“Sustainable rangeland management in areas
with severe soil erosion and land degradation
in Northern and Western China”
Linking economy, social and natural science
in a Geographical Information System
Presentation at SINCIERE Member Forum Meeting at RCCS, Beijing October, 2007
by
Odd Eilertsen
Senior scientist at the Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute,
CEO of NFG – Norwegian Forestry group
The Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute
Established 1st July 2006 through a merger between:
> The Norwegian Forest Research Institute (Skogforsk)
> The Norwegian Institute of Land Inventory (NIJOS)
> A new Norwegian Genetic Resource Centre
An administrative agency under the Norwegian Ministry
of Agriculture and Food
Photo: Oskar Puschmann,
Forest + Landscape
Expertise in environmental management and
resource development
Mission
> To bring knowledge and information about natural resources to
trade and industry, the authorities and the public through
advisory services, research, resource mapping and monitoring
and surveys.
> Through this, to contribute to resource development, improved
management of natural resources and the environment, and
modernisation within the public sector.
Organisation
>
>
>
>
Regional offices - nationwide access
Budget 2007 - 170 million NOK (~ 200 mill RMB)
230 employees
Both broad and deep scope of expertise
5%
Researchers
52 %
29 %
Advisors
Technicians
14 %
Administrative staff
Responsibilities
>
>
>
>
>
>
OSP
Research
Resource mapping
National infrastructure
Advisory services
Management of genetic resources
International R&D projects
Research
KAB
OSP
KAB
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Biological diversity
Ecology and the environment
Forestry
Technology and economy
Wood material science
Landscape sciences
International R&D projects
Mapping land resources
>
>
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>
>
YNR
KAB
Forests
Soils
Vegetation
Landscapes
International projects
(i.g. ICIMOD in Himalaya,
AFRICOVER in East-Africa, and
Forest Resource Mapping in CentralAmerica, China and South-Sudan)
Digital Infrastructure
> “Digital Norway” project
> Cooperation agreement with other
institutes working with maps and GIS
> Farm maps on the Internet
> Digital land cover/land use maps
Management of genetic resources
> Norwegian Genetic Resource Centre
established 1st July 2006
> Independent department within the Institute
> management of genetic resources within
agriculture and forestry – domestic animals,
crop plants, forest trees
Advisory services
>
>
>
>
KAB
Consultancy
Education
Courses and conferences
Publications and scientific
papers
> Free access to data and
information on our website
www.skogoglandskap.no
> Institutional building
NFG has been involved in projects in a number of
countries
> Russia, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Ukraine
> Laos, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, China, Nepal
The Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan
> Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South-Sudan
> Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica,
Panama, Venezuela,
Ukraine
Poland
Georgia
Armenia
Kazakhstan
Russia
Tajikistan
Serbia
Kosovo
Bosnia
China
Belize
Guyana
Iran
Nicaragua
Honduras
Panama
Venezuela
Peru
Bolivia
Kyrgyzstan
Indonesia
Gabon
Sudan
Angola
Zimbabwe
Sri Lanka
Ethiopia
Uganda
Tanzania
Mozambique
Malawi
Chinese environmental policy
The 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) has three priority
areas, namely:
(i) The New Countryside,
(ii) Balanced and co-ordinated regional development and
(iii) Environmental protection and restoration of damaged
ecosystems
The New Countryside initiative is an
amalgamation of all existing programs
related to various aspects of rural
development
The main thrust of the initiative include:
(i) Developing modern agriculture to ensure food
security
(ii) Increasing peasants’ income from various sources
(iii) Investing in infrastructure in rural areas
(iv) Investing in education and training for rural residents
Balanced and co-ordinated regional
development
This concept aims at developing a policy framework for coordinated regional economic growth. The framework promotes
the continuation of the existing policies, such as the Western
China Development Program and the Program of Revitalizing
of the industrial Centres in Northeast China.
Environmental and ecological protection
The main objectives the 11th Five-Year Plan include:
(i) Reducing energy consumption per unit by 20 percent
(ii) Reducing major pollutants emissions by 10 percent
(iii) Reducing water used for industrial processes
(iv) Increasing national forest cover to 20 percent
The Norwegian Government’s China strategy
China’s development, the new role the country is playing in the world
community, and the growing economic and geopolitical importance of the
East-Asian region presents both opportunities and challenges for Norway.
The Government has therefore developed a strategy that sets out Norway’s
aims and priorities vis-à-vis China.
Aims and challenges for Norway
In its policy towards China, the Government intends to:
(i)
Seek to promote Norwegian business interests, Norwegian expertise and
Norwegian values.
(ii) Seek to integrate environmental, climate change and sustainable development
concerns into all Norwegian efforts vis-à-vis China; and
(iii) Encourage China to play a more active role in a world community that accords a
fundamental role to the UN, and is based on respect for human rights, solidarity,
equitable distribution and sustainable development
Sustainable development at the local,
regional and global level
China is interested in Norway’s assistance in building up its institutional
technical capacity in the environmental area.
