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Effectively guiding residents towards low-carbon behavior is an important way to reduce carbon emissions, mitigate climate change and achieve sustainable social development. We developed a dual mediator model of environmental pressure on low-carbon behavior based on Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) theory. The structural equation modelling analysis method was used to conduct an empirical test with 1557 questionnaires of urban residents from Beijing and Shanghai. The results indicate that: (1) environmental pollution intensity and social pressure intensity had a significant effect on residents’ low-carbon behavior. Social pressure was more likely to result in low-carbon behavior. (2) Perceived benefits were conducive to low-carbon behavior, whereas perceived costs inhibited low-carbon behavior. Social pressure intensity influenced low-carbon behavior by significantly acting on perceived benefits and costs, whereas environmental pollution intensity only contributed to low-carbon behavior by significantly reducing perceived costs. (3) Multi-group analysis gender, age, household size, and city of residence had significant moderating effects on the influence of environmental pollution intensity on low-carbon behavior. To promote residents’ low-carbon behavior, society should increase the dissemination of information on green, frugal, and low-carbon concepts to increase social pressure. And incentive measures should be taken to promote residents’ low-carbon behavior by relating them to interests. The results of the study are important for promoting residents’ low-carbon behavior from the perspective of social pressure and understanding the psychological changes in residents’ low-carbon behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protected areas in tourist hot spots are under increasing pressure from growing commercial tourism and wild plants utilization. However, few studies of tourists’ behaviors and attitudes towards eating wild edible plants in protected areas have been conducted. This study presents the results of an investigation conducted on 202 tourists and 334 households in the Qinling Mountains in China to examine relationships between harvest/eating wild edible plants and the tourism experience. According to the results, there is a high demand for wild edible plants by tourists and local people because of traditions and the desire for green food. Tourists with a higher level of education, maturity, or environmental awareness eat wild edible plants to a lesser extent. However, higher income may encourage greater utilization of wildland resources. Analytical results indicate significant inconsistency between tourists’ perceptions of wildland resource conservation and their actual behavior. Besides, the respondents perceive a low level of environmental responsibility in spite of their stated environmental awareness. This study highlights the need to fulfill ecological responsibility when tourism occurs in protected areas to achieve species conservation and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on analysis of the wetland water resources system in Beijing city, this paper established a system dynamics (SD) model for the water resources carrying capacity (WRCC) in Beijing city. Using a computer simulation of the SD model, the variation trends from 2006 to 2030 in population, economy, water supply and demand, and pressure on the water environment were derived for Beijing, from which 12 core variables of the model were chosen as the WRCC evaluation indices. Five cases were designed in this study. The results indicate that the WRCC will continue to decline annually by following the status quo (Case 1), since the water environment will have difficulty in supporting the long-term social and economic development of Beijing. The status quo of Beijing’s socioeconomic development is therefore not sustainable. In order to address this problem, five optimization cases were put forward to improve the WRCC, and the carrying capacities and trends of the cases were compared and analyzed. Under Case 5, the WRCC (0.8 in 2030) will increase by 50%, compared to that in Case 1 (0.4 in 2030), while the water supply and demand ratio will be 20% higher than the average, and the water pollution will be 35% lower than the average in 2030. According to the analysis results, in order to guarantee sustainable utilization of water resources and social economy development in Beijing, it is necessary to increase water saving policies and pollution control investment in the future. Corresponding measures will need to be taken to ensure the implementation of water saving strategies to improve the water environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The presence of wildlife makes an important contribution to ecosystem services, and in the hot spots of biodiversity conservation, the results of wild animal value evaluation can provide a basis for the formulation of ecological compensation standards. Applying the choice experiment method, we assessed the value of wild animals in the surrounding areas of the Changqing National Nature Reserve in China from the tourist perspective. The results of our field survey suggest that the cultural value of wild animals, measured in terms of willingness-to-pay, is significantly higher than that of the infrastructure and other natural landscape features. These findings can provide a basis for the rational allocation of resources for wild animal conservation. In this study, we use the choice experiment method to evaluate the value of wild animals in the surrounding areas of the Changqing National Nature Reserve in China. For areas focused on biodiversity conservation, the results of wild animal value evaluation can provide a basis for the formulation of local ecological compensation standards. We identified wild animals, natural landscape features, infrastructure and facilities, and ticket price as major attributes determining the utility and value of the reserve area. The results of our field survey suggest that the cultural value of wild animals is significantly higher than the value of the infrastructure and other natural landscapes. Tourists indicated a willingness-to-pay of 31.4 Yuan to see wild animals in captivity, compared to 71.9 Yuan