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Willingness to Pay (WTP), Willingness to Work (WTW) and Willingness to Accept Compensation (WTA) are the three quantitative criteria for assessing local ecological asset values for the social aspects of ecosystem services and residents' willingness to contribute to and receive compensation for tourism ecology. The objectives of this study are to estimate the residents' willingness to pay, work and accept compensation for conservation at Sanjiangyuan National Park, and to analyze the relationship between residents' attitude towards tourism ecology and the ecological assets of the National Park based on a standard questionnaire survey. The dichotomous choice Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) was employed to determine the willingness. The survey conducted in 2018 collected WTP, WTW, WTA, socio-demFographical information, social trust and resident perceptions toward tourism impacts and relevant management strategies from 244 residents in two counties. Based on generalized linear modeling, income and education level are important for residents' WTP and WTA, but other social characteristics, such as gender and age, do not have significant effects. The social trust is found to be a significant factor on residents' willingness, despite the limitation on education level. Also, government funding is associated with residents' inclination to WTP, WTW and WTA, but the support levels differ among the two counties due to geographical and social heterogeneities. The estimated WTP, WTW and WTA for the Sanjiangyuan National Park in 2018 were 1.2448×107 yuan, 1.247×106 hours and 2.3232×107 yuan yr–1 based on the survey and published demographics. This study, for the first time, estimates the WTP, WTW and WTA for the Sanjiangyuan National Park and informs ecological conservation managers and policy makers. Ultimately, to maintain the long-term benefits arising from sustainable development, compensation should be specifically tailored and site-dependent, and development measures based on local resources should be adopted by governments to actively support eco-tourism activities.

In the context of climate change, research on extreme climates and disaster risk management has become a crucial component of climate change adaptation. Local communities, which have been facing extreme climates for a long time in their production and daily life, have developed some locally applicable traditional knowledge that has played an important role in their adaptation to extreme climate and disaster risk management. Therefore, this research aims to link Local knowledge (LK) to community extreme climate disaster risk management in order to construct a conceptual model. It then takes the extreme climate adaptation strategy of traditional nomads in a temperate grassland of China as an example to analyze the role of LK in extreme climate adaptation using the proposed theoretical framework. The main research objectives of this study are: (1) To construct a conceptual model to illustrate the relations among extreme climate events, risk management, LK, and farmers′ adaptation strategies; (2) To apply the theoretical framework to a field case to reveal context-specific extreme climate adaptation mechanisms with LK as a critical component; (3) To test the framework and provide suggestions for the extreme climates adaptation, and the conservation of LK related to climate change adaptation. The results show that from the perspective of disaster risk management, local communities could manage extreme climates as a disaster risk through adaptation strategies formed from LK, because as a knowledge system, LK contains relevant knowledge covering the whole process of disaster risk management.

With the continuous emergence of global development problems, the dynamic conservation and sustainable development of Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (IAHS) have been assigned greater importance. However, due to the complex structure, multi-component, dynamic, and open characteristics of IAHS, there are neglected problems which need to be solved in conservation practice, such as component element ambiguity, obscurity of the conservation redline, etc. This study defined the concept of key elements (KE) of IAHS, put forward a conceptual framework of KE identification, conducted empirical research by taking Honghe County of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces System (HHRTS) as an example and analyzed the level of recognition motivations for different stakeholder groups. The following conclusions were drawn: 1) The KE of HHRTS are grain crops, rice species biodiversity, terrace construction and maintenance technique, Hani traditional festivals, Hani traditional foods, and virgin forest; 2) The reasons behind the KE priorities of farmers, businessmen and tourists were at the micro level, the reasons of officers were at the middle level and the reasons of researchers were at the macro level. The empirical study conducted in HHRTS showed that the proposed conceptual framework could identify KE of IAHS effectively, and provided a theoretical perspective for the structuring of and essential need for IAHS research. Moreover, the KE recognition levels of different stakeholder groups reflected their potential action strategies. We should focus on the coherence of policies and measures in both the microscale and macroscale to balance the diversified demands of stakeholders, and to stimulate their enthusiasm for participation in the conservation in order to improve the management level of IAHS sites.

