As important suppliers of energy resources, mining areas have made huge contributions to China's socio-economic development. However, some factors are inhibiting the further development of mining areas and, thereby pose a threat to social stability, as well as resource and energy security in the country. In 2012, the National Development and Reform Commission formulated a project aiming to support the sustainable development of mining areas. This study collected and compiled the project's first-hand survey data from 128 mining areas across China and comprehensively investigated the current development status of the country's mining areas. The problems facing the development of China's mining areas are analyzed, and four specific suggestions are provided, namely: promote industry transformation, remove institutional constraints, improve people's livelihoods to maintain the stability of mining areas, and protect the environment to provide a clean, healthy living environment for mining area residents. This paper provides the first comprehensive and systematic picture of China's mining areas and highlights the importance of mining areas for the country's economic and social development.

The Shelterbelt Forest System Program in northeast, north and northwest China (the Three-North Shelterbelt Program, TNSP) is the largest ecological reforestation program in the world. TNSP vegetation research has important ecological meaning and profound social and economic significance. Here, spatio-temporal variation in vegetation cover under the TNSP was examined using the NDVI average method, major climatic factors such as temperature and precipitation, and linear regression trend analysis from 1982 to 2006. We found that in the past 25 years, NDVI vegetation in the study area has consistently risen at a rate of 0.007 per decade. Vegetation cover, temperature and precipitation are positively correlated. The area of vegetation associated with precipitation is larger than the area related to temperature; precipitation is the key factor affecting vegetation growth across the TNSP. From 1982 to 2006, regions with improved vegetation cover were found in the central and southern part of the Greater Khingan Mountains, central part of the Lesser Khingan Mountains, northeastern part of the Changbai Mountains, Yanshan Mountians, Western Liaoning Hilly Region, Altai Mountains, Tien Shan Mountains, eastern part of the Qilian Mountains, eastern part of the northwest desert as well as southern part of the Gully Region of the Loess Plateau. However, vegetation cover declined on both sides of the Greater Khingan Mountains, western part of the Hulun Buir Plateau, northern part of the Sanjiang Plain, southern part of Horqin Sandy Land, southern part of the northwest desert and northern part of the Gully Region of the Loess Plateau.

We conducted a quantitative analysis of the relationship between the evolution of China's industrial structure and environmental change. Using the industrial structure characteristic bias index and data from 29 manufacturing industries in each province from 1995 to 2010, we described the impact of pollution-emission characteristics of industry structure on the regional environment. The results show that wastewater-discharged characteristic of industrial structure in the northwest and central areas declined from 1995–2010, but this trend has weakened. The industrial structure of southwest and southeast areas had a high level of solid waste discharge and a constantly strengthening trend in SO2 emissions. We also analyzed the growth and recession of each sector in eight regions in China from 1995 to 2010. Among the eight regions, the middle reach of the Yellow River, and northwest and southwest China had a clear increasing trend of high pollution industries; the eastern coast, southern coast, middle reach of the Yangtze River and northeastern China did not sustain an increase in high pollution industries. In addition, regression analysis modeling was used to analyze the impact of the evolution of industrial structure on the disparities of regional environmental effects. We found that regional industry structure was closely related to environmental quality, especially for western areas at lower stages of economic development. In the future, all regions must prevent and forefend the risk of environmental pollution in the update and adjustment of industrial structure.

