis on the humanitarian, legal, and social aspects of this problem. By looking at each of the approach and study, it helps in understanding and generating a comparative study on the nature and characteristics of forced displacement in China. It also studies the interaction among an array of actors; in particular, policy-makers, development agencies, project-affected persons, researchers and NGOs in resistance movements. Most significantly, the study offers measures to reverse and reconstruct impoverishment caused by displacement in a holistic way through benefit-sharing mechanisms which can lead to sustainable resettlement and rehabilitation which may contribute to the design of resettlement scheme. The selection of reference will be of immense value to project planners and implementing agencies in view of the fact that development planners are faced with a daunting task in the
process of constructing or improving existing network of roads, railways and airport facilities which run through existent human settlements and require the acquisition of large tracts of land, leading to involuntary displacement. The essays will also be helpful for researchers engaged in the field of development and displacement studies. Two of the journal article described the term voluntary resettlement. New guidelines and policies, particularly around Poverty Alleviation Resettlement, are emphasizing the importance of voluntarism. Little is known, however, about how the principle of voluntary relocation of villagers has actually been implemented. Through reading the papers, it helps to understand local implementation and experience of voluntary resettlement in actual context, and then and then identifies the spatial and temporal characteristics of these resettlement hence contribute to the design process. 11
1.5 Disciplinary Context
Framework of Political Ecology
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Political Ecology, which suggests that ‘environmental change and ecological condition are the products of political process’ (Robbins, 2004) Although the term ‘political ecology’ was used in research undertaken in the 1970s, the concept was not popular until the 1980s with works combining ecology and political economy, such as Blaikie (1985) and later Bryant and Bailey (1997). Political ecology calls for attention to the always and inevitably political dimensions of human-environment interactions, and particularly to the ways in which environmental management efforts may be based upon flawed assumptions with roots in colonialism, and have the effect of expropriating access to and control over natural resources. The Marxian political economy orientation of political ecology calls attention to the social and environmental justice questions elided by ecological modernization. Furthermore, it suggests that environmental projects are always linked to broader political economic processes. (Yeh, 2009) It has been argued that political ecology approach is a more productive way of analyzing the greening of western China, not only for ecological outcomes and the livelihoods of specific groups of affected people, but also for the relationship between the state and different groups of citizens and for the production of new interests and subjectivities. Moreover, it draws people’s attention to the distributive effects of environmental issues at various scales which helps to situate relevant research in the context of uneven development. (Wang, 2014) Sustainability under such framework, are no longer politically neutral, but
suggesting they are socially and politically constructed.
Framework of Modernization
Ecological
Ecological Modernization focuses on questions of the extent to which technical innovation and economic institutions help with environmental reforms, and to which ecological phenomena are inserted into modernization processes. The Ecological Modernization framework, about the changing nature of politics and the relationship between state and civil society, only focus on the greening of China through market logics and new plans and projects. Ecological modernization have in many cases had the effect of further marginalizing already politically and economically marginalized citizens, while also producing only questionable environmental benefits. In particular, multiple cases of the implementation of forestry and rangeland protection programs show that a key assumption of ecological modernization, that economic growth and ecological protection will feed each other in a virtuous, mutually sustaining circle, often does not hold. (Yeh, 2009) A general criticism of ecological modernization is that it often fails when viewed at a landscape level. It is suggesting that economic and ecological success should be mutually reinforcing, but numerous examples from China suggest otherwise. Critics also argue that ecological modernization will fail to protect the environment and does nothing to alter the impulses within the capitalist economic mode of production that inevitably lead to environmental degradation (Foster, 2002). As such, it is just a form of ‘green-washing’.
An Environmental Rationale
Graduated Sovereignty
Graduated sovereignty in Aiwah Ong’s (1999) words refer to the different modes of governing segments of the population who relate or do not relate to global markets; the different mixes of legal compromises and controls tailored to the requirements of special production zones. In China, political power relations are heterogeneous, meaning that overlapping and competing power relations exist between different levels of government (vertical), and between different government agencies at the same level (horizontal). All of these government institutions have different interests. Those who align with the interest of the
state can be prioritized, while the seemly powerless actor in the scheme, may find ways to negotiate, creating conflicts that were condemned by the government. Geographer Emily Yeh claims ecological migration and environmental policies in recent years are components of a broader reterritorialization of China into zones of graduated sovereignty, from Special Economic Zones to zones deemed too ‘degraded’ for certain kinds of citizens and livelihoods. These environmental program, although aiming to restore and improve rural environment, resulted in different classes of people and sovereignty because of different graduated qualities that were shown through the exploitation and redistribution of resources under the government administration.
