China is the world’s 4th largest and most populous country, yet its per capita land holdings are small by world standards.Land productivity is low and land degradation serious and widespread.Since reforms were started in the late 1970s, individual land users have been able to enter into contracts with communes for the right to use a given piece of land for a fixed period of time, usually 30 years, and to benefit from any profit made from that land.Despite all this, China has the world’s 6th largest economy with a real annual growth in GDP in recent years of almost 10%.It is projected in time to become the world’s largest economy.This rapid economic growth, much of it due to large increases in manufacturing output, has produced a range of environmental problems.These are beginning to be addressed by the government, including though compensation payments made to farmers and others to reha-bilitate degraded land.Land in China is the property of either the state or the communes.
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