Despite its recency as a research area, ecosystem service research has developed over the last decade into a significant area of science. In this paper we review recent advances and challenges in ecosystem service research. Our review finds that (ⅰ) Ecosystem services are ubiquitous in biosphere. But they are treated differently among scientific communities. In order for the concept of ecosystem services to make a large and meaningful contribution to conservation and human well-being, it needs to be clearly defined and put into a framework so that it is both fit for a given research purpose and operational for management decisions. In addition, there is not one classification scheme for all purposes. Ecosystem services should be classified based upon both the characteristics of ecosystem services of interest and a context for which the concept of ecosystem services is being mobilized. (ⅱ) As sources of human well-being, ecosystem services have several key ecological and economic characteristics such as complexity, spatial scales, public-private goods aspect and benefit dependence. Understanding these characteristics is a prerequisite for measuring, modeling, valuing and managing ecosystem services. (ⅲ) Human demands for ecosystem services and the supply and use of them are three necessary linkages between ecosystems and human well-being. They are of great importance to such vital issues as ecological conservation and social equity. In most cases, integrated studies involving multi-disciplines, multi-sectors and multi-districts on those three linkages should be carried out to support sound ecosystem service management decisions. And (ⅳ) ecosystem services have multiple value attributes including utilitarian values and non-utilitarian values. In the processes of making decisions concerning the use of ecosystem services, all kinds of values are usually played out on a common and not always level playing field. They intersect and interact in various ways, and may complement or counter-balance each other in assisting decisions. A multi-criteria valuation system should be developed and used to estimate the value of ecosystem services.

Energy is the material basis for social development and is closely related with the economy. Energy shortage, a low utilization rate of energy and the deterioration of the environment have become the main restrictions of economic development in China. Therefore, studying energy efficiency has a practical significance for developing a harmonious and sustainable energy economy and building a conservation-minded and harmonious society. Here, based on the three-stage DEA model we analyzed the energy efficiency of 29 provinces in China in 2009, set up an evaluation index system of energy efficiency to compare differences in energy efficiency among regions and provide regions with theoretical guidance to adjust energy consumption strategy and improve energy efficiency. We divided technical efficiency into pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency, analyzed energy efficiency with its numerical value and added environment variables to perfect the results. We found that scale efficiency is overestimated before eliminating external factors and environment variables and pure technical efficiency is underestimated. To solve this problem, regions should expand the scale of the enterprises and pay more attention to energy efficiency. The scale returns of most provinces in the third stage are increasing (except Shandong province), which shows that many enterprises are too small to reflect the economy scale. Therefore, all regions except Shandong should increase their energy inputs to obtain the economy scale of energy utilization. From a regional perspective, eastern energy efficiency is highest and western is the lowest. All regions should increase the size of enterprises to realize the scale economy. Central and western regions in China should strengthen mutual cooperation, bring into play their respective advantages, exploit new energy and new technology and improve the utilization ratio of energy.

In this paper, recent glacier and lake changes research on the Tibetan Plateau was reviewed. Emphasis was placed on a discussion of the relationship between glacier shrinkage and lake change. In the context of global climate change, the glaciers of the Tibetan Plateau have generally retreated, while the lakes have generally expanded. First, the research on glacial terminal retreat, glacial area and volume variations across the Tibetan Plateau over the last few decades are reviewed and analyzed; the temporal-spatial change characteristics of the glaciers are discussed. Secondly, the lake area, volume and water level changes are reviewed and analyzed; the temporal-spatial change characteristics of the glaciers are discussed. The results indicate that the retreat speed in the outer edge of the Tibean Plateau was overall faster than that in the inland area. The areas and water levels of the lakes that are fed by glacial water increased. Finally, the limitations of the present studies and future work are discussed.

The Chinese yew (Taxus wallichiana), which is widely distributed in the Himalayas and in southern China, is now on the edge of extinction. In order to understand the evolutionary processes that control the current diversity within this species at the genetic and ecological levels, its genetic patterns and range dynamics must first be identified and mapped. This knowledge can then be applied in the development of an effective conservation strategy. Based on molecular data obtained from 48 populations of T. wallichiana, we used GIS-based interpolation approach for the explicit visualization of patterns of genetic divergence and diversity, and a number of potential evolutionary hotspots have been specifically identified within the genetic landscape maps. Within the maps of genetic divergence and diversity, five areas of high inter-population genetic divergence and six areas of high intra-population genetic diversity have been highlighted in a number of separate mountain regions, and these evolutionary hotspots should have the priority to be protected. Furthermore, four geographical barriers have been identified: the eastern Himalayas, the Yunnan Plateau, the Hengduan Mountains and the Taiwan Strait. According to ecological niche modeling (ENM), the populations of T. wallichiana within the Sino-Himalayan Forest floristic subkingdom experienced westward expansion from the periods of Last Inter-glacial to Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Following the LGM, the distribution range overall became reduced and fragmented. These findings challenge the classic mode of contraction-expansion in response to the last glaciation. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the changes in geographical landscapes and climate that occurred during the Quaternary resulted in current genetic landscape patterns.

