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Roles of Scholars in the Practice of Combating-Desertification: A Case Study in Northwest China

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Abstract

This study investigated the perceived importance of scholars’ participation in combating-desertification programs in northwest China and analyzed the underlying factors and mechanisms. Our results show that, while various experts, professors, and researchers have participated in combating-desertification programs, their actions were often not effective. Only those scholars who understood the local situations adequately had important and positive impacts. These scholars served as information brokers between the governments and other stakeholders, entrepreneurial activity organizers for farmers, governmental representatives, or advocators for local affairs themselves. They played indispensible roles in facilitating efforts in combating desertification. The study also identified key factors that led to the success of scholars’ participation in combating-desertification activities. Our findings have practical implications for improving the effectiveness of scholars’ participation in land restoration and environmental management.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported in part by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (YWF-10-03-010) and a scholarship from the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University. The authors wish to thank Professor Elinor Ostrom, Professor Vincent Ostrom, Professor Ronald Perry, Professor R. F. “Rick” Shangraw, Ms. Robbie Robichau, Dr. Alexander Buyantuyev, Dr. Christopher M. Clark, Dr. Jie Zhang, Mr. Congguo Tang, and Mr. Fei Yuan for their helpful suggestions and constructive criticisms. Special thanks go to the four anonymous reviewers whose suggestions have led to a significant improvement of the article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Administration, Beihang University, No. 37 Xueyuan Rd, Beijing, 100191, China

    Lihua Yang

  2. School of Public Affairs, Arizona State University, 3720 411, North Central Avenue, Ste. 450, Phoenix, AZ, 85004-0687, USA

    Zhiyong Lan

  3. School of Public Administration, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China

    Zhiyong Lan

  4. School of Life Sciences and Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Jianguo Wu

  5. Sino-US Center for Conservation, Energy, and Sustainability Science, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, 010021, China

    Jianguo Wu

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  1. Lihua Yang
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Correspondence to Lihua Yang.

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Yang, L., Lan, Z. & Wu, J. Roles of Scholars in the Practice of Combating-Desertification: A Case Study in Northwest China. Environmental Management 46, 154–166 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-010-9534-y

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