CHAPTER A CONTINUING INQUIRY INTO ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION: EXAMPLES FROM CHINA’S LOESS PLATEAU AND 4.8 LOCATIONS WORLDWIDE AND THEIR EMERGING IMPLICATIONS John D. Liu1, Bradley T. Hiller2 Director, Environmental Education Media Project; Visiting Fellow, Netherlands Institute of Ecology; Ecosystems Ambassador, Commonland Foundation1 Freelance Consultant to the World Bank, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, University of Cambridge, University of Anglia Ruskin2 4.8.1 A JOURNEY BEGINS In early September 1995, after spending 15 years working as an international news television producer and cameraman, John D. Liu embarked on a life-changing assignment that ultimately prompted this section (Figure 4.8.1). Liu was part of a documentary crew flying in a small Soviet-era copy of a Fokker Friendship aircraft (dubbed the “Friendshipsky”), which landed at a small, dusty airport in Yanan in Shaanxi Province, on China’s Loess Plateau (see Box 4.8.1). 4.8.1.1 CONSIDERING THE IMPLICATIONS The Loess Plateau has proven to be an excellent place to pursue a type of ecological forensics to witness and understand how human actions over time can destroy natural ecological function. The restoration process of the plateau is providing a living laboratory in which the potential of returning ecological function to long degraded landscapes can be studied. Essentially, what has been witnessed and docu- mented on the Loess Plateau is that it is possible to rehabilitate large-scale damaged ecosystems. This realization has potentially enormous implications for human civilization. Witnessing firsthand many geopolitical events as a journalist, including the rise of China from poverty and isolation throughout the 1980s, the Tiananmen tragedy in 1989, the collapse of the Soviet Union, global terrorism, and much more, provided John D. Liu with references to compare to the restoration of the Loess Plateau. He quickly came to realize that, in terms of significance for a sustainable future for humanity, understanding what occurred on the Loess Plateau would be critical. Land Restoration. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-801231-4.00027-6 Copyright # 2016 John Liu and Bradley Hiller. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 361 362 CHAPTER 4.8 A CONTINUING INQUIRY INTO ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION FIGURE 4.8.1 John Liu filming on the Loess Plateau. Yanan is perhaps most famous as the mountainous hideout where Mao Zedong led the Chinese communist Red Army to escape annihilation by the Nationalists (this retreat is often referred to as the “Long March”). The typical dwellings in Yanan at the time were man-made cave dwellings dug so deeply into the soil that they were almost invisible, which made Yanan a particularly good place for a revolutionary to disappear. By 1995, the Chinese communist revolution had moved on and China’s socialist market economy was flourishing on the eastern coast and making waves worldwide. But Yanan remained virtually untouched by the agricultural changes, the industrial growth, and the increasing international influence that much of China was experiencing. Yet in this backwater, a new revolution was brewing. The purpose of the assignment was a World Bank baseline study for an ambitious development project called the Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation Project (see Box 4.8.2). The scene (as depicted in Figure 4.8.2) was of a completely barren landscape. This did not instill confidence in the possibility to restore the vegetation cover, biodiversity, or natural hydrological regulation. The BOX 4.8.1 THE LOESS PLATEAU The Loess Plateau in northwest China occupies approximately 640,000 km2 and is the dominant geological feature in the middle reaches of the Yellow River basin. The plateau has been inhabited for more than 8,000 years (Peng and Coster, 2007; Wang et al., 2006) and while somewhat fragile for farming, historically the environment was rich (Liu and Ni 2002; Niu and Harris, 1996). Many studies have indicated that the plateau originally contained wide, large, flat surfaces and few gullies (Shi and Shao, 2000; Chen et al., 2001; Xu et al., 2004) and that the driving forces behind landscape, vegetation, and hydrological changes can be attributed to the dual effects of human land use and climatic changes (Ren and Zhu, 1994; Saito et al., 2001; Shi et al., 2002). The plateau’s forest cover dropped to 7%–10%, down from historical estimates of 50% (Liu and Ni, 2002; Cai, 2002; Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1991). 70% of the plateau is affected by soil erosion, 58% of which is extremely severe (Chen et al., 2007; MWR, 2008), and the soil erosion rates are among the highest in the world (Fu, 1989). In addition to downstream sedimentation and eutrophication problems (Greer, 1979; Wang et al., 2006), dust storms (Luo et al., 2003), and landslides (Zhou et al., 2002) have also been problematic.  4.8.1 A JOURNEY BEGINS 363 project sounded optimistic, though few seemed to actually believe that serious rehabilitation was possible. Within a few hours after arrival, all the team’s equipment and clothes were covered with fine dust. The area was incredibly dry, and after the first day, it became apparent that regardless of how much water one consumed, it was rarely necessary to urinate. The overwhelming first impres- sion of the Loess Plateau was of a virtual “moonscape.” FIGURE 4.8.2 Filming on the Loess Plateau. BOX 4.8.2 A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE LOESS PLATEAU WATERSHED REHABILITATION PROJECTS From 1994 to 2005, two Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation Projects were implemented in 48 counties in the Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces and the autonomous region of inner Mongolia. Over 35,000 km2 of physical activities were performed and total investment amounted to US$550 million (Fock and Cao, 2005). The projects had objectives to achieve sustainable development in the Loess Plateau by increasing agricultural production and incomes, and improving ecological conditions in the tributary watersheds of the Yellow River (World Bank, 2003, 2005). Each project contained about 1000 microwatersheds ranging from 1000–3000 ha (Darghouth et al., 2008). Counties (and priority microwatersheds) were selected based on specific criteria relating to project objectives (including severity of soil erosion, poverty level, experience with soil and water conservation works, leadership and commitment at the local government level, development potential and loan repayment capacity, and proximity to science and research organizations involved in SWC (World Bank, 2010; CPMO, 2005). The projects were built on existing government institutions (Darghouth et al., 2008) and implementation monitoring was focused on physical progress and outputs (World Bank, 1999). The Loess Plateau projects are regarded as among the largest and most successful erosion control programs in the world (Fock and Cao, 2005; Liu, 2005), and one of the few large-scale working examples of the much promoted “win-win poverty-environment model” (Varley, 2005). While only active in the middle and upper watersheds, the scale of the projects’ impact was impressive: 1. Socially, 2.5 million people were raised from poverty (Fock and Cao, 2005). 2. Ecologically, soil erosion was reduced over 920,000 ha of land, and vegetation cover increased from 17%–40% (MWR, 2008). The annual reduction of sediment inflow into Yellow River tributaries was estimated at 110 million tons (MWR, 2008) with correspondingly lower variability in downstream water flows. The grazing ban was adopted throughout much of the plateau, dramatically altering over 500,000 km2 of landscape, more than 25 times larger than the original project areas (World Bank, 2005). 