干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

The policy dimensions of endangered ecosystem conservation have recently received increased interest. This study focuses on the severely-degraded Minqin oasis of arid northwest China, which faces a similar fate to the vanished Lop Nur oasis. From 2000-2009, a series of conservation policies have been issued to prevent and control local desertification, including the "water-saving, emigration and sandy dune control & forestation" projects. Our objectives were to summarize the validity of these policies and offer an integrated paradigm for endangered ecosystem conservation using a range of methods, including GIS-based landscape analysis, field survey and historic document analysis. Our results indicate that conservation projects have played critical roles in water-saving, society establishment and natural resource management in the Minqin oasis. Over our study period, total water consumption decreased from 7.72 x 10(8) m(3) to 5.36 x 10(8) m(3) and the average area of fallowed cropland for ecological conservation increased to 4438.02 ha per year. Average annual forestation area was kept to 5020.5 ha and the average annual area of controlling sandy dunes was 2163.08 ha. Emigration policy was found to have led to a low birthrate of 5.15%, which will alleviate local population pressure and natural resource consumption. Based on these findings, it can be argued that conservation projects inhibited the aggravation of vegetation cover and the degradation of the groundwater table. Subsequently, we offer a tentative integrated conceptual model of policy strategy for the biophysical and socioeconomic conservation of endangered ecosystems in arid areas. The positive and negative effects of these policies are also discussed.