Joy Liu
Joy Liu is a 2016 recipient of the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) Climate & Society Graduate Fellows Program.
Project Title: Dryland conservation in China: local incentives drive collaborative action on regional climate adaptation.
Abstract: This project will assess the local incentives that drive collaborative efforts to conserve dryland systems on agricultural landscape in northern China by collaborating with a non-profit organization (NGO) called Green Action Charity Foundation. The Foundation collaborate with two other stakeholders: County-level officials, and village leaders in Shanxi province to develop tree-planting models, and achieve reforestation targets set by the national government. But NGO efforts face the challenge of integrating conservation, local development needs and regional climate adaptation strategies. Data from interviews and ethnographic study conducted during summer 2014 serve as basis to identify possible incentives and disincentives for collaboration among stakeholders. In summer and fall 2016, a comparative community-level climate adaptation profile and drivers for participation in conservation efforts will be documented and analyzed through stakeholder perspectives in two villages in Shanxi and Gansu province, China. These findings will be used by the Foundation and other stakeholders to develop an updated integrative collaborative model that may help us understand what drives dissonance between values and subsequent collaborative behavior in the context of dryland conservation in China.