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Agricultural land protection in China: a case study of local governance in Zhejiang Province
Land Use Policy 18 (2001) 329–340
Agricultural land protection in China: a case study of local governance in Zhejiang Province Mark W. Skinnera, Richard G. Kuhnb,*, Alun E. Josephb a b
Department of Geography, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ont., Canada K7L 3N6 Department of Geography, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ont., Canada N1G 2W1
Received 13 March 2001; received in revised form 5 June 2001; accepted 28 June 2001
Abstract China’s rapid economic development following the 1978 reforms has resulted in significant economic, social and environmental change. One consequence of this change has been the accentuation of an existing trend of agricultural land loss and degradation. Although the 1978 reforms and their impacts have been subjected to considerable scrutiny, relatively little research has been directed towards the relationship between the evolution of local government structures and practices and the implementation of agricultural land protection policies. This paper presents an analysis of this relationship in Huzhou Municipality, Zhejiang Province. Zhejiang Province is situated on the eastern seaboard and exhibited the highest average annual per capita growth in China between 1978 and 1995. Huzhou Municipality is a growth centre in the northern part of the province. A synthesis of the factual knowledge and perceptions of 40 key-informants suggests that despite the development of a comprehensive legal framework for agricultural land protection, the interpretation of policy at local levels continues to permit the loss of agricultural land (and attendant environmental costs) to be traded-off against increased economic growth. This suggests a need to re-evaluate the role of local levels of government in China with respect to agricultural land protection issues; to look as much at the ways policies are implemented as at policies themselves. The devolution of administrative responsibility in China and the increasing influence of powerful local economic interests will provide an impetus for such a re-focussing of research at local levels. r 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: China; Modernisation; Agricultural land protection; Local government; Policy implementation; Rural industrialisation
Introduction China provides an excellent example of the challenge to balance conflicting interests within the development process. Following the 1978 reforms, rapid economic development has resulted in significant economic, social and environmental change. National policies promoting the transition from a planned to a market-oriented economy have led to dramatic increases in economic development, characterised in part by rapid rural industrialisation (Qu and Li, 1994). Within this national context of reform, the decentralisation and devolution of regulatory responsibility has at once facilitated the emerging primacy of economic interests and the growing ascendancy of local government as a key-agent within the development process (Oi, 1995; Lin, 1999). The subsequent encouragement of widespread industrial *Corresponding author. Fax: +1-519-837-2940. E-mail address: [email protected] (R.G. Kuhn).
development in rural areas has been interpreted as the trade-off of national economic growth against local social and environmental costs (Smil, 1993; Lin, 1997). One manifestation of the development process has been the sharp accentuation of an existing trend of agricultural land loss and degradation (Bradbury et al., 1996). The encroachment of rural industrial and residential development onto agricultural land has placed immense pressure on already limited agricultural land resources (Yang and Li, 2000). However, the combined effect of population growth, macro-economic and national food security imperatives, and the scarcity of land for development have led to an increasing demand for agricultural land protection. Indeed, the preservation of agricultural land has become a fundamental national policy in China (Brown, 1995). The tension between the pressure to provide land for economic growth and the imperative to preserve agricultural land is played out at all levels of government, but becomes most acute at lower levels where,
0264-8377/01/$ - see front matter r 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 2 6 4 - 8 3 7 7 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 2 6 - 6
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ironically, the capacity to cope may be most problematic. Recent debates focussing on the connections between economic development and environmental change in China have been marked by an increasing awareness of an environmental crisis that threatens to limit national development (McElroy et al., 1998). However, relatively little research has focussed on the description and critical analysis of the impacts of China’s rapid economic growth on the decline and degradation of agricultural land. Even less attention has been directed towards the nature and extent of agricultural land protection in rural areas experiencing rapid industrialisation. This paper investigates the manifestation of agricultural land protection at the local level in Zhejiang Province. In particular, it considers the articulation and implementation of policies at the local level, and features a case study of Huzhou Municipality. The case study is guided by a descriptive model (Fig. 1) that provides a heuristic tool for conceptualising the myriad changes occurring in rural China across geographical scales and between sectors. It focuses on the relationship between the changing role of local governments and the nature and extent of the impacts of the market-oriented transformation of the Chinese political economy. Specifically, Fig. 1 illustrates the local response to the dynamic economic, environmental and agricultural changes associated with
the 1978 reforms and sets it within the context of the changing organisation of central–local relations. At an empirical level, the case study features an analysis of the factual knowledge and perceptions of 40 key-informants from government agencies in Zhejiang Province, Huzhou Municipality, and two local governments in Huzhou. The remainder of this paper is organised in six major sections, the first of which summarises the various perspectives on agricultural land protection in China, and introduces two interrelated processes that form an important backdrop for this research: (1) the exceptional growth of the Chinese economy since 1978, and in particular the rapid industrialisation of towns, townships and villages in the countryside; and (2) the changing organisation of central–local relations within the Chinese political system. The next major section considers the dimensions of change in Zhejiang Province, within which detailed consideration is given to rural industrialisation and its impact on the environment generally, and agricultural land in particular. This appreciation of the provincial context is complemented in the third section by a consideration of the regulatory framework within which agricultural land protection occurs. The design of the case study and the major results are presented, respectively, in the fourth and fifth sections. The paper concludes with a discussion of development priorities, and advances suggestions re-
Fig. 1. Framework for exploring local agricultural land protection in Zhejiang Province
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garding the role of local governments with respect to agricultural land protection in Zhejiang Province.
Exploring agricultural land protection issues in China Official acknowledgement of the dramatic decline in the quantity and quality of agricultural land since 1949 (Central Committee of the CCP, 1979) and scholarly recognition of the accelerating trend of agricultural land loss and degradation began in the early 1980s (Smil, 1984; Walker, 1988). Despite the establishment of a state land administration system in 1985 and the promulgation of land management legislation one year later (GPRC, 1998a), general academic consideration of China’s agricultural land protection issues did not emerge until the mid-1990s (Brown, 1994; Edmonds, 1994; Bradbury et al., 1996; Ash and Edmonds, 1998). Much controversy surrounds the results of systematic studies of China’s agricultural land resources. For example, estimates of the total national cultivated land in the early 1990s range from 95 million hectares (ha) (State Statistical Bureau, 1995) to 133–140 million ha (Smil, 1995). Nonetheless, both Western and Chinese researchers and Chinese decision-makers acknowledge the high rate of agricultural land loss and degradation (Yang and Li, 2000). This can be seen as part of a growing awareness of an environmental crisis that threatens to limit national development (Bradbury et al., 1996; Lin, 1997; Smil, 1999). Research on agricultural land issues in China has focussed variously on the impact of agricultural land loss and degradation with respect to China’s economic development (Yeh and Li, 1999), agricultural productivity (Ash and Edmonds, 1998; Xu, 1999), food supply and political stability (Brown, 1994; Yang and Li, 2000), and land use and environment (Edmonds, 1994; Muldavin, 1997; Ho, 2000). Land degradation issues have been discussed with respect to political–economic relationships (Smil, 1993), sustainable development (Muldavin, 1996), food security (national and international) (Brown, 1994), agro-ecosystem health (Xu and Tan, 1995), land use rights and administration (Qu et al., 1995), and environmental protection (Smil, 1995). However, relatively little research has focussed specifically on agricultural land protection policy and implementation at the local level (Brown, 1995). Even less has been directed specifically towards the nature and extent of agricultural land protection in areas experiencing rapid economic development (Yeh and Li, 1999). An important component of any analysis of development processes in China, including agricultural land protection, is an understanding of two interrelated processes associated with the 1978 reforms. First, rapid economic growth, and industrialisation in particular, has resulted in significant social and environmental
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change. This is particularly important in the rural context because of the prominence of rural industries as the driving force behind economic development over the last 20 years (Bradbury et al., 1996). Rural industrialisation has placed immense pressure on the integrity of already limited agricultural land resources, thereby increasing the demand for their protection (Smil, 1993; Bradbury et al., 1996; Yang and Li, 2000). Second, the inability of the central government to mediate macro-economic imperatives and local social, environmental and agricultural change has led to decentralisation and devolution within the Chinese political system. Although the regulatory role of the central state remains significant, the development of horizontal organisational linkages between government sectors at the local level has rendered its vertical control less effective (Gong and Feng, 1994). Consequently, the ability of local governments to interpret and mediate social and environmental issues, including agricultural land protection, has changed. Chinese central–local relations have been re-organised such that local governments now play an active and direct role in the development process (Lin, 1999). In rural areas, this creates the potential for the growing ascendancy of local agency in the development process. The influence of changing central–local relations on the performance and competitiveness of national and local economies has increasingly been acknowledged (McCarney, 1996; Razin, 2000). However, the relationship between the changing role of local governments and the nature and extent of the impacts of rapid economic development is less well identified in the literature. While much attention has been given to the nature of China’s national development policies, including agricultural land protection, very little has been directed towards their interpretation and implementation at the local level. In order to understand the response of local government to the changes brought about by the 1978 reforms, consideration must first be given to the broader political–economic and institutional context within which it occurs.