364 CHAPTER 4.8 A CONTINUING INQUIRY INTO ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION BOX 4.8.2 A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE LOESS PLATEAU WATERSHED REHABILITATION PROJECTS—cont’d 3. Economically, the projects significantly contributed to the restructuring of the agricultural sector and adjustment to a more market-oriented economy (World Bank, 2005). The projects were considered more cost effective than infrastructure replacement and mitigation costs downstream (Liu, 2007). 4. Institutionally, the projects increased farmer participation and the effective project management structure was replicated for other national programs (World Bank, 2005). Loess soils are wind-deposited glacial dusts (Peng and Coster, 2007) that are rich in minerals but highly-prone-to-wind-and-water-erosion. Imagine geological and atmospheric forces, including gla- cial movements high in the Himalayan Mountains, pulverizing rocks and the resultant dust being car- ried on the prevailing winds to the plains below in the China. Now imagine them as a continuous process occurring over hundreds of millions of years, building up deep sedimentary soil layers. While loess soils are found in many parts of the world, by far the largest loess deposits on Earth are found in China’s Loess Plateau. To understand the significance of the area, it is important to know that while in the 1930s the Loess Plateau was an ideal place for a revolutionary to hide, much earlier in its history it had been a very different kind of place. The plateau is the geographical birthplace of the Han Chinese, the most pop- ulous ethnic group on the planet. The mineral-rich soils are believed to be the second place on Earth where humans began to practice settled agriculture. This place was the center of power and affluence for the Han, Qin, and Tang dynasties, a long period during which China produced cultural, scientific, and artistic works that are some of the greatest achievements of humanity. Due to the giant gullies that scarred the landscape, the Loess Plateau had been called the most eroded place on Earth. The gullies carry the names of the families that traditionally lived there. We became very familiar with the Ho Family Gully (Ho Jia Gou) near Ansai County in Shaanxi Province and returned several times during the succeeding years to document the results of the restoration project. As the res- toration of the area progressed, a dramatic change appeared to take place. The once barren hills were covered with trees and vegetation. The relative humidity was completely different, with moisture in the air at all times, and dew glistening on the vegetation in the mornings. The soil moisture has also been positively affected: the area’s vegetation is now better able to survive and thrive, even in prolonged periods of drought. The productivity of the agricultural lands has increased enormously, positively influenced by the natural vegetation returning to areas designated as ecological lands. As a counterin- tuitive outcome, the productivity of the agricultural lands has increased by reducing the area used in cultivation. This principle alone demands attention to the changes and their possible causes. Biological diversity has returned naturally to areas that have been removed from agriculture. Vast amounts of carbon have been sequestered in the biomass and in the accumulated organic matter in the restored living soils.1 Sedimentation loads in the rivers have been reduced (MWR, 2008; CPMO, 2005),2 and along with this, the risk of flooding has diminished. The reduction of runoff and lower 1 For example, Bai et al. (2005) demonstrate a 20-year trend of increasing biomass across the Loess Plateau despite decreasing rainfall during the same period. Given that the LP Projects directly established 7,500 km2 of vegetation and led to vegetation recovery over 500,000 km2 (World Bank, 2003, 2005), coupled with improved agricultural and soil management practices, regional biological carbon sequestration is expected to have increased and soil carbon emissions reduced. 2 The LP Projects supposedly reduced annual sediment inflow into Yellow River tributaries by between 7.5 and 11 x 107 tons (MWR, 2008; CPMO, 2005).  4.8.1 A JOURNEY BEGINS 365 frequency of flooding result in more water infiltrating in situ, reducing the incidence of drought and increasing the natural resilience of the region. The weather and microclimate are beginning to naturally regulate again, reducing the risk of extreme or erratic weather events. All these ecological improve- ments have ensured that even though they still face many challenges, the lives of the people of the plateau have been enormously improved. The importance of the principles for restoration of the plateau for local people, for China, and more broadly are significant. Putting such knowledge into practice could help to address certain components of human-induced climate change and help ensure greater food security for the global population, particularly marginalized communities. The long-term inquiry that has been carried out required the consideration of geologic time, evolution, and human history leading to our present circumstances, as well as imagining and anticipat- ing the significance for the future of humanity and the planet. The findings from the rehabilitation of the Loess Plateau point to and call for conscious decisions that humanity can make to avoid predicted catastrophic outcomes from climate change and ecosystem collapse. The experience on the plateau offers potential solutions to issues as broad ranging as unemployment, flooding, drought, food insecu- rity, and biodiversity loss. The lessons of the Loess Plateau may be able to help human civilization chart a more sustainable pathway. 4.8.1.2 HUMAN HISTORY IN THE LOESS PLATEAU The Loess Plateau is in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River in northwestern China. The area is almost completely circumscribed in the south by a huge bend in Yellow River that flows east from the high northern Tibetan Plateau. The area of the plateau is 640,000 km2, approximately the size of modern France. The plateau stretches across parts of seven different Chinese provinces, namely: Qinghai autonomous region, Gansu, Ning Xia autonomous region, inner Mongolia autonomous region, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan. There is fossil evidence in the Shaanxi Natural History Museum suggesting that bands of humans or their ancestors were roaming in the area of the Loess Plateau approximately 1.5 million years ago. The area resembles in many ways the area in Ethiopia where the first fossil remains of humans were found. There is evidence that at that time, the forest cover was of climax height and enormous expanse. The grass- lands stretching north to Siberia are still among the most magnificent on Earth. The majority of geographers believe that the civilization in the Loess Plateau was the second place on Earth after Mesopotamia where settled agriculture emerged. The Yellow River stemming from the northern Himalayas was once known as the “Mother river” because all the various tribes in the region developed along its banks. It was in this fertile plain where many early tribes vied for ascendancy. In the north, the plain’s tribes included nomadic Mongols, Kazakhs, Kirgiz, and Xianbei. In the south, the Han built up a more elaborate sedentary society that