Farmers perception and response towards environmental migration and restoration plans based on participatory rural appraisal： a case study of emigration region in the karst Southwestern China
Abstract:Implementation of the environmental migration program has exerted a profound impact on the ecological restoration in the emigration region. On the basis of farm household surveys in four karst villages, this investigation was performed using participatory rural appraisal (PRA). Existing cropland area, income and the attitudes towards migration policy of farmers from two emigration villages was compared with that of from two non-emigration villages to elucidate the effect of migration and its sustainability in the emigration region. The results indicated that the program had already made progress in harmonizing human-earth relationship, promoting consciousness of environmental protection, increasing cropland use efficiency and income, improving comprehensive capacity of natural disaster resistance and effectively guaranteeing the implementations of de-farming and reafforestaion policy and diversified agricultural practices. However, four issues were also found through this study. Firstly, the number of potential emigrants was still high. Secondly, cropland sustainability was ignored with the increasingly commercialized planting behaviors. Thirdly, the program′s infrastructure such as water supply and transportation needed to be improved. Finally, local characteristic industries and culture were weakened in the emigration region.