Introduction

Desertification is defined as “land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors including climatic variations and human activities” (UNCCD 1994). Today, desertification is a global environmental problem, nearly one quarter of the world land area has become desertified. In Asia, of a total land area of 44 million km2, 37% (15.68 million km2) is taken up by arid areas.

Desertification has many causes, mainly natural factors and human activities, as shown in Fig. 1 (Hans et al. 2003). These reasons are the basis for the UN’s joint action initiative. To analyze just the human factors contributing to desertification in Kuwait and the Hotan region of China, and the policies and regulations implemented to control these.

Fig. 1
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Interaction between climatic and human factors causing desertification (Hans et al. 2003)

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In the existing literatures, the emphasis of human factors mainly includes population growth, excessive grazing, urbanization evaluation of lateral forces on stabilizing piles and distribution of landslide-thrust, and resistance of slip mass

The literature comparing environmental policies designed to combat desertification (hereafter referred to as “desertification policy”) is very limited. Typically, environmental policies in two or more countries are examined, their similarities and differences are enumerated, and an explanation of the observed differences is postulated. Few studies incorporate a holistic approach and comparative analysis in this field. Moreover, when compared to other areas of comparative public policy research, the material in this area tends to be highly descriptive.

In this work, the implementation of desertification policy in Kuwait and in the Hotan region of China is compared. Current policy to combat desertification, protect the environment, and encourage development lags behind what the situation requires. Policy-making regarding desertification needs to be improved, and policy enforcement, local community involvement, and public participation in combating desertification all need to be strengthened. This study will benefit officials in Kuwait and Hotan by suggesting improvements to the legislative system designed to combat desertification and to improve the fragile desert environment. Moreover, it will encourage consideration of a new perspective of environmental management. To share the Chinese “top-down” model for implementing desertification policy and to enhance the public participation, the people in Hotan, highly environmental awareness, but without action, Kuwait has a better public participation in desertification control. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a comparative study of the present environmental policies designed to combat desertification and achieve sustainable development in the two countries.

State of the art

  • Land degradation and desertification is a serious global issue facing arid ecosystems. Liu et al. (2013) analyzed on household behavior shortfalls and concluded that desertification rehabilitation is not sustainable in China without continued governmental intervention. Li et al. (2015) analyzed the articulates sustainable development from a Chinese cultural perspective by tracing ideas from Chinese traditional culture and exploring China’s concept of harmonious development with emphasis on environmental management. Akhtar-Schuster et al. (2011) suggested to set up the scientific bodies, which coordinate and stimulate the global scientific research community to support mainstreaming and the up-scaling of efforts to combat land degradation, and could also stimulate national cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder knowledge exchange. Jasem et al. (2003) recommended that the government of Kuwait should focus on five points, and the most important one is policies, regulations, legislations, and reinforcements. Fikry et al. (2013) investigated that the biotic and abiotic components of the desert ecosystem of Kuwait have witnessed progressive severe and extensive, and implement some national plan to protect the natural desert; the author emphasized policies, regulations, and legislation that play an important role in environmental management. As above mentioned, although domestic and foreign scholars have done more research on the environmental policies to combat desertification in Kuwait and Hotan, and the research perspective and focus are also different, the research results from the implementation of desertification control policies are limited; the specific analysis of the Kuwait and Hotan area belongs to the blank.

  • The sections of the paper are arranged as follows. In the third section, the research scope, data, and method are introduced. In the fourth section, the comparison result is analyzed, to share “top-bottom” typical Chinese characteristics for environmental management. In the fifth section, the conclusion is presented.

Methodology

Study area

Hotan is located in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the Eurasian continent, on the southern edge of the Tarim Basin (Fig. 2). The desertified land area there accounts for 74.6% of the total land area. The Hotan region has a typical temperate continental arid climate, which features extreme drought, scarce precipitation, and high evaporation. The average annual temperature is 13.8 °C, though higher temperatures are often experienced, with large temperature differences between day and night. Average annual precipitation is 48.5 mm and average annual evaporation is 2400 mm. Annual sunshine hours received are approximately 2470–3000 h, meaning the whole area receives between 8 and 60% of the annual average sunshine possible at this latitude. The Hotan area is located northeast of the intersection with the northwest wind; therefore, dust and sandstorms are frequent, especially between March and May. Hotan area is the main Uighur ethnic minority areas, Uighur’s religion is Islam, the total population of the whole region is 212.34 million in 2014a, which accounted for 96.4% of Uygur, Han Chinese accounted for 3.4%, 0.2% others, the ethnic population natural growth rate of 11.56‰.

