Over the past three decades, China’s economic growth has been the fastest among major nations. However, its environmental degradation has also accelerated (Liu and Diamond 2008). To mitigate the degraded environment, China has been implementing large-scale conservation programs, including the Key Shelterbelt Construction Program, Beijing-Tianjin Sandstorm Control Program, Wildlife Conservation and Nature Reserve Development Program (Ouyang 2007), Forest Eco-Compensation Program (Ministry of Finance of China and State Forestry Administration of China 2007), the Natural Forest Conservation Program, and the Grain to Green Program (Zhang et al. 1999; Xu et al. 2006; Liu et al. 2008).
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