Evaluation on the Eco-Economic Benefits of Rural Energy Construction Project in West Qinling Mountains Region, China

Excessive consumption of firewood is the important driving factor of forest degeneration in west Qinling Mountains region, China. Based on the investigated data, this paper evaluated the eco-economic benefits of rural energy construction project in this region. The results show: the ecological and economic benefits that using the solar stove and the biogas is remarkable. The quantity of heat, a household with 5 persons obtaining from one 1.5 m² solar stove and one 8 m³ biogas digester in each year, is equal to 773 kgce or 1353 kg fuelwood, whose net income is 278 Yuan. The quantity of fuelwood substituted in a year comes up to the growth quantity of 0.338 hm² forest land in each year, which could protect 0.042 hm² woodland against cutting. Sloping Land Conversion to Forest Program (SLCP) intending to expand the forest increment should be taken as a medium and long-term strategy and brought into effect steadily. Using the solar stove and the biogas takes to protect existent forest as the goal, is a trenchancy instrument of consolidated effect of SLCF and ecological constructing, and should be increase invested and constructed.