Image 1.3.11 Zones of Graduated Sovereignty under ACD Plan 13
2 Speculation
Image 2.1.1 Ningxia Context Map
2.1 Background
The thesis is based on some of the most noticeable environmental program in Northern China, taking Ningxia as a focus area to understand the larger context and tension in the realisation of these programs. Ningxia is an autonomous region of the People’s Republic of China located in the Northwest part of the country. The central government has recognised the problems of over-grazing, desertification and the widening of rural-urban income gap in the region since the economic reform. For more than 15 years, the province have implemented ecological migration project of different scale that aimed to reduce poverty and protect the environment. Ningxia is quite different from the traditional pastoral areas such as inner Mongolia and Xinjiang. Grazing areas in Ningxia are smaller and located closer to user groups than in the traditional pastoral regions. The pace of economic development in North-western China acclerated in recent years. A number of economic centers were formed. Ningxia’s northern Yellow River irrigation region with Yinchuan as its core is becoming one of these regional centers. It radiates out to the neighboring regions such as Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Gansu provinces. As the function of
An Environmental Rationale
this center is strengthened, this region will attract a larger population. In this the northern region of Ningxia will become an important destination for the migrants from the central and southern regions. Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region contains three distinctive landscape regions: In the North, the Yellow River irrigates the land, resulting in better agricultural conditions and higher economic output. The dry desert central region and southern mountainous region, due to natural conditions, have lower economic development. Ningxia falls in the arid and semi-arid areas, and has a highly fragile ecosystem. Socioeconomic development is very imbalanced in the region. There is an obvious distinction between the irrigated, alluvial plains along the Yellow River and the desert steppe region in the south. As shown on the the context map, marked in dark green, are targeted sites under NFPP; in light green is the SLCP; TNSBP in dark brown; Irrigation Program in Orange; CPTG in Beige. Together, these programs constitute a form of reterritorialization that partition and relocate its participants based on environmental and economic factors such as slope, water availability and GDP by administrative region.
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2.1 Background
Image 2.1.2 Ningxia Population by Inter-province Residence and Emigrating Region
Between 2011-2015, The Chinese government has worked on large scale immigration project in Ningxia. According to The 12th Five-year National Plan for Implementation of Nomad Settlement Project, the region has already resettled 1,140,000 residents and will continue to move another 350,000 people from remote mountainous area in the central and southern part of Ningxia to be free from poverty, meanwhile, degraded grassland can be restored. However, the large scale of migration brings a series of problems, including ethnic issues and water shortages. Most of the ecological migrants were given plots of land as the main source of livelihood. Though there 18
are issues regarding to the resettlement project, we cannot deny the successes carried out in alleviating poverty and protection of the environment. Research have shown an increase in tree cover at the southern arid region of Ningxia over the past decade. The thesis project first examine the quality of the destination and source regions of Ningxia’s Migrants. Data have shown that 71.4% of the residents prefer labour migrant while 21.4% choose to be ecological migrant. Under Chinese rapid economic growth, a homogenous migration model may not be capable nor sustainable to deal with the massive influx of population.
An Environmental Rationale
Image 2.1.3 Timeline Hence from 1980-2010, the Chinese government introduced a set of environmental programs across western China. These programs include Three North Shelterbelt Program (TNSBP) in 1978; Suspended Village Migration and
1236 Yellow River Irrigation Project in 1990; Natural Forest Protection Program (NFPP) and Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) in 1999 and Converting Pastures to Grasslands Program (CPTG) in 2005. 19
2.2.1 Natural Forest Protection Program
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Announced in 1999, Natural Forest Protection Program banned logging in the upper reaches of the Yangtze river and the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, reduces timber output in state-owned forest, provides alternative employment for workers in state-owned enterprises and accelerates reforestation. The program designed to protect natural forest and to facilitate forestation so that forest coverage can increase to 40% in 2100.