to see wild animals in the field. Moreover, tourists with different characteristics have different preferences for the cultural value of wildlife. Female tourists have a higher willingness-to-pay than male tourists. In addition, as age, education, and income level increase, tourists' willingness-to-pay also increases. These conclusions can provide a reference for local government to formulate wildlife protection compensation and ecotourism ticket pricing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the dual pressures of climate change and human activities, the restrictions imposed by conservation policies, along with the increasing overlap between wildlife protected areas (PAs) and community living areas, have intensified the contradictions and conflicts between PAs and surrounding communities. Effective governance of such conflicts is particularly crucial to reconciling the contradictions between conservation and development. This study takes the Mikumi–Selous areas in Tanzania, Africa, as a case study. Through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, it explores the current state of conflicts between PAs and communities in the study area and summarizes conflict governance measures. Moreover, this research focuses on identifying various factors that influence the conservation willingness and action of community residents, further validating the relationships between residents' household characteristics, conservation costs and benefits, conservation cognition, willingness, and behaviors through empirical analysis methods. The results indicate that residents' conservation cognition significantly positively impacts their conservation willingness and behaviors, while conservation willingness also positively affects their conservation behaviors. Additionally, it was found that conservation costs inhibit residents' conservation willingness and behaviors. This study primarily explores, from a community governance perspective, the participation willingness and behaviors of core stakeholders in conflict governance, emphasizing the critical role of community involvement in achieving biodiversity conservation and coordinated community development and providing a new perspective for alleviating conservation and development issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human–bear conflicts (HBC) impact the livelihoods and safety of local communities in underdeveloped areas and challenges local governments and wildlife conservation agencies. We conducted a systematic analysis of HBC in the Sanjiangyuan National Park, which is a core region of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. This study consisted of semi-structured interviews with 81 stakeholders in October 2020, including local families and government departments. We qualitatively assessed the dominant characteristics and causes of bear damage in the region and proposed various mitigation strategies. The results revealed that recent implementations of biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration policies have increased the number and severity of HBC. Livestock depredation, attack on humans, and house break-ins were the most common and damaging conflict types. We discuss the challenges of HBC mitigation in the region and propose possible mitigation strategies based on the results of the interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shen, J.; Han, X.; Hou, Y.; Wu, J., and Wen, Y., 2015. The relationship between marine biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation in the strategies of rural development in China. Biodiversity conservation and sustainable management of ecosystems should be included in eradicating poverty and achieving the internationally agreed goals related strategies. This study demonstrated the primary content of the Outline of Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China's Rural Areas (DPRCRA). By employing the Participatory Rural Assessment approach, this study assesses the effectiveness of DPRCRA in improving the ecology, socio-economic conditions and biodiversity conservation, elaborating on the opportunities and challenges entailed in the outline strategy. Results indicated that the relationship between them was Poverty escalation cycle and Poverty alleviation cycle. The paper also discusses the role of developing appropriate institutional mechanisms to integrate conservation and development efforts from practitioners' perspective, to enable poverty alleviation and marine biodiversity conservation to succeed, and proposes a set of guiding suggestions for making policies on rural capacity building and enhancing compensation mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-based ecotourism (CBET) is considered an efficient mechanism for alleviating conflicts between conservation and development. It is particularly important in the conservation of the giant panda population, which faces the primary threat of habitat fragmentation. Although studies have assessed livelihood changes of households participating in CBET, research on ecological effects is lacking. To address the gaps in the literature, we conducted propensity score matching on data from households at different altitudes in giant panda habitats in Sichuan Province, China. The results show that CBET has achieved desirable social outcomes, significantly increasing local households' income and well-being, especially for those at high altitudes. With respect to ecological impacts, CBET has significantly raised households' conservation attitudes, but has also increased natural resource extraction, especially at high altitudes. Overall, CBET in the giant panda habitat has not led to a win–win situation between social and ecological outcomes, especially at high altitudes. Our results indicate that the ecological impact of CBET is significant, and policies aimed at promoting the conservation of natural resources should account for this effect. • Community based ecotourism (CBET) has achieved positive social outcomes in giant panda habitats. • The social and ecological outcomes of CBET differs between high and low altitude. • CBET has some negative ecological effects, especially in high altitude. • Trade off effect of CBET between ecological and social outcomes was found in high altitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]