The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has some of the worst land degradation in the world, with more than 40% of its land area, or about 3 million square kilometers (km2), adversely affected in 2005. The vast western region, which accounts for 71% of the PRC’s land area, with a population of more than 350 million at the time, including many of the country’s poorest and most vulnerable, was significantly threatened.
In response, the government expanded its programs to combat land degradation. In 2003, it developed the PRC-Global Environment Fund (GEF) Land Degradation Partnership, which sought to build policy, capacity, and strategy in six key western provinces to address land degradation using ecological management principles. The Ningxia Integrated Ecosystem and Agricultural Development Project, the first comprehensive demonstration investment of the partnership, was approved by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in August 2008 for a loan of $100 million from its ordinary capital resources and a grant of $5.45 million from the GEF fund it administers.
Covering 3,655 km2 of the Yinchuan Plain, the project demonstrated holistic water and land management, supported sustainable rural livelihoods in poor communities through contracts with commercial enterprises, and linked commercial and conservation values in an integrated approach to rehabilitating degraded ecosystems. Its anticipated impact was improved environmental management to rehabilitate ecosystems and increase rural incomes in the project area. Its main outcome was the introduction of the integrated ecosystem management (IEM) approach to the creation of sustainable livelihoods in the project area. It had four components: (i) IEM capacity building and project management, (ii) land and water resource management, (iii) rural livelihood improvement, and (iv) ecosystem conservation. Successful implementation of these components enabled the project to achieve its intended outcome, exceeding targets in many cases.
IEM was effectively mainstreamed into the major development plans of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (NHAR). IEM approaches were also adopted through several ecosystem management policies, for example, the Ningxia Wetlands Management Regulations and the Aiyi River management regulations. An IEM data-sharing agreement involving 13 sector agencies was established.
Project-supported water-saving irrigation systems were operationalized in 2,600 hectares (ha). Water saved reached more than 30 million cubic meters per year. Over 6,000 associated households had improved their water use efficiency. Fertilizer application had been reduced by about 69.5%. Conservation agriculture demonstrations were implemented in 2,299 ha. Land and water management demonstration programs were carried out successfully, significantly improving the scientific research capacity of vineyard and wetland managers.
The project’s rural livelihood improvement component benefited about 150,000 people, over 11% of whom were Hui ethnic minority people. The Ningxia Agriculture Reclamation Board’s grape-growing area and grape-processing capacity were expanded. Dairy parks involving smallholder or specialized dairy communities and feedlots for finishing livestock were established, along with ecological shelterbelts and crop tree plantations.
With project support, the wetlands conservation areas and visitor populations rose remarkably in Sand Lake, Yuehai Lake, and Yinchuan, creating growing revenue streams from aquaculture and tourism/recreational visitations. The protected area along the Helan Mountains piedmont increased by 210% between 2008 and 2016. A real-time monitoring and information system for wetland management and bird biodiversity monitoring in the Yinchuan Plain was developed and put into operation.
The project consequently achieved its envisaged impact. From 2008 to 2016, the number of poor small households linked to commercial enterprises rose from 210 to 2,873; the areas under conservation agriculture, wildlife conservation, and wetland conservation area all increased remarkably; and the number of tourists in the project area went up from 0.9 million to 2.4 million. The improved wetland management in Yinchuan led to the inclusion of the city in the first group of international wetland cities recognized under the Ramsar Convention in 2018. Good practices from the project were widely reported in the national media, and the project was named best performing project by ADB in 2014.
The NHAR government was the executing agency. A project management office hosted by the Ningxia Finance Department coordinated the implementation of the project components undertaken by several government agencies.
