supporting information appendix
TRANSCRIPT
Supporting Information Appendix 1
2
Lu et al. Effects of national ecological restoration projects on carbon 3
sequestration in China from 2001 to 2010 4
5
Appendix A: A brief introduction to China's national key ecological 6
projects and the setting of the reference situation in the no project 7
scenario (including Figure S1-S6, and Table S1) 8
Appendix B: Ecosystem and project-induced C sinks among six 9
geographical regions in China (including Table S2) 10
Appendix C: Investment in China's national key ecological projects 11
(including Table S3) 12
Appendix D: Data sources of the C density at the beginning of the 13
project and 2010 and for the reference scenario to examine the 14
contribution of the project to C sequestration (including Figure 15
S7-S12) 16
Appendix E: Supplementary methods on estimation of the project 17
contributions of Forest Protection and GGP 18
19
20
Appendix A: A brief introduction to China's national key ecological 1
projects and the setting of the reference situation in the no project 2
scenario 3
4
Three-North Shelter Forest Program (North Shelter Forest) 5
6
Fig S1. North Shelter Forest implementation area in Manzhouli, Inner Mongolia 7
Autonomous Region, North China. (Photographed by Fei Lu, Research Center for 8
Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences) 9
10
The Three-North Shelter Forest Program in China, dubbed China's "Green Great 11
Wall", was initiated in 1978, with woody plants planted in 551 counties across 13 12
provinces in North, Northeast and Northwest China to form a long shield against 13
desertification and soil and water losses (Bureau of the Three-North Shelter Forest 14
Construction, 1993). The 4th phase of the project started at 2001 and ended at 2010. 15
The objectives of the North Shelter Forest are to improve environmental conditions 1
(e.g., to protect mobile sand from wind erosion and to limit soil and water losses) and 2
foster the production of multiple forest products in the Three-North regions. The 3
North Shelter Forest was included in the Guinness World Records in 2003 as the 4
world's largest ecological reforestation/afforestation program. In accordance with the 5
overall development plan, the North Shelter Forest is expected to operate for up to 73 6
years, ending in 2050. There will be eight stages to establish protective forests in the 7
arid and semiarid area of the Three-North regions (i.e., the west of northeastern China, 8
the north of northern China, and northwestern China). On the basis of information 9
from the State Forestry Administration of China in 2008, approximately 10 billion 10
RMB has been invested in the North Shelter Forest during the past 30 years, and its 11
eco-environmental benefits have started to appear in farmland protection, soil and 12
water conservation, wind reduction, and sand dune fixation. The North Shelter Forest 13
has also aroused the consciousness of ecological security in the Three-North regions. 14
15
Yangtze River Shelter Forest Project and Zhujiang River Shelter Forest Project 16
(River Shelter Forest) 17
18
Fig S2. River Shelter Forest implementation area along the Yangtze River, in Wushan 19
County, Municipality of Chongqing (Chungking), Southwest China. (Photographed by 20
Fei Lu, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of 1
Sciences.) 2
The Yangtze River Shelter Forest Project and Zhujiang River Shelter Forest Project 3
were initiated in 1989 and 1996, respectively. The 2nd phase of these river shelter 4
forest projects started at 2001 and ended at 2010. The Yangtze River, with a length of 5
6,300 kilometers, is the third-longest river in the world and the longest river in Asia. 6
The Yangtze River watershed is one of the most important cradles of Chinese 7
civilization and is characterized by a long history of cultivation, the development of 8
agriculture, and a fast-growing economy. However, due to its rapid increase in 9
population, excessive deforestation and over cultivation, this region has suffered from 10
serious soil erosion and frequent floods. In the 1980s, 31.1% of the land in the 11
watershed was subject to soil erosion. To prevent the continued deterioration of the 12
environment, the Chinese government initiated the Yangtze River Shelter Forest 13
Project, which seeks to add 20 million ha of forests to this region through 30 or 40 14
years of restoration efforts. This project covers 17 provinces (1033 counties) of China, 15