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Although the project is supposed to be voluntary, multiple studies have found that most farmers were not consulted in advance and felt they could not choose whether or not to participate in the program, nor could they choose what kind of trees to plant (Bennett, 2008; Xu et al., 2004). Besides, it was alsow difficult to tell if anything had been planted at all in several NFPP afforestation sites. Many cash crop plantation were supported by the NFPP schemes did not consider for their ecological impacts and problem such as poplar beetle outbreak. Wilson (2006)
points out that despite the growing forest cover in China due to forestry policy, forest status and quality cannot be assured. Weyerhaeuser (2005) also argue that the benefit of NFPP on mitigating soil erosion is unclear. NFPP, listed as a program on conservation refugee, constitute 50% of collectively owned forest and 20% of local funded forest, conflicting priorities between the central and local governments result in policies that do not translate down to the ground. 21
2.2.2 Sloping Land Conversion Program
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Announced in 1999, SLCP is the largest retirement program in the world, calling for the conversion of 14.67 million hectares of cropland, especially cropland on steep slope greater than 25 degree. Target site under SLCP are usually confined area and are very close to village. SLCP is one of China’s first PES Scheme and the largest one in developing world. The program has a budget of over 40 billion USD. The program’s rationale, is to pay farmers cash and grain subsidies for five to eight years to provide an opportunity to break through the vicious cycle between poverty and ecological degradation, and to enter a
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path of sustainable development. (Zhang et al., 2008) Farmers shift extensive farming to intensive agriculture. The main cash income for these people has been the compensation from SLCP. 3000 RMB were given to households who reforest for ecological benefit (ecological forest) for eight years; whereas household reforest for commercial benefit (economic forest) receive five years compensation; grassland receive two years of compensation. Nonetheless, Sturgeon (2005) argues that SLCP ignored long history of local
forest management and the failures during Mao’s period. Mao’s political campaign on Dazhai and opening up wasteland called for grain agriculture in ecologically unsuitable areas, including both high altitude grassland as well as steep hillside. (Shapiro, 2001) Afforestation work on the contrary has led to destruction of natural vegetation and exacerbated water shortages, decreasing vegetation cover, soil moisture and number of species relative to simply prohibiting cultivation and grazing. (S. Cao et al, 2009)
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2.2.3 Three North Shelterbelt Program
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The Three North Shelter Forest Program refers to a series of human planted wind-breaking forest strips in China, designed to hold back the expansion of the Gobi Desert. Its estimated time of completion is 2050, at which it will be 4500 kilometers long. Recent phase of the project uses aerial seeding to cover wide range of land where soil is less arid, giving subsidies as incentives to farmers who plant trees and shrubs in those area. The program will be monitored with a new mapping and surveillance system. The tree belt will be planted with sand tolerant vegetation arranged
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in checkerboard patterns in order to stabilize the sand dunes. However, there are criticism towards the selection of species. The species that were introduced to the project are thirsty, non-native plants to northern China. It has absorbed dwindling groundwater resources and perished along other plant species surrounding them. According to a study of the Great Green Wall in 2004 by Su Yang, only 15% of the trees planted since 1978 have survived. Furthermore, monoculture planting in the area has made forested areas more vulnerable to disease. In 2000, 1 billion poplar trees
in China’s north-western Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region representing two decades of work were lost to a single disease. Sticking to a single species can help in meeting planting quotas, but monoculture forests are often highly susceptible to disease and do little to regenerate nutrients in the soil. It fails to create a diverse ecosystems. TNSBP, funded mostly by world bank, will last for 50 years; the program itself to a large extent is guided by international standard and regulations, the subsidies received by these people may differ from other program. 25
2.2.4 1236 Yellow River Irrigation Program
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1236 Project is the largest environmental migration project ever in Chinese history. The project aimed to relocate 1 million of poor people in the southern mountainous region to a 2 million mu of irrigated land. Through utilizing water from Yellow River, flat and dry land became arable and fundamental problem of poverty could be resolved in the best case scenario. The planned investment on the construction was 3 billion yuan, and would take 6 years to complete the whole project. This project was later known as the ‘1236 Project’. The project was listed and incorporated
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into the state’s 9th Five-year Plan. Among all irrigated land, Hongsibu would take up 750,000 mu. Hongsipu pumping Irrigation zone, the largest Yellow River irrigation area has created farmland in the desert. Many of those who received plots ended up having to lease them to an agriculture company as the land is suffering from heavy population pressure, the farmlands are not productive even with the irrigation channels. Without the source of income, these people are jobless and have moved back to their homeland or worked in other cities as labour migrant. (Shu, 2016)
A third of Ningxia’s population who have been resettled are Muslim. Some Western scholars say Chinese resettlement policies are at least partly aimed to control ethnic minority. Officials may use environmental restoration as a cover. Besides, resettlement intensified the usage of water, reduced the efficiency of water use, and exacerbated regional water shortages. Although household income did increase after resettlement, living cost also increased because the shortages increased production costs and risk. (Fan, 2015)
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2.2.5 Converting Pasture to Grassland Program
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Converting Pasture to Grassland is a variant of SLCP written on the 12th Five-year Plan: Implementation of Nomad Settlement Project between 2011-2015. It has territorialized grassland into various zones. Some zones prohibited grazing for 10 years, some zones are to be free from grazing for several years; while some zones allowed rotational grazing. Unlike SLCP, CPTG does not seek to privatize resources to giver herders better incentive to manage them, but rather removes them from land altogether. (Yeh, 2009)
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The program has been implemented together with ecological migration, a program that subsidizes herders to sell their livestock and move to resettlement areas of varying distance away from their former homes, for a period of 10 years. Yet these resettled herders’ claimed that their expenditures increase significantly. The subsidies are often insufficient to cover their expenses, leading to a decline in living standards and, sometimes, health conditions. (Yeh, 2013) Moreover, it is difficult for these pastoralist who often do not know the language or skills to earn income in the Chinese-dominated towns.
The resettlement work associated with the program is involuntary, former nomadic settlement pastoralist will be moved to permanent settlement by the end of 2015. There is no flexibility in the program, it was difficult for displaced herders separated from their land to return to an entire way of life after a decade. It has been stated in Yundannima (2012) paper that local officials tend to implement the policy in order to satisfy pressures from above rather than because they believe the policy will improve rangeland conditions.
