Water and Soil Conservation from the Perspective of Stakeholders: Evidence from China and Policy Implications

Water and soil conservation is an important measure of ecological restoration in China. However, its success was elusive and often compromised the impoverished people who need to be protected most. Taking Changting County in southeast China as an empirical case, and within the framework of stakeholders, i.e. the government, the farmer, the business enterprise, and the non-government organizations, this article explored the benefits to the multiple stakeholders in the progress of water and soil conservation. The results show that all stakeholders played various but important roles and their benefit changes from period to period. It was demonstrated that the different roles, pursuits for the ecological or economic benefits directly and largely drive and affect the consequence of water and soil conservation in Changting. The benefit and cost of multiple stakeholders should be identified in a meaningful way and balanced. It is important to improve the livelihoods of the farmer, in particular the impoverished farmer who are heavily dependent on the environment and most affected by the projects. This study demonstrates a new perspective for exploring the relationship between ecological restoration and poverty alleviation, and is conducive to understand the internal mechanisms and provides some general implications for similar areas in developing countries.