including Qinghai, Tibet, Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Chongqing, Shaanxi, 16
Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Henan, Shandong, Jiansu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. In 17
1996, another important shelter forest project in the south of China, the Zhujiang 18
River Shelter Forest Project, was initiated by the Chinese government to reduce the 19
soil erosion and rocky desertification in the Zhujiang River watershed. The Zhujiang 20
River Shelter Forest Project covers 6 provinces (187 counties), including Yunnan, 21
Guizhou, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan and Jiangxi. 22
23
24
25
Natural Forest Protection Program (Forest Protection) 1
2
Fig S3. Original Broadleaved Korean Pine Forest and Natural Secondary Birch Forest 3
under China’s Natural Forest Protection Program. (Lushuihe Forestry Bureau of 4
Changbai Mountain in Eastern Jilin Province, Northeast China. Photographed by 5
Wangming Zhou, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.) 6
7
In 1998, floods occurring in three large river drainage areas (those of the Yangtze 8
River, the Yellow River and the Songhua and Nenjiang Rivers) killed thousands of 9
people and caused damages exceeding three hundred billion yuan (~US$36 billion). 10
To prevent future disasters of this type, a series of programs has been developed to 11
protect China's natural forests (The Natural Forest Protection Program, Forest 12
Protection), with the objective of conserving bio-diversity, protecting the water quality, 13
preventing soil erosion and desertification, and reducing the likelihood of floods and 14
other natural disasters associated with deforestation. 1
The measures of the program include significantly decreasing and adjusting the 2
timber yield in three regions of the Upper Yangtze River, the Upper and Middle 3
Yellow River, and the Key State-owned Forest Districts of Northeast China and the 4
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region; prohibiting the commercial logging of natural 5
forests in the Upper Yangtze River and the Upper and Middle Yellow River regions; 6
and accelerating plantation establishment in degraded lands of the three 7
aforementioned regions. 8
The regions of the Forest Protection include 17 provinces or autonomous regions. 9
The Key State-owned Forest Districts covers Jilin, Heilongjiang, Hainan, the Uygur 10
Autonomous Region of Xinjiang and eastern Inner Mongolia; the Upper Yangtze 11
River region includes Hubei, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and the Tibet 12
Autonomous Region; and the Upper and Middle Yellow River region includes Henan, 13
Shanxi, Shaanxi, the Midwest of Inner Mongolia, the Hui Autonomous Region of 14
Ningxia and Qinghai Province. 15
16
Grain for Green Project (GPP) 17
18
Fig S4. Caption: Hilly area in Loess Plateau before and after the implementation of 19
GGP, Northwest China. (Photos are provided by the State Key Laboratory of Soil 20
Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water 21
Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Education and the State 1
Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for 2
Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences) 3
4
The Grain for Green Project was initiated in 1999 by China’s government and is 5
one of the most ambitious conservation set-aside programs, with the purpose of 6
increasing forest cover and combating soil erosion on sloped cropland (1). The project 7
was divided into two phases (1999-2010 and 2010-2030) and is designed to continue 8
until the year 2030 (2). Both the scale and the magnitude of the investment make this 9
project the largest ecological restoration program in the world (3, 4). 10
The priority areas of the Grain for Green Project include the upstream regions of 11
major river systems, especially the Yellow, Yangtze, and Songhuajiang river basins, 12
which have sustained massive ecological and environmental degradation during the 13
past 50 years (3). The Loess Plateau, located in the upper and middle reaches of the 14
Yellow River and well-known for its severe soil erosion and water loss, is a notable 15
region of the Grain for Green Project in northwest China (5). In most cases, the Grain 16
for Green Project focuses on cultivated land on steep slopes (≥25°), since these 17
locations are most likely to experience severe erosion and other adverse impacts 18