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2.3 Synthesis Definition of Conservation Refugee
People subjected to relocation because they endangered the environment
A Chinese Political Ecology scholar Emily Yeh (2009) has claimed the outcomes of these large-scale environmental programs as exercising a form of graduated sovereignty. Graduated sovereignty is defined as the different modes of governing segments of the population and the different mixes of legal compromises and controls tailored to the requirements of special environmental zones. (Aiwah Ong, 1999). The term graduated suggest an inconsistency in the classification of these programs resulting in different resettlement and compensation. Although there are a set of environmental projects implemented after the launch of the open up the west campaign; these environmental projects were to be accomplished through investment in major infrastructure project in order to establish the conditions necessary to attract private and foreign investment
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to link these places more tightly to the global economy and thus generate wealth. These eco-modernisation program, although aiming to restore and improve rural environment, resulted in different classes of people and sovereignty because of different graduated qualities NFPP and SLCP are more environmental driven, people under these programs are classified as conservation refugee, they are relocated because they endangered the environment. NFPP targets mountainous forest area while the SLCP targets cropland on slopes over 25 degrees. TNSBP, 1236 Project and CPTG on the other hand categorised eco-refugee. These people are relocated because the environment endangered them, they thus fall under poverty. The shelterbelt program targets the fringe of desert, the irrigation program on those poverty stricken village based on their GDP while
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Definition of Eco-Refugee
People subjected to relocation because the environment endangered them thus fall into povertty
Image 2.3.1 Definition of Refugees
the Converting pasture to grassland targets ethnic Hui people that herd in barren ground. These determining drivers do not necessarily relate to the environment. The Chinese political structure is a key factor contributing to the graduated sovereignty of north-western China. While the central government set up ambitious plan for environmental projects, a gap exists between the intention of these policies and actual practices due to heterogeneous governance, the overlapping power between hierarchies (e.g., the Autonomous Region’s dual party-government governing system), illustrated in the NFPP scenario; and between different agencies at the same level, such as crop division for Irrigation Program, agriculture for SLCP and husbandry for CPTG. These governance has sorted citizens into different categories of worth.
In 1960, the Ministry of Agriculture demanded regionalisation in each province to accelerate the development of agricultural productivity through solving the problems of regional development and the rational allocation of agriculture, the preliminary plan divided the region into three major zones: the restricted, protected and prioritised zone. The Conservation Refugee and its Sovereignty under ACD Map (p.32-33) shows the protected zone in hatch, the definition of a protected zone is area with limited light, water and soil resources yet with relatively abundant biological resources. It overlaps target site under NFPP and SLCP. The drawing here shows the nature reserves and wetland under NFPP and orchard under SLCP. People are being resettled because they fall under area which the government tries to protect.
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Image 2.3.2 Conservation Refugee ACD Map
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Image 2.3.3 Eco-Refugee ACD Map
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Image 2.3.4 Overlapping incidents between Conservation refugee and Eco-refugee
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Image 2.3.5 China Miao Miao Lake Village. NY Times. 2016. Photo by Josh Haner.
According to the Central Government, the zoning in ACD can be helpful in the top-down scientific design of projects for national or local agricultural development, so that development policies can be made according to local conditions. But more importantly, it will help to promote integration and allocation of investment, so that the combination of policies has minimal effect to the central government sovereignty. The hatching on Eco-Refugee ACD Map (p.34-35) are regions classified as restricted and prioritised zone. Restricted zone have fragile ecology and limited resources. It overlaps with the source locations of eco-refugee marked in orange. Prioritised zone is area with sufficient resources of light, temperature, 38
water and soil, they are agriculturally productive. China relocates people from places where the environment is too infertile for living to area with productive cropland. Environmental programs are always more than protection and restoration, they are linked to a broader political economic processes. Through overlaying resettlement of conservation refugee and eco-refugee, several sites of interest were identified. The overlapping incidents shows the graduated sovereignty where people in the same area are treated differently because they fall under different schemes at different time. This map works as a lens of the larger struggles over territorial sovereignty that shape life in this resistive area.
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3 Design Proposal
3.1 Thesis Framework
Image 3.1.1 Thesis Framework
There are 5 environmental programs widely applied in China’s west. People under NFPP and SLCP are likely to be classified as conservation refugee — conservation refugee refers to people that are subjected to relocation because they pose threats to the environment. People under TNSBP, Irrigation program and CPTG are likely to be classified as eco-refugee — eco refugee refers to people subjected to relocation because the environment cannot sustain their living. The activities in NFPP and SLCP are subsidised or compensated; while people under Irrigation program and CPTG only receive one-off compensation when they relocate. There is no payment of ecosystem services in there. Shelterbelt
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program however, is different. The tree planting work will be subsidised by world bank and the central government. Although categorised as eco-refugee but they are not subjected to forcible relocation. Therefore it can be used as a mediating tool in the design. 3 cases are identified based on their precedence and location from the overlapping incidents diagram on my left. In each of these cases, both the origin and destination of these resettlement will be investigated. Case 1 show a scenario when both conservation refugee and eco-refugee relocate at the same time. Case 2 show a scenario when conservation refugees relocate first while case 3 show a scenario when eco-refugee relocates first.
