Journal of Resources and Ecology-Forthcoming Articles

Realizing the Value of Ecological Products: A Case Study based Mechanism Analysis

ZHANG Enxiang, LEI Shuo, ZHENG Yuping, LIU Lixiang, HAN Yongwei

This article uses a multi-case analysis method to investigate the mechanisms of ecological product value realization, and influencing factors. Specifically, we use a case analysis framework based on the “economy-society-natural ecology” perspective to analyze and compare the three batches of “Typical Cases of Ecological Product Value Realization” released by the Ministry of Natural Resources. We find: First, different modes of ecological product value realization exist. Different resource endowments, and institutional and environmental factors affect the selection of the value realization modes. Second, certain obstacles also exist for realizing ecological product value, which are mainly reflected in the fact that the articulation of the individual, society, and government is not yet sufficiently close. Third, to promote the development of regional eco-products’ mode and value conversion, the implementing party needs to guide the synergy between individual concepts, social participation, and governmental top-level design; rationally arrange the allocation of resource elements; mitigate elemental constraints; and propose effective technical means and optimization strategies according to the actual situation.

The Mode and Path for Digital Cultural Tourism to Promote Rural Revitalization

TANG Chengcai, SHANGGUAN Lingyi LIU Limei , MEI Jianghai — 2024-03-13 00:00:00.0

Digital cultural tourism is an important part of the digital economy and digital China. The development of rural digital cultural tourism is an important engine for implementing the strategy of rural revitalization and leading the high-quality development of China’s rural tourism in the new era, which helps to promote the coupling and coordinated development of the high-quality development of rural tourism and common prosperity. This study examines the opportunities and challenges in using digital cultural tourism to promote rural revitalization, discusses the mechanism and model for enabling the common prosperity of the rural digital cultural tourism industry to achieve digital cultural tourism in the promotion of rural revitalization, and finally proposes a development path. The findings indicate that: (1) Digital cultural tourism has emerged as a significant force behind the growth of the rural tourism sector, and is a key route for achieving the objective of rural revitalization. (2) Digital cultural tourism and rural revitalization have mutually beneficial relationships; digital cultural tourism enables rural revitalization, and rural revitalization unlocks digital cultural tourism’s development potential, resulting in a positive interaction mechanism. (3) Four models of digital cultural tourism promoting rural revitalization are proposed, considering the rural classification scheme and related research. They are the digital cultural tourism for urban-rural integration and revitalization model, the digital cultural tourism for traditional village revitalization model, the digital cultural tourism for agriculture, culture and tourism integration and revitalization model, and the digital cultural tourism for arts revitalization model. (4) To thoroughly promote the development of the rural digital cultural tourist sector, it should adhere to the product as the core, digital technology as the foundation, talent revitalization as the leader, and policy as the guarantee. The findings of this study enrich the research findings in digital cultural tourism and rural revitalization, which can serve as theoretical references and a practical foundation for the development of digital cultural tourism to empower rural revitalization.

Evaluation of the Development Resilience of Tourist Attractions under the Influence of Major Public Health Events

WANG Lu, HUANG Ziruo , YU Le , Ning Zhizhong

Achieving resilient development is an important way for tourist attractions to cope with the negative im-pacts of major public health events, and an accurate assessment of the existing resilience level is the basis for im-proving the resilience of tourist attractions. Based on resilience theory, the impacts of major public health events on tourist attractions and the relationship between the impacts and the development resilience of the tourist attractions, this study uses the composite index method and DEMATEL method to construct an index system for evaluating the development resilience of tourist attractions. This evaluation index includes 20 indicators in the four dimensions of prevention ability, resistance ability, recovery ability and renewal ability, and the weight of each indicator was determined. The results show three important aspects of tourist attraction resilience. (1) Resistance ability is the most important dimension that reflects the resilience level of tourist attractions, followed by renewal ability and recovery ability, while prevention ability is relatively less important. (2) Tourism revenue reconstruction, mechanism innovation, marketing flexibility and financing ability have large positive correlations with the resilience level of tourist attractions. (3) Market flexibility, management decision-making level, financing ability and intelligent construction level are susceptible to other indicators, so that more attention should be paid to them in the process of improving the resilience level of tourist attractions. The index system developed in this study can provide scientifically valid guidance and a useful reference for tourist attractions to accurately examine their own issues and improve their development resilience.