resulting from cultivation, and the local farmers would receive grain or financial 19
compensation from the government for the loss of food due to the cropland decrease 20
(1, 6). The cumulative contributions of the Grain for Green Project to the ecosystems 21
in China and the world are tremendous; specifically, this project has fundamentally 22
improved the ecosystem services by increasing the vegetation cover, decreasing the 23
water surface runoff and soil erosion, and reducing the river sediments and nutrient 24
loss to maintain soil fertility (7). 25
Returning Grazing Lands to Grasslands Project (Grassland Conservation) 1
2
Fig S5. Landscape inside and outside the Returning Grazing Lands to Grasslands 3
Project (Stipa purpurea alpine steppe in Baingoin County, Tibetan Autonomous 4
Region, Southwest China. Photographed by Dingpeng Xiong, Institute of Geographic 5
Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences.) 6
7
In 2003, in response to the extensive degradation of China’s grasslands, the Chinese 8
government launched an ambitious project called the ‘‘Returning Grazing Lands to 9
Grasslands Project’’ (Grassland Conservation) in northern and southwestern China, 10
including the provinces and autonomous regions of Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, 11
Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Tibet, Ningxia, and Yunnan. The Grassland Conservation 12
project aimed to slow down overgrazing, enhance grassland productivity, reverse the 13
severe grassland degradation trend, and promote balanced development between 14
animal husbandry and regional ecological and environmental protection. To achieve 15
these goals, four main management strategies were adopted in the project areas, 1
including grazing exclusion, rest grazing, rotational grazing and artificial grassland 2
construction. The central and local governments offered subsidies and feed grain to 3
local herders who implemented the measures of Grassland Conservation and reduced 4
the flock sizes. 5
6
Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source Control Project (Sand Control) 7
8
Fig S6. Caption: Lama Mountain before (left) and after (right) the implementation of 9
Sand Control in Fenning Man Autonomous County, Hebei Province, North China. 10
(Photographs are provided by the Forestry Bureau of Fenning Man Autonomous 11
County, Hebei Province, P.R. China.) 12
13
To reduce the threat of violent sandstorms to Beijing, Tianjin, and the surrounding 14
areas, a national ecological construction program, the Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source 15
Control Project (Sand Control), was launched with the goal of constructing an 16
ecological protection system in the Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source Region to reduce dust 17
hazards by rehabilitating and protecting grass and forest. This project began in 2000, 18
and 75 counties (banners, cities or districts) in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, and 19
Inner Mongolia provinces, a total area of 45.8 million ha, have participated. The scale 20
of this project is relatively small. However, given Beijing’s high political profile and 1
the concern for its international image, the project has drawn much attention and the 2
investment has been large. 3
Some key measures and policies, such as afforestation and reforestation by aerial 4
seeding or closing hills, the conversion of cropland to forest or grasslands (i.e., grain 5
for green) and eco-migration, have been implemented to promote ecosystem diversity, 6
preserve native species, and enhance ecological services. These measures also protect 7
the water supply sources of Beijing and Tianjin. Developing the ‘sand industry’ and 8
non-agricultural activities and promoting structural adjustment in agriculture are also 9
integral components of the project (Ministry of Science and Technology, 2000). 10
11
Setting of the no-project (natural) scenario in accordance with the content of the 12
project 13
Based on the above-mentioned objectives and contents of China's national 14
ecological stewardship projects, we set the reference situations in the no-project 15
scenarios per the following Table S1. 16
17
Table S1 Settings of reference sites (in no-project scenarios) 18
Project Setting of reference situation (in no-project scenario) to
estimate the projects' contributions to C sequestration
North Shelter Forest, 4th
