https://www.cas.cn/syky/202208/t20220819_4845012.shtml
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01432-3
The CAS Ecology Center has used data from literature, natural resource inventories, public databases, and policy documents to assess the climate change mitigation capacity of 16 ecosystem management approaches in China. By systematically assessing the scope, scale, speed, and efficiency of ecological projects and measures implemented in the past 20 years (2000-2020), the maximum scale of ecosystem management that can be implemented for each pathway in the next 10 years (2020-2030) and the next 40 years (2020-2060) (taking into account constraints such as red lines of farmland and tree survival rates) and their mitigation potential were estimated. The proportion of the maximum mitigation potential that can be achieved within different cost thresholds was also estimated.
On a national scale, the main focus of ecosystem management until 2020 is restoration and improved management, and in the coming decades, the space for ecological restoration is gradually shrinking and ecosystem carbon sequestration is more likely to be exploited from improved management and conservation. Due to regional heterogeneity in natural conditions, ecosystem characteristics and management levels, the total amount of maximum additional potential and its pathway composition vary greatly among provinces. Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Sichuan, and Yunnan are the four provinces with the highest historical realization and future potential. With the exception of some provinces in the northwest and east, natural forest management and afforestation contribute the most. For Xinjiang, Qinghai and Tibet, grassland grazing optimization makes the largest contribution to historical mitigation, while wetland and especially peatland management will also be very important pathways for sink enhancement in the coming decades. In some central and eastern provinces (including Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangxi, and Jiangsu), the mitigation potential of on-farm nutrient management and improved rice cultivation is significant, while in Guangxi, the carbon sequestration benefits of improved plantation forest management are not negligible.