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Email PageIn recent years, China has reported greater annual tree cover gains than all the rest of the world combined (Ahrends et al. 2017). The Sloped Farmland Conversion Program (SLCP) has been one of the country’s major policy measures. Piloted in 1999 and expanded nationwide in 2002, the SLCP finances conversion of sloped (>25°) and degraded cropland and wasteland into forest and grassland. Farmers converting these lands receive subsidies in the form of grain or cash. By 2018 SLCP had been implemented on about 30 million ha of land, with 5.3 million ha planned to be converted in the 2016–2020 period. Academic studies have estimated that carbon sequestration due to SLCP can offset about 3%–5% of China’s annual carbon emissions (Deng et al. 2017).
SLCP is one of several LULUCF-sector NAMAs highlighted in China’s INDC and in successive national GHG emission reduction plans, contributing to the national goal of increasing forest area by 40 million ha and stock volumes by 1.3 billion m3 by 2020 compared to 2005. The effects of the SLCP are monitored and reported through several MRV systems, each of which serve different functions.
M&E for programme management
Implementation of SLCP is governed by implementation regulations. Prior to afforestation, contracts are signed between farmers and local governments specifying the planned afforestation area, technical measures and required survival rates. Subsidies are paid after inspection requirements have been met. Local government officials inspect afforestation sites in their areas of jurisdiction and assess compliance against various technical criteria such as tree density and survival rates. The results of field inspection are collated and reported to the province forestry agency, which implements cross-checks before annual reports and any corrective actions are approved. National agencies also cross-check provincial reports by visiting a sample of counties. The resulting data on area and tree stocks provide the basis for national reports on program progress.
M&E of ecological effects
Carbon sequestration is only one of the ecological services targeted by the SLCP. The effects on a range of ecosystem services are measured through a network of 57 monitoring sites and 120 observation sites, with a total of more than 4000 fixed sample plots, where data on hydrology, soil conservation, carbon stocks, air quality and biodiversity are measured. The resulting reports inform policy making at the national level.
MRV of climate benefits
For reporting to UNFCCC, China’s national GHG inventory uses the results of the national forest inventory (NFI) conducted every five years to estimate carbon removals due to biomass stock changes, with interpolation between inventory years. The NFI uses a combination of remote sensing (with coarser resolution at national level, and higher resolution at provincial level) to determine the sampling frame, and sample plots for field measurement of vegetation characteristics (such as diameter at breast height (DBH), tree height and crown cover). Non-forest plots—including some land converted under the SLCP—are included to capture the effects of land-use conversion. Land classification standards for the NFI require that plots affected by the SLCP are noted, but these are then combined with plots afforested due to other reasons to estimate aggregate change in plantation area and forest volumes in planted forest. For the GHG inventory, data from the NFI and other official sources are used to estimate biomass conversion factors and forest stock volume growth rates with which to estimate carbon stock changes in forests, including those afforested through the SLCP.
Expert from Rosenstock et al. 2018, Box 4, pg. 39.