Nine chapters presented by Bennett (environmental management, Australian National U.), Wang (Crawford School of Economics and Government, Australian National U.), and Zhang (director-general, China National Forestry Economics and Development Research Center) analyze and assess China's Conversion of Cropland to Forest and Grassland Program, which involves farm households in the Northwest Provinces being subsidized to convert from their established annual cropping regimes on steeply sloped or other readily degraded lands to alternative uses that are based on trees and/or perennial grasses. The chapters address the overarching questions of whether the program has improved the profitability of farmer households in the Northwest Provinces and whether it has generated environmental improvements. Individually, the chapters introduce the agro-environmental context, outline the details of the program, discuss farm household livelihoods, provide a social-cost benefit analysis of the program, discusses impact on downstream agricultural production, work up a bioeconomic model of the impacts of the program, and assess the overall impact of the program for China. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)