phase Combination of shrubland (29.7%) and forest (70.3%), with
the same proportion as in the first year of the North Shelter
Forest Project
River Shelter Forest, 2nd
phase Combination of shrubland (42.7%) and grassland (57.3%),
with the same proportion as in the first year of the River
Shelter Forest Projects
Forest Protection, 1998-2010 Without harvesting reduction or afforestation, so that the soil
erosion in the project area would not decline
GGP Hilly cropland with continuous soil erosion due to cultivation
Sand Control Grassland adjacent to afforestation area
Grassland Conservation Grassland outside fence or heavy-medium used grassland
1
2
Appendix B: Ecosystem and project-induced C sinks among six geographical regions in China 1
Table S2. Ecosystem and project-induced C sinks (Tg C) among six geographical regions in China. 2
Regions Carbon sink Forest Protection
Grassland
Conservation
North Shelter Forest
4th phase
Sand Control GGP
River Shelter Forest
2nd phase
Regional total
North China
Ecosystem 60.1 25.7 62.1 52.3 107.0 - 307.2
Project-induced 34.7 24.4 62.1 69.7 57.5 - 248.4
Northeast
China
Ecosystem 288.5 - 24.2 - 15.4 - 328.1
Project-induced 59.2 - 22 - 16.5 - 97.7
East China
Ecosystem - - - - 4.8 26.6 31.4
Project-induced - - - - 9.6 55.3 64.9
South China
Ecosystem 36.1 - - - 5.4 23.5 65.0
Project-induced 8.6 - - - 24.8 22.6 56.0
Southwest Ecosystem 389.5 38.7 - - 27.8 7.9 463.9
China Project-induced 36.4 36.9 - - 40.0 5.0 118.3
Northwest
China
Ecosystem 114.9 59.3 37.9 - 110.3 0.8 323.2
Project-induced 42.8 56.5 35.6 - 50.1 0.2 185.2
Total
Ecosystem 889.1 123.7 124.3 52.3 270.8 58.8 1519
Project-induced 181.7 117.9 119.7 69.7 198.5 83.0 770.4
Note: ‘-‘ means that no ecological restoration project was implemented in the region during the study period. 1
2
Appendix C: Investment in China's national key ecological projects 1
In the past decade, approximately USD 60 billion was invested to implement the 2
six national key ecological projects. According to the China Forest Statistical 3
Yearbook (8), the utilization of the money could be divided into two approaches, i.e., 4
(1) directly for the implementations of ecological stewardship measures, techniques 5
and managements, including artificial afforestation, afforestation by aerial seeding, 6
slash regeneration, setting apart hills for tree growing, seeding and seedling purchase, 7
reconstruction of low-function forests, forest management and protection, forest fire 8
prevention and forest disease and insect pest control, fencing construction and 9
scientific and technological research and development and (2) other utilities, mainly 10
for ecological compensation, including subsidies for social pool pension insurance, 11
policy and social payments, laid-off foresters’ basic living security and single 12
settlement, local reduced financial income and grain for food or livestock feed and 13
other expenses related to the project. (Table S3) 14
The exact utilization of the investment for Returning Grazing Land to Grassland 15
Project was not as clear as that of the other five national key ecological stewardship 16
projects due to data availability. However, the National Development and Reform 17
Commission and seven other national governmental departments and nationally 18
owned banks proclaimed the "Interim Supervision Measures of Aged and Excess 19
Grain Supply for Returning Grazing Land to Grassland Project and Graze-prohibition 20
and House Feeding". According to that effective legal document, the government 21
would pay for the aged and excess grain used as livestock feed at the rate of 22
10.35~82.5 kg of grain/ha/yr instead of grass in the first five years of the project, i.e., 23
the central government would compensate 0.9 yuan for each kg of grain, and the local 24
government is responsible for the expense of the transportation of the grain. Therefore, 25
approximately 1.8 billion yuan of the investment of the Grazing Land to Grassland 1
Project could be regarded as ecological compensation in this approach, accounting for 2
13.3% of the investment from the central government of China. 3
4
Table S3 Investment in China's national key ecological stewardship projects (in billion 5
USD*). 6
Projects Total
investment
Investment directly for
implementations of
ecological stewardship
measures, techniques
and managements
Investment for
other utilities,
mainly for
ecological
compensation
Investment to
sequester each
ton of CO2 in the
projects.