From the viewpoints of population, resources, environment and economic-social development, we establish the models of accounting for resource and environmental costs and coordinated (or relative coordinated) development degrees between economic growth and resources and the environment using the evaluation method of ecosystem service value. Synergistic effects between regional economic growth and resources and the environment in the Yangtze River Economic Zone was analyzed and driving forces were analyzed by regression of partial least squares. We found that from 1983 to 2012, resource and environmental costs in the Yangtze River Economic Zone (including seven provinces and two municipalities) increased from 4736.55 trillion CNY to 15 359.45 trillion CNY and corresponding weights dropped from 31.1% to 19.7% compared to the national level. The degree of coordinated development rose from 0.295 to 1.506, higher than the national average. In the years 1983, 1993 and 2003, the main factor that drove the coordinated development of regional economic growth, resources and the environment was low level resource and environmental costs. With continuous increases in primary and tertiary industrial added values after 2012, the advantage of the Yangtze River Economic Zone has weakened. In the future, provinces should improve the rules and regulations on planning and implementing main functional areas, promote adjustment of industrial structure, restore ecology, improve resource utilization efficiency and reduce environmental loss costs to enhance quality of economic development and promote the coordinated development of regional economic growth and resources and the environment.

Based on an urbanization research database, a bibliometric analysis of Chinese ecological environmental research on urbanization was conducted that examined output, focused fields, topics, theories and methods. Results show that research output in this field has been increasing since 2005. Land and industry fields in resource research, economics in ecological research, and climate and urban environments in environmental research have been studied from 1992-2011. Keywords analysis discovered that "Land Use" and "Heat Island Effect" were major keywords, making up 0.15% and 0.09% of the total frequency, respectively. "Heat Island Effect" and "Climate Change" were the most recent popular keywords. Main theories were derived from ecology, mathematics, resource environmental economics and environmental science. Ecological footprint has been a core theory since 2002. The stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence and technology model (STIRPAT), Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), and slope, land use map, excluded area, urban area, transportation map and hillside area model (SLEUTH) are the latest popular theories. During 1992-2011, the main research methods can be divided into four groups: statistics (65.17%), systems (13.11%), mechanisms (11.79%) and evaluation (9.93%). Grey System Analysis from system methods and rescaled range (R/S) analysis from evaluation are the latest popular methods. Topics from macro subfields, including land use, heat island effects, water resources and the agricultural ecological environment received more attention than micro subfields such as urban environmental health problems. As urbanization problems evolve, resource environmental economic comprehensive models will advance with modeling progress and some models, such as STIRPAT and land use change simulation models, will be developed for evaluation and simulation of the ecological environmental impacts of Chinese urbanization.

Eastern China's crude oil pipeline network is of the largest scale and freight volume in China. Here, we analyze 37 oil pipelines and one railway (38 oil flow channels), 20 oil fields with output of over a million tons of crude oil, and 32 refineries each of which refine over a million tons of crude oil. We construct a supply and demand balance sheet of oil sources and sinks by considering the transportation cost variance of variant pipeline diameters to determine the spatial optimization of Eastern China's pipeline network. In 2009, the optimal cost of this network was 34.5% lower than the total actual cost, suggesting that oil flow is overall inefficient and there is huge potential to improve flow efficiency. Within Eastern China, the oil flow of the Northeast network was relatively better than others, but the flow in Northern China is inefficient because all pipelines are underload or noload, and there were similar conditions in the Huanghuai region. We assumed no difference in pipeline transport speed, compared to rail or road transportation, thus transportation distance, rather than time, is the main influential factor under the definite transporting cost of variant pipeline diameters.

