跨国土地利用及其生态影响

在全球食物价格不断上涨,粮食安全已经威胁到经济安全的环境下,跨国农用地投资成为国际浪潮。跨国农用地投资推动着各国的土地资源向全球化资源转变,对土地的跨国利用成为全球土地资源优化配置的必然。在对跨国土地利用的背景及现状进行阐述的基础上,指出"代理性农业耕作"方式对区域生态环境可能造成的影响。同时,新型农业科技与跨国土地利用的结合,也在推动着农业经济发展的同时,改变着传统的土地利用模式,进而改变着区域生态环境。最后,指出需要对跨国土地利用做出理性分析并建立相关的国际规则,从而维护可持续粮食安全及生态安全。

Transnational land use and its potential environmental consequence

Attributed to economic forces and fluctuations, global food insecurity is the result of international spikes in food prices, and drives dynamic changes in global transnational land investments. In the form of private negotiations, government leases and concessions in exchange for the development of agricultural infrastructure, irrigation systems and transportation systems, foreign soil is being exchanged in commerce between countries at an unprecedented pace. Moreover, this trend has been intensified by the increased urban demand from rapidly developing countries in Asia, as well as the transition of crops from foodstuffs to feedstocks for biofuels in Europe and America. Transnational land investments promote the transformation of local national land resources into global resources, and dynamic changes in transnational land use is the inevitable result of this land resource optimization.Food security will be among China's most significant national challenges in this century. The discourse on food security in China is limited to defending the red line of 1.8 million mu of arable land, while the phenomenon of transnational land investments in a global context and its potential environmental impacts, which may also lead to food insecurity, have received relatively less attention. In fact, great international concern has arisen over China's land acquisitions for agricultural and biofuel production in the past decade. As an increasingly influential member of the international community, China should be aware of and committed to addressing challenges arising in the course of transnational land investment.Therefore, this paper firstly reviews the background and current situation of transnational land use, and identifies the potential environmental impacts of surrogate farming practice on regional ecological systems. While historically not new, the current processes of transnational land acquisition could be viewed as the largest-scale operation of long-distance farming in human history. Modern agricultural technology, which has played an important role in the improvement of agricultural economy,changes conventional modes of land use and causes further dramatic impact on regional ecological systems. Moreover, through a series of case studies, it highlights the fact that industrial agriculture promoting short-term crop yield is prioritized over long-term soil replenishment and ignores the complex ecology of soil. Water basins-ecologically fragile, economically and politically valuable-have also now become the target of a new wave of large-scale agriculture projects promoted by transnational land acquisitions. Consequently, the growing international and transnational commodification of soil threatens the longevity of vast sections of the world's arable land, the quantity and quality of fresh water, and the health of essential ecosystems world-wide, if no proper rules are established to prevent the deleterious effects of soil-mining and industrial farming practices. Finally, the paper points out the necessity of comprehensive monitoring and analysis of trends in transnational land use, as well as the establishment of relevant international rules, for the purpose of maintaining sustainable food security and ecological security. It argues that the guidelines should include the following key points: (1) Ensuring food security, which means broad-scale alignment between transnational land investments and national agriculture and food policies; (2) Consultation with and participation of local governments and agencies, ensuring greater linkage of investments with local development plans; (3) Environmental sustainability, which means quantifying and measuring environmental impacts, promoting sustainable resource use and land use policies, and minimizing the risk of negative impacts on ecosystems, natural processes, and societal goals.