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As shown in the Thesis Outline (p.4445), each of the space are greyscale coded, suggesting differences in the opportunity they receive. What caused the graduated sovereignty is the differences stated through these arrows. For example, in Case #2, conservation refugee were given a plot of 150sqm including their house while eco-refugee did not get any land and has moved out as labour migrant. The design strategy is to consider these differences, deciding to what extent refugees are allowed to go back or to stay. By phasing out negative component or introducing positive opportunity to either the source or the destination, a relatively continuous gradient can be created. In simpler term, is to realign people to stay
in places with best opportunity yet causes minimal harm to the environment. There are a few constraint and limitation in the realignment. First, the strategies are not standard designs to be widely applied. Second, Eco-refugee should not be doing restoration work as it requires huge capital especially in deserted place, it will be a burden for these poor people. Third, eco-refugee should not return if their houses has been destroyed. The design goal ultimately is to not degrade land, to recognise the spatial differences, to secure source of living, to allow flexibility and mobility so to prevent any dogmatic management.
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Image 3.1.2 Zones of Graduated Soverenigty Diagram
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3.2 Case 1 Both Refugees relocate at the same time
Case 1 Origin of Resettlement Shapotou Changlezhen · 37°27’36.1”N 105°07’02.9”E
Both Conservation Refugee and Eco-refugee migrate at the same time
Site Context in 2000 just before Resettlement
Classification of people based on resettlement scheme and ecological activity
Fig 3.2.1 Case 1 Origin Site Context
Shown in this case is the origin Shapotou Changlezhen. The first diagram here shows the classification of zones if based on compensated activity from the 2000 map. The group here work on sand control measures while here on wolfberry orchard. Later on, these people are subjected to relocation under different resettlement scheme. Once the refugees from the two program move out, the government demolished their housing. To punish those who defy order, official refused to renovate their houses or build them animal pens; official also deny 46
water pipelines and subsidies for raising sheep and cattle. Instead of moving to their resettlement town, they open up fertile land proximate to water sources, dig into the earth and build cave homes. Management of those restoration work left unattended. In the strategy, a cash crop belt will be planted in area of demolished houses that do not have a sustainable source of income to avoid eco-refugee resettling back. Forest belt in area of demolished houses that are not previously subsidised by NFPP and SLCP.
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Case 1 · Destination of Resettlement Lingwu Wutongshuxiang · 38°10’0.04”N 106°17’13.66”E
Both Conservation Refugee and Eco-refugee migrate at the same time
Site Context in 2005 just after Resettlement
Classification of people based on resettlement scheme and ecological activity
Fig 3.2.2 Case 1 Destination Site Context
The destination of resettlement in case 1 is Lingwu Wutonshuxiang. There are funding to economic viable and less water intensive crops like goji berry or Chinese medicine for conservation refugee. Meanwhile, the eco-refugee prefers to grow traditional corn despite the subsidy for grain has decreased. This is because the cost and technique for corn is low. These water intensive crops pressurised the land, without enough water to cultivate, people open up more cropland and irrigation channel. The tension comes from the use of water. Besides, eco-refugee lacks participation in these development project, they can only
enjoy dividends coming from land leasing. In theory, cooperatives can solve the cost, technology and market problem in the cultivation of cash crops. An agricultural cooperatives will be manage by the company and eco-refugee; those who do not want to sell their plot to agricultural company will be taking over shelterbelt work that mitigate negative impacts in the farm from polluting the Yellow river. In this case, conservation refugee have the flexibility to move back and relief some of the stress in the destination while the benefits in destination is strengthened for eco-refugee, providing them an incentive to stay. 47
Case 1 Origin of Resettlement Shapotou Changlezhen · 37°27’36.1”N 105°07’02.9”E
Both Conservation Refugee and Eco-refugee migrate at the same time
Tension and Conflicts after Migration
Design Strategy
Fig 3.2.3 Case 1 Origin Conflicts and Design
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Case 1 · Destination of Resettlement Lingwu Wutongshuxiang · 38°10’0.04”N 106°17’13.66”E
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Both Conservation Refugee and Eco-refugee migrate at the same time
Tension and Conflicts after Migration
Design Strategy
Fig 3.2.4 Case 1 Destination Conflicts and Design
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3.3 Case 2 Conservation Refugee relocates first
Case 2 Origin of Resettlement Xiji Shagouxiang · 37°10’18.59”N 105°58’3.73”E Conservation Refugees migrate from the site first
Site Context in 2005 just before Resettlement
Classification of people based on resettlement scheme and ecological activity
Fig 3.3.1 Case 2 Origin Site Context
Case 2 is the scenario when the conservation refugee migrate from the site first. In the origin we have Xiji Shagouxiang. The conservation refugees are those managing the restoration measures, these inputs improved agricultural productivity in the region. As they left the place, these restoration work left unattended. As trees under the afforestation program die, desertification and salinisation intensified. Moreover, the cost of reconstruction is too high to get support from the settlers there. The deserted land is too poor for any farming activity. The settlers were then classified 50