The energy consumption of China's metropolitan areas has expanded from production areas to other areas such as the service area, and characteristics differ across small and medium-sized cities. Using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) decomposition method, we conducted a factor decomposition analysis on changes in energy consumption for 32 Chinese metropolises from 1995-2012 that had a resident population of at least 1 million people in 1995. On the basis of a comprehensive consideration of urban economic growth, population expansion and spatial expansion, energy consumption factors can be decomposed into five indicators: economic scale, energy consumption per unit of output value, energy consumption per capita, population density and energy space support coefficient. We valued the contribution of each factor to metropolises' energy consumption to determine generality and regional differences.

Human-wildlife conflict is one of the biggest conservation challenges throughout the world. Various conservation strategies have been employed to limit these impacts, but often they are not adequately monitored and their effectiveness assessed. Recently, electric fencing has been constructed as a means to mitigate human-wildlife conflict surrounding many Nepalese protected areas. To date, there are no other studies analyzing the cost effectiveness and efficacy of fencing for conservation. This study aims to examine the cost effectiveness of electric fencing in the eastern sector of Chitwan National Park, Nepal, where the fencing has recently been constructed. Great Indian one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), wild boar (Sus scrofa), Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), and tiger (Panthera tigris) were the main wildlife species involved in human-wildlife conflict in the buffer zone area surrounding the park, where the fencing was deployed. Electric fencing was significantly effective in reducing crop damage by 78% and livestock depredation by 30%-60%. Human mortality was not reduced significantly in the study areas and continued at low levels. Our analysis suggested that total net present value of the cost of electric fence in Kagendramalli User Committee (KMUC) and Mrigakunja User Committee (MKUC) was 1 517 959 NPR (Nepalese Rupees, 21 685 USD) and 3 530 075 NPR (50 429 USD) respectively up to the fiscal year 2009/10. Net present benefit in KMUC and MKUC was 16 301 105 NPR (232 872 USD) and 38 304 602 NPR (547 208 USD) respectively up to 2009/10. The cost-benefit ratio of electric fence up to base fiscal year 2009/10 in KMUC is 10.73, whereas MKUC is 10.85. These results illustrate that the electric fencing program is economically and socially beneficial in reducing human-wildlife conflict (crop damage and livestock depredation) around the protected areas where large mammals occur.

Here, we quantitatively determine temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of main grain crops in the West Liaohe River basin, Inner Mongolia, China, from 2000 to 2010 based on MODIS remote sensing data and NDVI time series information for the years 2000, 2005 and 2010. Phenological calendars and a decision-making tree extraction model were also used to obtain spatial distribution information of spring maize, spring wheat and soybean. We found that in 2010, the sown area of the main grain crops in the West Liaohe River basin was 11 965.08km², of which, the sown area for spring maize accounted for 92.28%and was concentrated in the lower reaches of the region. Spring wheat accounted for 3.14% and was mainly in the middle reaches. Soybean accounted for 4.58% and was predominantly in the upper reaches. From 2000 to 2005, the sown area of these grain crops in the West Liaohe River basin grew by 29.77%, mainly in the lower reaches: spring maize grew by 38.99%, spring wheat by 39.04% and soybean by 21.27%. From 2005 to 2010, growth in the sown area of these crops was slow (5.18% growth) and mainly in the lower reaches of the basin. The sown area of spring maize increased, but decreased for both spring wheat and soybean.

Air temperature is an important climatological variable and is usually measured in meteorological stations. Accurate mapping of its spatial and temporal distribution is of great interest for various scientific disciplines, but low station density and complexity of the terrain usually lead to significant errors and unrepresentative spatial patterns over large areas. Fortunately the current studies have shown that the regression models can help overcome the problem with the help of time series remote sensing data. However, noise induced by cloud contamination and other atmospheric disturbances variability impedes the application of LST data. An improved Savizky-Golay (SG) algorithm based on the LST background library is used in this paper to reconstruct MODIS LST product. Data statistical analysis included 12 meteorological stations and 120 reconstructed MODIS LST images of the period from 2001 to 2010. The coeffificient of correlations (R²) for 80% of the stations was higher than 0.5 (below 0.5 for only 2 stations) which illustrated that there is a considerably close agreement between monthly mean TA (air temperature) and the reconstructed LST in the Lancang River basin. Comparing to the regression model for every month with only LST data, the regression model with LST and NDVI had higher R² and RMSE. Finally, the LST-NDVI regression method was applied as an estimate model to produce distributed maps of air temperature with month intervals and 1 km spatial in the Lancang River basin of 2010.

