China: Designing Policies to Enhance Ecosystem Services

Decades of double-digit economic growth make China the fastest expanding major economy in history while saddling the country with likely the most severe environmental crisis faced by any civilization. China’s ecosystems are quite fragile due to severe land degradation, erosion, desertification, water scarcity, and pollution. Ecological threats continue to grow in scale and severity across China because of rapid urbanization and increased consumption of natural resources (Bryan et al. 2018). Wildlife habitat has declined, causing substantial losses in biodiversity, and poor air and water quality are causing human health problems. Political recognition of China’s crisis started in 1998 when deforestation and erosion caused massive flooding along the Yangtze River. The floods killed thousands of people, made over 13.2 million people homeless, and cost US$36 billion in property damage.