This article examines the valuation and payment of ecosystem services for livelihood sustainability in the Indian Central Himalayan Region (ICHR). Data were gathered from both primary and secondary sources on biodiversity resources-tangible (goods) and intangible (services) as the Himalaya is a repository of these resources, also called ecosystem services. The ecosystem services are interlinked with the highlands (providers) and the lowlands (beneficiaries) and providing livelihoods to the large populations. Forests cover about 63% of the total geographical area with rich biodiversity. Water resources are abundant as about 42% of the national water need is met by the Ganga River and its tributaries that originate and flow through the region. The hydroelectricity generating capacity is about 30000 MW. The environmental sustainability index is high due to the clean and pollution-free environment. Agro-biodiversity is substantially high and therefore, several crop races/cultivars grow here, although, arable land is only 18%. However, the people of the highlands are unable to use these biodiversity resources optimally because of the rugged terrain, remoteness, and adverse situation. As a result, the people of the highlands are poor, facing acute malnutrition and food scarcity problems. Valuation of both tangible and intangible ecosystem services can be done and payment can be made. Taxes can be levied on the intangible resources mainly used by the downstream people and green bonuses can be paid to the upstream people.

Based on the land use data of Xinxiang City from 2010 to 2020, this study integrates the methods of dynamic degreetransfer matrix, landscape pattern index and geographical detector to explore the quantitative structural changes, mutual transformations and landscape pattern characteristics of the “production-living- ecological space” (PLES) in Xinxiang City, and also analyzes the driving factors that affect the characteristic changes to reveal the laws governing the changes in the PLES and the current land use process. The results of this study reveal four important aspects of this system. (1) The changes in the PLES in Xinxiang City have accelerated significantly, and the overall performance shows that the production space continues to decrease, the living space keeps increasing, and the ecological space changes are more stable. (2) Regarding the spatial transfer characteristics, the ecological space has mainly transformed to production space, and the production space has mainly transformed to living space. (3) The landscape pattern characteristics show that the landscape types in Xinxiang City are diversified in terms of their components. (4) The spatial differentiation of the PLES is influenced by the combined effect of socio-economic and natural factors. Based on the empirical research results, we can not only propose corresponding optimization strategies for the better utilization of the PLES in Xinxiang City, but also provide important scientific references for the high-quality development of the prefecture-level cities in the Yellow River Basin.

With an average elevation of more than 4500 m, northern Tibet, known as the “roof of the world roof”, serves as the main body of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau’s ecological security barrier. However, the alpine grassland ecosystem in northern Tibet has suffered considerable alterations as a result of both climate change and overgrazing, and there is a degradation trend in some regions. In 2009, one ecological engineering, the Protection and Construction Project of Ecological Security Barrier in Tibet (hereafter referred to as the “Project”) was implemented to preserve the alpine ecosystem and restore service functions in the plateau. Water conservation is one of the most important service functions in alpine grassland ecosystem in northern Tibet, where is one part of the Asian Water Tower. To clarify the specific ecological benefits of the Project, this paper utilized the InVEST model to evaluate the variation trend of the water conservation function of alpine grasslands in northern Tibet before and after the implementation of the Project from 2000 to 2020, and contribution rate of climate change and the Project was also quantified. Results showed that: (1) Although the water conservation capacity of different grassland types in northern Tibet were varied, their water conservation function all altered dramatically after implementation of the Project. Specifically, the water yield has increased by 10.07%, and the water source supply service has increased by 8.86%. Among these grasslands, the alpine meadow had the highest increasing rate, water conservation capacity increased from -1.84 mm yr^-1 to 2.24 mm yr^-1 Followed by the alpine desert steppe and the alpine steppe, the rate of water conservation function were decreased significantly due to the Project. (2) Although climate is still the primary factor affecting the water conservation function of alpine grasslands in northern Tibet, the Project has effectively promoted the local water conservation function, with contribution rates of 13.99%, 8.75%, and 3.71% in the alpine meadow, alpine steppe and alpine desert steppe regions respectively.

The market-incentive emission trading system is an important element for improving urban governance. The main objective of this study was to examine the hypothesis that market-incentive environmental regulations have an impact on urban resilience. The entropy method was used to construct six dimension-specific objectives to comprehensively portray the level of urban resilience, and then the double difference method and the moderation model were used to investigate the impact of market-incentive environmental regulation on urban resilience and its mechanisms. The results show that up to two-thirds of cities are at a low resilience level. Second, the emission trading system significantly enhances the resilience of cities over time. Moreover, the effects of energy saving and emission reduction, marketization level and innovation vitality are important mechanisms for improving the resilience of cities. Furthermore, the lower the degree of green development of the city itself, the more significant the effect of the emission trading system on improving the resilience of the city. For different types of resource-based cities, the enhancement effects on urban resilience are growth cities, regeneration cities, mature cities and declining cities in descending order. To improve the level of urban resilience, it is necessary to release the policy dividend of regional coordination and to deepen development according to regional endowment differences. Finally, the findings of this analysis can provide some theoretical support and experience reference for deepening the market-incentive reform of environmental governance and promoting the high-quality development of resilient cities.