Dimensions of change in Zhejiang Province Rural industrialisation In the last two decades, Zhejiang Province has experienced extraordinary economic growth. Between 1978 and 1995, it had the largest average annual provincial per capita GDP growth rate in China (12.8%). This is symptomatic, in part, of the rapid development of the national economy, which experienced an annual growth rate of 9.8 per cent during the same period (Lin, 1999). Zhejiang’s economic growth has been driven primarily by extensive rural
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industrialisation, often based upon the intensive agricultural development around key urban centres such as Hangzhou, Huzhou and Ningbo (Forster, 1997). Indeed, Bradbury et al. (1996) argue that the nature and rapidity of rural industrialisation in China’s coastal provinces is one of the distinguishing features of national economic growth in the post-1978 reform period. The shifting economic focus of the early 1980s brought with it the dismantling of the communal system of agricultural production, thereby exposing endemic rural under- and un-employment (Croll and Huang, 1997). To alleviate this problem, the transfer of surplus rural labour from agriculture to the non-agricultural sector was promoted through the relaxation of restrictions that bound rural residents to the land. Policies encouraging rural residents to ‘‘leave the soil but not the village, enter the factory but not the town,’’ spurred industrial development in rural areas (Tan, 1993, p. 133), much of it small scale (Lieberthal, 1995). At the same time, the introduction of a production responsibility system officially dismantled state industrial management and facilitated the ascendancy of collective and individual initiatives (Oi, 1995; Lin, 1997). As a result, collectively and individually owned rural industries have become prominent components of local economies and are critical to sustained rural growth. Estimates suggest that output from rural industries now accounts for over 50 per cent of the total in China’s rural economy (Qu and Li, 1994), and that rural industry alone accounts for 75 per cent of total industrial output in Zhejiang Province (Smyth, 1998). Rapid industrial development in the rural areas of Zhejiang accelerated in the 1990s with the opening-up of its economy to foreign trade, further market-oriented reforms, and the development of special economic zones, such as the China-Zhili Children’s Garment Market in Huzhou Municipality (Lieberthal, 1995; Oi, 1999). This accelerated development is reflected in the 230 per cent growth of provincial per capita GDP between 1992 and 1997 (from 31871 to 10,515yuan) and the growing proportion of secondary industry to GDP, which increased from 48 per cent to 56 per cent in the province over the same period (Zhejiang Statistical Bureau, 1999). Parallel trends of economic growth and of accompanying improvements in livelihood are evident in the development of new industries and suburb-like residential areas in many of Zhejiang’s rural communities. Environmental impacts In Zhejiang Province, significant environmental change can be attributed to rapid rural industrialisation. 1 At the time of field research RMB f (yuan) 1.00=USD$ (dollar) 0.11.
Increasing standards of living in rural communities have been accompanied by a dramatic decline in the quality of their environments. In a study of Yuhang County, located in northern Zhejiang Province, Swanson et al. (2001) cite increasing levels of air pollution emissions and untreated wastewater discharges as examples of the environmental impacts associated with rural industries. Characterised by dispersed and small-scale production and the use of inefficient and obsolete technology (Qu and Li, 1994), rural industrialisation has served to proliferate contamination sources of air and water pollution. Official sources report increases in the overall provincial discharge of industrial waste water and waste gas, and in the production of industrial solid waste. Between 1990 and 1997, the total provincial discharge of industrial waste water increased from 1.43 to 1.86 billion tons, the total discharge of waste gas increased from 259.5 billion cubic metres (cu m) to 488.4 billion cu m, and the total production of industrial solid waste increased from 8.47 to 13.26 million tons (Zhejiang Statistical Bureau, 1999). These figures refer to the waste discharge of all industry in Zhejiang Province and are probably conservative. However, given the increasing share of industrial production in rural communities they are indicative of the increasing levels of pollution found in rural areas. Moreover, the environmental pressures associated with rapid and extensive development of rural industry are becoming a threat to the ecological foundation of economic development, not to mention human health. As noted by senior government officials from the Zhejiang Environmental Protection Bureau (pers. comm. 1999), air pollution and water contamination are serious and immediate issues. Agricultural land loss and degradation The loss and degradation of agricultural land is the most notable feature of rural development in Zhejiang Province. Prior to the reform period, development policies emphasising extensive agricultural (grain) production, including the widespread cultivation of marginal areas, resulted in a substantial decline in the quality agricultural land (Smil, 1984). At the same time, the increasing demands of a rapidly growing population caused a significant decrease in the quantity of per capita available land for agriculture. Estimates suggest that nationally cultivatable land per capita decreased 50 per cent between 1949 and 1976 (Bradbury et al., 1996). The trend of agricultural land loss and degradation has accelerated since 1978 (Smil, 1999; Yang and Li, 2000). This is the combined result of the encroachment of rural industrial and residential development, increasing air and water pollution from rural industries, and the physical limitations on land reclamation sources and agricultural productivity. In Zhejiang Province, the direct demands and indirect impacts of development
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have placed immense pressure on already limited agricultural land resources. Between 1992 and 1997, the total provincial area of available cultivated land decreased by 4.7 per cent, from 1.69 to 1.61 million ha. At the same time provincially cultivated land per capita decreased from 0.04 to 0.036 ha (Zhejiang Statistical Bureau, 1999). This is well below the national per capita average of 0.078 ha (State Statistical Bureau, 1999). Despite the significant loss and degradation of agricultural land, agricultural production in Zhejiang Province has increased since the 1978 reforms. This is primarily the result of macro-economic policies emphasising intensive agricultural output and the widespread adoption of the household responsibility system, which officially decentralised collective agricultural production and directly linked investment and labour input with personal gain (Powell, 1992; Lin, 1997). Between 1992 and 1997, the total value of agricultural output in Zhejiang Province increased by 128 per cent, from 22,646 to 51,621 million yuan (Zhejiang Statistical Bureau, 1999). Notwithstanding this trend of increasing agricultural output, the persistent loss and degradation of agricultural land has raised concerns about the sustainability of development, particularly in local communities charged with balancing conflicting macro-economic and local development interests (Muldavin, 1996; Lin, 1997). Scarcity of land for development, be it agricultural or industrial, has become a limitation on sustained economic growth and is a significant issue for local communities. According to senior government officials from the Zhejiang Land Management Bureau (LMB) (pers. comm. 1999), the protection of agricultural land resources is an important component of planning and development in rural areas. However, the encroachment of rural industrial and residential development and associated infrastructures on agricultural land, in concert with increasing air and water pollution continues to prejudice local environments in Zhejiang Province.