Fig. 2
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Location of the study area in Hotan, China, and Kuwait

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Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the northeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia (Fig. 2). It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the northwestern shore of the Persian Gulf. Kuwait has a desert climate that is hot and dry, and 72% of its total land area is desertified. The summers are relentlessly long, punctuated mainly by dramatic dust storms in June and July when northwesterly winds cover the cities in sand, and can reach speeds of up to 50 km per hour. Rainfall is scarce and irregular: the total average yearly rainfall is approximately 89.6 mm. Recorded minimum annual rainfall levels have been as low as 25 mm, while the maximum recorded annual rainfall is 325 mm. The mean annual temperature is 26.9 °C, and average annual evaporation capacity is about 1400 mm. The Kuwaiti population is 348.00 million in 2014a, of which 98% of the urban population, the population growth rate is 4.34%, Islam is the state religion.

Data sources

Kuwait and Hotan are both located in Asia, and both have a typical desert climate. The natural factors that cause desertification are essentially the same in the two regions. These include high temperature, scarce and irregular rainfall, and high evaporation capacity (Evans and Geerken 2004). The proportion of desertified land and natural factors are very similar, as shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Comparison of natural factors
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The people in Kuwait and Hotan are both Muslim ethnic area, both of them have own Local knowledge. Local knowledge includes all types of culture-specific information, knowledge, skills, norms, taboos, codes of conduct, customs, norms of behavior, conventions, and traditions on desertification control that are based on local experience, wisdom, practices, and histories and are mainly owned by the locals. The people in Kuwait and Hotan ecological ethics is a symbiosis of man and nature, the harmony between man and nature, man is a member of the natural ecosystem, rather than the master of the human nature management “on behalf of the ruler” (Yang 2015). Both of them prefer green, flag of Kuwait on behalf of the green oasis, represents life, where Uighurs are accustomed to settle, first planting flowers and trees where, when dig trenches poplar, willow species when the mill was built, fruit trees behind the house was built, pre-trial grapes.

Desertification in Kuwait is a process of environmental degradation of fragile ecological conditions by intensive human activities. Excessive economic activities can be considered the main cause of desertification in Kuwait (Shahid et al. 1999). Before oil development and production began in 1964, the Kuwaiti population was less than 150,000 and the economy mainly relied on the export of pearls. Changes in economic structure, rapid population growth, urbanization, and human activities have seriously affected the ecological environment, and desertification in Kuwait is becoming increasingly problematic (Jasem et al. 2003). To combat its increasingly prominent environmental problems, Kuwait has enacted a series of laws and regulations on environmental protection, pollution, human health, and animal and plant resources. It also actively participates in regional and international environmental conferences and forums. The Kuwait Environmental Protection Act, enacted in 1981, is the foundation of Kuwaiti environmental protection (Schwilch et al. 2014). Table 2 presents desertification policies and the effect of their implementation in Kuwait.

Table 2 Policies and the effect of policy implementation on human factors in Kuwait
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Sources: Aliyu and Naeema (2015), Benson and Jordan (2009), Mohamed (2001), Ma (2005), Grimm et al. (2000), and David (2008)

Desertification in Hotan is also driven by human factors. For a long time, over-cultivation and overgrazing have occurred as a result of the production of food and to meet the basic needs of local residents. This has resulted in a significant reduction in forest area in the region and has increased the amount of barren farmland, and grassland and vegetation degradation, making the already fragile ecological environment deteriorate further, and making desertification a serious problem. In light of this situation, the Chinese government has developed a series of environmental policies, and the local government of Hotan has developed desertification policies specific to Hotan. The environment of Hotan has been improved by these policies and regulations: this is evident because desertification has been mitigated and the living conditions of local residents have improved. Table 3 presents the policies designed to combat human factors driving desertification in Hotan and the effects of these policies.