Effective programs and policies for cultivated land resource protection are often the focus of government policy-makers and researchers. Here we use survey data from Wuhan City, Hubei, China to attempt to apply a choice experiment for assessing main stakeholder preferences for cultivated land resource protection based on the hypothesis of market and policy. According to the basic principle of choice experiments, the area of cultivated land, quality of cultivated land, cost of cultivated land protection and cultivated land ecological landscape were included as attributes in the experimental design. Surveys were undertaken on two main stakeholders groups (farmers and urban residents). Our results show strong divergence between farmers and urban residents regarding protecting attributes. We then analyzed and compared welfare changes affected by different attribute combination programs. The result of this study provides theoretical and decision-making support for farmland protection funds and agricultural subsidy systems.

In this paper, we mainly focused our research on northern Shaanxi district, which is a pilot area of the Grain for Green Project. We compared the spatial distribution patterns of croplands and their productivity for the past 20 years (from the end of the 1980s to 2010). Cropland dynamics for the past 20 years were interpreted from medium- and high-resolution remote sensing images (Landsat TM/ETM+). In addition, using the GLO-PEM and AGRO-VPM models with a medium resolution and long time series remote sensing dataset (AVHRR/MODIS), net primary productivity (NPP) and its relationship with cropland were estimated. Finally, the effect of cropland change on productivity was analyzed. The results show that during the first decade of the research period, cropland area and productivity in northern Shaanxi experienced a small boost, while in the latter decade, both cropland area and NPP were significantly reduced. The main cause of the increase in cropland was the reclamation of large area of grassland and unutilized land to meet the food demands of the local population as well as to compensate for the occupation of urban constructions. While the main cause of the decrease in cropland was the implementation of the Grain for Green Project. In addition, urbanization was also a key factor. Overall, during the past 20 years, the total area of cropland in northern Shaanxi decreased by 42.56%, and cropland NPP dropped by 41.90%. This study is of great importance for the assessment of regional cropland security, food security and scientific planning of regional land use.

We used panel data for 31 Chinese provinces from 2001 to 2009 and entropy methods to evaluate regional tourism resources endowment. Combined with regional tourism revenue, we constructed an asynchronous index and quantitatively evaluated every area's asynchronous phenomenon regarding tourism resources. We found that Chinese mainland tourism resources have asynchronous phenomenon: tourism is positively asynchronous in the east (Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Beijing-Tianjin region) and negatively asynchronous in central and western China. The total efficiency of tourism resources in eastern China is mainly driven by pure technology efficiency and by scale efficiency in western China. In addition to some provinces, the ranking of provincial total efficiency and the asynchronous index has a strong positive correlation. We conclude with several suggestions for the development of tourism resources across China.

Biodiversity is one of the important aspects of Agricultural Heritage Systems and some consumers might be willing to pay a higher price for agricultural commodities that are produced in a way that conserves biodiversity. If so, whether can market-oriented policies to promote adding the value of biodiversity to agricultural products be used to conserve biodiversity? Our study focuses on consumer reactions to "life brand" product, which is labeled as "Stork-raising rice" in Toyooka City in Japan, produced environmentally-friendly agricultural practices for the revival of extinct stork. Using data of choice experiment and Latent Segment model, we analyzed whether these agricultural products can achieve higher market prices. The results showed that consumer, who had knowledge that stork populations had been revived because of changes in agricultural practice, are willing to buy expensive rice that improve biodiversity conservation for stork. However, consumers who bought this rice because of a preference for reduced-pesticide or organic food, without knowledge of revived stork history, were not willing to do so. The majority of agricultural product consumers in Japan are this type of consumer. Thus, the promotion of biodiversity conservation by only "life brand" agricultural products is not enough. Therefore, government support and public activities are indispensable for biodiversity conservation.

