sustainability Article Landscape Change and the Sustainable Development Strategy of Different Types of Ethnic Villages Driven by the Grain for Green Program Dan Wang 1,2 , David Higgitt 3, Yu-Ting Tang 4, Jun He 2 and Luo Guo 1,* 1 College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China;
[email protected] 2 International Doctoral Innovation Centre, Research Group of Natural Resources and Environment, Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, China;
[email protected] 3 Lancaster University College at Beijing Jiaotong University, Weihai 264401, China;
[email protected] 4 School of Geographical Sciences, Research Group of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, China;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +86-10-6893-1632 Received: 30 August 2018; Accepted: 26 September 2018; Published: 29 September 2018 Abstract: The Grain for Green Program (GGP) is an important ecological project in China that was implemented to tackle serious soil erosion and forest loss for sustainable development. Investigating landscape change is an efficient way to monitor and assess the implementation of GGP. In this paper, 180 ethnic villages, including 36 Miao and Dong (MD) villages with combined populations of Miao people and Dong people, 65 Dong villages, and 79 Miao villages in Qiandongnan Prefecture were selected to investigate the influence of GGP on ethnic villages by evaluating the landscape changes before and after the implementation of the GGP within 1-km and 2-km distance buffers around ethnic villages.