Cases / Lobbying, PR and greenwashing · China · 1958–1960
Non-peer-reviewed study links China's 1958 sparrow campaign to famine deaths
Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.
Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
A non-peer-reviewed NBER study links China's 1958 sparrow campaign to crop losses and about 2 million extra deaths. Locust outbreaks followed the sparrow hunt.
What?
China's Four Pests campaign targeted sparrows; a non-peer-reviewed study links the sparrow killing to crop losses and famine deaths NBER / EPIC (University of Chicago)
Where?
China NBER Working Paper 34087
When?
1958 to 1960 NBER Working Paper 34087
Who?
Gained
None on recordLost
- Sparrows — targeted for killing under the campaign NBER Working Paper 34087
Harmed
- Chinese population during the 1958 to 1960 famine — an estimated 2 million additional deaths, per the NBER study NBER / EPIC (University of Chicago)
Why?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
How?
Sparrows were killed as one of four pests targeted in the campaign NBER Working Paper 34087
6 of 6 questions answered from the record
What happened
The record, in order.
NBER Working Paper 34087 describes China's Four Pests campaign of 1958 to 1960, under which sparrows were targeted and locust outbreaks followed.
According to NBER and EPIC news (August 2025), sparrow killing accounts for about 20% of the crop decline during the famine and about 2 million additional deaths.
The study is not peer reviewed.
In court and with insurers
Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.
Lawsuits and rulings
No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.
Insurers
No insurer decision on record.
What we don't know
Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
Nature
- Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
Record
- Insufficient The NBER study is not peer reviewed; its estimates are not independently checked in the sources reviewed.
- None on record Reported without a specific source link: the Great Leap Forward is described as the main cause of the famine.
- None on record The number of sparrows killed and the geographic scope of the campaign are not stated in the sources reviewed.
- None on record Who, if anyone, gained from the campaign is not stated.
Did the harm stop?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Who paid?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Sources
Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts— Press and investigations— Communities and civil society✓ Researchers
Researchers
- How the persecution of sparrows killed 2M peopleNBER / EPIC (University of Chicago) · 2025-08
- Campaigning for extinction: eradication of sparrows and the great famine in ChinaNBER Working Paper 34087 ·
Connected cases
Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
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- Fengyun-1C anti-satellite test China · 2007–2026
- Government of China (Government) — here: ran the Four Pests campaign; there: State that conducted the test
- Fukushima treated water discharge and Chinese seafood ban Japan · 2023–2025
- Government of China (Government) — here: ran the Four Pests campaign; there: Banned Japanese seafood imports
- Human Rights Watch reports about 930,000 relocated in Tibet for ecological protection China · 2024
- Government of China (Government) — here: ran the Four Pests campaign; there: authority that carried out the relocations, as reported
- Mekong upstream dams and the decline of Tonle Sap flow reversal Cambodia · 1962–2026
- Government of China (Government) — here: ran the Four Pests campaign; there: Operator of the upper Mekong (Lancang) dams; rejected the 2019 low-flow attribution
- World Bank-backed dams displaced people, and reviews found incomes often not restored Global · 1985–2018
- Government of China (Government) — here: ran the Four Pests campaign; there: Host government for the Three Gorges dam
- Yangtze ten-year fishing ban China · 2020–2030
- Government of China (Government) — here: ran the Four Pests campaign; there: Regulator; ban and compensation