(In USD)
North Shelter
Forest, 4th
phase
2.15 1.99 0.16 4.90
River Shelter
Forest, 2nd
phase
1.00 0.91 0.08 3.28
Forest
Protection,
1998-2010
13.75 6.48 7.27 20.63
GGP 32.01 3.16 28.85 43.98
Sand Control 8.11 4.02 4.08 31.73
Grassland
Conservation
2.81 Not available At least 0.273
was paid by the
central
government
6.50
Total 59.81 — — — Average — — — 21.18
*At the exchange rate of 6.6 yuan = USD 1. 7
8
The average cost of sequestering one ton of CO2 is $21.18, which is lower than that 9
of most officially recommended industrial energy saving and emission reduction 10
approaches (9, 10). We found that the cost to sequester each ton of CO2 differed 11
among projects, from $3.28/tCO2 in the River Shelter Forest 2nd phase and 12
$4.90/tCO2 in the North Shelter Forest 4th phase to over $40/tCO2 in GGP. The 13
payments to people living in the project region for ecological compensation, social 14
security, and changes in production mode and lifestyle resulted in additional economic 1
costs to achieve each ton of C sequestration for the GGP ($43.98/t CO2), Sand Control 2
($31.73/t CO2), Forest Protection ($20.63/t CO2), and Grassland Conservation 3
($6.50/t CO2) projects. For the GGP, the ecological compensation (costs paid to 4
residents rather than for afforestation and reforestation) accounted for more than 90% 5
of the total investment in the project, whereas for Forest Protection and Sand Control, 6
the proportions for ecological compensation were greater than 50% (8). Therefore, 7
attention should be paid to the ecological compensation in the development of 8
ecological projects or C-sink forests. 9
10
11
12
Appendix D: Data sources of the C density at the beginning of the 1
project and 2010 and for the reference scenario to examine the 2
contribution of the project to C sequestration 3
4
Brief introduction of the data source of the C densities 5
A dataset of the C densities of the ecosystem in the national ecological project 6
regions and the reference sites was built mainly based on Tang, et al. (11), by the 67 7
Technical Group of Ecosystem C Sequestration Program. The 6 Technical Group of 8
National Key Ecological Project C Sequestration also provided the data for other sites 9
in the typical project regions or with paired sampling in the reference region. The 10
dataset included the spatial position of the plot, the vegetation type, vegetation 11
biomass and related C content, soil organic C content and the bulk density in various 12
layers to a 100-cm depth. 13
The biomass and soil C density values in 2010 (i.e., CDBei and CDSei) were 14
obtained during this project’s field surveys and laboratory examinations, as reported 15
by Tang et al. (11, including 2176 groups of data for North Shelter Forest, 2650 for 16
River Shelter Forest, 2558 for Forest Protection, 565 for Grassland Conservation, 189 17
for Sand Control and 1895 for GGP), in the field survey with the same method and 18
criteria by Tang et al (11, including 239 groups of data for North Shelter Forest, 179 19
for Forest Protection, 36 for Grassland Conservation, 71 for Sand Control and 39 for 20
GGP) and in the latest peer-reviewed papers. 21
The biomass and soil C density values near the year 2000 (i.e., CDBsi and CDSsi, 22
respectively) were acquired from literature surveys of the published literature and 23
peer-reviewed papers (273 groups of data for North Shelter Forest, 560 for Grassland 24
Conservation, 94 for Sand Control and 726 for GGP). 25
For North Shelter Forest, River Shelter Forest, Grassland Conservation and Sand 1
Control projects, we investigated the C sink enhancements resulting from human 2
management and efforts mainly based on a comparison of the ecosystem C stocks 3
between the project regions and reference regions where ecological stewardship 4
projects were not conducted in 2010. In addition to the abovementioned data in 2010, 5
the value of biomass and soil C densities (CDBbe and CDSbe, respectively) of forest, 6
shrubland and grassland ecosystems were also from Tang et al. (11, including 2,631 7
groups of data for North Shelter Forest, 1,615 for River Shelter Forest, 1,413 8
Grassland Conservation and 1,337 for Sand Control), and additional field sampling 9
using the same criteria as Tang et al (11) was conducted, including 239 groups of data 10
for North Shelter Forest, 36 for Grassland Conservation and 17 for Sand Control. 11
The data sources for the C density values are described in detail for each of the 12
six projects below. 13
14
Three-North Shelter Forest Program (North Shelter Forest) 15
The area of the North Shelter Forest was obtained from Wu et al. (12) and remote 16
sensing interpretation using approaches described in detail in (13, 14) 17
18
The sited where C densities values of North Shelter Forest were gathered were 19
distributed as Fig. S7. 20
1
Fig S7. Distribution of C density sites for North Shelter Forest 2
3
