Rice Pricing during Organic Conversion of the Honghe Hani Rice Terrace System in China

Research on Ecological Compensation of National Parks Based on Tourism Concession Mechanism

The Chinese government has already proposed to build a nature protected area system composed mainly of national parks and encourages the development of concession operations in national parks. The establishment of a long-term ecological compensation mechanism under the concession mode is of great significance to promoting the harmonious development of man and nature in national parks. This paper selects the Pilot Programs for Shennongjia National Park System (PPSNPS) as the research area and constructs a long-term ecological compensation mechanism under the concession model of tourism back-feeding communities in PPSNPS. Through the questionnaire survey (516 valid questionnaires in 2018), based on the Travel Cost Interval Analysis (TCIA) and Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), the landscape value of the study area is monetized. Combined with the investment cost of concession enterprises, we construct the quantitative distribution ratio of the ecological compensation standard and get the amount of ecological compensation. On this basis, a long-term ecological compensation scheme is constructed. This specific scheme content is as below: on the one hand, Shennongjia National Park Administration (SNPA) is the beneficiary of ecological compensation, and the Shennong Tourism Investment Group Co, Ltd. (STIC) is the provider of ecological compensation; on the other hand, the travel tickets income is the only source of ecological compensation funds (back-feeding funds). Specifically, the landscape value of PPSNPS in 2018 was 604,230.3 × 104 yuan, the input cost of STIC was 140,696 × 104 yuan, the income after deducting tax from tourism tickets was 15,200 × 104 yuan, and the distribution ratio of back-feeding funds is 1:4.29 with the back-feeding funds provided to SNPA from STIC of 12,326.65 × 104 yuan. Through this paper, we know that landscape value monetization can provide ideas for quantitative accounting of the ecological compensation standard for national park tourism concession. In the future, this subject needs more theoretical and practical research on multiple long-term ecological compensation mechanisms.

Agricultural eco-compensation may not necessarily reduce chemical inputs

The eco-compensation targeting agricultural non-point source pollution is considered to have a positive role in the farmland environment. However, the effect depends on how the farmers respond and implement the policies. This paper aimed to understand whether the agricultural eco-compensation changes the farmers' planting decision and to what extent it affects the input of chemicals. Taking World Heritage, Hani Terraces in southwest China as an example, this paper established a multi-objective production decision model for farmers to analyze the impact of different compensation standards on farmers' planting decisions and welfare. The results showed that, when the eco-compensation standard is relatively low, farmers tend to adopt the planting structure with higher income to make up for the loss caused by reducing chemicals input. With the increase of eco-compensation standard, the input intensity of chemicals (per unit area) continues to decrease. However, the total amount of chemical inputs increases first and then decreases as the planting structure changes. That means, agricultural eco-compensation may not necessarily reduce chemical input. The results show the importance to pay attention to the behavior changes when eco-compensation is designed and implemented and will have a positive effect on the sustainability of the eco-compensation policy.

Livelihood Assets and Strategies among Rural Households: Comparative Analysis of Rice and Dryland Terrace Systems in China

The livelihood of peasant households is one of the selection criteria of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems and a critical factor that affects agricultural heritage system conservation and inheritance. Taking the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces System (HHRTS) and Shexian Dryland Terraces System (SDTS) as examples, we investigated 304 households through a participatory rural appraisal method to discuss the livelihood assets and strategies of households in agricultural heritage systems. From the viewpoint of livelihood strategies, household strategies can be divided into pure agricultural, nonagricultural, and part-time agricultural strategies. The livelihood strategies of households in the HHRTS feature a higher proportion of nonagricultural, while those in the SDTS have a diverse distribution. With respect to livelihood assets, we constructed a livelihood assets accounting framework to highlight the important role of traditional culture and information technology in agricultural activities. The average livelihood assets value in the HHRTS and SDTS was 2.249 and 1.832, respectively. Then, applying the multinomial logit model, we quantitatively analyzed the relationship between livelihood assets and strategies. The results show that in both terrace systems, the understanding of traditional agricultural knowledge is important to suppress the shift of pure agricultural households to nonagricultural or part-time agricultural households. Therefore, in order to achieve dynamic conservation of terrace systems, it is necessary to effectively increase the cultural assets level of households, especially farmers’ understanding of traditional agricultural knowledge.