Data availability statement
All data are available in the paper.
Abstract
The “Belt and Road Initiative ” (BRI) was anticipated in 2013 to
promote socio-economic development and cooperation across countries in
Asia, Europe, Africa and worldwide. Rapid land-use changes and
infrastructure developments driven by the BRI program are expected in
the coming decades. These anthropogenic effects are likely to exaggerate
the process of de-vegetation, deforestation, accelerating
desertification, which is one of the major threats to the BRI region.
This manuscript studied the desertification facts (i.e. spatiotemporal
pattern, impacts and impacting factors) and investigated key aspects for
desertification control (i.e. mitigation and evaluation methods) in the
BRI countries via an extensive review of literature. We found that
desertification has been prevalent in the BRI countries, predominantly
in C Asia, but quantitative assessment of desertification is yet fully
understood. This review illustrated that desertification was driven by
climatic dryness and mis-land-use/management activities, but their
relative importance has yet been (quantitatively) assessed along the BRI
countries. Given the negative impacts of desertification, these BRI
countries have ratified the UN Convention to Combat Desertification
(UNCCD) to reduce negative impacts. The implementation of
desertification mitigation programmes are currently still lacking. We
argued that desertification is usually evaluated via four type of
approaches, including quantitative approaches, indirect detection,
direct observation and biophysical measurement (e.g. vegetation growth).
Future research should be applied by considering the research scope and
data availability. Overall, we conclude that BRI countries should carry
out transboundary control on desertification. Otherwise, this issue is
likely to extend further imminent developments under the foremost BRI
program.
Keywords: dryland degradation – impacts – causes - mitigation
– evaluation – Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
1. Introduction
The “Belt & Road Initiative ” (BRI) (“一带一路” in
Chinese ), initiated in October 2013 by China (Wang, 2013, Ascensao et
al., 2018), is the biggest trans-national program, which accounts for up
to 64% of global population and 30% of Gross Domestic Product(GDP) across the world (Huang, 2016, Economist, 2016). While
infrastructures development (e.g. railway, highway constructions) taking
on a leading role (Lechner et al., 2018), the BRI also comprises of
inter-connections on dialogues, trades, scientific and technological
knowledge exchange, education and talents developments (Huang, 2016,
NDRC, 2015). Since the BRI initiated, it has contributed considerably to
the cross-country cooperation that was firstly promoted within Asia and
then extended to Europe, Africa and other continents (Irshad et al.,
2015, Turgel et al., 2017, NRSCC, 2015). This policy encourages the
transnational financial and trade cooperation, evidently by founding the
“Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank ” (AIIB) (headquartered in
Beijing) (Yu, 2017) and establishing the “Silk Road Fund ” in
the last few years (Fallon, 2015). The BRI program is undoubtedly
beneficial for the socio-economic development of Asia Pacific, Central
Asia, Middle East, Europe, Africa and worldwide (Ascensao et al., 2018),
promoting over a quarter of global trade in the coming decades (Konings,
2018).
Although benefits of the program are expected, uncertainties and
challenges associated with the BRI are potentially seen, such as the
adverse impacts on ecosystem services, biodiversity and environment
(Lechner et al., 2018, Ascensao et al., 2018, Hughes et al., 2020). Most
of these areas located within or besides the BRI’s Economic Corridors
(ECs) (e.g. Central Asia, Middle East, etc.) are categorised as high
ecologically sensitive areas (e.g. wetlands, lakes, forest, etc.), which
have vibrant ecological species, valuable landscapes and vegetation.
Rapid development and investment projects in these ECs may degrade the
eco-environment and lead to further exaggerated desertification in
drylands and arid regions (Ascensao et al., 2018).
The term ‘desertification ’ was firstly used to depict the
transfer of productive arable lands in West Africa to deserts in the
1920s (Kertész, 2009). In the 1970s, the “United Nations
Conference on Desertification” (UNCOD) was organised following the
extremely arid/dryness periods from 1950s to 1970s in the region of
Sahelian Africa (Kertész, 2009). “Desertification ” was defined
in the conference as, “Reduction or destruction of the land’s
biological potential, which eventually results in the initiation and
development of desert-like conditions ” (UNCOD, 1977). In the 1990s,
the “UN Convention to Combat Desertification ” (UNCCD) further
defined “Desertification ” as, “Land degradation in arid,
semiarid, and dry sub-humid areas ” (Helldén and Tottrup, 2008,
D’Odorico et al., 2013). That is to say, ‘Desertification’ refers to
land degradation in drylands, which generally include
“hyper-arid ”, “arid”, “semi-arid ” and “dry
sub-humid ” areas with precipitation being largely counterbalanced by
evapotranspiration (Middleton and Thomas, 1997), excluding hyper-arid
areas. Recently, the UNCCD definition of desertification has been
challenged as overexploitation of water resources in hyper-arid lands
fits well into the concept of desertification, suggesting the necessity
for a further expansion of the UNCCD definition to include hyper-arid
areas (Martínez-Valderrama et al.,
2020).
