De-farming and Ecological Restoration in the Loess Hilly-gully Region in Northern China

Introduction In a long history of land use and exploration, in order to meet the demand of quickly increasing population for food supplies, China has accumu- lated many successful and unsuccessful experience- es in promoting economic development by using …

De-farming and ecological restoration in the loess hilly-gully region in northern China

De-farming has been a powerful measure taken by the central and local governments of China for ecological restoration in the loess hilly-gully region since 2000. In years past, aid-based de-farming pattern was far and wide popularized in the region and terrace-based de-farming pattern demonstrated in a few small watersheds was also rather effective for ecological restoration. After summing up the features of three patterns (aid-based de-farming slope farmland more than 25° (AD25), aid-based de-farming slope farmland more than 15° (AD15) and terrace-based de-farming (TD)), this paper analyzed the regional difference of these patterns in de-farming area, ecological restoration, investment demand and so on. The results show that there are two crucial areas in the loess hilly-gully region for ecological restoration at the moment, the policies adaptation to the different areas should be constituted as soon as possible and the limited fund should be devoted to the two crucial areas.