Contribution of Urban Trees to Offset Carbon Dioxide Emissions from the Transportation Sector in the Ring Road Area of Kathmandu Valley, Central Himalaya

JOSHI Nabin Raj, JOSHI Rajeev, MISHRA Jay Raj

Urban trees are valuable resources for urban areas as they have the capacity to reduce ambient temperatures, mitigate urban heat island effects and reduce runoff of rainwater playing an important role in mitigating the impacts of climate change by reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). It also helps to reduce aerial suspended particulate matter, add visual appeal to the urban landscape sequestrating a significant amount of carbon from ambient atmospheric CO2. Carbon storage by urban trees in the ring road area of the Kathmandu Valley was quantified to assess the magnitude and role of urban forests in relation to mitigate the impact of global climate change. A total of 40 sample plots were placed randomly for the detailed carbon assessment. Aboveground and belowground carbon pools were considered in the detailed assessment. Furthermore, quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) were maintained through regular monitoring and capacity building of the field crews while collecting the bio-physical data. The assessment recorded a total of 33 different species of plants in the avenue’s plantation sites in ring road. The mean seedling, sapling, and tree density was found to be 2149585 and 185 per hectare. The mean carbon stock per hectare in the avenue plantation of the ring road area was 24.03 tC ha1 and the existing total carbon stock was 7785.72 tC in 2021. Likewise, the total baseline carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) in the avenue plantation was found to be 28573.60 tCO2e. The carbon dioxide emission from the transport sector in the ring road area in a full movement scenario was 312888.00 tCO2e per annum, while the net emissions was 42547 tCO2e. There was a deficit of carbon dioxide in terms of stock by avenue plantations of 14000.8 tCO2e.This study indicates that the existing urban forest plantation is unable to sequestrate or offset the carbon dioxide that is emitted through the transportation sector. Consequently, open spaces like riverbanks and any other public lands, in which urban forests could be developed has to be planned for the green infrastructure and plantation of the multipurpose trees. The distinct values of forests in and around urban areas have to be recognized in the specific policies and plans for the sustainable management of urban and peri-urban forests to meet the adverse impact of global climate change. In addition, this study provides insights for decision-makers to better understand the role of urban forests and make sustainable management plans for urban forests in the cities like in Kathmandu Valley.

Charcoal Wastes-to-Fuel Energy Conversion for Circular Economy and Environmental Sustainability in the Global South: A Case of Wood Charcoal Industry in Tanzania

Norbert J. NGOWI — 2023-06-15 00:00:00.0

Low efficiency of earth kilns used in the carbonising process of wood to make charcoal has been reported as one of the sources of increasing charcoal wastes in the global south. However, the potential link and approaches of converting charcoal wastes-to-valuable energy and for the environmental health is not well known in Africa. Promoting local community capacity engagement in the production and reutilisation of recycled charcoal wastes at the households’ level is one of important measures to maintain environmental services for sustainability since households make decisions on the type of energy used. This paper, presents an approach of converting charcoal wastes to fuel energy for rural households and environmental health in Kilosa District, Tanzania. To achieve the objective of this research, the primary data were collected through interviews held with 298 randomly selected households, Focus Group Discussions and observations. IBM SPSS statistics version 20 Cross tab tools were used in the data analysis. Results revealed that the conversion of charcoal wastes-to-fuel energy approach used in this research demonstrates the ability of recyclable briquettes made from the locally available charcoal pollutants collected at different stages from earth kilns, to selling centers, improves tree harvest behaviour, adds another fuel energy source through reutilisation, and ultimate reduces pollution at the local level. Thus, the study provides a basis for policymakers to adopt charcoal wastes recycling strategies to address matters related to energy and ultimately enhances environmental health for sustainable development in Tanzania and beyond.

Characteristics and Carbon Storage of a Typical Mangrove Island Ecosystem in Beibu Gulf, South China Sea

WU Bin, ZHANG Wenzhu, TIAN Yichao, LIANG Mingzhong, XU Jun, GU Guanhai — 2022-02-28 00:00:00.0

Abstract: By studying the structural characteristics and carbon storage of the mangrove island ecosystem in the
Beibu Gulf, this study provides a scientific basis for mangrove ecological compensation in the coastal areas of
Guangxi, South China Sea. On the basis of the unmanned aerial vehicle remote sensing images and a sample plot
survey, the object-oriented multi-scale segmentation algorithm is used to extract the mangrove community type information, and one-way analysis of variance is conducted to analyse the structural characteristics of the mangrove
community. The carbon storage and carbon density of different mangrove ecosystems were obtained based on the
allometric growth equation of mangrove plants. The analysis yielded four main results. (1) The island group covers
about 27.10 ha, 41.32% (11.20 ha) of which represents mangrove areas. The mangrove forest is widely distributed
in the tidal flats around the islands. (2) The main mangrove types were Aegiceras corniculatum, Kandelia obovata +
Aegiceras corniculatum, Avicennia marina + Aegiceras corniculatum and Avicennia marina communities. (3)
Amongst the mangrove plants, Avicennia marina had the highest biomass (18.52 kg plant–1), followed by Kandelia
obovata (7.84 kg plant–1) and Aegiceras corniculatum (3.85 kg plant–1). (4) The mangrove carbon density difference
was significant. Kandelia obovata had the highest carbon density (148.03 t ha–1), followed by Avicennia marina
(104.79 t ha–1) and Aegiceras corniculatum (99.24 t ha–1). The carbon storage of the mangrove island ecosystem
was 1194.70 t, which was higher than in other areas with the same latitude. The carbon sequestration capacity of
the mangrove was relatively strong.