In South Korea village woods are composed of an isolated tree or a number of trees, located near rural villages and which have an apparent fengshui shape. Village woods also function as wildlife habitat and promote agricultural biodiversity. Here village woods were classified in to four types (natural forest, semi-natural forest, halfnatural forest and artificial forest) and 23 main tree species(dominant or sub-dominant species) identified. Pinus densiflora is dominant at 50 sites, and Zelkova serrata is dominant at 45 sites. Across village woods, emerged plants comprise 125 families, 519 genus and 1081 species. In spite of the extremely small area of village wood, 100 000 km² or 0.00278% Korea's territory, this ecosystem has an important biodiversity and habitat conservation function. Village woods are not only a base for conserving biodiversity, but also deliver ecosystem services in South Korea.

As one kind of land use practice, traditional agroforestry systems already have a long history of hundreds of years in practice and still play a significant role in the world today, especially in tropical and subtropical areas. In this era of globalization and food in security, more and more governments and non-governmental organizations are paying attention to traditional agroforestry systems because of their economic, ecological and socio-culture benefits. These benefits are also in accord with the characteristics of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS). So far, four typical traditional agroforestry systems from five countries have been designated as GIAHS. These traditional agroforestry systems have rich agricultural and associated biodiversity, multiple ecosystem services and precious socio-culture values at a regional and global level. Although traditional agroforestry systems are confronted with many threats and challenges, such as population growth, migration, market impact, climate change and so on, as long as governments and non-governmental organizations, local communities and smallholders can cooperate with each other, traditional agroforestry systems will be effectively protected and will remain in the future a sustainable global land use practice.

Qingyuan County, Zhejiang, China is recognized as a source of mushrooms around the world and as Mushroom City in China. Because of a favorable ecological environment and abundant forest resources, mushroom farmers in Qingyuan have engaged in mushroom production for 800 years and continued to form unique mushroom production systems where people and nature live in a harmonious way, and a rich and colorful mushroom culture. The Qingyuan Mushroom Culture System was named the Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage systems of China in 2014. Based on analysis of the importance of agricultural heritage and the necessity and urgency of protection, here we examine the agricultural heritage of the Qingyuan mushroom culture system as a research case study and comprehensively describe its heritage values, including supply materials and production, ecosystem services, cultural inheritance and multi-function agricultural development. These results provide reference values for agricultural heritage protection and inheritance of edible fungi in China, agricultural sustainable development and extension of agricultural function.

An interest in the biodiversity and historical and cultural aspects of farming and fishing communities, in addition to the basic role of food production, is growing. Development of an Agricultural Heritage System and Korea Important Agricultural Heritage System has been a key objective of South Korea's central government. Given that restoration and technology transfer becomes impossible once heritage is damaged, a detailed study of management regarding conservation is required alongside the development of the Agricultural Heritage System. Here, I was able to analyze several applications submitted by local governments to the Korea Important Agricultural Heritage System. The main objective was to identify the uniqueness of each application with the nature of heritage, threats to this heritage, and current preservation efforts. I found that the most common threat is the decreasing population status for heritage maintenance due to changes in agricultural environments. In response, each site plans to boost local tourism activities as a solution but current tourism oriented management plans may result in further damage to heritage. In light of my analysis I discuss three pillars for future planning: the improvement of heritage understanding and awareness; sufficient space to maintain heritage features; and new industrialization plans that maintain production activities. These recommendations will ensure heritage protection, conservation of the natural environment, and invigoration of farming and fishing communities through biodiversity.

