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Published in: Environmental Management 3/2019

27-07-2019

The Second Phase of the Grain for Green Program: Adapting the Largest Reforestation Program in the World to the New Conditions in Rural China

Author: Claudio O. Delang

Published in: Environmental Management | Issue 3/2019

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Abstract

This paper introduces the second phase of the Grain for Green. The first phase ran from 1999 to 2014, and the second phase started in 2015. The second phase of the GfG (GfG/2) addresses some problems of the first phase (GfG/1), in particular the lack of income for the farmers, as well as some changes to the rural areas, in particular the small number of remaining farmers. The paper describes how the GfG/2 (unlike the GfG/1) encourages farmers to organize themselves in cooperatives, or work with investors, and grow fruit trees to generate sustainable incomes. The paper also describes the constraints that prevent the smooth implementation of the GfG/2, in particular the insufficient financial support, the fact that some of the land that should be converted is “essential farmland”, and the small and scattered pieces of farmland. The paper argues that in spite of this, the program is likely to succeed, and help farmers generate sustainable incomes. The paper is based in four periods of fieldwork in Chongqing Municipality, Shaanxi Province, and Yunnan Province and extensive interviews of farmers and government officers.

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Footnotes
1
In 2016 a new phase of the GfG was introduced.
 
2
Since farmers joined at different times in different provinces, as the GfG gradually expanded nation-wide after 1999, the time the subsidies end varies according to location.
 
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Metadata
Title
The Second Phase of the Grain for Green Program: Adapting the Largest Reforestation Program in the World to the New Conditions in Rural China
Author
Claudio O. Delang
Publication date
27-07-2019
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Environmental Management / Issue 3/2019
Print ISSN: 0364-152X
Electronic ISSN: 1432-1009
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-019-01185-4

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