Social-Ecological Impacts of Concurrent Reservoir Inundation and Reforestation in the Three Gorges Region of China

The Three Gorges Project (TGP) in the mountainous middle reach of the Yangtze River entailed large dam construction and farmland inundation by reservoir. Concurrently, national policy mandated defarming and reforesting extensive erosion-prone slope farmlands in the region. This study evaluated social-ecological impacts of two parallel land-cover change projects on farmland supply, carrying capacity, resettlement, and alternative employment. The integrated research adopted field assessment, interviews, questionnaire surveys, and remote sensing and geographic information system techniques. Analysis of high-resolution QuickBird images and thematic maps generated digital maps on land use, farmland quality, and standardized farmland. The two projects, development versus conservation, accentuated and disseminated impacts on rural communities. Reservoir inundation eliminated the best farmlands in riverside villages and aggravated population pressure. Widespread poor farmlands on steep slopes required extensive defarming and reforestation. The double blow reduced carrying capacity and brought economic hardship in impoverished areas. Villages beset by farmland deficits encountered difficulty decanting the surplus population because of resistance to intervillage and nonlocal resettlement. Migrant labor, as transient rural-urban migration operating outside the official regime, offered alternative employment and supplementary income to alleviate overpopulation and poverty. This safety valve was neither equally accessible to households nor assisted by the government. The simultaneous execution of resettlement and reforestation called for a systematic rural-urban migration program, engagement of local people in policy formulation, and provision of incentives in the form of long-term market benefits and livelihood assurances. The findings offered hints and precautions on the joint implementation of major land-cover change projects in developing regions.