as eco-refugee, they have no option but to leave the place. Meanwhile in the destination, Hongsibu Hongsibuzhen, the plot size for the early stage of settlers is about 150sqm, with the house taking up a third of that. Many complain about the cramped quarters and the one mu of farmland, is far less that they had in their origin. Conservation refugee were told it would be better off to lease their plots to a large company, Huatainong Agriculture. Agricultural companies promised to hire villagers first when signing contract. Farmers no longer directly mange the land, instead they receive land transferral
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Case 2 · Destination of Resettlement Hongsibu Hongsibuzhen · 37°25’26.38”N 106° 3’43.58”E Conservation Refugees migrate to the site first
Site Context in 2010 just after Resettlement
Classification of people based on resettlement scheme and ecological activity
Fig 3.3.2 Case 2 Destination Site Context
fees. In the last wave of relocations, ecorefugee did not get any land. Besides, the land is oversaturated to sustain all settlers, they soon left and moved to the city as labour migrant, seeking for employment as cleaners and security guard these lowend job. By comparing the situation in the origin and destination, I suggest the conservation refugee to go back to their origin while create more opportunities for the eco-refugee in the destination to stay. In the origin, restoration work should be restored, establish shelterbelt buffer between area of forest, orchard and desert land. Diversifying sources of
livelihood so that conservation refugee are not solely depended on compensation. Avoid the establishment of orchard farm in area less preferable. The shelterbelt can break down the general classification of zones. Meanwhile in the designation, eco-refugee who were not given any farming plot should work as employee in agricultural companies. Conservation refugee meanwhile could go back to their source location to construct shelterbelt subsidized by various parties
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Case 2 Origin of Resettlement Xiji Shagouxiang · 37°10’18.59”N 105°58’3.73”E Conservation Refugees migrate from the site first
Tension and Conflicts after Migration
Design Strategy
Fig 3.3.3 Case 2 Origin Conflicts and Design
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Case 2 · Destination of Resettlement Hongsibu Hongsibuzhen · 37°25’26.38”N 106° 3’43.58”E
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Conservation Refugees migrate to the site first
Tension and Conflicts after Migration
Design Strategy
Fig 3.3.4 Case 2 Destination Conflicts and Design
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3.4 Case 3 Eco-Refugee relocates first
Case 3 Origin of Resettlement Xiji Yejiahe Village · 36°10’7.98”N 105°55’58.96” Eco-Refugees migrate from the site first
Site Context in 1990 just before Resettlement
Classification of people based on resettlement scheme and ecological activity
Fig 3.4.1 Case 3 Origin Site Context
Case 3 is the scenario when ecorefugee migrate first. In Xiji Yejiahe village, origin of resettlement, people have been drawing water from a well for generations. Their living condition was not particularly well. Eco-refugee who moved were relieved to finally get running water in their destination. However soon they discovered pipeline and tap water had also been installed in their origin. Only about 300 villagers remained from a population of 1400 in the late 1990s. Since the eco-refugee left, trees and shrubs had begun to reappear, 54
fewer people meant less stress on the land. Still, the conservation refugee thinks it is a primitive society and no one cares about them. In Xixia Xingjingzhen, the destination of resettlement, there are chaos in the household registration. Early stage of eco-refugee were given flexibility. It provides settlers time to make decision that best fit themselves. Yet, this create chaos to the household registration, resulted in the separation of household registration and population in the destination. Some of the settlers have not been registered in the destination,
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Case 3 · Destination of Resettlement Xixia Xingjingzhen · 38°22’7.73”N 106°5’18.85”E Eco-Refugees migrate to the site first
Site Context in 1995 just after Resettlement
Classification of people based on resettlement scheme and ecological activity
Fig 3.4.2 Case 3 Destination Site Context
they have been registered in their origin but there were no one residing. These people who do not have an account in the destination and current status quo is unknown, will not be receiving subsidy from any poverty alleviation programs. They are vulnerable to risks. When government relocate conservation refugee to the area, there is overlapping in the allocation of land, conflict arise over the use of resources. The strategy here is to provide incentives for eco-refugee to stay and to clarify their household registration. Allotment of resources
should only be done when the household registration has been updated. Allocate vacant or retired plot to conservation refugee. Evenly distributing resources to not degrade land. Those who do not get assigned with a farming plot may consider to resettle back to their origin. In the origin, shelterbelt and orchard farm will be established in a sustainable manner. Flexibility should be given if the land has already improved before another wave of resettlement. Avoid false classification of an eco-refugee when a conservation measure is applied. 55
Case 3 Origin of Resettlement Xiji Yejiahe Village · 36°10’7.98”N 105°55’58.96” Eco-Refugees migrate from the site first
Tension and Conflicts after Migration
Design Strategy
Fig 3.4.3 Case 3 Origin Conflicts and Design
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Case 3 · Destination of Resettlement Xixia Xingjingzhen · 38°22’7.73”N 106°5’18.85”E
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Eco-Refugees migrate to the site first
Tension and Conflicts after Migration
Design Strategy
Fig 3.4.4 Case 3 Destination Conflicts and Design
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3.5 Conclusion
Fig 3.5.1 Zones of Graduated Sovereignty Drawing
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The conservation-/eco-refugee binary is a useful framework for analyzing and designing new programs. It allows me to review the five programs systematically across 200 sites on the context map. I was able to group them and make decision accordingly. The binary framework can avoid multiple treatment or ignorance to a certain group.