Framework for agricultural land protection The increasing concern for agricultural land protection issues since 1978 has provoked an institutional response at all levels of government, and has been articulated through the regulatory framework of the state land administration system (LAS). The LAS determines the role and function of government organisations with respect to the protection, development and utilisation of land resources. Land administration was formalised in the mid-1980s with the promulgation of the land administration law (LAL). This established: (1) the state land administration
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bureau (LAB), a centralised national bureaucracy responsible for the administration, investigation and development of land resources; and (2) the legal basis for land ownership and use rights, land use planning, and agricultural land protection (GPRC, 1998a). The LAB is a statutory body under the State Council and consists of a vertical hierarchy with subordinate bureaux and offices in all branches of provincial, municipal, county, town and township People’s Governments. This is shown schematically, with specific reference to Huzhou Municipality, including constituent administrative units, in Fig. 2. Land management bureaux (LMB) and offices (LMOs) are charged with the implementation and enforcement of the national policies, regulations and programmes formulated by the LAB. However, significant discretion exists at the provincial and municipal levels of government to interpret and implement land management policies within national guidelines. This directive has been facilitated, in part, by devolution within the Chinese political system. The basis of agricultural land protection in China is a national mandate for each level of government to ‘‘maintain a dynamic balance’’ of cultivated land within their jurisdictions. This was formalised in 1998 through a revision to the LAL and the establishment of regulations for the protection of agricultural land (GPRC, 1998b). Through legislation, provincial governments and their administrative leaders (Governors) have been delegated legal responsibility for maintaining the quantity and quality of agricultural land, including the required replacement of protected agricultural land that is used for non-agricultural purposes (GPRC, 1998a,b). In accordance with national requirements, provincial LMB establish specific regulations for agricultural land protection. In Zhejiang, such regulations were formalised in 1999, and include a mandate to protect 86 per cent of the total provincial agricultural land area alongside the downloading of legal responsibility for maintaining the ‘‘dynamic balance’’ to each level of local government. The latter includes a requirement that the quantity and quality of land be equal to that in 1996 and that regulations for land reclamation be in place (Zhejiang LMB, 1999). According to the Zhejiang LMB (1999), agricultural land protection is regulated through two mechanisms. First, a 3-category provincial land classification scheme influences the conversion of agricultural land for nonagricultural purposes. Class (1), prime agricultural land, receives stringent protection and requires national approval to be used for non-agricultural purposes. Class (2), construction land, requires designation by the Zhejiang LMB and consists of land for built-up (urban) areas. Class (3), general land, can be used for any purpose once its use is approved by the Zhejiang LMB. Second, a land compensation system regulates the
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Fig. 2. Organisation of China’s land administration system (LAS), with specific reference to Huzhou Municipality
supply of agricultural land by requiring that agricultural land taken out of cultivation is replaced with reclaimed land of equal quantity and quality. Land reclamation fees are levied if provincial quantity and quality standards are not met. These provincial mandates, regulations and regulatory mechanisms constitute the administrative framework for agricultural land protection at local levels of government in Zhejiang Province. It is within the institutional context outlined above that local governments respond to the dynamic transformations occurring in Zhejiang Province in general, and to agricultural land protection issues in particular. Huzhou Municipality provides a revealing example of the behaviour of local governments in Zhejiang Province with respect to agricultural land protection.
Study site and data collection The coastal province of Zhejiang has 11 administrative regions, one of which is Huzhou Municipality, the primary study site for this research. Huzhou is a prosperous, modernising municipality, covering an area of over 5817 km2 and has a population of 2.55 million. It is located in the Hangzhou–Jiaxing–Huzhou plain, on the south shore of Tai Lake (Taihu), approximately 40 km northwest of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province (Fig. 3) (Huzhou Statistical Bureau, 1999). Huzhou Municipality typifies the transformations occurring in the rural areas of eastern China. It is undergoing extensive rural industrialisation and experiencing significant economic, social and environmental
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Fig. 3. Map of Zhejiang Province, China, indicating the location of Huzhou Municipality.
change. As part of the provincial ‘‘grain base’’ (Forster, 1997), significant agricultural development has occurred within the municipality. This has been complemented by the rapid development of rural industry, primarily based on food and silk processing, and on garment manufacturing. In Zhejiang, municipalities like Huzhou are the major units of administrative organisation under the province and the highest level of formal bureaucratic representation of local government. For the purpose of this study, local governments include, in order of importance: municipalities, cities, counties, towns and townships. The constituent administrative units of Huzhou Municipality are one city, three counties, 61 towns and 63 townships. The 4576 villages within Huzhou Municipality are represented administratively by local village committees, which report directly to town and township governments (Huzhou Statistical Bureau, 1999). The municipal and lower levels of local government have substantial discretion to interpret and implement national and provincial policies. It is here that the complex relationships and transformations occurring in rural areas are played out. To illustrate the regulatory processes and practices of local government below the municipal level, one town
(Zhili Town) and one township (Daochang Township) within Huzhou were selected for study (see Fig. 3). Both exemplify the economic, social and environmental transformations occurring in Huzhou Municipality and represent the lowest level of formal administrative organisation. Consisting of 30 villages and the town built-up area, Zhili has a population of 38,200 and a total land area of 46 km2. It has a well-developed economic and social infrastructure based primarily on a specialised commodity market, the China-Zhili Children’s Garment Market (pers. comm. Zhili Town Mayor’s Office, 1999). Daochang Township consists of 23 villages and the township built-up area, and has a population of 21,398, covering a total land area of 60 km2. Adjacent to the expanding urban core of Huzhou Municipality (also known as Huzhou City), Daochang is currently undergoing a rural–urban transformation (pers. comm. Daochang Township Leader’s Office, 1999). Both sites provided favourable access to information because of their proximity to the urban core of Huzhou Municipality and the availability of networking (‘‘guanxi’’) with senior officials at the municipal, town and township levels. Primary data for this research consist of the factual knowledge and perceptions of government officials and
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representatives from rural industries. A series of indepth interviews with 40 key-informants from Zhejiang Province and Huzhou Municipality, including Zhili Town and Daochang Township, were completed in the spring and summer of 1999. Key-informants were selected according to their knowledge of, and involvement in, agricultural land issues, policies and programmes. In order to capture the myriad political, economic and environmental components of the agricultural land protection issue, interviews were conducted with senior officials from a broad range of government agencies. These included agricultural economic development committees, environmental protection bureaux and offices, LMB and offices, mayoral offices, planning departments, and village and township construction offices. Government officials responsible for local village committees and representatives from rural industries in Zhili Town and Daochang Township were also interviewed to provide specific information about local development policies and initiatives. The study participants were asked a series of structured and open-ended questions related to agricultural land issues, policies and regulatory processes, and about the barriers and constraints to the implementation of agricultural land protection. Responses were combined with secondary data sources, and further supplemented by field observations, to produce a narrative composite. The latter constitutes the descriptive and analytical core of the case study.
Huzhou municipality: reconciling agricultural land protection and rapid rural industrialisation Huzhou Municipality is undergoing extensive industrialisation and experiencing a substantial transformation of its economy and environment. Through the creation of employment, the provision of various inputs to support agriculture and a capacity to support the cost of local governments, rural industrialisation has underwritten many of the observed improvements in the
livelihood of the local population. As noted by a senior official of the Huzhou Public Security Bureau (1999), ‘‘increasing incomes have made employment, food, health care and education more accessible’’. Indications of economic change in Huzhou Municipality and Zhejiang Province are summarised in Table 1. Between 1992 and 1997, per capita GDP in Huzhou Municipality increased from 2815 to 11,634yuan, or by 313 per cent. The improved livelihood brought about by this impressive economic growth is evident in the expansion of suburb-like residential areas and the development of community infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and a water treatment facility in the study area. However, at the same time rapid expansion of rural industrial and residential development has placed immense pressure on already limited agricultural land resources. As summarised in Table 2, Huzhou Municipality is experiencing significant agricultural change. Since 1978, the total area of available cultivated land has decreased by more than nine per cent, from 143,030 to 129,950 ha. Between 1992 and 1997, the total area of available cultivated land decreased by 3.3 per cent, from 134,330 to 129,948 ha. The per capita cultivated land decreased by 8.9 per cent, from 0.056 to 0.051 ha, during the same period. Concurrently, agricultural production has intensified with the total value of municipal agricultural output increasing 103 per cent between 1992 and 1997, from 1282 to 2597 million yuan (Huzhou Statistical Bureau, 1999). However, while the macro-impetus for economic growth has continued, scarcity of land and resources has become an increasingly critical concern for local development. Agricultural land protection in Huzhou Municipality is based on the national ‘‘dynamic balance’’ mandate and on provincial guidelines set up by the Zhejiang LMB. Under the supervision of the Huzhou LMB, and its branch LMOs, the municipal, county, town and township governments are required to maintain a quantity and quality of agricultural land in their respective jurisdictions equal to that in 1996 (pers.
Table 1 Indicators of economic change in Huzhou Municipality, Zhejiang Province Huzhou Municipalitya 1992
1997
% Change
Total population Gross domestic product (100 million yuan) GDP per capita (yuan)
2,480,200 69.64 2815
2,545,800 296.16 11,634
+2.6 +325.3 +313.3
Zhejiang Provinceb Total population Gross domestic product (100 million yuan) GDP per capita (yuan)
42,859,100 1365.35 3187
44,222,800 11,384.84 10,515
+3.2 +239.8 +229.9
a b
Huzhou Statistical Bureau (1999). Zhejiang Statistical Bureau (1999).