Fundamental Strategic Shift Required by the Expensive Ecological Policy in Chinese Grasslands

ZHU Jiapei, XU Xingliang, LI Tong, LIU Yali, YANG Yaqian, CUI Xiaoyong,

Grasslands have critically important ecological and economic values while most of them have been suffering from various degrees of degradation in China due to overgrazing. The “Forage-Livestock Balance” (FLB) policy has been implemented for more than a decade, aims to balance the relationship between forage productivity and grazing consumption of grasslands by livestock. According to the review of statistical data and literatures on policy evaluation, FLB-dominated subsidies for grassland ecological conservation policies are ineffective on grassland restoration, livestock reduction in some overloaded areas and improvement on herdsmen livelihood. To deal with the dilemma, we suggest a fundamental shift of strategy from controlling livestock numbers to maintaining and improving grassland health (MIGH) based on ecological theories, and promote the sustainable development of grassland in China. The results show that, FLB policy failed to obtain expected benefits mainly because it interfered with the herders’ autonomous use of contracted grasslands along with the defects of its underlying theory and methodologies. Implementing reward and punishment based on ecosystem health will not only motivate herders to manage their grassland autonomously, but also be more scientific and feasible than FLB.

Delimiting Ecological Space and Simulating Spatial-temporal Changes in Its Ecosystem Service Functions based on a Dynamic Perspective: Case Study on Qionglai City of Sichuan Province, China

Delimiting ecological space scientifically and making reasonable predictions of the spatial-temporal trend of changes in the dominant ecosystem service functions (ESFs) are the basis of constructing an ecological protection pattern of territorial space, which has important theoretical significance and application value. At present, most research on the identification, functional partitioning and pattern reconstruction of ecological space refers to the current ESFs and their structural information, which ignores the spatial-temporal dynamic nature of the comprehensive and dominant ESFs, and does not seriously consider the change simulation in the dominant ESFs of the future ecological space. This affects the rationality of constructing an ecological space protection pattern to some extent. In this study, we propose an ecological space delimitation method based on the dynamic change characteristics of the ESFs, realize the identification of the ecological space range in Qionglai city and solve the problem of ignoring the spatial-temporal changes of ESFs in current research. On this basis, we also apply the Markov-CA model to integrate the spatial-temporal change characteristics of the dominant ESFs, successfully realize the simulation of the spatial-temporal changes in the dominant ESFs in Qionglai city’s ecological space in 2025, find a suitable method for simulating ecological spatial-temporal changes and also provide a basis for constructing a reasonable ecological space protection pattern. This study finds that the comprehensive quantity of ESF and its annual rate of change in Qionglai city show obvious dynamics, which confirms the necessity of considering the dynamic characteristics of ESFs when identifying ecological space. The areas of ecological space in Qionglai city represent 98307 ha by using the ecological space identification method proposed in this study, which is consistent with the ecological spatial distribution in the local ecological civilization construction plan. This confirms the reliability of the ecological space identification method based on the dynamic characteristics of the ESFs. The results also show that the dominant ESFs in Qionglai city represented strong non-stationary characteristics during 2003-2019, which showed that we should fully consider the influence of the dynamics in the dominant ESFs on the future ESF pattern during the process of constructing the ecological spatial protection pattern. The Markov-CA model realized the simulation of spatial-temporal changes in the dominant ESFs with a high precision Kappa coefficient of above 0.95, which illustrated the feasibility of using this model to simulate the future dominant ESF spatial pattern. The simulation results showed that the dominant ESFs in Qionglai will still undergo mutual conversions during 2019-2025 due to the effect of the their non-stationary nature. The ecological space will still maintain the three dominant ESFs of primary product production, climate regulation and hydrological regulation in 2025, but their areas will change to 32793 ha, 52490 ha and 13024 ha, respectively. This study can serve as a scientific reference for the delimitation of the ecological conservation redline, ecological function regionalization and the construction of an ecological spatial protection pattern.