273 groups of C density data at the beginning of the project gathered from the 4
literature in references (15-24). 5
The C stock situation at 2010 was mainly from Tang et al. (11) and some 6
additional literature in references (25-33). 7
The C density data from the shrubland in the area around the project region from 8
Tang et al. (11) were gathered and grouped by province to build the reference scenario 9
to estimate the contribution of the North Shelter Forest to C sequestration. 10
11
Natural Forest Protection Program (Forest Protection) 12
The project area of each province was obtained from Wu et al. (12), and 13
implementation plans of Forest Protection from the Management Center of the 1
Natural Forest Protection Program of the Provincial Forestry Administration. The C 2
stock value at the beginning of the project is from (34, 35). 3
The sited where C densities values of Forest Protection were gathered were 4
distributed as Fig. S8. 5
6
Fig S8. Distribution of C density sites for Forest Protection 7
8
For the C stock at the 2010, the data from both Tang et al. (11) and our own field 9
investigation were summarized; the results of our field investigation is reported in 10
(36) 11
The Forest Protection project’s contribution to C sequestration was calculated 12
based on scenarios with different artificial forest and harvested volumes, so we did 13
not set any reference scenario. 1
2
Yangtze River Shelter Forest Project and Zhujiang River Shelter Forest Project 3
(River Shelter Forest) 4
The area of the River Shelter Forest in each provinces was obtained from Wu et 5
al (12) and statistics in the China Forestry Statistical Yearbook (8). 6
The sited where C densities values of River Shelter Forest were gathered were 7
distributed as Fig. S39. 8
9
Fig S9. Distribution of C density sites for River Shelter Forest 10
The afforestation and reforestation in the River Shelter Forest region mainly 11
occurred in cleared grassland (generally with fire). However, the grassland biomass or 12
biomass C density was almost not reported in southern part of China. Therefore we 13
use take 967 groups of Tang, et al.(11)’s grassland data in the project region, since the 1
biomass C stock of the common grasslands in China would change little (37). The soil 2
C density at the beginning of the project was from references (38-40): 3
While for the C density at the 2010, we used the data from Tang et al. (11). 4
The C density data of the grassland and shrubland in the area around the project 5
region from Tang et al. (11) were gathered and grouped by province to build the 6
reference scenario to estimate the contribution to C sequestration. 7
8
Grain for Green Project (GPP) 9
The area of the GPP in each province was obtained from statistics in China 10
Forest Statistical Yearbook (8). 11
The sited where C densities values of GGP were gathered were distributed as Fig. 12
S10. 13
1
Fig S10. Distribution of C density sites for GGP 2
3
726 groups of data of the biomass and soil C density at the beginning of the GGP 4
(around year 2000) was from references (41-102) 5
For the C density at 2010 we used data from Tang et al. (11). 6
The estimation of the GPP’s contribution to C sequestration does not need any 7
additional data to set a reference scenario. 8
9
10
Returning Grazing Lands to Grasslands Project (Grassland Conservation) 11
The area of the Grassland Conservation in each province was obtained from the 12
Grassland Monitoring and Supervision Center, Ministry of Agriculture, P. R. China; 13
the data have not yet been published. 14
The sited where C densities values of Grassland Conservation were gathered were 1
distributed as Fig. S11. 2
3
Fig S11. Distribution of C density sites for Grassland Conservation 4
5
In total, we gathered 560 groups of data of the C density of the grassland before 6
the Grassland Conservation project, extracted from references (103-126). 7
The data of the grassland C density provided by Tang et al. (11) and data from 8
our own field investigations formed the data source of the C density at2010. The 9
method and criteria of the field sampling and examination of the C density are 10
detailed in Xiong et al. (127). 11
The contribution of the Grassland Conservation to C sequestration lay in the 12
difference between the C densities inside (with grazing prohibition) and outside 13
(without grazing prohibition) the fence. These C density data were also based on our 1
own field investigations. 2
3
Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source Control Project (Sand Control) 4
The area data was obtained from the Sand Prevention Office of Provincial Burial 5
of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, and Wu et al. (11). 6
The sited where C densities values of Sand Control were gathered were distributed 7
as Fig. S12. 8
9
Fig S12. Distribution of C density sites for Sand Control 10
94 groups of data of the C density value at the beginning of the project is from 11
