Impacts of China’s cropland protection on global biodiversity | Hui Tang

Field l Discipline

• Physical Geography
• Ecological economics
• Landscape ecology
  

Expertise

• Biodiversity
• Global trade
• Consumption

Summary

China, the largest developing country, has long struggled with food security, given its large population and limited cropland. On the one hand, rapid and widespread urbanization has resulted in urban expansion, encroaching on cropland and potentially threatening the cereal farming of China. Economic development, on the other hand, has resulted in dietary changes, such as increased consumption of meat, eggs, and dairy products and raising demand for soybeans, wheat, and other crops. To meet food demands and ensure food security, China has implemented strict cropland protection policies, such as delineating cropland protection red line areas, and maintaining cropland requisition–compensation balance. Conserving both the quantity and quality of cropland has effectively protected China's grain production, allowing it to achieve some degree of food self-sufficiency. By reducing its reliance on crop imports, China has reduced the demand for virtual cropland from food-exporting countries, which could benefit global biodiversity.

As a major importer of agricultural products, China’s soybean imports have been shown to threaten Brazil's tropical rainforests. However, China’s cropland protection policies have maintained domestic food production, reducing reliance on food imports and potentially mitigating cropland expansion in other countries. We aim to quantify the scale of cropland expansion avoided globally due to China’s cropland protection policies. Which countries and ecoregions are most affected? What species or taxon of species have benefited from the reduced habitat loss?

Supervision by

• Promotor: Prof. dr. K.S. (Klaus) Hubacek | Integrated Research on Energy, Environment and Society - IREES | ESRIG, University of Groningen.
• Co-promotor: Prof. dr. Y. (Yuli) Shan| Integrated Research on Energy, Environment and Society - IREES | ESRIG, University of Groningen.

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