Win–win path for ecological restoration

Abstract Ecosystem degradation is a major cause of poverty, and poverty further aggravates ecosystem degradation through a feedback known as the 'poverty trap' that can prevent sustainable socioeconomic development in ecologically fragile areas. However, most ecological restoration programmes have failed to improve the lives of residents of the targeted areas because planners failed to understand the driving forces behind the poverty trap. Finding the threshold conditions for the poverty trap, which represent the conditions when the current state of a system changes to a new and inferior state, can help managers to avoid triggering the poverty trap in ecologically fragile areas. To avoid crossing the threshold, it's necessary to understand the driving mechanisms responsible for the poverty trap so that managers can break the vicious cycle that undermines the effectiveness of ecological restoration. China's ecological restoration has shown that integrating ecological restoration with measures that provide a sustainable livelihood for residents of programme areas can achieve the win–win goal of ecological restoration and poverty alleviation. We found preliminary evidence that there is an income threshold for the poverty trap, and that raising incomes above this level may help residents of restoration areas escape the trap. The examples described in this paper provide valuable guidance for other countries that must achieve similar goals.