Notions of justice in payments for ecosystem services: Insights from China's Sloping Land Conversion Program in Yunnan Province

Published Date
February 2015, Vol.43:207–216, doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2014.11.011

Author 

Jun He ^a,b,c,1,,

Thomas Sikor ^b,1

aCollege of Economics and Management, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming 650201, China

bSchool of International Development, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK

cWorld Agroforestry Centre, ICRAF East and Central Asia Program, Heilongtan, Kunming 650204, China

Received 29 March 2013. Revised 5 November 2014. Accepted 10 November 2014. Available online 1 December 2014.

Highlights

• China's Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) is the world's largest payments for ecosystem services (PES) scheme.
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  State policy on the SLCP contains provisions for distributive and procedural justice.
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  Villagers, local officials and state policy share the concern about distributive justice.
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  The shared distributive concern contributes to reforestation and rising incomes.
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  Research needs to consider notions of justice for a fuller understanding of PES.

Abstract 

China's Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) pays millions of farmers to convert cropland in upper watersheds to tree plantations. It is considered one of the world's largest payments for ecosystem services (PES) scheme for its reliance on financial incentives. This paper examines the outcomes of the SLCP by way of a case study from the Yangliu watershed in Yunnan province. It focuses on the notions of justice embedded in state policy and held by villagers and local state officials in order to understand the observed outcomes in terms of people's participation in the implementation of the SLCP, land use changes and livelihood effects. Villagers, local state officials, and state policy share a primary concern about distributive justice despite significant differences in their specific notions. The shared concern underlies the villagers’ positive reactions to the SLCP, which among other factors, have led to the intended expansion of tree plantations and a livelihood transition in Yangliu since 2003. The insights from Yangliu suggest the need to consider justice for a fuller understanding of the dynamics and outcomes of the SLCP and other PES schemes worldwide as the notions of justice applied by the involved actors may influence land use and livelihood dynamics in addition to the other factors considered in research this far.

Keywords

Justice

Payments for ecosystem services

Land-use change

Livelihoods

Policy implementation

China

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Fig. 1.

 Table 1

Table 1.

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  Corresponding author at: College of Economics and Management, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming 650201, China. Tel.: +86 871 5223014; fax: +86 871 5223377.

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