Drylands support global populations at 38% (Huang et al., 2015), about
90% of which is currently living in the “Global South ” and
“developing countries ” (D’Odorico et al., 2013). However, these
areas are subject to land degradation (Bai et al., 2008), which is
mainly driven by desertification (Bayram and Öztürk, 2014). Dryland
degradation (i.e. desertification) extensively cost the developing
countries at about 4–8% of their GDPs (D’Odorico et al., 2013);
further exacerbating local poverty and episodic mass starvation (UNCCD,
2011). This factual impact provided that the Dryland (and specifically
the developing countries in Dryland area) is likely subject to an
increasing desertification and land degradation according to
human-induced and climatic factors (Huang et al., 2015, Huang et al.,
2020). However, desertification of dryland area has not attracted as
much public and scientific attention as other major environmental issues
such as climate change and biodiversity loss (Martínez-Valderrama et
al., 2020).
In fact, the BRI is currently covering a large proportion of areas
classified as drylands (Figure 1), where desertification is flattering
to expand as vegetation (e.g. suburbs, trees and plants, etc.) is
difficult to survive (Feng et al., 2015). Desertification has turned
into a significant land degradation problem in the geographical regions
that have been engaged with the BRI program, particularly in the
“Belt ” terrestrial routes and economic corridors (Dregne, 2002,
Dregne and Chou, 1992). For example, in Central Asia (Behnke, 2008, Liu
et al., 2004, Jin et al., 2012, Jiang et al., 2019a, Jiang et al.,
2019b), North China (Wang et al., 2008, Xu et al., 2019a, Xu et al.,
2019b) and Western Asia (Haktanir et al., 2004, EI Shaer, 2015, Darwish
et al., 2004, Bayram and Öztürk, 2014, Amin, 2004, Alvi, 1995, Gul et
al., 2019).
Natural and human-induced processes are widely acknowledged driving
forces for desertification (Feng et al., 2015, Sun et al., 2019),
including climatic change, water and wind erosion, over-grazing and
excessive farming activities (Dregne and Chou, 1992, Zhang and Huisingh,
2018). For example, climate change may exert adverse effects on the
dryland environment (e.g. vegetation growth, hydrological cycle) and
eventually lead to a further expansion of the desertified area (Marland
et al., 2003, Wang et al., 2004, Zhou et al., 2009, Huang et al., 2015,
Zhang et al., 2020a). Mis-land-use/management, such as over-grazing,
logging, underground water exploitation, inevitably eliminates
vegetation that prevent soil erosion by intensive rainstorms and strong
winds, eventually threating regional ecosystems and largely accelerating
the desertification (Zhao et al., 2005, Zheng et al., 2006, Zhang et
al., 2020b).
Future developments under the BRI program will likely lead to
substantial land-use changes and infrastructure constructions, which
facilitate further expansion of deforestation, de-vegetation and green
spaces shrinkage. These human-induced developments will interfere the
dryland environment and spread out the risk of desertification,
particularly given the fact that the BRI policies and practices have
been executed between East Asia (includes China), Central Asia, West
Asia and Eurasia regions (NDRC, 2015, Hughes et al., 2020). The
comprehensive desertification control measures are thus required under
the BRI program to promote the eco-environmental protection in all
countries that joined the program unanimously. These measures should be
established; on top of an exhaustive understanding of desertification,
such as the potential impacts and driving forces. Evidently, the Chinese
Government has recognised to implement the ecological friendly programs
that include the “Ecological Civilization ” program (Lechner et
al., 2018). Recently, the Government has further pushed the
sustainability practice in the BRI program and established the
“Green Belt Development ” practice (e.g. promoting using green
finance, and encouraging green energies) that aims to achieve Low Carbon
and Sustainable Development Goals (Liang and Zhang, 2019).
In this paper, we aimed to review and investigate the desertification
and its control measures in the BRI countries. Based on extensive review
of literature (e.g. journal articles, books, conference papers,
reports), we systematically investigated the desertification situation
(i.e. spatiotemporal pattern, impacts, impacting factors), and key
components for desertification control (i.e. mitigation and evaluation
strategies). We provide some solutions and policy recommendations that
aim to offer ways to mitigate the desertification in the BRI countries.
2. Geographical domain of the BRI
region
The BRI program is predominantly focused on the ECs and specific
development areas (Lechner et al., 2018, Menhas et al., 2019). On the
terrestrial areas, it focuses on building several economic corridors,
namely, the “Eurasian Land Bridge Economic Corridor ” (ELBEC),
the “China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor ” (CMREC), the
“China-Central Asia-West Asia Economic Corridor ” (CCAWAEC) and
the “China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor ” (CIPEC)
(Figure 1). At Maritime (coastal) environment, the BRI program
concentrates on developing the “China-Pakistan Economic
Corridor ” (CPEC) and the “Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar
Economic Corridor ” (BCIMEC). The intention of developing the corridors
is to promote further development of the BRI through a multi-functional
approach (Narain et al., 2020), which is established and combined with
international trans-national freight logistics and transport routes, key
cities to enhance new developments and infrastructures (i.e. industrial
parks) in the BRI region.
Four out of the above six ECs are facing drought threats, including
CMREC, CCA-WA-EC, ELBEC and CPEC (NRSCC, 2015) (Figure 1). Some
countries located in the dryness regions, such as Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia,
Pakistan, and Egypt, are suffering from severe drought effects due to
lacking of adequate water resources under the aridness climatic pattern.
In addition, these areas are also comparatively sensitive to climatic
change and anthropogenic (human-induced) interventions (Huang et al.,
2015) (Figure 1). Dryland degradation (i.e. desertification) is
currently widespread in the BRI region, which requires more attention
put into practice of the BRI program.