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M.W. Skinner et al. / Land Use Policy 18 (2001) 329–340 Table 2 Indicators of agricultural change in Huzhou Municipality, Zhejiang Province Huzhou Municipalitya 1992
1997
% Change
Total population Total land area (km2) Total cultivated area (ha) Cultivated area per capita (ha) Gross value of agricultural output (100 million yuan)
2,480,200 5737 134,330 0.056 12.82
2,545,800 5817 129,950 0.051 25.97
+2.6 +1.4 3.3 8.9 +102.6
Zhejiang Provinceb Total population Total land area (km2) Total cultivated area (ha) Cultivated area per capita (ha) Gross value of agricultural output (100 million yuan)
42,859,100 101,800 1,691,220 0.04 226.46
44,222,800 101,800 1,612,420 0.036 516.21
+3.2 0.0 4.7 10.0 +127.9
a b
Huzhou Statistical Bureau (1999). Zhejiang Statistical Bureau (1999).
comm. Huzhou LMB, 1999). However, local governments have been afforded significant flexibility in facilitating this requirement as a consequence of the decentralisation and devolution of legal and fiscal responsibility for land administration. This is best encapsulated by a representative from the Zhili Town Mayor’s Office (1999) who described the downloading of administrative and financial responsibility for land administration initiatives as a situation where, ‘‘local solutions and resources have to be found to deal with social and environmental issues’’. In Huzhou Municipality two initiatives are fundamental to agricultural land protection: land reclamation and land use reorganisation. By law, local governments and industries are responsible for replacing agricultural land that is taken out of cultivation with reclaimed land of equal quantity and quality (GPRC, 1998a). In Zhili Town and Daochang Township, land has been reclaimed from idle and barren land (waste land), ponds, the beds of small rivers, obsolete irrigation channels, and illegal homes constructed on cultivated land. Land reclamation is co-ordinated by the local LMOs, which develop land use plans for the town and township, respectively. Land reclamation outside of a designated built-up area is the responsibility of the local village committees and individual industries involved. Land reclamation fees are collected by the local LMOs if provincial quantity and quality standards are not met (pers. comm. Daochang LMO, 1999; Zhili LMO, 1999). The Huzhou LMB (pers. comm. 1999) has recognised that significant opportunities exist for town and township governments to determine local land management. For example, the Zhili Town Mayor’s Office (pers. comm. 1999) indicated that the payment of land reclamation fees is a necessary trade-off in order to accommodate industrial and residential development priorities. As noted by a representative from the Zhenbei
Company (1999), a local garment manufacturer located in Zhili Town, the payment of land reclamation fees is simply considered as part of production costs for local industries looking to expand their operations onto agricultural land. At the same time, agricultural land has been taken out of cultivation in Daochang Township through the designation of built-up areas in land use plans. According to the Daochang LMO (1999), all land, including agricultural, which falls within a built-up area is considered Class 2 (construction land) so long as the land use plans were developed by the Township prior to the formalisation of the provincial agricultural land protection regulations in 1999. As noted by a representative from the Zhejiang Jiang Nan Company (1999), a local agricultural processor in Daochang, the Township government has set aside some existing agricultural land for future development. These practices facilitate the encroachment of industrial and residential activities onto agricultural land. Land for agricultural production is lost but at a cost that is acceptable to local administrators. The ability of local governments to interpret the mandate given to them by Huzhou Municipality and to implement policies that suit their local development interests is further revealed through the reorganisation of land use. As the availability of land reclamation sources declines, the relocation and concentration of dispersed rural settlements has been implemented throughout Huzhou Municipality. The Huzhou LMB (1999) indicated that of the existing 4576 villages in the municipality, 1249 are being relocated or merged together into ‘‘key’’ central villages. This process makes land that is currently occupied by villages and dispersed rural residences available for development. It is at the town and township level that relocation and concentration initiatives are planned and implemented. According to the Huzhou LMB (1999), it is
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preferable to decrease the total area used in a particular rural settlement than to relocate an entire village. However, the legal right of rural residents to remain in place until they desire a new home hinders both initiatives. To mediate this situation, local policies to restrict the expansion of existing homes and to provide financial incentives for rural residents to move have been developed. In Zhili Town and Daochang Township, displaced rural residents receive compensation in the form of reparation for the lost value of agricultural production, and moving costs are subsidised (Daochang LMO, 1999; Zhili LMO, 1999). Furthermore, the construction of new homes, improved infrastructure and public services is provided as an incentive. Local economic conditions are important factors limiting the implementation of dispersed settlement relocation and concentration initiatives. While town and township governments are responsible for the construction of infrastructure, local village committees have to purchase for their citizens the new homes provided by the town and township governments (Zhili LMO, 1999). As noted by a representative from the Daochang Village and Township Construction Office (1999), ‘‘since the cost of moving villages is high, only villages with adequate income can move off agricultural land’’. However, favourable economic development in parts of Zhili Town and Daochang Township has allowed significant relocation and concentration to occur (Daochang Township Leader’s Office, 1999; Zhili Town Mayor’s Office, 1999). Although national and provincial policies require a balance to be maintained at local levels of government, the protection of agricultural land is not consistent throughout Huzhou Municipality. Despite concerted efforts to implement land reclamation and land use reorganisation initiatives, agricultural land protection in Zhili Town and Daochang Township continues to be compromised by pressure for industrial and residential development (Daochang LMO, 1999; Zhili LMO, 1999). The Huzhou LMB mediates this conflict through the coordination of land management initiatives, and this includes setting quotas for the distribution of land available for non-agricultural purposes. Land available for non-agricultural purposes includes surplus land reclaimed by local governments and industries, which is reported to and then administered by the Huzhou LMB (Huzhou LMB, 1999; Zhili LMO, 1999). According to the Huzhou LMB (1999), the distribution of land for non-agricultural purposes facilitates residential and industrial development in the urban core of Huzhou Municipality, and in key towns and township built-up areas. Quotas for land use are set for each town and township. Zhili Town receives a higher quota than most towns due to its high level of economic development and its importance to the municipal and
provincial economies. To compensate for non-agricultural land use in Zhili Town, less developed townships in Huzhou Municipality are required to reclaim land for agricultural use beyond their immediate local needs (Zhili Town Mayor’s Office, 1999). This process allows for economic development in Huzhou, while maintaining the municipal balance of agricultural land. This decision to pursue the ‘‘dynamic balance’’ mandate at only the municipal level, and not at lower levels of local government, is indicative of the discretion Huzhou Municipality has in the interpretation and implementation of agricultural land protection policies. The ability of local governments in Huzhou municipality to interpret agricultural land protection mandates and implement initiatives that suit local development interests represents the emergence of local agency within the development process and provides a compelling example of the significant role of local government with respect to agricultural land protection in Zhejiang Province.
Conclusion In contemporary China, local government is emerging as a major player in translating agricultural land protection policy into local patterns of land use. This new role is clearly evident in Zhejiang Province. The devolution of responsibility for agricultural land protection, coupled with the increasing ability of rural industrialisation to underwrite the costs of local governments, has resulted in the growing opportunity for local agency. This is illustrated in the case study of Huzhou Municipality, which reveals a local response to the agricultural land protection issue that is influenced as much by local development priorities as by national land preservation directives. The crucial factor affecting the nature and extent of agricultural land protection in Zhejiang Province is the ability of local governments to balance economic, social and environmental interests within the encompassing market-oriented transition of the Chinese political economy. Despite the development of a comprehensive legal framework for agricultural land protection, the interpretation and implementation of land use policy at local levels of government continues to trade-off the loss and degradation of agricultural land (and the attendant environmental costs) against increasing economic growth. Sustained economic development in rural areas will become increasingly dependent upon the significance attributed to agricultural land protection within the overall development strategies of local government. This may, in turn, be complicated by the direct (ownership) and indirect (taxation) benefits of further industrialisation in the countryside; this process continues to be promoted by all levels of government and
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represents an increasingly acute challenge for China’s land use policy. The analysis of local agricultural land protection processes and policies described in this paper suggests a need to re-evaluate the role of local government in China with respect to local development processes in general and agricultural land use issues in particular. This would mean looking both at the ways national and provincial policies are implemented locally and at the policies themselves. Such a re-focussing of research from an interest in the development of policy at the national and provincial level to its implementation at the local level will have increasing relevance in a modernising China. It seems very likely that administrative responsibility will continue to be devolved and economic interests, be they national, regional or local, will continue to be emphasised. It is clear that land use policy is transformed as it cascades down from the national to local levels. The result may be the specialisation of land use at the municipal scale and a move away from myriad local attempts to balance economic growth and agricultural land protection. As a consequence, land use will become less predictable at the very local level. The experience in Huzhou Municipality has been one of local land use prioritisation. Some local areas are designated as agricultural, while others as industrial, commercial, or residential. These latter land uses represent de facto urbanisation of previously rural landscapes, a process that has already become imprinted throughout the Chinese countryside.