Importantly, the strategies I develop are built on the outcomes and resources of the many diverse eco-modernization programs implemented over that last few decades; they are designed assuming complex interaction and overlapping histories from these coexisting programs.
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Fig 3.5.2 Narrative of Ecological Resettlement
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In conclusion, my approach is to demonstrate some of the limitations of these programs in the ecological modernisation framework, and to argue for alternative ways of analysing the greening of western china. In addition to providing evidence from cases that these programs often fail on their own terms, I suggest that insights from political ecology are more suited in helping us
understand why this is the case than is ecological modernization. Ecological modernisation narratives take for granted both a crisis of ecological degradation, and the premise that the ‘greening’ of the state will have environmental improvement as its primary outcome. A political ecology approach directs our attention to the distributive effects of those resources and people. 61
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Fig 3.5.3 Thesis Panel Layout
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4 Appendices
Blaikie, P., & Brookfield, H. (1986). Land degradation and society. London: Methuen.
Blue, B., & Brierley, G. (2016). ‘But what do you measure?’ Prospects for a constructive critical physical geography. Area, 48(2), 190-197.
Cao, Yeh, Holden, Yang, & Du. (2013). The effects of enclosures and land-use contracts on rangeland degradation on the Qinghai–Tibetan plateau. Journal of Arid Environments, 97, 3-8. Dong, C., Liu, X., & Klein, K. (2012). Land degradation and population relocation in Northern China. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 53(2), 163-177. FAO. (2007). Situation Analysis of Ningxia Province. FAO, 1-66.
Fan, Mingming, Li, Yanbo, & Li, Wenjun. (2015). Solving one problem by creating a bigger one: The consequences of ecological resettlement for grassland restoration and poverty alleviation in Northwestern China. Land Use Policy, 42, 124-130.
Fischer, A. (2012). Provincial migration in China : Preliminary insights from the 2010 population census. IDEAS Working Paper Series from RePEc, IDEAS Working Paper Series from RePEc, 2012.
Ho, P., Eyferth, J., & Vermeer, E. (2004). Rural development in transitional China : The new agriculture (Library of peasant studies ; no. 22). London ; Portland, OR: Frank Cass. Ho, P. (2000). China’s Rangelands under Stress: A Comparative Study of Pasture Commons in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Development and Change, 31(2), 385-412.
Lesterlin, G., Giordano, M., & Keohavong, G. (2005). When ‘conservation’ leads to land degradation: Lessons from ban lak sip, laos. St. Louis: Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.eproxy2.lib.hku.hk/ docview/1698624953?accountid=14548 Li, Peilin ; Wang, Xiaoyi. (2016). Ecological Migration, Development and Transformation. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Liao, C., & Fei, D. (2017). Sedentarization as Constrained Adaptation: Evidence from Pastoral Regions in Far Northwestern China. Human Ecology, 45(1), 23-35.
Rahman,A. (2005). Sinicization Beyond the Great Wall: China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Troubador Publishing Ltd. Shu, X. (2016). The History and Present Condition of Ecological Migration in Ningxia. Ecological Migration, Development and Transformation. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. 21-46.
Sun, D., Yu, X., Liu, X., & Li, B. (2016). A new artificial oasis landscape dynamics in semiarid Hongsipu region with decadal agricultural irrigation development in Ning Xia, China. Earth Science Informatics, 9(1), 21-33.
Tan, Y. (2017). Resettlement and Climate Impact: Addressing migration intention of 66
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resettled people in west China. Australian Geographer, 48(1), 97-119. Wang, J. H. (2014). Translating environmental and development agendas: influences of environmental NGOs on rural landscapes in China. University of Sydney. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2123/12642
Yeh, E. (2009). Greening western China: A critical view. Geoforum, 40(5), 884-894. Yeh, E. (2012). Transnational environmentalism and entanglements of sovereignty: The tiger campaign across the Himalayas. Political Geography, 31(7), 408-418.
Yeh, E. (2013). The politics of conservation in contemporary rural China. Journal of Peasant Studies, 40(6), 1165-1188. Yeh, E., O’Brien, contemporary China.
K., & Journal
Ye, J. (2013). Rural politics in of Peasant Studies, 40(6), 915-928.
Yeh, E. (2005). Green Governmentality and Pastoralism in Western China: Converting Pastures to Grassland. Nomadic Peoples, 9(1/2), 9-30.