The "Noto's Satoyama and Satoumi " in Noto Peninsula of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan is a system of Socio-Ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes (SEPLS) mosaics interconnected with highly productive coastal areas that have been formed and maintained through long-term human influence, which supports not only its diverse and traditional agriculture, forestry and fisheries, but also sustains local livelihoods and conserves its flourishing biodiversity. Since the designation of Noto as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) in 2011, there have been active developments of conservation and revitalization efforts amongst the local governments, and communities, as well as pouring interest from the academia, international community and private sector. The paper will discuss the developments of Noto's GIAHS through examining several case studies of recent conservation and revitalization efforts of new initiatives and those building on existing schemes. The report will be based on literature reviews, interviews with and information provided by Ishikawa Prefectural Government and field surveys conducted. It is found that modest but steady steps are being taken in conservation of GIAHS and Noto is taking an active role contributing to the GIAHS initiative.

Xinghua Duotian Agrosystem is a raised field agriculture system with typical water-land utilization. It was identified as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) site by FAO in April 2014. Based on a literature review and field investigations, we analyzed the history and development, structure and characteristics, functions and values of the Xinghua Duotian Agrosystem in this research. The system has a long history, rich biodiversity, important ecosystem services, traditional adapted agricultural technologies and a folk culture. Altogether, these features form an attractive landscape created by its special water-land utilization. It also has great importance for the livelihood maintenance of the local people. However, the inheritance and conservation effort of Xinghua Duotian Agrosystem is facing great threats from modern agriculture, urbanization and labor loss. This paper will provide insight into the Xinghua Duotian Agrosystem, and provide scientific support for the conservation and development of this special system. It will also provide a good example for similar areas in China and worldwide.

In recent years, with climate change, many agricultural systems are facing severe environmental stress, which are seriously threatening the food security and sustainable development of agricultural system. Although mainstream agro-system can effectively reduce the adverse agro-production effect rapidly by using modern technology, but many of them bring serious ecological crisis at the same time. For the sustainable development of agro-systems, the stress mitigation options must give full consideration to ecological protection. The Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) sites, relying on its unique land use, water conservancy facilities, traditional crops, etc., form unique production system creating a better match with local natural conditions. Based on disaster mitigation system theory and practice, this paper analyzes environmental stress counter-measures of several GIAHS sites in China. The water requirement of millet, a drought-tolerant crop in Aohan Dryland Farming System (recognized as a GIAHS pilot site in 2012), has a better match with local water conditions. By reducing vulnerability of crops, agriculture survived healthily in semi-arid regions. Honghe Hani Rice Terraces System (recognized as a GIAHS pilot site in 2010), relying on the unique land and water use patterns, has successfully reshape disaster inducing environment, and effectively reduce the risk/effects of droughts. Besides, due to the high price, rich crop diversity and variety of income channel, the Agricultural Heritage sites can ensure the economic income and agro-system health when facing environmental stress. Stress counter-measures of traditional agricultural systems make full use of the regulation and spontaneity ability of the natural system, which is an important way to achieve sustainable development of ecological agriculture.

While the true value of environmental goods may be captured in a one-off payment, it may be easier to add a smaller amount to a private good by means of donation and collect the total environmental value over time. For that, however we need to ensure the smaller amount of a heritage conservation donation added to a private good is adequate so that we can find retailers to participate in such fund-raising activities. We test the contingent valuation method's criterion validity by comparing their stated purchasing behavior with their actual behavior. The price increase from the addition of the donation did not affect total sales of the commodity. Adding a donation to specialized private goods may be an effective way to collect landscape and agricultural heritage conservation donations. Furthermore, our findings suggest that funds can be collected without affecting commodity sales. This approach is effective in other environmental protection activities.

