Countermeasures of landscape and ecological stewardshipin agricultural/rural area of China

Integrated measurement of agricultural and rural eco-environments management is critical for sustainable rural development. Ecological and landscape restorations are also key elements of rural environmental stewardship for agro-tourism, rural economic and cultural revival activities. Based on comparative reviews of European and American rural environmental stewardship policies and measures, this paper discussed problems of ecological and landscape restorations and enhancement in China's agricultural and rural environmental stewardships. The identified problems in China included weak cognitive and research of multi-functions of agriculture and rural environments. Also improvements were needed in engineering technology of ecological landscapes and finding integrative strategies. Furthermore, agriculture and rural ecological landscape stewardships needed to be strengthened. The paper suggested several countermeasures for strengthening rural landscape and ecological restorations of China's rural environmental stewardship. Such countermeasures included: (1) promoting and enhancing agricultural/rural multi-functions such as restoration of ecological service of agro-landscapes, agro-landscape biodiversity protection, enforced management of disaster adaptability and soil-water safety, construction of rural landscape and development of agro-tourism; (2) strengthening farmer participation in rural environmental stewardship; and (3) improving cooperation of different sectors and development of integrated engineering techniques for farmers. Farmer subsidy policies for improvement of rural environmental stewardships needed in-depth studies before adoption.