Acknowledgements Support for this research was generously provided by the Canadian International Development Agency, under the auspices of the University of GuelphFZhejiang Agricultural University Project: Facilitating and Channelling the Reform Trends of Industrialisation and Urbanisation in the Chinese Countryside.
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Agricultural land protection in China: a case study of local governance in Zhejiang Province Mark W. Skinnera, Richard G. Kuhnb,*, Alun E. Josephb a b
Department of Geography, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ont., Canada K7L 3N6 Department of Geography, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ont., Canada N1G 2W1
Received 13 March 2001; received in revised form 5 June 2001; accepted 28 June 2001
Abstract China’s rapid economic development following the 1978 reforms has resulted in significant economic, social and environmental change. One consequence of this change has been the accentuation of an existing trend of agricultural land loss and degradation. Although the 1978 reforms and their impacts have been subjected to considerable scrutiny, relatively little research has been directed towards the relationship between the evolution of local government structures and practices and the implementation of agricultural land protection policies. This paper presents an analysis of this relationship in Huzhou Municipality, Zhejiang Province. Zhejiang Province is situated on the eastern seaboard and exhibited the highest average annual per capita growth in China between 1978 and 1995. Huzhou Municipality is a growth centre in the northern part of the province. A synthesis of the factual knowledge and perceptions of 40 key-informants suggests that despite the development of a comprehensive legal framework for agricultural land protection, the interpretation of policy at local levels continues to permit the loss of agricultural land (and attendant environmental costs) to be traded-off against increased economic growth. This suggests a need to re-evaluate the role of local levels of government in China with respect to agricultural land protection issues; to look as much at the ways policies are implemented as at policies themselves. The devolution of administrative responsibility in China and the increasing influence of powerful local economic interests will provide an impetus for such a re-focussing of research at local levels. r 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: China; Modernisation; Agricultural land protection; Local government; Policy implementation; Rural industrialisation
Introduction China provides an excellent example of the challenge to balance conflicting interests within the development process. Following the 1978 reforms, rapid economic development has resulted in significant economic, social and environmental change. National policies promoting the transition from a planned to a market-oriented economy have led to dramatic increases in economic development, characterised in part by rapid rural industrialisation (Qu and Li, 1994). Within this national context of reform, the decentralisation and devolution of regulatory responsibility has at once facilitated the emerging primacy of economic interests and the growing ascendancy of local government as a key-agent within the development process (Oi, 1995; Lin, 1999). The subsequent encouragement of widespread industrial *Corresponding author. Fax: +1-519-837-2940. E-mail address: [email protected] (R.G. Kuhn).
development in rural areas has been interpreted as the trade-off of national economic growth against local social and environmental costs (Smil, 1993; Lin, 1997). One manifestation of the development process has been the sharp accentuation of an existing trend of agricultural land loss and degradation (Bradbury et al., 1996). The encroachment of rural industrial and residential development onto agricultural land has placed immense pressure on already limited agricultural land resources (Yang and Li, 2000). However, the combined effect of population growth, macro-economic and national food security imperatives, and the scarcity of land for development have led to an increasing demand for agricultural land protection. Indeed, the preservation of agricultural land has become a fundamental national policy in China (Brown, 1995). The tension between the pressure to provide land for economic growth and the imperative to preserve agricultural land is played out at all levels of government, but becomes most acute at lower levels where,
0264-8377/01/$ - see front matter r 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 2 6 4 - 8 3 7 7 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 2 6 - 6
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ironically, the capacity to cope may be most problematic. Recent debates focussing on the connections between economic development and environmental change in China have been marked by an increasing awareness of an environmental crisis that threatens to limit national development (McElroy et al., 1998). However, relatively little research has focussed on the description and critical analysis of the impacts of China’s rapid economic growth on the decline and degradation of agricultural land. Even less attention has been directed towards the nature and extent of agricultural land protection in rural areas experiencing rapid industrialisation. This paper investigates the manifestation of agricultural land protection at the local level in Zhejiang Province. In particular, it considers the articulation and implementation of policies at the local level, and features a case study of Huzhou Municipality. The case study is guided by a descriptive model (Fig. 1) that provides a heuristic tool for conceptualising the myriad changes occurring in rural China across geographical scales and between sectors. It focuses on the relationship between the changing role of local governments and the nature and extent of the impacts of the market-oriented transformation of the Chinese political economy. Specifically, Fig. 1 illustrates the local response to the dynamic economic, environmental and agricultural changes associated with
the 1978 reforms and sets it within the context of the changing organisation of central–local relations. At an empirical level, the case study features an analysis of the factual knowledge and perceptions of 40 key-informants from government agencies in Zhejiang Province, Huzhou Municipality, and two local governments in Huzhou. The remainder of this paper is organised in six major sections, the first of which summarises the various perspectives on agricultural land protection in China, and introduces two interrelated processes that form an important backdrop for this research: (1) the exceptional growth of the Chinese economy since 1978, and in particular the rapid industrialisation of towns, townships and villages in the countryside; and (2) the changing organisation of central–local relations within the Chinese political system. The next major section considers the dimensions of change in Zhejiang Province, within which detailed consideration is given to rural industrialisation and its impact on the environment generally, and agricultural land in particular. This appreciation of the provincial context is complemented in the third section by a consideration of the regulatory framework within which agricultural land protection occurs. The design of the case study and the major results are presented, respectively, in the fourth and fifth sections. The paper concludes with a discussion of development priorities, and advances suggestions re-
Fig. 1. Framework for exploring local agricultural land protection in Zhejiang Province
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garding the role of local governments with respect to agricultural land protection in Zhejiang Province.
Exploring agricultural land protection issues in China Official acknowledgement of the dramatic decline in the quantity and quality of agricultural land since 1949 (Central Committee of the CCP, 1979) and scholarly recognition of the accelerating trend of agricultural land loss and degradation began in the early 1980s (Smil, 1984; Walker, 1988). Despite the establishment of a state land administration system in 1985 and the promulgation of land management legislation one year later (GPRC, 1998a), general academic consideration of China’s agricultural land protection issues did not emerge until the mid-1990s (Brown, 1994; Edmonds, 1994; Bradbury et al., 1996; Ash and Edmonds, 1998). Much controversy surrounds the results of systematic studies of China’s agricultural land resources. For example, estimates of the total national cultivated land in the early 1990s range from 95 million hectares (ha) (State Statistical Bureau, 1995) to 133–140 million ha (Smil, 1995). Nonetheless, both Western and Chinese researchers and Chinese decision-makers acknowledge the high rate of agricultural land loss and degradation (Yang and Li, 2000). This can be seen as part of a growing awareness of an environmental crisis that threatens to limit national development (Bradbury et al., 1996; Lin, 1997; Smil, 1999). Research on agricultural land issues in China has focussed variously on the impact of agricultural land loss and degradation with respect to China’s economic development (Yeh and Li, 1999), agricultural productivity (Ash and Edmonds, 1998; Xu, 1999), food supply and political stability (Brown, 1994; Yang and Li, 2000), and land use and environment (Edmonds, 1994; Muldavin, 1997; Ho, 2000). Land degradation issues have been discussed with respect to political–economic relationships (Smil, 1993), sustainable development (Muldavin, 1996), food security (national and international) (Brown, 1994), agro-ecosystem health (Xu and Tan, 1995), land use rights and administration (Qu et al., 1995), and environmental protection (Smil, 1995). However, relatively little research has focussed specifically on agricultural land protection policy and implementation at the local level (Brown, 1995). Even less has been directed specifically towards the nature and extent of agricultural land protection in areas experiencing rapid economic development (Yeh and Li, 1999). An important component of any analysis of development processes in China, including agricultural land protection, is an understanding of two interrelated processes associated with the 1978 reforms. First, rapid economic growth, and industrialisation in particular, has resulted in significant social and environmental
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change. This is particularly important in the rural context because of the prominence of rural industries as the driving force behind economic development over the last 20 years (Bradbury et al., 1996). Rural industrialisation has placed immense pressure on the integrity of already limited agricultural land resources, thereby increasing the demand for their protection (Smil, 1993; Bradbury et al., 1996; Yang and Li, 2000). Second, the inability of the central government to mediate macro-economic imperatives and local social, environmental and agricultural change has led to decentralisation and devolution within the Chinese political system. Although the regulatory role of the central state remains significant, the development of horizontal organisational linkages between government sectors at the local level has rendered its vertical control less effective (Gong and Feng, 1994). Consequently, the ability of local governments to interpret and mediate social and environmental issues, including agricultural land protection, has changed. Chinese central–local relations have been re-organised such that local governments now play an active and direct role in the development process (Lin, 1999). In rural areas, this creates the potential for the growing ascendancy of local agency in the development process. The influence of changing central–local relations on the performance and competitiveness of national and local economies has increasingly been acknowledged (McCarney, 1996; Razin, 2000). However, the relationship between the changing role of local governments and the nature and extent of the impacts of rapid economic development is less well identified in the literature. While much attention has been given to the nature of China’s national development policies, including agricultural land protection, very little has been directed towards their interpretation and implementation at the local level. In order to understand the response of local government to the changes brought about by the 1978 reforms, consideration must first be given to the broader political–economic and institutional context within which it occurs.