eventually was able to surpass the migratory tribes to become the dominant ethnic group in the region. The Han continued to flourish; eventually building a great empire of many dynasties that shared the city of Xian, in the very heart of the Loess Plateau, as their capital. An example of the magnificence of their civ- ilization can still be seen today at the excavated terracotta army site, the ceremonial burial guard for the first Emperor of the Qin dynasty. Situated on the trade routes to the ancient civilizations of Persia and Egypt, the Chinese civilization in this region thrived long before European cultures began to emerge. The descendants of the early civilization of this region are today’s largest ethnic group. In China, Shen Nong was the semimythical emperor said to be the originator of both agriculture and Chinese traditional medicine. Shen is credited with personally tasting all plants to see if they were edible or had healing properties. Mythical dynasties were replaced with real dynasties with elaborate palaces, great wealth, and power. It may have been unlikely that the rulers and the ruled of the time 366 CHAPTER 4.8 A CONTINUING INQUIRY INTO ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION FIGURE 4.8.3 1.6 billion tons of sediments eroded annually into the Yellow River from the denuded Loess Plateau. could imagine that this powerful civilization could fail, but by 1,000 years ago the powerful and the privileged had left the region. The capital of later dynasties was moved to Beijing and the Loess Plateau became a place of legend, of poverty, and eventually became known as China’s sorrow.3 While Chinese medicine and Chinese philosophy are very strong on conservation and acknowledge human existence emerging from natural systems based on the five elements—earth, water, wood, fire, and metal—the daily reality in China for thousands of years has been much less respectful to nature. Chinese historical and literary records are well maintained and numerous, and document evidence of deforestation to build palaces, to expand agriculture, and to reduce the risk of surprise attack from the nomadic warrior tribes in the north. In hindsight, it is possible to see what happened to this region: deforestation on a large scale. Without these forests, the powdery, loess geological soils were exposed to wind and water erosion, with clearly evident results (Figure 4.8.3). Over millennia, as the plateau declined, the exploitation of nature continued until all the forests were cut down. At first, the soil was rich with organic material from generations of trees, plants, and perennial grasses, but much of the fertility was worn away quite rapidly. Surrounded by nature in a degraded state, the remaining population had to work hard to make a living. After the establishment of the People’s Republic, the area was hit hard once again with an ill-conceived plan to settle semi- nomadic pastoralists in the area. This led to the ranging of large numbers of goats and sheep within a one day walk from their pens, and led the already devastated landscape to become essentially bare. When a culture is ignorant of certain fundamental truths of how natural ecosystems function, then the cultural constructs they produce are inherently flawed. These practices can then be passed from generation to generation and can become enshrined as dogma. So the seeds of destruction are repeatedly reinforced and the cycle of poverty and ecological degradation continues until inevitably the ecosystem can no longer compensate and collapses, along with the fate of the civilization (see Diamond, 2005). On the other hand, if a civilization comes to realize that its survival and sustainability are dependent on functional ecosystems and aligns its behavior to what the Earth’s ecological system needs to naturally regulate the atmosphere, hydrological cycle, soil fertility, biodiversity, weather, and climate, then that civilization will have reached a new level of collective consciousness. From this perspective, we can safeguard the survival of myriad forms of life, as well as protecting those parts of human civilization that we can be rightly proud of, such 3 The Yellow River became known as China’s sorrow due to almost 3000 major flooding and drought events over the past two millennia (Niu and Harris, 1996).  4.8.1 A JOURNEY BEGINS 367 as our growing scientific knowledge, our tolerance of cultural diversity, and protection of all forms of life, including humanity. This study suggests that while we are facing our greatest challenge, we are also closer than we have ever been before to envisioning and creating a fair and functional society in harmony with the natural systems we depend on for life. 4.8.1.3 RESTORATION: THEORY AND PRACTICE The fundamental lesson of the Loess Plateau rehabilitation is that it is possible to rehabilitate large-scale damaged ecosystems including those that have been degraded over the course of centuries or even mil- lennia (Figure 4.8.4). This is of enormous importance given the huge areas of the Earth that have been degraded by humans since the advent of settled agriculture, and the emerging risk from human-induced climate change. Imagine the enormous degraded areas of the Middle East, the Mediterranean, large areas of central Asia, parts of North and South America, Australia, Europe, and north Africa that were once functional, biologically diverse, fertile, and productive. What if these areas could be restored? What would restoring the Earth to productivity over vast areas mean in terms of mitigation and adaptation to climate change, availability of food, economic security, social cohesion, and even military security? FIGURE 4.8.4 Ho Family Gully (Ho Jia Gou) in late August 1995 and then again in late August 2009; these changes can be seen in several films produced by the Environmental Education Media Project (EEMP), including The Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation Project, The Lessons of the Loess Plateau, Hope in a Changing Climate, and Green Gold. 4.8.1.4 INTERNALIZING EXTERNALITIES Following the Chinese Revolution of 1949, the People’s Republic of China was shunned and isolated from the Western world. In the early 1960s, the Chinese also broke relations with the Soviet Union and were essentially isolated until the death of Mao and other revolutionaries allowed for the opening to the outside world in the late 1970s. Since 1978, the Chinese have been implementing what they call so- cialist market economics. In theory, this comprises using market forces to spur productivity for the social well-being of everyone, not just those who produce and sell things. In terms of increasing pro- ductivity, the evidence is very clear in the nearly consistent double-digit growth of the Chinese gross domestic product (GDP) year upon year for decades. Yet, what we are seeing is that the GDP is not a holistic measure of societal progress. The way the GDP economy calculates growth is to simply ex- clude issues such as pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, desertification, health consequences, 368 CHAPTER 4.8 A CONTINUING INQUIRY INTO ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION poverty, and disparity, by calling these externalities. Without externalizing these effects it is impossible to see current economics as positive, and it highlights the deficiency of using such an imperfect mea- sure that doesn’t take into account issues central to society’s well-being. On the Loess Plateau in the 1990s, the Chinese scientific community had begun to realize that without a natural vegetative cover there was very little infiltration and