literatures in references (128-134): 12
For the C stock at year 2010, the data were from Tang et al. submitted to this 13
special issue and derived from literatures in references (135-138) 1
For the C stock at the reference site to analyze the contribution to the project, the 2
biomass and soil C density were from Tang et al. and obtained by field sampling using 3
a method detailed in Zeng et al. (139). 4
5
6
Appendix E: the supplementary methods on estimation of the project 1
contributions of Forest Protection and GGP 2
3
Project contribution of Forest Protection 4
The project contribution of Forest Protection (Project contribution FP) included 5
three parts: C storage in the newly planted forest biomass (CPBN), biomass C 6
retention (BCR) resulting from timber reduction, and soil C retention (SCR) from soil 7
erosion reduction induced by the project (Formula 10 in main text). The estimation is 8
first conducted at the province scale and then summed to the regional and national 9
scales. 10
11
Project contribution FP =Σ (CPBNk + BCRk + SCRk) (10 in main text) 12
13
where CPBNk is the C storage in the newly planted forest biomass in the Forest 14
Protection project area in province k, which is estimated using formula S1. 15
16
CPBNk = Σ CDBik * ANFik (S1) 17
18
where CDBik is the biomass C density of newly planted forest type i in province k. 19
The type of the forest could be forest for special purposes, timber production forest or 20
shelter forest according to forestry planning and statistics in China. ANFik is the area 21
of newly planted forest of type i in province k. The values of CDBik are estimated 22
based on the Forest Inventory of China (140, 141) and were an average of 3.99 23
MgC/ha for special purpose forest, 3.61 MgC/ha for shelter forest and 5.51 for timber 24
production forest, while the value of ANFik is from China Forest Statistical Yearbook 25
(8). 1
BCR was calculated based on scenarios with various artificial forests and harvested 2
volumes, following formula (S2): 3
4
BCRkl = ΣRHVkl * DHV * CC (S2) 5
6
where RHVkl is the harvested volume reduction in province k in year l compared with 7
1997 (just before the implementation of Forest Protection), which can be obtained 8
from China Forest Statistical Yearbook (8), and l can represent 1998-2010. DHV is the 9
harvested volume density, and CC is the harvested biomass C content. The values of 10
DHV and CC were from previous study (142) 11
12
The soil retention in the Forest Protection project region increased during the project 13
period. Here, we used the average increase rate of soil C retention (IRSCRk, in 14
tC/ha/yr) and the area of Forest Protection (AFPk) to estimate the project’s 15
contribution to C sequestration by estimating the additional soil C retention during the 16
project period (1998 to 2010), as in formula S3. 17
18
SCR FP -k = Σt=1-13 (t * IRSCRk * AFPk) (S3) 19
20
where t means the project’s last year, e.g., t is 1 for year 1998 and 13 for 2010. The 21
average increase rate of soil C retention (IRSCRk) was calculated based on formula 22
(S4) in ArcGIS 10.0. 23
24
IRSCRk= IRSR * SOC0-30cm (S4) 25
1
where IRSR is the average annual increase rate of soil retention, based on Ouyang, et 2
al. (143)’s assessment of the reduction of soil erosion in the Forest Protection region 3
between 2000 and 2010. SOC0-30cm is the topsoil organic C content (0-30 cm) since 4
soil erosion mainly occurs in topsoil. 5
6
Project contribution of GGP 7
The contribution of GGP also consisted of two components. One is the increase in 8
the biomass C stock because its reference scenario is cropland, the biomass C of 9
which would be released into the atmosphere before the next crop was planted. The 10
other is the soil C retention (SCR) due to the reduction resulting from the control of 11
soil erosion attributed to GGP. Therefore, the contribution of GGP (Project 12
contribution GGP) could be obtained with formula 11 in main text. The estimation is 13
first conducted at the province scale and then summed to the regional and national 14
scales. 15
16
Project contribution GGP = ΣCDBei * ALC +ΣSCRk (11 in main text) 17
18
where CDBei is the average biomass C density of land cover i that was converted from 19
cropland in the year 2010. 20
21
The soil C retention (SCR) was estimated using the results of Deng et al. (144), as in 22
formula (S5): 23
24
SCR GGP-k = ΣRSCRk * ALCk * 6 (S5) 25
1
where RSCRk is the rate of soil C retention due to the soil erosion control attributed to 2
GGP in province k (0.29 Mg/ha/yr in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Inner Mongolia and 3
Qinghai provinces, and 0.33 Mg/ha/yr for the rest provinces). ALCk is the area of 4
cropland converted to forest in province k. Because the GGP (1st phase) lasted for 11 5
years, we used 6 years as the average project duration. 6
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