Contribution of Small-Scale Agroforestry to Local Economic Development and Livelihood Resilience: Evidence from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (KPK), Pakistan

From desolation to preservation: Investigating longitudinal trends in forest coverage and implications for future environmental strategies

Pakistan's forest cover is experiencing significant degradation in the ongoing efforts to combat climate change. The current state of the climate catastrophe is acknowledged. Nevertheless, there is a significant lack of readiness to tackle it effectively, especially regarding safeguarding the welfare of forthcoming generations. Pakistan bears significant relevance for future generations in this global crisis. The primary objective of this study is to examine the environmental difficulties faced by Pakistan and emphasize the critical need to safeguard its natural resources, considering the well-being of present and future generations. By using rigorous correlation and robust least squares regression methods, we investigate the complex interplay of financial aid, environmental legislation, precipitation, population growth, foreign direct investment, and afforestation within the time frame spanning from 1990 to 2022. The findings demonstrate that providing financial aid for afforestation initiatives significantly expands forested areas in Pakistan. Furthermore, the expansion of the population, the implementation of rigorous environmental restrictions, and the yearly amount of precipitation all play a role in the augmentation of forest coverage in Pakistan. Nevertheless, an alarming pattern of diminishing forest coverage over the years presents noteworthy obstacles. The importance of governance in promoting afforestation initiatives and sustainable development is highlighted by the emergence of adequate regulatory quality as a key factor. The average amount of precipitation has a discernible beneficial influence, underscoring the significance of climatic factors. The results above emphasize the need to implement cautious water resource management strategies and regulations responsive to climatic conditions. Based on these observations, the study proposes promoting sustainable agricultural and forest management, adopting a well-balanced strategy towards population expansion, implementing regulatory changes, and prudent use of water resources.

Agroforestry Adoption Decision in Green Growth Initiative Programs: Key Lessons from the Billion Trees Afforestation Project (BTAP)

Adoption of agroforestry in the early spring under the green growth initiative programs, such as the Billion Trees Afforestation Project, has positively impacted crop productivity and plantation success in Pakistan. However, the timely adoption decision of agroforestry in the Hindu Kush Himalayan is still low, particularly among smallholders. Using a mixed-method approach, we examine the factors influencing smallholder households and community-level timely agroforestry adoption decisions. Findings show that the early and later decision-makers farmers had agricultural lands on riversides and primarily adopted agroforestry to protect their crops from devastating effects of winds and floods. In contrast, late adoption decision-makers adopted agroforestry for income diversification. Results of our logit model show that several household and community-level factors influence smallholders' timely adoption of agroforestry. The factors that positively affect the timely adoption of agroforestry include age-related factors, education, and the establishment/existence of functional community-based organizations. In contrast, political conflicts and tenure insecurity negatively affect smallholders' timely adoption of agroforestry. In-depth interviews with Village Development Committees members revealed that terrace farming, farms on riversides, communities without access to other energy sources, population growth, and low farm acreage ensured the timely adoption of agroforestry. The policy recommendations include strengthening collaborative efforts among community members, especially engaging educated old-aged farmers (elders of traditional communities) to increase adoption rates and land tenure security to ensure timely agroforestry adoption under the newly launched 10-BTAP.

Analysis of the influence of entrepreneurial psychology on the index system of digital development of the equipment manufacturing industry

Entrepreneurs face the high pressure of the environment and may encounter psychological barriers such as entrepreneurial burnout. In order to maintain the growth of enterprises, entrepreneurs need to have toughness and perseverance to adapt to changes in the environment, overcome the negative effects of failure and crisis, and make progress in the crisis. The digital transformation of traditional manufacturing industry is an important way for the integration and development of digital economy and real economy. As the information support system of enterprise strategic psychology, strategic management accounting will also develop to a higher level with the digital transformation of enterprises. By reshaping an efficient spiritual organization, building an integrated innovation platform, and building an intelligent information architecture based on the concept of predictive finance, strategic management accounting will achieve important goals in the context of digital transformation. And give full play to the intellectual support role of its strategic psychology. The change of entrepreneurial psychology is crucial to the success of digital transformation of manufacturing industry. At present, the digital exploration of entrepreneurs’ psychological influence has made some preliminary achievements in technology and management, but according to the analysis in this paper, there is still much room for digital transformation.

Gastronomic Tourism and Tourist Motivation: Exploring Northern Areas of Pakistan

Gastronomic tourism is becoming an essential consideration among tourists when choosing a tourist destination. One of the main reasons for visiting a specific destination for almost 15% of tourists is “gastronomy”. This has led to the development of a new kind of tourism called “Gastronomic Tourism”. However, there has been minimal research on gastronomy tourism, specifically in Pakistan. The primary purpose of this study is to measure the level of satisfaction in a tourist destination and furthermore consider gastronomy as a component of visitor motivation. A survey of 307 tourists who had recently visited Pakistan’s northern areas was undertaken to conduct the study. This has enabled us to better understand the variables that influence the behaviors and attitudes of tourists toward this popular tourist attraction. Gastronomy motivation impacts tourism location selection, and gastronomic experience influences satisfaction, according to the research. Specifically, tourists show a keen interest in gastronomic experiences after feeling satisfied with the destination and local foods, developing loyalty toward the destination.

Sustainable Livelihoods in Rural Areas under the Shock of Climate Change: Evidence from China Labor-Force Dynamic Survey

The threat of climate change to the sustainability of farmers’ livelihoods is becoming more significant. Research on the impact of climate change on the sustainability of farmers’ livelihoods could provide a scientific basis for enhancing farmers’ adaptability to climate change, reducing farmers’ livelihood vulnerability, and promoting the formulation of governmental adaptation strategies. Although studies have assessed the impact of climate change on the sustainability of farmers’ livelihoods, their analysis units have been aggregated. Therefore, this study was grouped based on geographical location (north and south regions), and then an additional grouping was conducted according to the internal economic factors of each region. Using data from China’s labor-force dynamic survey as our sample, this study measured the sustainable livelihood in agricultural households. This research provided a method to quantify the sustainability of farmers’ livelihoods based on measurements of poverty vulnerability. Additionally, using the annual average temperature as the core explanatory variable to describe climate change, this study evaluated the impact and heterogeneity of climate change on the sustainability of farmers’ livelihoods and replaced the annual average temperature with the normalized vegetation index to conduct a robustness test. The empirical study showed that the average annual temperature significantly decreased the sustainability of farmers’ livelihoods. The average annual temperature change had a greater impact on farmers in the southern provinces as compared to those in the north. Southern coastal regions, eastern coastal regions, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the northeast regions were the key areas of concern. Finally, considering the current risk vulnerability of farmers, we concluded that crop breeding should be oriented to the trend of climate change, farmers’ risk prevention awareness should be increased, financial tools should be enhanced to mitigate the impact of meteorological disasters, an appropriate sustainability developmental evaluation index should be implemented, and the construction of agrometeorological disaster prevention and mitigation infrastructure should be advanced.