Disentangling poverty and biodiversity in the context of rural development: A case study for Pujiang country, China

Both, poverty reduction and preservation of biodiversity are high on the global agenda on sustainable development. The relationships between poverty, biodiversity of ecosystems and agricultural development are complex and poorly understood. In this paper we present an integrated framework for analysis of agricultural development and natural resource management options at ecosystem level. We use Pujiang county, in Zhejiang province, China as a case study area to perform the analysis. A regional Linear Programming (LP) model is applied maximizing regional economic surplus given product and labour market conditions in Pujiang. We use the model to determine the consequences of four so-called poverty reduction strategies, i.e. (i) intensification of production, (ii) diversification towards livestock production, (iii) land expansion, and (iv) an exit from agriculture, for a set of regional poverty and biodiversity indicators. Diversification seems the most promising poverty reduction strategy, but requires an efficient use of animal manure in cropping systems to avoid environmental problems.