Soil and Water Conservation Planning on the Loess Plateau in Northern China

The continuous degradation by soil erosion is threatening the agricultural production and thus the livelihoods of many farmers on the Chinese Loess Plateau. In 1997 the EROCHINA project (funded by the European Union and the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries) started with an unique approach to find acceptable and effective conservation strategies, which are based on the integration of soil erosion modeling and participatory soil and water conservation planning. This article provides an overview of the developed approach and its application.