Zhang, L., Tu, Q., & Mol, A. (2008). Payment for Environmental Services: The Sloping Land Conversion Program in Ningxia Autonomous Region of China. China & World Economy, 16(2), 66-81.
Zhu, K. (2012). A Case for Farmers and Rural Communities’ Right to Compensation Under China’s Natural Forest Protection Program (NFPP). Seattle, WA: Landesa-RDI. Washington, DC: Rights and Resources Initiative. 張越,李雙奎,夏淼.(2014).區外移民就業政策對寧夏生態移民工作的啟示.安徽農業 科學,(15),4878-4879.
姜林軍,范建榮,李靖,司芳源,馬蓉,王慶爽.(2015).寧夏勞務移民與生態移民成效的 對比研究.安徽農業科學,43(24),287-288. 馮雪紅,聶君.(2013).寧夏回族生態移民遷移意願與遷移行為調查分析.蘭州大學學 報（社會科學版）,41(6),53-59. 楊美玲,米文寶,廖力君.(2004).寧夏南部山區退耕還林(草)中的人口與發展問題研 究.水土保持研究.11(3),130-134. 陳忠祥.(1995).寧夏扶貧工程與引黃灌區開發中的吊莊移民.地理學報.50(6),514520. 周凌燕.(2013).寧夏回族文化與寧夏回族檔案.蘭台世界：中旬,(12),102-103. 王鋒.(2006).寧夏城市化進程中的流動人口對社會經濟發展的影響及其對策研究. 西北人口,(3),53-57. 郭碧雲,張廣軍.(2009).基於GIS和Markov模型的內蒙古農牧交錯帶土地利用變化. 農業工程學報,(12),291-298.
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4.2 Documentation of Case Models
Fig 4.2.1 Case 1 Model: Origin Existing and Design
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Fig 4.2.2 Case 1 Model: Destination Existing and Design
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4.2 Documentation of Case Models
Fig 4.2.3 Case 2 Model: Origin Existing and Design
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Fig 4.2.4 Case 2 Model: Destination Existing and Design
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Image
4.3 List of Images
1.1.1 Map of Northern China 1.2.1 Mao’s War against Nature Book Cover 1.2.2 Geoforum 40 Greening Western China 1.3.1-5 Resettlement Cases Diagrams 1.3.6 Dazhai Propaganda Poster 1.3.7 Photo of settlers in Tengger Desert 1.3.8 Keeping Sand From Swallowing the World 1.3.9-10 The spatial distributionof regionalization types and subtypes 1.3.11 Zones of Graduated Sovereignty under ACD Plan 2.1.1 Ningxia Context Map 2.1.2 Ningxia Population by Inter-province Residence 2.1.3 Timeline 2.2.1.1 NFPP Descriptive Collage 2.2.1.2 NFPP Graduation in Determinants 2.2.1.3 Landscape Features Associate with NFPP 2.2.2.1 SLCP Descriptive Collage 2.2.2.2 SLCP Graduation in Determinants 2.2.2.3 Landscape Features Associate with SLCP 2.2.3.1 TNSBP Descriptive Collage 2.2.3.2 TNSBP Graduation in Determinants 2.2.3.3 Landscape Features Associate with TNSBP 2.2.4.1 1236 Project Descriptive Collage 2.2.4.2 1236 Project Graduation in Determinants 2.2.4.3 Landscape Features Associate with 1236 Project 2.2.5.1 CPTG Descriptive Collage 2.2.5.2 CPTG Graduation in Determinants 2.2.5.3 Landscape Features Associate with CPTG 2.3.1 Definition of Refugees 2.3.2 Conservation Refugee ACD Map 2.3.3 Eco-Refugee ACD Map 2.3.4 Overlapping incidents between Refugees 2.3.5 Photo of China Miao Miao Lake Village 3.1.2 Thesis Framework Timeline 3.1.2 Zones of Graduated Soverenigty Diagram 3.2.1 Case 1 Origin Site Context 3.2.2 Case 1 Destination Site Context 3.2.3 Case 1 Origin Conflicts and Design 3.2.4 Case 1 Destination Conflicts and Design 3.3.1 Case 2 Origin Site Context 3.3.2 Case 2 Destination Site Context 3.3.3 Case 2 Origin Conflicts and Design 3.3.4 Case 2 Destination Conflicts and Design 3.4.1 Case 3 Origin Site Context 3.4.2 Case 3 Destination Site Context 3.4.3 Case 3 Origin Conflicts and Design 3.4.4 Case 3 Destination Conflicts and Design 3.5.1 Zones of Graduated Sovereignty Drawing 3.5.2 Narrative of Ecological Resettlement 3.5.3 Thesis Panel Layout 4.2.1 Case 1 Model: Origin Existing and Design 4.2.2 Case 1 Model: Destination Existing and Design 4.2.3 Case 2 Model: Origin Existing and Design 4.2.4 Case 2 Model: Destination Existing and Design 72
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