Environmental emigration stress of slope farmland in the Three Gorges area

The project of ‘grain for green’, to restore woodland and grass by retreating from slope farmland, as a fundamental measure of eco-environmental rehabilitation, is being conducted in the reservoir area of the Three Gorges gradually. However, the de-farming of slope farmland will reduce the amount of farmland in de-farmed areas, especially in the areas with concentrated slope farmland, which would cause the problems of environmental emigration. The people who cannot regain enough farmland by relocating farmlands within village after de-farming and have to emigrate to other places are called environmental emigrants or ecological emigrants. In the research, a de-farming stress index model and an environmental emigration model are developed based on GRID data, and the potential amount of environmental emigration caused by de-farming of slope farmland in the reservoir area is simulated aided with GIS. The simulation indicates that the potential emigration amount caused by de-farming is quite large. When the de-farming stress index reaches 40%, the amount is as large as 890,000 people, which is equivalent to the emigrants caused by the submergence of the Three Gorges reservoir. So it should be considered as a big problem during the eco-environmental rehabilitation in this area. Some suggestions are raised to tackle the problem. Firstly, the emigration plan should be included in the de-farming plan. Secondly, some provinces, especially those located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, should accommodate part of the environmental emigrants.