Table 3 Human factors, policies, and the effects of policy implementation in Hotan
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Sources: National report of the People’s Republic of China on environment and development (Bai et al. 2014; Fleishman 2004; People’s Republic of China 2010)

Data analysis

Table 4 compares the desertification policies of Kuwait and Hotan and their implementation. It reveals that they differ in five key ways: (1) the role of local government, (2) laws and regulations, (3) timeliness, (4) public participation, and (5) government funding for forestry.

Table 4 Differences in the implementation of desertification policy
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Sources: Harashima and Morita (1998), Li and Yu (2011), Li and Higgins (2013), Yang et al. (2013), and Zhang et al. (2015)

Result and discussion

This study focused on policies of desertification control as a viable and strategically important method to enhance land availability and sustainability for socio-economic development in Kuwait and Hotan. Various forms of environmental management—the notion that environmental problems like desertification can be solved through better environmental management and policy—are taken to be the most effective response to combating desertification. The pressures on the resources and environment of a rapidly developing country are such that natural conservation issues often take second place in the official order of priorities (Mi et al. 2016; Fu and Liu 2017; Li et al. 2018; Liu 2017; Alberti et al. 2003).

The results of the study show that problems in Kuwait are related to inadequate legislation or lack of enforcement on land use and desertification control. None of the reports examined in this study focused on the policy of desertification control as an equally important action for coping with land use and water scarcity in Kuwait. The most important of these recommendations are the realization of sound policies, strategies and action plans, the development of models for integrated desertification control and management, sound land governance, capacity development, database and information systems improvement, technology transfer, public awareness, and the enhancement of research and development facilities (Said and Hameed 2014).

China’s method of combating desertification has typical Chinese characteristics. The Chinese model involves the implementation of regulatory environmental policies at the central and local level by public organizations. China’s environmental policy is “top-down” (Fig. 3), which means that the decision-making bodies are the people’s congresses and people’s governments, in keeping with the governmental model of planned centralization (Liu et al. 2012; Liu 2010). However, in China’s environmental legislation and policies, although many of the provisions on public participation, but the lack of ways on public participation, methodological issues, the lack of strong public participation to protect the rule of law and practical experience alone is not the public interest responsibility, and the public generally lack expertise. The public participation in combating desertification is mainly reflected in the supervising mechanism, which is the result of this connection, lack of respect and informed mechanism, expression mechanism, as well as appeal mechanisms.

Fig. 3
figure 3

China’s environmental policy implementation flow diagram (Source: NPC-National People’s Congress)

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Conclusions

Relationships between desert and people created complex and diverse. Kuwait and Hotan not passive people to adapt to the desert environment, but creative to adapt, they play a huge initiative, in accordance with the principles of sustainable development by changing the past management, the use of appropriate technology to establish a series of combating desertification policies and regulations to curb the trend of desertification of land, maintaining a balanced interaction between people and the environment. This could involve strengthening legislation governing environmental protection, ecological construction, and other local issues, as well as increasing environmental law enforcement, in accordance with the principles of sustainable development, public participation in decision-making, and integrated environmental management. This would gradually establish and perfect the legal system surrounding desertification policy and establish the government as the main regulating body. It would also increase education and public consciousness of environmental issues, and change the behavior of the whole of society to improve voluntary public compliance and participation in modern environmental management. Furthermore, this study has limitations, for example, the institutions play what role in desertification policy implementation? Thus, if science-driven institutional play an important role of desertification policy in Kuwait and Hotan region of China, in what methods can improve the effectiveness of science and have positive effects on the impact of science on institutional change? The study should be further tested in future.

Change in the future development of the traditional “top-down” and “bottom-up” policy to combat desertification single embodiment, to promote “upper and lower interaction” management mode conversion, more scientific and implementation of environmental policy, help to improve citizens’ environmental action enthusiasm, better to understand the environmental policies implemented by the government, and to strengthen the citizens’ right to information and initiative to help combat desertification maximize the effect of policy implementation.

Combating desertification requires a global strategy and a comprehensive control project. The time is ripe for strengthening partnerships between countries and peoples, and between governments and investors. Kuwait and China should enhance the collaboration and communication between them, and with the strategic support of the “The Belt and Road” initiative, provide a potential incentive for collective action, build a regional solution, and make a joint effort of combating desertification via environmental policy management.