The Government will intensify development cooperation with China on the
environment, energy and climate change in accordance with the Norwegian
Action Plan for Environment in Development Cooperation. Norway will
cooperate at both the bilateral and the multilateral level with a view to
helping China to fulfill its international its international environmental
obligations. We will assist Chinese institutions in building up their technical
capacity and expertise in the environmental field and the environmental
knowledge in the civil sector. The focus will be on pollution reduction,
conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of natural
resources.
The Grassland and Sustainable Pastoralism
Programme (GSPP)
> A three year development programme
> Capacity development activities
> Sustainable rangeland management
The GSPP is a joint effort between Chinese and Norwegian
institutions
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Governmental institutions
Research institutions
Foundations
Private companies
ECONOMIC
PRODUCTION
ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION
SUSTAINABILITY
SOCIAL
EQUITY
Faculty of Animal Science and Technology
Gansu Agricultural University, Gansu Province,
China
中国 . 甘肃农业大学动物科学技术学院
Major Ethnic Minorities in Gansu Province
Yugur
Minority
Dongxiang
Minority
Hui
Minority
Tibetan
Minority
Mongolian
Minority
Bao’an
Minority
Tibetan
Yugur
Kazakh
Dongxiang
Gannan
Baoan
Hui
Experience of using GIS, sattelite images
and laser-scanning in China
Test sites TieShanPing and TaiShan, China, funded by the
Norwegian Research Council, BILAT pilot project 2006
Picture:
Yong Pang (CAF)
with colleagues
and local forest
adminstrators in
TaiShan, June
2006
The aim of the project was to establish a co-operation between Norway and
China for development of a forest monitoring system based on airborne laserscanning (LIDAR). By extracting 3D information of the forest and the terrain, both
single tree information and foliar mass were monitored. This may be utilized for
monitoring of defoliation, removal of single trees, and the influence of canopy
gaps on ground vegetation and water balance. High quality terrain models (DTM)
can be derived from the LIDAR data and the outline of the watershed can be
accurately determined.
Leaf area index (LAI) measurements
LICOR LAI-2000® used for calibrating
airborne laser scanning
2.5
ScotsLAI2000
pine, Norway
2.0
LAI
1.5
1.0
Time point
1: May
2: July
3: August
0.5
0.0
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
LAI is calculated
from the penetration
rate of laser pulses
through the canopy
layer according to
the Beer-Lambert
law:
LIDAR: ln(Na/Nb )
LAI = c * ln(Na/Nb),
Where
Japanese pagoda (TaiShan, China)k = extinction
coefficient,
Na = the total
number of pulses,
Nb = the number of
ground echoes
C is calibrated with
point measurements
on the ground
Reference: open field
Below canopy
LIDAR scan in TSP 2006: CHM (canopy height
model) and single trees automatically
segmented
The LIDAR echoes are interpolated
into a grid where single trees are
easily seen.
Greyscale indicates the height:
Black = zero (ground)
White = 25 m above ground
Crown outline and top of single trees from
an automatic segmentation routine on the
LIDAR data. Gaps between trees are seen
as grey.
Ortophoto of TSP (IMPACTS site),
with DGPS positioning of monitoring plots
Above: Georeferencing with DGPS
measurements of the 10 monitoring
plots in TSP by master students, CAF
Right: Part of ortophoto of TSP
With the 10 plots marked
Establishment of the GSPP
programme - The
Grassland and Sustainable
Pastoralism Programme
(GSPP 2008-2010)
Gansu Province
Grassland degradation
Socio-economic cost
Environmental consequences
Causes of land degradation
Desertification
Overgrazing
Unsustainable farming practices
Increased demands for meat
and dairy products
National and global impacts
Biodiversity
Carbon storage
Main program output
> Improved pastoral development, land productivity
and livestock production by community based monitoring, rangeland
monitoring and dialog with decision makers
> Improved animal husbandry and pastoral livelihood
> Identification of land degradation processes
> Production of land cover maps
> GIS in natural resource monitoring and rangeland management
> Establishment of biodiversity and climate change monitoring programme
based on integrated environmental monitoring and gradient analysis
> Capital market distortion
> Communication and multiplication of successful programme interventions
Recommendations
China should consider the
establishment of a network of intensive
integrated monitoring sites that aims to:
 Give feedback to shape environmental policy
development for forest and grassland areas
 Control that environmental goals for these areas
are met
 Provide an empirical basis for setting new
environmental targets
 Enable comparison of development trends in
Chinese provinces with neighbouring countries in
other regions
 Prepare for the establishment of National Forest
Inventories (NFI) and Land Cover Monitoring
(LCM) programs
”You got to be careful
if you don’t know
where you’re going,
- because you might
not get there.”
Yogi Berra
谢
谢
Thank you
for your attention !
odd.eilertsen@skogoglandskap.no