retention of rainfall in situ during rainfall events. This massively increased evaporation rates, which led to very little of this moisture being avail- able to plant life and other ecological functions like climate regulation, despite the area’s average rainfall amount of approximately 500 mm annually. While this led to a localized cycle of ecological destruction and poverty, it also led to annual siltation of the Yellow River, because all the loess soils eroded into the river as runoff during even normal rainfall events, not to mention in extreme rainfall situations. When the Chinese calculated the cost of annually mitigating the sediments in comparison with the restoration of vegetation on the Plateau they realized that the cost of annually dredging the river and raising levees was vastly more expensive than restoring the vegetation on the plateau (World Bank, 1994). The initial economic calculation led to the related realization that not only were the costs for re- storing vegetation lower than those of annual sediment control, but also the exact value of the vege- tation restoration was difficult to measure because along with the vegetation, myriad additional valuable benefits including improved soil moisture, relative humidity, carbon sequestration, biodiver- sity, and increased agricultural productivity emerged. Although it wass difficult to find absolute values, it was easy to see that the relative value of ecological function was vastly more than the value of pro- duction in the degraded landscapes. 4.8.1.5 CAPITAL INVESTMENT When value was assigned to the perpetual functionality of the ecosystem and compared to the short- term value of the derivatives extracted from the system, making a capital investment in restoring the Loess Plateau was a straightforward choice. This was made possible by a US$500 million development loan (essentially a very complex revolving line of credit) provided by the World Bank, together with project design and strategic technical assistance. In the early 1990s in China, this was a significant investment, which also created the necessity for stringent management systems. National, provincial, and local project offices were created to develop the strategy, and to manage and report on the dispersal of the funds, as well as to oversee and document the implementation of the project. 4.8.1.6 INNOVATIONS IN IT TO IMPROVE STAKEHOLDER UNDERSTANDING AND MANAGEMENT When the Chinese project management system was set up, it included enterprise software that could track investments and link them with geographic information system (GIS) satellite maps. Satellite maps were created for each watershed (even individual streams within each watershed were given ad- dresses), which meant that every intervention and investment was connected to a unique address, allowing for very effective data collection in order to analyze the cost and benefit of every aspect of the project. This level of analysis provided insight for experts and locals alike. Farmers were pre- sented with GIS images, together with a clear verbal explanation, which led to broad support for the project goals. Spatial analysis proved to be effective and was an integral part of the restoration effort.  4.8.2 MOSAIC LANDSCAPE THEORY 369 4.8.1.7 DIFFERENTIATION AND DESIGNATION OF ECOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC LAND After several years of initial study and analysis of the economics of the project, it was possible to see that returning ecological function to the lands would be far more valuable than the meager harvests that had been extracted from the eroded gullies. This realization spurred the differentiation and designation of ecological and economic landscapes. This was first done theoretically on the satellite maps based on topography with every slope over 25% excluded from cultivation. Given that the predominant land- scape was pitted by gullies, this meant removing quite significant amounts of land from cultivation. Both active measures (e.g., gully control measures, earth banks, plantings, infiltration improvement structures, etc.) and passive measures (e.g., removing grazing pressure, allowing natural colonization, and revegetation) were employed in the recovery of the ecological land, which returned vegetation to the denuded landscape within a few years. The return of natural vegetation ensured much greater in- filtration and retention of moisture, which helped nurture agricultural lands. Microclimates below grass and tree canopies massively changed the relative humidity and even the temperature. Microbiological fauna as well as plant and animal biodiversity strongly rebounded (as confirmed by studies during pro- ject implementation [coordinated by Yangling Research Center (Hiller, 2012)], and expost [coordi- nated by the UK Department for International Development funded China Watershed Management Project (CWIECC, 2008)]. These positive results also illustrated that productivity is linked to ecolog- ical function and explains why it is possible to increase productivity by restricting the area in cultiva- tion.4 This particular finding is of extreme importance in many parts of the world where extensive agricultural systems leave no room for natural vegetation. 4.8.2 MOSAIC LANDSCAPE THEORY There is a persistence of preconceived ideas about conservation or restoration: often the assumption is made that the point of these practices is to somehow return to an earlier time when nature was pristine. However, this is very unlikely given the huge current human population. Another and more accurate way to consider the ecological representation on the land is based on ecological function: ecosystem services are dependent on ecosystem function, and ecosystem services are fundamentally intertwined with productivity and well-being. Some systems may be more valuable if maintained primarily for eco- logical purposes, as the services they provide in that state (e.g., hydrological regulation, in situ retention of rainfall, microclimate regulation, etc.) are more valuable than their limited productivity as agricul- tural land. Other areas must continue to primarily produce food, fiber, or energy used by human society, and still others may be optimal as more mixed-use areas. Likewise, housing, urban areas, and industrial zones serve essential purposes. Regardless of the individual land use types, a mosaic view of the land- scape provides a mix where the value of each land use is optimized and where ecological land uses are both set aside, and integrated into other land use types, particularly where there value is high. Whether the systems are protected for ecological conservation or used extensively for agricultural production or 4 Improvements in yields were achieved through measures such as terracing of sloped areas (increasing water and soil reten- tion), increased diversity of crop/horticulture/forestry production, focus on higher-value products, reduction of fallow land, etc. These improvements helped overall livelihoods increase despite some areas being set aside for ecological purposes. 370 CHAPTER 4.8 A CONTINUING INQUIRY INTO ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION other human uses, or whether the zones are of mixed use, they should, from the perspective of ecolog- ical function, always aim to reach their highest potential. 