Dimensions of change in Zhejiang Province Rural industrialisation In the last two decades, Zhejiang Province has experienced extraordinary economic growth. Between 1978 and 1995, it had the largest average annual provincial per capita GDP growth rate in China (12.8%). This is symptomatic, in part, of the rapid development of the national economy, which experienced an annual growth rate of 9.8 per cent during the same period (Lin, 1999). Zhejiang’s economic growth has been driven primarily by extensive rural
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industrialisation, often based upon the intensive agricultural development around key urban centres such as Hangzhou, Huzhou and Ningbo (Forster, 1997). Indeed, Bradbury et al. (1996) argue that the nature and rapidity of rural industrialisation in China’s coastal provinces is one of the distinguishing features of national economic growth in the post-1978 reform period. The shifting economic focus of the early 1980s brought with it the dismantling of the communal system of agricultural production, thereby exposing endemic rural under- and un-employment (Croll and Huang, 1997). To alleviate this problem, the transfer of surplus rural labour from agriculture to the non-agricultural sector was promoted through the relaxation of restrictions that bound rural residents to the land. Policies encouraging rural residents to ‘‘leave the soil but not the village, enter the factory but not the town,’’ spurred industrial development in rural areas (Tan, 1993, p. 133), much of it small scale (Lieberthal, 1995). At the same time, the introduction of a production responsibility system officially dismantled state industrial management and facilitated the ascendancy of collective and individual initiatives (Oi, 1995; Lin, 1997). As a result, collectively and individually owned rural industries have become prominent components of local economies and are critical to sustained rural growth. Estimates suggest that output from rural industries now accounts for over 50 per cent of the total in China’s rural economy (Qu and Li, 1994), and that rural industry alone accounts for 75 per cent of total industrial output in Zhejiang Province (Smyth, 1998). Rapid industrial development in the rural areas of Zhejiang accelerated in the 1990s with the opening-up of its economy to foreign trade, further market-oriented reforms, and the development of special economic zones, such as the China-Zhili Children’s Garment Market in Huzhou Municipality (Lieberthal, 1995; Oi, 1999). This accelerated development is reflected in the 230 per cent growth of provincial per capita GDP between 1992 and 1997 (from 31871 to 10,515yuan) and the growing proportion of secondary industry to GDP, which increased from 48 per cent to 56 per cent in the province over the same period (Zhejiang Statistical Bureau, 1999). Parallel trends of economic growth and of accompanying improvements in livelihood are evident in the development of new industries and suburb-like residential areas in many of Zhejiang’s rural communities. Environmental impacts In Zhejiang Province, significant environmental change can be attributed to rapid rural industrialisation. 1 At the time of field research RMB f (yuan) 1.00=USD$ (dollar) 0.11.
Increasing standards of living in rural communities have been accompanied by a dramatic decline in the quality of their environments. In a study of Yuhang County, located in northern Zhejiang Province, Swanson et al. (2001) cite increasing levels of air pollution emissions and untreated wastewater discharges as examples of the environmental impacts associated with rural industries. Characterised by dispersed and small-scale production and the use of inefficient and obsolete technology (Qu and Li, 1994), rural industrialisation has served to proliferate contamination sources of air and water pollution. Official sources report increases in the overall provincial discharge of industrial waste water and waste gas, and in the production of industrial solid waste. Between 1990 and 1997, the total provincial discharge of industrial waste water increased from 1.43 to 1.86 billion tons, the total discharge of waste gas increased from 259.5 billion cubic metres (cu m) to 488.4 billion cu m, and the total production of industrial solid waste increased from 8.47 to 13.26 million tons (Zhejiang Statistical Bureau, 1999). These figures refer to the waste discharge of all industry in Zhejiang Province and are probably conservative. However, given the increasing share of industrial production in rural communities they are indicative of the increasing levels of pollution found in rural areas. Moreover, the environmental pressures associated with rapid and extensive development of rural industry are becoming a threat to the ecological foundation of economic development, not to mention human health. As noted by senior government officials from the Zhejiang Environmental Protection Bureau (pers. comm. 1999), air pollution and water contamination are serious and immediate issues. Agricultural land loss and degradation The loss and degradation of agricultural land is the most notable feature of rural development in Zhejiang Province. Prior to the reform period, development policies emphasising extensive agricultural (grain) production, including the widespread cultivation of marginal areas, resulted in a substantial decline in the quality agricultural land (Smil, 1984). At the same time, the increasing demands of a rapidly growing population caused a significant decrease in the quantity of per capita available land for agriculture. Estimates suggest that nationally cultivatable land per capita decreased 50 per cent between 1949 and 1976 (Bradbury et al., 1996). The trend of agricultural land loss and degradation has accelerated since 1978 (Smil, 1999; Yang and Li, 2000). This is the combined result of the encroachment of rural industrial and residential development, increasing air and water pollution from rural industries, and the physical limitations on land reclamation sources and agricultural productivity. In Zhejiang Province, the direct demands and indirect impacts of development
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have placed immense pressure on already limited agricultural land resources. Between 1992 and 1997, the total provincial area of available cultivated land decreased by 4.7 per cent, from 1.69 to 1.61 million ha. At the same time provincially cultivated land per capita decreased from 0.04 to 0.036 ha (Zhejiang Statistical Bureau, 1999). This is well below the national per capita average of 0.078 ha (State Statistical Bureau, 1999). Despite the significant loss and degradation of agricultural land, agricultural production in Zhejiang Province has increased since the 1978 reforms. This is primarily the result of macro-economic policies emphasising intensive agricultural output and the widespread adoption of the household responsibility system, which officially decentralised collective agricultural production and directly linked investment and labour input with personal gain (Powell, 1992; Lin, 1997). Between 1992 and 1997, the total value of agricultural output in Zhejiang Province increased by 128 per cent, from 22,646 to 51,621 million yuan (Zhejiang Statistical Bureau, 1999). Notwithstanding this trend of increasing agricultural output, the persistent loss and degradation of agricultural land has raised concerns about the sustainability of development, particularly in local communities charged with balancing conflicting macro-economic and local development interests (Muldavin, 1996; Lin, 1997). Scarcity of land for development, be it agricultural or industrial, has become a limitation on sustained economic growth and is a significant issue for local communities. According to senior government officials from the Zhejiang Land Management Bureau (LMB) (pers. comm. 1999), the protection of agricultural land resources is an important component of planning and development in rural areas. However, the encroachment of rural industrial and residential development and associated infrastructures on agricultural land, in concert with increasing air and water pollution continues to prejudice local environments in Zhejiang Province.