Hani rice terraces system is one of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) pilot sites selected by FAO. Soil nutrients are an important symbol of soil fertility, and play an important role in the sustainable utilization of land. Based on geo-statistics and GIS, the spatial variation of pH, organic matter, total nitrogen, alkaline hydrolyzable nitrogen, available phosphorus and available potassium in the soil in Yisa (a town in Honghe County, Yunnan Province) was studied. The results show that the spatial variability of pH, organic matter, total nitrogen, alkaline hydrolyzable nitrogen and available potassium exhibited medium spatial variability, and the coefficients of variation are 12.54%, 40.14%, 40.00%, 34.89%, and 40.00% respectively. Available phosphorus exhibited strong spatial variability, and the coefficient of variation is 102.13%. The spatial variation of pH, organic matter, total nitrogen, alkaline hydrolyzable nitrogen and available potassium fit the index mode, however, the spatial variation of available phosphorus fits the spherical model. Total nitrogen, available phosphorus and available potassium were greatly affected by soil structural factors, while pH, organic matter and alkaline hydrolyzable nitrogen were affected by both structural and random factors. The spatial distribution of soil nutrients in Yisa was intuitively characterized by Kriging interpolation. It is very important to understand the spatial distribution of soil nutrients, which will provide the guidance for adjusting agricultural management measures such as fertilization.

Anxi is the largest producing area of Tie Guanyin tea in China. "The cultural system of Tie Guanyin tea in Anxi" was selected as "Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems" (China-NIAHS) in 2014. Tea gardens in this region are organic, ecological or non-ecological. After sampling the soil in these three kinds of tea gardens, we compared soil properties and nutrient content at different soil depths using physical and chemical analyses. Our aim was to provide a scientific basis for the management of tea plantations. We measured and analyzed soil in two organic, three ecological and one non-ecological tea gardens at depths of 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm in Anxi County. According to Duncan multiple comparisons and t tests, soil nutrients differed between organic and ecological or non-ecological tea gardens at 0-10 cm. Organic matter and total nitrogen differed between organic and nonecological tea garden soils at 10-20 cm. In organic tea gardens, soil bulk density, porosity, relative water content, soil organic matter, total nitrogen and total phosphorus were advantageous for tea tree growth. In ecological tea gardens, the indicators were appropriate and relatively advantageous for tea tree growth at a soil depth of 0-10 cm. For non-ecological tea garden, the nutrients were at a compact level and negatively affect tea growth. These results show that soil properties and nutrient content in organic and ecological tea gardens are superior to non-ecological tea garden. The development of organic tea gardens is the most suitable strategy for the growth of tea trees.

Implementing wildlife-friendly farming (WFF) practices is a sound approach to sustain ecological restoration of farmland. The aims of the study were to explore factors affecting farmers' implementation of WFF practices on Sado Island, Japan and to consider the policy implications of disseminating such practices. All 5010 farming households on Sado Island, who are distributing rice to Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA), were surveyed. In total, 2231 households responded to the questionnaire (response 44.5%). By comparing the attitudes, beliefs, and attributes of non-certified versus certified farmers, we identified key factors affecting farmers' implementation of WFF practices. Compared with non-certified farmers, certified farmers: (i) showed a greater interest in biodiversity and the financial benefits of WFF; (ii) had a larger number of certified farmer friends; (iii) felt many more pressures and expectations from consumers, in particular; and (iv) were not hampered by bad labor or farmland conditions when implementing WFF practices. To further disseminate WFF practices in Sado, we suggest that the information on the effectiveness of WFF on paddy field biodiversity is used in public education, and opportunities for interchanging opinions are set up between non-certified and certified farmers, as well as between farmers and consumers.

Agricultural heritage is an important type of world heritage. The special features of this kind of heritage are that they are "living" or "real life" systems, in both the ecosystem and in the cultural sense. So, agricultural heritage needs to be conserved in a special way. In a well-reasoned approach to dynamic conservation of agricultural heritage, careful development of heritage sites can realize greater sustainability of the traditional agriculture by considering both conservation and development though tourism. This paper examines the Global Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) as designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and listed by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as agricultural heritages sites. Currently, the research in China focuses on tourism resources evaluation and development, production design and marketing, tourism perception and the impacts of tourism development and so forth. There is less emphasis on research about benefit sharing of heritage tourism evolution mechanisms, environmental impacts of agricultural heritage tourism and study methods which should be analyzed in-depth, so as to illuminate the theories and practices of development in a living landscape.