4.8.2.1 PARTICIPATORY ASSESSMENT MECHANISMS It is often assumed that China is a tightly disciplined authoritarian country where leaders have the power to order people to restore their landscapes without facing any contestation. This is often not the case. In fact, Chinese people all have their own observations and opinions, and if they do not un- derstand and agree with what the government tells them, it is very difficult to get them to act. At the beginning of the Loess Plateau watershed rehabilitation project, there was a long period of expert con- sultation as well as extensive use of participatory methods to engage the local people in the inquiry and in the execution of the project. By carefully explaining the relationship between vegetation cover, hy- drological regulation, and fertility, local stakeholders began to see the benefit for themselves and more willingly participated. As soon as the results of restoration were visible, it was possible to increase the participation in some areas beyond the initial project sites. 4.8.2.2 PAYMENT FOR INCREASING ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION In order to increase the uptake of project principles (both within and beyond initial project areas) the Chinese government also used another method to promote people’s participation: they paid them. There were several iterations of remuneration schemes, including “return fields to forests,” “return fields for grasslands,” and the “grain for green” payments. The success of these efforts illustrates that it is possible to use public funds to improve the livelihoods of the people while also restoring ecological function. This demonstrates one potential way forward for people to be engaged in mitigation and ad- aptation to climate change if funding is made available directly to the people. This also suggests that rather than being considered expensive, conservation and restoration can be seen as cost effective. Many will have heard or even used the term ecosystem services. In this chapter we have chosen to in- stead focus on the return of ecosystem function. Ecosystem services are actually derivatives of functional ecosystems, and calling ecosystem functions “services” speaks to the fundamental problem that can be seen historically. By valuing derivatives higher than ecological function, humanity created a perverse incentive to degrade the ecosystem. Instead, valuing ecosystem function higher than extraction, production, and con- sumption, reverses this and produces positive incentives to conserve, maintain, and restore ecological func- tion. This is what is needed to transition human civilization onto a more sustainable pathway. 4.8.2.3 CONTINUING RESEARCH By 2004, when the television film Scaling Up Poverty Reduction in China was being produced, it was apparent that the restoration of the Loess Plateau was extremely successful and massively important as an example for other parts of the world. If it is possible to restore long degraded, large-scale ecosystems in China, then can it be replicated elsewhere? If it is physically possible to reduce flooding, drought, mud- slides, food insecurity, poverty, and disparity while simultaneously helping to mitigate and adapt to climate changes, then what is preventing us from doing this? The inference from the research suggests that human- ity should shift its intention from extraction, manufacturing, trade, and consumption to putting restoration of ecological function firmly at the center of human goals, now and for future generations.  4.8.3 LESSONS 371 However, to properly understand and communicate the changes requires a profound understanding of a number of complex interacting systems. What was taking place on the Loess Plateau was virtually unknown to the rest of the world and what had been a development problem could be seen as a com- munications problem. Consequently, it became clear that communicating about such an enormous event was not going to be simple. Liu realized that it was necessary to continue to study about what he had witnessed. Hence, he pursued multiple avenues of inquiry, including pursuit of a Ph.D, and con- tinued to utilize his wealth of experience as a journalist to share his learning with the public. 4.8.3 LESSONS In order to observe with an understanding of the Earth’s natural processes, it is necessary to grasp the context of what is being observed. Considering the broad sweep of geologic and evolutionary time, it is possible to imagine and understand that the Earth when it formed was a molten rock surrounded by (to humans) poisonous gases. Over billions of years, the Earth has been transformed into the planet on which humans now live. There are three long-term trends that are of special interest in understanding the formation of the planet’s surface, atmosphere, hydrological cycle, and the natural regulation of the weather and climate. The first is the total colonization of the Earth by biological life. The second is differentiation and speciation leading to infinite potential variety in genetics. The third is the constant accumulation of organic materials as each generation of life dies and gives up its body to nurture the next generations of life. From these trends emerge processes on which all life on Earth depends, from the tiniest living microbes to the giant mega-fauna on the land and in the sea. The engine of this growth is photosynthesis in plant cells, which by taking minerals from the geological materials, sunlight, and water, is able to produce living matter. Further evolution of life on Earth led to the emergence of conscious beings that can reflect on these processes and consider the broader implications of their actions. Photosynthetic materials remove carbon dioxide and other gases from the atmosphere and continuously generate the fragile oxygenated atmosphere that allows more complex organisms including human beings to live and flourish. The absorption and respiration of plant biomass, together with soils combining geo- logic, decaying organic materials, and vast living microbiological communities, constantly filter and con- tinuously renew the hydrological cycle, making fresh water available for life on Earth. These processes are also the basis of the fossil fuels, representing hundreds of millions of years of filtering carbon and other gases from the atmosphere, naturally regulating the climate, and storing fixed carbon in the Earth. The Loess Plateau followed an evolutionary trajectory to reach a mixed landscape of climax forest, grass- land, and wetland ecosystems. With normal levels of rainfall generally at or over 500 mm (except in the extreme north of the plateau), it is possible to imagine a quite wonderful landscape with high, closed canopy, temperate forests and vast grassland systems connected in the north to the steppe system in Mongolia and central Asia. The rich mineral soils combined with huge quantities of organic material would have made these some of the most fertile soils on Earth. The constant accumulation of organic materials would have acted as a sponge during extreme rainfall events and then slowly released the moisture during long periods without rainfall. The climax vegetative system supported fauna of all types including mammoths, top pred- ators, large herds of migratory ungulates, small mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects in abundance. Broadening this inquiry to other continents and synthesizing scientific opinion suggests that the per- centages and total amounts of biomass and organic material in the soil are major determining factors in 372 CHAPTER 4.8 A CONTINUING INQUIRY INTO ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION maintaining soil moisture, relative humidity, microbiological communities, fertility, and natural regulation of weather and climate. Continuous study and observation suggest that biodiversity is the representation of infinite potential variety in genetics and a higher