Framework for agricultural land protection The increasing concern for agricultural land protection issues since 1978 has provoked an institutional response at all levels of government, and has been articulated through the regulatory framework of the state land administration system (LAS). The LAS determines the role and function of government organisations with respect to the protection, development and utilisation of land resources. Land administration was formalised in the mid-1980s with the promulgation of the land administration law (LAL). This established: (1) the state land administration
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bureau (LAB), a centralised national bureaucracy responsible for the administration, investigation and development of land resources; and (2) the legal basis for land ownership and use rights, land use planning, and agricultural land protection (GPRC, 1998a). The LAB is a statutory body under the State Council and consists of a vertical hierarchy with subordinate bureaux and offices in all branches of provincial, municipal, county, town and township People’s Governments. This is shown schematically, with specific reference to Huzhou Municipality, including constituent administrative units, in Fig. 2. Land management bureaux (LMB) and offices (LMOs) are charged with the implementation and enforcement of the national policies, regulations and programmes formulated by the LAB. However, significant discretion exists at the provincial and municipal levels of government to interpret and implement land management policies within national guidelines. This directive has been facilitated, in part, by devolution within the Chinese political system. The basis of agricultural land protection in China is a national mandate for each level of government to ‘‘maintain a dynamic balance’’ of cultivated land within their jurisdictions. This was formalised in 1998 through a revision to the LAL and the establishment of regulations for the protection of agricultural land (GPRC, 1998b). Through legislation, provincial governments and their administrative leaders (Governors) have been delegated legal responsibility for maintaining the quantity and quality of agricultural land, including the required replacement of protected agricultural land that is used for non-agricultural purposes (GPRC, 1998a,b). In accordance with national requirements, provincial LMB establish specific regulations for agricultural land protection. In Zhejiang, such regulations were formalised in 1999, and include a mandate to protect 86 per cent of the total provincial agricultural land area alongside the downloading of legal responsibility for maintaining the ‘‘dynamic balance’’ to each level of local government. The latter includes a requirement that the quantity and quality of land be equal to that in 1996 and that regulations for land reclamation be in place (Zhejiang LMB, 1999). According to the Zhejiang LMB (1999), agricultural land protection is regulated through two mechanisms. First, a 3-category provincial land classification scheme influences the conversion of agricultural land for nonagricultural purposes. Class (1), prime agricultural land, receives stringent protection and requires national approval to be used for non-agricultural purposes. Class (2), construction land, requires designation by the Zhejiang LMB and consists of land for built-up (urban) areas. Class (3), general land, can be used for any purpose once its use is approved by the Zhejiang LMB. Second, a land compensation system regulates the
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Fig. 2. Organisation of China’s land administration system (LAS), with specific reference to Huzhou Municipality
supply of agricultural land by requiring that agricultural land taken out of cultivation is replaced with reclaimed land of equal quantity and quality. Land reclamation fees are levied if provincial quantity and quality standards are not met. These provincial mandates, regulations and regulatory mechanisms constitute the administrative framework for agricultural land protection at local levels of government in Zhejiang Province. It is within the institutional context outlined above that local governments respond to the dynamic transformations occurring in Zhejiang Province in general, and to agricultural land protection issues in particular. Huzhou Municipality provides a revealing example of the behaviour of local governments in Zhejiang Province with respect to agricultural land protection.
Study site and data collection The coastal province of Zhejiang has 11 administrative regions, one of which is Huzhou Municipality, the primary study site for this research. Huzhou is a prosperous, modernising municipality, covering an area of over 5817 km2 and has a population of 2.55 million. It is located in the Hangzhou–Jiaxing–Huzhou plain, on the south shore of Tai Lake (Taihu), approximately 40 km northwest of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province (Fig. 3) (Huzhou Statistical Bureau, 1999). Huzhou Municipality typifies the transformations occurring in the rural areas of eastern China. It is undergoing extensive rural industrialisation and experiencing significant economic, social and environmental
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Fig. 3. Map of Zhejiang Province, China, indicating the location of Huzhou Municipality.
change. As part of the provincial ‘‘grain base’’ (Forster, 1997), significant agricultural development has occurred within the municipality. This has been complemented by the rapid development of rural industry, primarily based on food and silk processing, and on garment manufacturing. In Zhejiang, municipalities like Huzhou are the major units of administrative organisation under the province and the highest level of formal bureaucratic representation of local government. For the purpose of this study, local governments include, in order of importance: municipalities, cities, counties, towns and townships. The constituent administrative units of Huzhou Municipality are one city, three counties, 61 towns and 63 townships. The 4576 villages within Huzhou Municipality are represented administratively by local village committees, which report directly to town and township governments (Huzhou Statistical Bureau, 1999). The municipal and lower levels of local government have substantial discretion to interpret and implement national and provincial policies. It is here that the complex relationships and transformations occurring in rural areas are played out. To illustrate the regulatory processes and practices of local government below the municipal level, one town
(Zhili Town) and one township (Daochang Township) within Huzhou were selected for study (see Fig. 3). Both exemplify the economic, social and environmental transformations occurring in Huzhou Municipality and represent the lowest level of formal administrative organisation. Consisting of 30 villages and the town built-up area, Zhili has a population of 38,200 and a total land area of 46 km2. It has a well-developed economic and social infrastructure based primarily on a specialised commodity market, the China-Zhili Children’s Garment Market (pers. comm. Zhili Town Mayor’s Office, 1999). Daochang Township consists of 23 villages and the township built-up area, and has a population of 21,398, covering a total land area of 60 km2. Adjacent to the expanding urban core of Huzhou Municipality (also known as Huzhou City), Daochang is currently undergoing a rural–urban transformation (pers. comm. Daochang Township Leader’s Office, 1999). Both sites provided favourable access to information because of their proximity to the urban core of Huzhou Municipality and the availability of networking (‘‘guanxi’’) with senior officials at the municipal, town and township levels. Primary data for this research consist of the factual knowledge and perceptions of government officials and
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representatives from rural industries. A series of indepth interviews with 40 key-informants from Zhejiang Province and Huzhou Municipality, including Zhili Town and Daochang Township, were completed in the spring and summer of 1999. Key-informants were selected according to their knowledge of, and involvement in, agricultural land issues, policies and programmes. In order to capture the myriad political, economic and environmental components of the agricultural land protection issue, interviews were conducted with senior officials from a broad range of government agencies. These included agricultural economic development committees, environmental protection bureaux and offices, LMB and offices, mayoral offices, planning departments, and village and township construction offices. Government officials responsible for local village committees and representatives from rural industries in Zhili Town and Daochang Township were also interviewed to provide specific information about local development policies and initiatives. The study participants were asked a series of structured and open-ended questions related to agricultural land issues, policies and regulatory processes, and about the barriers and constraints to the implementation of agricultural land protection. Responses were combined with secondary data sources, and further supplemented by field observations, to produce a narrative composite. The latter constitutes the descriptive and analytical core of the case study.
Huzhou municipality: reconciling agricultural land protection and rapid rural industrialisation Huzhou Municipality is undergoing extensive industrialisation and experiencing a substantial transformation of its economy and environment. Through the creation of employment, the provision of various inputs to support agriculture and a capacity to support the cost of local governments, rural industrialisation has underwritten many of the observed improvements in the
livelihood of the local population. As noted by a senior official of the Huzhou Public Security Bureau (1999), ‘‘increasing incomes have made employment, food, health care and education more accessible’’. Indications of economic change in Huzhou Municipality and Zhejiang Province are summarised in Table 1. Between 1992 and 1997, per capita GDP in Huzhou Municipality increased from 2815 to 11,634yuan, or by 313 per cent. The improved livelihood brought about by this impressive economic growth is evident in the expansion of suburb-like residential areas and the development of community infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and a water treatment facility in the study area. However, at the same time rapid expansion of rural industrial and residential development has placed immense pressure on already limited agricultural land resources. As summarised in Table 2, Huzhou Municipality is experiencing significant agricultural change. Since 1978, the total area of available cultivated land has decreased by more than nine per cent, from 143,030 to 129,950 ha. Between 1992 and 1997, the total area of available cultivated land decreased by 3.3 per cent, from 134,330 to 129,948 ha. The per capita cultivated land decreased by 8.9 per cent, from 0.056 to 0.051 ha, during the same period. Concurrently, agricultural production has intensified with the total value of municipal agricultural output increasing 103 per cent between 1992 and 1997, from 1282 to 2597 million yuan (Huzhou Statistical Bureau, 1999). However, while the macro-impetus for economic growth has continued, scarcity of land and resources has become an increasingly critical concern for local development. Agricultural land protection in Huzhou Municipality is based on the national ‘‘dynamic balance’’ mandate and on provincial guidelines set up by the Zhejiang LMB. Under the supervision of the Huzhou LMB, and its branch LMOs, the municipal, county, town and township governments are required to maintain a quantity and quality of agricultural land in their respective jurisdictions equal to that in 1996 (pers.
Table 1 Indicators of economic change in Huzhou Municipality, Zhejiang Province Huzhou Municipalitya 1992
1997
% Change
Total population Gross domestic product (100 million yuan) GDP per capita (yuan)
2,480,200 69.64 2815
2,545,800 296.16 11,634
+2.6 +325.3 +313.3
Zhejiang Provinceb Total population Gross domestic product (100 million yuan) GDP per capita (yuan)
42,859,100 1365.35 3187
44,222,800 11,384.84 10,515
+3.2 +239.8 +229.9
a b
Huzhou Statistical Bureau (1999). Zhejiang Statistical Bureau (1999).
