Integrating Ecosystem Services and Human Demand for a New Ecosystem Management Approach: A Case Study from the Giant Panda World Heritage Site

Research on land-use evolution and ecosystem services value response in mountainous counties based on the SD-PLUS model

Rapid urbanization has caused changes in climate and environment and threatened the ecosystem with multiple risks. The ecosystem services capacity has shown a downward trend accordingly. It is significant to explore the spatio‐temporal evolution of land use and ecosystem services value (ESV) in mountainous counties at small scales, as it coordinates economic growth and ecological protection, and promotes sustainable and high‐quality development. Based on the SD‐PLUS model, the study simulated three scenarios of land‐use change in Qianshan city from 2019 to 2035: high‐growth rate, medium‐growth rate, and low‐growth rate, and studied the impacts of land‐use change on the ESV. Results showed that: (1) Under the three scenarios, the construction land in the study area increased significantly, the forest and water have a decreasing trend, and the scale of gardens partly increased. (2) In the urban built‐up areas, a significant amount of construction land is centrally expanded, whereas, in mountainous regions, construction land exhibits sporadic point expansion. And among the various factors that influence land‐use change, the impact of roads at all levels is the most significant, followed by elevation. (3) The overall ESV shows a downward trend, with the low‐growth rate scenario dropping the least (4.91%). The value distribution changes little at the space scale, and different regions demonstrate different degrees of change. From the perspective of value type, the service values of water conservation and waste treatment are significantly reduced, while that of food production is relatively stable; from the perspective of various lands with their ESV, cultivated land and forest remain stable. The study results can provide technical ideas for the coordinated economic development and ecological protection of mountainous cities and boost the implementation of green development.

A Review of Ecological Assets and Ecological Products Supply: Implications for the Karst Rocky Desertification Control

Ecological assets refer to natural resource assets that can provide ecological products and services for human beings. Researching ecological assets and the supply of ecological products contributes to the sustainable development of natural-social-economic complex systems. This study conducts a literature search and statistical analysis based on the Web of Science, CNKI and Foreign Journal Resource Service System of Guizhou Normal University Library literature databases. We review 117 publications on the studies of ecological assets and ecological products supply. Based on summarizing the landmark results, the key scientific issues that need to be solved are proposed, and their implications for karst rocky desertification control are discussed. The results show that: (1) the number of publications each year from 2001 to 2020 shows a fluctuating growth trend. (2) The research concentrates on four dimensions: theoretical, evaluation, mechanism, and strategies research. Among them, evaluation research is the focus and hotspot of the research. (3) It is necessary to expand the research on the definition and distinction of ecological assets, services and products; the evaluation system of ecological products; the supply mechanism of ecological products from the perspective of resource endowment and the research of ecosystem coherence at different scales. (4) The karst rocky desertification control should focus on ecological assets' management to promote the supply capacity of ecological products, pay attention to the quality assessment of ecological assets, explore the influencing mechanism of ecological assets and its optimization and promotion paths and strengthen the research on village ecosystems under karst rocky desertification control.

Integrating the effects of driving forces on ecosystem services into ecological management: A case study from Sichuan Province, China

Driving forces are the factors that lead to the observed changes in the quantity and quality of ecosystem services (ESs). The relationship between driving forces and ESs involves considerable scale-related information. Place-based ecological management requires this information to support local sustainable development. Despite the importance of scale in ES research, most studies have only examined the association between ESs and their drivers at a single level, and few studies have examined this relationship at various scales or analyzed spatial heterogeneity. The purpose of this paper is to explore the significance of the scale-dependent effects of drivers on ESs for localized ecological management. The biophysical values of ESs were calculated using several ecological simulation models. The effects of driving forces on ESs were explored using the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. Variations in the effects of driving forces on ESs were examined at three scales: provincial, ecoregional, and subecoregional scales. Finally, canonical correlation analysis was used to identify the major environmental factors associated with these variations in each ecoregion. Our results show that (1) the distribution of soil conservation and water yield is highly heterogeneous; (2) four driving forces have significant positive and negative impacts on soil conservation and water yield, and their effects on the two services vary spatially (p < 0.05); (3) the impacts of drivers on ESs vary across different spatial scales, with a corresponding shift in the related environmental factors; and (4) in the study area, at the provincial scale, physical, topographical, and biophysical factors were key factors associated with the variations in the relationship between ESs and drivers, and at the ecoregional and subecoregional scales, physical, socioeconomic, topographical, and biophysical factors all contributed to these changes. Our results suggest that significant differences in topographical conditions (e.g., altitude, slope) can be incorporated for exploring the relationship between drivers and ESs and optimizing ecological management at the provincial scale, whereas significant differences in physical and socioeconomic conditions (e.g., urbanization levels, human activity, vegetation coverage) are more meaningful for localized ecological management at the ecoregional and subecological scales. These findings provide a basis for understanding the relationship between drivers and ESs at multiple scales as well as guidelines for improving localized ecological management and achieving sustainable development.

Today's protected areas: supporting a more sustainable future for humanity

Nature provides significant benefits to people, especially those living in and around protected areas. Ecosystem services from protected areas include producing wild food, supporting biodiversity and water cycles, regulating climate, and providing cultural services like better health, tourism, and legacy for future generations. In economic terms, the flows of ecosystem services provided by protected areas are worth hundreds of billions of dollars each year, well justifying the costs of managing these sites, but protected areas are suffering from environmental problems such as impacts from human population growth, rural poverty, growing demands for natural resources, land use change that degrades ecosystem productivity, invasive non-native species that harm natural ecosystems, and climate change that is affecting all ecosystems. Addressing these linked challenges will require mobilizing all parts of the economy, including the protected area estate. For example, protected areas can take a leadership role in rural development, expand the conservation estate to half of the planet through connectivity and improved management of more of the non-agricultural land, enhance the prominent role of protected areas in contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation, encourage productive research on applying modern technology to protected areas management, seek broader private sector participation in conserving biodiversity and ecosystem services, and include protected areas as relevant parties in relevant trade and other international negotiations. When protected area managers embrace this broader role, they will find enthusiastic public support for this contribution to a sustainable human society.