order of functionality. It also has become clear that Earth’s ecosystem emerges as an integrated process and if the accumulative trends of biomass, organic matter (necromass), or biodiversity are disrupted, the system can move from functional to dysfunctional. This can be seen to cause cascading consequences with the ultimate outcome of dysfunction being the collapse of the system. Extremely brittle systems will collapse quickly and extremely robust systems will take lon- ger to collapse. However, it seems that unless the development trajectory is corrected, the ultimate outcome for even the most robust systems is collapse; it may simply be a matter of time. In nature, exposed geological soils are often an indicator of catastrophic seismic events such as landslides, earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions. Human impact over time has changed this, and now many urban, industrial, extractive industries and even agricultural areas show indicators of extreme natural dysfunction. Humanity as a whole often does not react because we are acclimated to these sit- uations. We are seeing and valuing more highly cultural systems and manufactured goods that only last a short time rather than the infinite natural systems that are the source of life. This is the fundamental problem: the logical underpinning of what we value flies in the face of all the evidence that shows that the functional systems are vastly more valuable than the derivatives from the current, flawed system. Replacing destructive behaviors with practices that align with natural evolutionary trends will help place our civilization on a trajectory leading to the restoration of continuously accumulative and nat- urally regulating Earth systems. This suggests that the point of intervention is a paradigm shift that determines whether humanity continues toward destroying ecosystems or becomes sustainable. Hence, ecological restoration can be an important contribution to human civilization and ensure that functional and biologically diverse ecosystems survive into future generations. The lessons of the Loess Plateau illustrate that if humanity were to become conscious of the importance and value of ecological func- tions that emerge from natural evolutionary trends, it could trigger ecosystem restoration on a planetary scale, ushering in a new sustainable era of human civilization. 4.8.4 COMMUNICATING ABOUT THE CHINESE RESTORATION EXPERIENCES IN AFRICA In 2006, Sir Ian Crute, then the director of the Rothamsted Research Institute, suggested that John D. Liu visit Africa and share the story of what he had learned on China’s Loess Plateau with the govern- ments and people of Africa. The Environmental Education Media Project (EEMP) initiated a compre- hensive communication strategy to share lessons learned with the political elites, the scientific community, the development agencies, the press, and to broadcast television films aimed at the general public. This comprehensive communication approach was extremely effective in Rwanda where the recent experience of genocide, the topography, the population density, and food insecurity made this knowledge immediately relevant and clear. The Rwandan government agreed that ecological function was necessary for the country to develop, and so they rewrote their land use policy laws mandating that their economic development should be linked to ecological functionality. The government has made a massive and continuous effort to ed- ucate the people about the relationship between ecological health, human well-being, and prosperity. In cooperation with international agencies, a series of agroecology, reforestation, housing, healthcare, connected communications, and distributed energy systems have been initiated. Preliminary results  4.8.4 COMMUNICATING ABOUT THE CHINESE RESTORATION 373 have been highly encouraging: Rwanda has had an average economic growth of 8.2% over the last five years during a global recession. Rwanda’s hydrological resources are returning, which is of vital im- portance for all of Africa because Rwanda is at the headwaters of the White Nile and the Congo rivers. And perhaps most important of all, Rwanda has food security while there is famine in other parts of east Africa. (EEMP has made several films on restoration in Rwanda, including Hope in a Changing Cli- mate, “Forests of Hope, Emerging in a Changing Climate, and Choosing the Pathway to Sustainabil- ity—all are available for viewing at http://www.whatifwechange.org.) Beyond Rwanda, other African countries have become a focus of attention for related long-term studies. Through the interest and support of various agencies, further research, documentation and communications about restoration have been carried out in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Mali, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. In all of these countries it is possible to recognize the need and the potential for ecological restoration. There have been various levels of accomplishment in each of these places and the knowledge of restoration and its potential continues to spread. Much of this work has been documented on film and these materials remain revealing and relevant. 4.8.4.1 FURTHER ACTIVITIES It has become apparent that the historical development trajectory we found on the Loess Plateau was similar to historical developments on other continents. The degradation in some areas (e.g., in Australia, the Middle East, or the Mediterranean) began a very long time ago. It is still possible to see the remnants of human impacts in the Neolithic agricultural techniques that remain in use at the edges of some places. In Jordan, it is possible to witness the potential of restoration at the Royal Botanical Gardens, which was founded and championed by Princess Basma Al-Ali. The knowledge gained by the scientific and field staff of the Botanical Gardens could form the basis of a widespread movement to restore ecolog- ical function in the Middle East. This and other similar initiatives are especially important because they simultaneously provide an outlet for people to actively participate in both increasing their own physical security and improving the Earth’s natural systems. This may be what is needed now, in a time of wide- spread disaffection with current political and economic realities, to engage people in non-violent, meaningful, and productive activities. It may be through such means that the fundamental ability to ensure water security, food security, and peace can be achieved. An effort to create a collaborative research, training, and innovation center for ecological restoration is underway to take the thoughts described here and direct them at restoring ecological function in a specific site in Jordan, and to use this site to train as many people as possible in restoration methodologies, with the hope of growing peace through ecology throughout the region. In Oman, there is a truly wonderful opportunity to restore a massively degraded area in the southern part of the country. The Dhofar region near Salalah receives moisture in the form of mist coming in from the sea. The highland region parallel to the coast of Dhofar was once heavily forested; however, through deforestation, overgrazing, and poor agricultural methods, this region has been seriously de- graded. The scientific measurements of the amounts of moisture available have already been carried out and there is physical evidence that biophysical interventions to massively reintroduce native trees and grasses could restore the region. Efforts are ongoing by Oman’s government and private initiatives to reforest the mountains, in order to capture all of the mist. This area has high potential and is espe- cially interesting because, in its degraded state, it is fundamentally and visibly ruined, and if it were restored the contrast would be extremely dramatic. 