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1997
% Change
Total population Total land area (km2) Total cultivated area (ha) Cultivated area per capita (ha) Gross value of agricultural output (100 million yuan)
2,480,200 5737 134,330 0.056 12.82
2,545,800 5817 129,950 0.051 25.97
+2.6 +1.4 3.3 8.9 +102.6
Zhejiang Provinceb Total population Total land area (km2) Total cultivated area (ha) Cultivated area per capita (ha) Gross value of agricultural output (100 million yuan)
42,859,100 101,800 1,691,220 0.04 226.46
44,222,800 101,800 1,612,420 0.036 516.21
+3.2 0.0 4.7 10.0 +127.9
a b
Huzhou Statistical Bureau (1999). Zhejiang Statistical Bureau (1999).
comm. Huzhou LMB, 1999). However, local governments have been afforded significant flexibility in facilitating this requirement as a consequence of the decentralisation and devolution of legal and fiscal responsibility for land administration. This is best encapsulated by a representative from the Zhili Town Mayor’s Office (1999) who described the downloading of administrative and financial responsibility for land administration initiatives as a situation where, ‘‘local solutions and resources have to be found to deal with social and environmental issues’’. In Huzhou Municipality two initiatives are fundamental to agricultural land protection: land reclamation and land use reorganisation. By law, local governments and industries are responsible for replacing agricultural land that is taken out of cultivation with reclaimed land of equal quantity and quality (GPRC, 1998a). In Zhili Town and Daochang Township, land has been reclaimed from idle and barren land (waste land), ponds, the beds of small rivers, obsolete irrigation channels, and illegal homes constructed on cultivated land. Land reclamation is co-ordinated by the local LMOs, which develop land use plans for the town and township, respectively. Land reclamation outside of a designated built-up area is the responsibility of the local village committees and individual industries involved. Land reclamation fees are collected by the local LMOs if provincial quantity and quality standards are not met (pers. comm. Daochang LMO, 1999; Zhili LMO, 1999). The Huzhou LMB (pers. comm. 1999) has recognised that significant opportunities exist for town and township governments to determine local land management. For example, the Zhili Town Mayor’s Office (pers. comm. 1999) indicated that the payment of land reclamation fees is a necessary trade-off in order to accommodate industrial and residential development priorities. As noted by a representative from the Zhenbei
Company (1999), a local garment manufacturer located in Zhili Town, the payment of land reclamation fees is simply considered as part of production costs for local industries looking to expand their operations onto agricultural land. At the same time, agricultural land has been taken out of cultivation in Daochang Township through the designation of built-up areas in land use plans. According to the Daochang LMO (1999), all land, including agricultural, which falls within a built-up area is considered Class 2 (construction land) so long as the land use plans were developed by the Township prior to the formalisation of the provincial agricultural land protection regulations in 1999. As noted by a representative from the Zhejiang Jiang Nan Company (1999), a local agricultural processor in Daochang, the Township government has set aside some existing agricultural land for future development. These practices facilitate the encroachment of industrial and residential activities onto agricultural land. Land for agricultural production is lost but at a cost that is acceptable to local administrators. The ability of local governments to interpret the mandate given to them by Huzhou Municipality and to implement policies that suit their local development interests is further revealed through the reorganisation of land use. As the availability of land reclamation sources declines, the relocation and concentration of dispersed rural settlements has been implemented throughout Huzhou Municipality. The Huzhou LMB (1999) indicated that of the existing 4576 villages in the municipality, 1249 are being relocated or merged together into ‘‘key’’ central villages. This process makes land that is currently occupied by villages and dispersed rural residences available for development. It is at the town and township level that relocation and concentration initiatives are planned and implemented. According to the Huzhou LMB (1999), it is
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preferable to decrease the total area used in a particular rural settlement than to relocate an entire village. However, the legal right of rural residents to remain in place until they desire a new home hinders both initiatives. To mediate this situation, local policies to restrict the expansion of existing homes and to provide financial incentives for rural residents to move have been developed. In Zhili Town and Daochang Township, displaced rural residents receive compensation in the form of reparation for the lost value of agricultural production, and moving costs are subsidised (Daochang LMO, 1999; Zhili LMO, 1999). Furthermore, the construction of new homes, improved infrastructure and public services is provided as an incentive. Local economic conditions are important factors limiting the implementation of dispersed settlement relocation and concentration initiatives. While town and township governments are responsible for the construction of infrastructure, local village committees have to purchase for their citizens the new homes provided by the town and township governments (Zhili LMO, 1999). As noted by a representative from the Daochang Village and Township Construction Office (1999), ‘‘since the cost of moving villages is high, only villages with adequate income can move off agricultural land’’. However, favourable economic development in parts of Zhili Town and Daochang Township has allowed significant relocation and concentration to occur (Daochang Township Leader’s Office, 1999; Zhili Town Mayor’s Office, 1999). Although national and provincial policies require a balance to be maintained at local levels of government, the protection of agricultural land is not consistent throughout Huzhou Municipality. Despite concerted efforts to implement land reclamation and land use reorganisation initiatives, agricultural land protection in Zhili Town and Daochang Township continues to be compromised by pressure for industrial and residential development (Daochang LMO, 1999; Zhili LMO, 1999). The Huzhou LMB mediates this conflict through the coordination of land management initiatives, and this includes setting quotas for the distribution of land available for non-agricultural purposes. Land available for non-agricultural purposes includes surplus land reclaimed by local governments and industries, which is reported to and then administered by the Huzhou LMB (Huzhou LMB, 1999; Zhili LMO, 1999). According to the Huzhou LMB (1999), the distribution of land for non-agricultural purposes facilitates residential and industrial development in the urban core of Huzhou Municipality, and in key towns and township built-up areas. Quotas for land use are set for each town and township. Zhili Town receives a higher quota than most towns due to its high level of economic development and its importance to the municipal and
provincial economies. To compensate for non-agricultural land use in Zhili Town, less developed townships in Huzhou Municipality are required to reclaim land for agricultural use beyond their immediate local needs (Zhili Town Mayor’s Office, 1999). This process allows for economic development in Huzhou, while maintaining the municipal balance of agricultural land. This decision to pursue the ‘‘dynamic balance’’ mandate at only the municipal level, and not at lower levels of local government, is indicative of the discretion Huzhou Municipality has in the interpretation and implementation of agricultural land protection policies. The ability of local governments in Huzhou municipality to interpret agricultural land protection mandates and implement initiatives that suit local development interests represents the emergence of local agency within the development process and provides a compelling example of the significant role of local government with respect to agricultural land protection in Zhejiang Province.
Conclusion In contemporary China, local government is emerging as a major player in translating agricultural land protection policy into local patterns of land use. This new role is clearly evident in Zhejiang Province. The devolution of responsibility for agricultural land protection, coupled with the increasing ability of rural industrialisation to underwrite the costs of local governments, has resulted in the growing opportunity for local agency. This is illustrated in the case study of Huzhou Municipality, which reveals a local response to the agricultural land protection issue that is influenced as much by local development priorities as by national land preservation directives. The crucial factor affecting the nature and extent of agricultural land protection in Zhejiang Province is the ability of local governments to balance economic, social and environmental interests within the encompassing market-oriented transition of the Chinese political economy. Despite the development of a comprehensive legal framework for agricultural land protection, the interpretation and implementation of land use policy at local levels of government continues to trade-off the loss and degradation of agricultural land (and the attendant environmental costs) against increasing economic growth. Sustained economic development in rural areas will become increasingly dependent upon the significance attributed to agricultural land protection within the overall development strategies of local government. This may, in turn, be complicated by the direct (ownership) and indirect (taxation) benefits of further industrialisation in the countryside; this process continues to be promoted by all levels of government and
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represents an increasingly acute challenge for China’s land use policy. The analysis of local agricultural land protection processes and policies described in this paper suggests a need to re-evaluate the role of local government in China with respect to local development processes in general and agricultural land use issues in particular. This would mean looking both at the ways national and provincial policies are implemented locally and at the policies themselves. Such a re-focussing of research from an interest in the development of policy at the national and provincial level to its implementation at the local level will have increasing relevance in a modernising China. It seems very likely that administrative responsibility will continue to be devolved and economic interests, be they national, regional or local, will continue to be emphasised. It is clear that land use policy is transformed as it cascades down from the national to local levels. The result may be the specialisation of land use at the municipal scale and a move away from myriad local attempts to balance economic growth and agricultural land protection. As a consequence, land use will become less predictable at the very local level. The experience in Huzhou Municipality has been one of local land use prioritisation. Some local areas are designated as agricultural, while others as industrial, commercial, or residential. These latter land uses represent de facto urbanisation of previously rural landscapes, a process that has already become imprinted throughout the Chinese countryside.
Acknowledgements Support for this research was generously provided by the Canadian International Development Agency, under the auspices of the University of GuelphFZhejiang Agricultural University Project: Facilitating and Channelling the Reform Trends of Industrialisation and Urbanisation in the Chinese Countryside.
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