374 CHAPTER 4.8 A CONTINUING INQUIRY INTO ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION During further studies in Australia and in South America, John D. Liu has documented several re- gions with high potential for restoration. In Australia, the Sustainable Land Management (SLM) Part- ners, other land managers, and cattle breeders are beginning to implement a system that has become known as “holistic pasture management.” This methodology uses large numbers of domesticated cattle to mimic large migratory herds of ungulates on savannah or steppe land. The movements of the herd are tightly managed using satellite photography (i.e., GIS), ensuring that they continuously move, and while they heavily impact an area, they are only there for a short period of time and then they do not return to this area for several months. Following this method, the area is liberally fertilized and the surface, rather than being compacted, is actually aerated by the trampling of the herd. Results from SLM Partners and others suggest that, when practiced correctly, it is possible to generate larger quan- tities of high quality animal protein while simultaneously improving biodiversity and the infiltration and retention of moisture. Given the very large area of degraded grassland on Earth this method war- rants further study. There is also great potential for restoration in many equatorial countries. For example, El Salvador in Central America endured a long period of oppression, resulting in a highly stratified society and a highly degraded landscape. As the political struggles of the 20th century ended and the government is more keen to engage in ideas like restoration, there is now an opportunity to fundamentally change the intention of society and realize its productivity potential. If such systems near the equator were restored to the highest level of ecological function in natural landscapes, in agricultural landscapes, in mixed- use landscapes, and even in cities and industrial areas, it would be of enormous benefit in humanity’s efforts to mitigate and adapt to human induced climate changes (particularly because of the high carbon sequestration potentials in these climates). The areas now seen as “poor” or “underdeveloped” are ac- tually the areas of the highest potential because restoration could engage large numbers of people in meaningful work to restore ecological function needed to naturally regulate the hydrological cycle, weather, and climate. 4.8.5 WATER RETENTION LANDSCAPES An important understanding emanating from the work on the Loess Plateau and elsewhere is the need for and usefulness of physical and biophysical water-harvesting methodologies. While the technologies to do this are fairly well developed, a more enlightened analysis has emerged in recent years to dem- onstrate that natural physical characteristics and biology are symbiotic parts of the same system. In each part of the Earth, there are different amounts of rainfall and available moisture from mist, fog, and dewdrops caused by temperature differentials. One place where this is being actively studied is the Tamera community in Portugal. This is a good place to carry out this research, and the results are relevant for a large area of the Mediterranean and north Africa. Initial observations of the water reten- tion landscape at Tamera confirm that the percentages and total amounts of organic matter and the percentages and total amounts of biomass are the criteria determining infiltration and retention of rain- fall. The work in Tamera also confirms that communities collectively intending to increase ecological function can transform historical landscapes. This is of vital importance to a huge numbers of commu- nities and suggests an alternative to the political gridlock that often delays responses without dealing with the physical levels of the problems of hydrological disruption and natural climate regulation.  4.8.7 LAND TENURE AND PRECEDENT? 375 For vast numbers of communities in both the developing and developed world, the work of local communities suggests an effective way forward that improves resilience, creates social cohesion, and employs community members in ways that create diversified wealth. This is not only beneficial for the local people and communities involved, but engages the efforts of all these people in activities that we know are effective ways to mitigate and adapt to climate change, providing a global benefit. 4.8.6 BIODIVERSITY The issue of biodiversity may be one of the harder concepts to fully understand and communicate to a broad public. Through long-term inquiry into ecosystem function and dysfunction, Liu noted that the discussion has been on two different levels in this field. The first level is an environmental discussion that puts human needs and desires at the forefront. This perspective is necessarily limited and can never reach a full understanding of the implications of biodiversity. The best that can be hoped for in the environmental discussion is a “less bad” conclusion. The second level is an ecological discussion (of which humanity is a part) that leads to a realization and an understanding about biodiversity that can reorient our understanding of human history and possible future pathways. Cultures often have cosmological narratives, which are taken by some to be religious truths. In some of these cosmologies, it is said that God creates human beings and puts them in paradise where all their needs are provided for. But then if human beings sin, they may be driven from the garden in shame, and required to toil to survive. Interestingly, when one studies evolution, one finds that by the time human beings emerge on the scene the Earth’s systems have evolved until it is a wonderfully nurturing place— a paradise—but then human beings in their ignorance begin to damage the natural systems, cutting vast forests, devegetating vast areas, altering the water cycle, and paradise is lost. In this sense, our science and our religious cosmologies may tend to agree. Thus, understanding species richness and distribution mapping for each biome presents an oppor- tunity for collective study and enrichment. Species of course vary with latitude, hydrological regime, and other factors, but the basic methodology for mapping is the same. Essentially this is identifying, photographing, and describing the keystone species and the symbiotic relationships with the satellite species that grow together. This method of study can be done collectively and when displayed publicly and virtually on digital platforms can both engage and inform entire communities in understanding the natural Earth systems that they depend on. 4.8.7 LAND TENURE AND PRECEDENT? In order for people to work toward improving their lives and their surroundings, it is almost always assumed that they must have tenure over the land or at the very least have a clear right to benefit from their own labor. This is a rational assumption but it can also be a simplification of a much larger dis- cussion. Ensuring the rights of individuals is very important, but it is also necessary to look at the his- torical, cultural, and cosmological worldview of the group being analyzed to understand how the situation came to be as it is. Researching ecosystem function from China’s Loess Plateau to Africa and beyond has shown that human behavior can cause a cascading series of consequences that we have labeled in various ways. Climate change, food insecurity, desertification, poverty, disparity, biodiversity loss, can all be seen as 376 CHAPTER 4.8 A CONTINUING INQUIRY INTO ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION symptoms of larger systematic dysfunction. It seems necessary to see how all these issues are connected and to address the root causes of the dysfunction or we will be forced to try to live with the conse- quences. In many cases, such as biodiversity loss and climate change, it is required that humanity evolves to a higher level of consciousness or knowingly chooses to cause future generations great harm. Many human choices taken by society hundreds and even thousands of years ago can be traced to or near their beginnings. The motivations and logic with which the original decisions were made have been self-serving for certain groups or sometimes were simply wrong given the limitations of under- standing at the time. We are currently using institutions that were created in earlier times, often with limited scientific understanding, illogical assumptions, or created with self-serving or outdated inten- tions. The question we need to ask now is: must we continue to live with the decisions made in the past or can we make new decisions based on what we now know? At one time in the European world, the Catholic Church believed that the Earth was flat and the Sun revolved around the Earth. There was no evidence for this; in fact, there was a great deal of evidence that the Earth is round and revolves around the Sun. When scientists first began to tell the truth about this, they were persecuted (especially Gallileo), but eventually it became understandable to everyone that, in fact, the Earth is round. Once the collective consciousness of humanity was aware that the Earth was round it was impossible to espouse the “flat Earth” idea without ridicule. Slavery is another ex- ample where evolving societal conscience ended an era. Now we are faced with the need to come to some rational decisions about human induced climate change and to act on them as a species. In order to successfully do this, we need to address many his- torical issues that underpin the earlier decisions that have created the problems that are coming to a head. This is the largest and most rapid consciousness shift and behavioral change that humanity has had to adapt to in its short history. We need to get this right. 4.8.8 THE PROMISE OF THE COMMONS In 1968, Professor Garritt Hardin wrote The Tragedy of the Commons, discussing at length the dilemma that humanity faces, which does not have a technical solution (Hardin, 1968). Almost 50 years later, humanity collectively needs to have processed the knowledge and thoughts contained in this essay. We are required to move human consciousness to a new higher level in which the dilemma posed can be transformed into “The Promise of the Commons.” In order to survive, we must ensure that human be- havior shifts from selfish, oppressive, and unequal rights, in which minorities are rewarded for exces- sive extraction, manufacturing, and trade, to a new paradigm in which human actions help to restore Earth’s fundamental ecological systems, contributing to sustainability, greater equality, and common wealth. 4.8.9 VALUING FUNDAMENTALS Assessment of the value of revegetation compared to the cost of sediment control in the Loess Plateau led to a calculation of the value of ecosystem function in comparison with agricultural productivity (World Bank, 1994), and this revealed that ecosystem function could be vastly more valuable than ag- ricultural production. In situations where this holds true and where is it fully understood, it has the  ACKNOWLEDGMENT 377 potential to change the course of human history. Looking at the relative value of functional ecosystems and products extracted from them reveals a major flaw in the current human economic system: namely, that by valuing the derivatives higher than the source of life we have created a perverse incentive to degrade natural ecological systems. If we were to value the ecosystems more highly than the things that are extracted or manufactured, it would be virtually impossible to degrade or pollute because all in- centives to do those things would have been removed. This type of reasoning also makes it apparent that it is in humanity’s interest to restore degraded landscapes across the planet. This would go some way to mitigate and adapt to climate change, promote employment opportunities, and greater food security. However, the current economic metrics are flawed and have elevated the value of derivatives extracted from the natural systems and manufactured goods above the natural processes that have created and constantly renewed life. We need to change this. Hence, the question that arises is “What is money, and what do we really value as a society?” It is in the answer to this question that the solution to the sustainability of our economy in relation to our environment may be found. 4.8.10 CONCLUSION The fundamental implication of these observations is that degraded landscapes should be restored sooner rather than later. Currently, colleagues in many organizations are working to build a business case surrounding this. The moral, social, capital, policy, and technical requirements for the restoration of Earth systems on a planetary scale are now being defined. This positive development is beginning to accelerate and will endeavor to produce a transitional stage in human development that ushers in a new ecological and economic era for humanity. ACKNOWLEDGMENT John D. Liu is extremely grateful for the support, encouragement, and direction that has come from a very large number of individuals, development agencies, and educational institutions without which his study would not have gone on for so long or been so fruitful. These include the World Bank, United Nations De- velopment Program (UNDP), The UK Department for International Development (DFID), The UK Depart- ment for Environment, Agriculture and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), The Global Environmental Facility, The Faculty of Natural Sciences and the Faculty of the Built Environment, University of the West of England (UWE), The Rothamsted Research Center, The Graduate Program at the University of Reading, The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), The COMON Foundation, Critical Zone Hydrology Group at the Vrije University, Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (NIOO/KNAW), and Communications COM- MONLAND Foundation. Bradley T. Hiller expresses gratitude to the Center for Sustainable Development at the University of Cam- bridge, the (former) Agriculture and Rural Development Department at the World Bank, Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge, the Environmental Education Media Project, and all the research participants in China and Turkey who were willing to share their experiences and insights into project processes and impacts. 378 CHAPTER 4.8 A CONTINUING INQUIRY INTO ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION REFERENCES Bai, Z.G., Dent, D.L., Schaepman, M.E., 2005. Quantitative global assessment of land degradation and improve- ment: pilot study in North China Report 2005/6. ISRIC—World Soil Information. Wageningen, Netherlands. Cai, Q., 2002. The relationships between soil erosion and human activities on the Loess Plateau. In: Juren, J. (Ed.), Sustainable Utilisation of Global Soil and Water Resources. Technology and Method of Soil and Water Conservation. 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