Wild edible plants (WEPs) can provide a variety of provisioning services and cultural services but they are currently under-utilized. Understanding farmers' perceptions of the collection and consumption of wild edible plant resources is essential for promoting local socio-ecological system resilience and local wild plant resource use. This paper uses the Q-method to investigate the main perspectives of farmers toward collecting and consuming wild edible plants in the Honghe Hani Terraces region of Yunnan Province. This analysis identified four main perspective types among the farmers, including market-driven, household user-driven, cultural service seekers, and tradition followers. It revealed the main factors that limit and facilitate farmers' WEP collection and consumption, including limitations due to loss of traditional knowledge, and changes in socioeconomic conditions that negatively affect WEP collection and consumption; while, on the other hand, the demand for WEP-related cultural services and the presence of a strong culture slowed down changes in dietary structure, which in turn have maintained WEP collection and consumption. The Q-method can help in identifying the relationship between community residents and local wild plant resource use in rapidly transitioning areas and in identifying the barriers that affect the resilience of local socio-ecological systems.

Agricultural biodiversity has a high importance in social-cultural, economic, and environmental aspects, and can help in adapting to and withstanding climate change. Conserving the GIAHS sites and the important components within them can help conserve the agricultural biodiversity and traditional agricultural culture of the whole country. This study considered Ifugao Rice Terraces, Dong's Rice-Fish-Duck System, and Hani Rice Terraces System as three examples which show that traditional culture can be used to protect agricultural biodiversity, while as a carrier of traditional culture, agricultural biodiversity also conveys and protects the traditional culture of the nation. According to the analyses, through several years of efforts, the status of agricultural biodiversity and traditional culture in them has improved. Then, to further promote agricultural biodiversity conservation and traditional culture protection, several suggestions are made, such as establishing community seed banks; documenting and preserving traditional farming methods, techniques, and tools and developing participatory activities which encourage more farmers to participate in the protection work.

Ecological compensation plays an important role in promoting ecological protection. Identifying factors affecting the willingness of farmers to accept eco-compensation has become a focus of ecological economics. The Qianxi traditional chestnut agricultural heritage system is a typical agroforestry system in China and adapts the local environment well. However, local farmers concentrate on chestnut monocultures, driven by short-term profits. The local ecological environment is very fragile. We surveyed 100 local rural households. Based on face-to-face interviews and questionnaires and model assessment, we analyzed factors affecting the willingness of farmers to accept eco-compensation in the Qianxi chestnut agroforestry system of Hebei. We found that many factors influence farmer willingness to accept, including education level, household income, environmental awareness, environmental protection practices and knowledge of ecological compensation. This research provides helps clarify the mechanism...

In China, the distribution of water resources is incompatible with the development of productivity. The construction of South-to-North Water Diversion Project has achieved inter-basin water diversion, and the project can alleviate the uneven distribution of water resources phenomenon effectively. However, in recent years, the aggregate effects of water pollution and water resource shortages have been serious. Establishing transverse eco-compensation mechanisms becomes the key method to achieve sustainable use of water resources. Based on statistical and questionnaire data, this paper uses the Opportunity Costs Method and Willingness to Pay approach to establish a transverse eco-compensation standard calculation model for the Middle Route Project of the Southto-North Water Diversion. The results show that the upper and lower limits of the transverse eco-compensation standard for the Middle Route Project is $2.52 billion and $2.20 billion every year, respectively. However, the paying and receiving standards varied widely among different compensation payers and compensation receivers. Meanwhile, the significant factors influencing the paying willingness of the receiver area citizens were age, education level, average revenue per month, knowledge about the South-to-North Water Diversion Project and recognition of the importance of eco-environmental integrity. This study began with a theoretical analysis, then analysed related problems related to calculating transverse eco-compensation standards for the Middle Route Project of the South-to-North Water Diversion by an empirical study. This empirical study helps to establish effective transverse eco-compensation mechanisma and promotea the development of effective policies and legislation.

灾害会对社会-生态系统产生严重影响,造成重大的社会、经济、环境等方面的损失,科学地对灾害风险进行评估是进行防灾减灾的基础工作.自然保护地是区域灾害风险管理热点地区,在国家公园体制试点建设与自然保护地体系改革中,国家公园作为保护重要生态系统并保障全民公益性的重要的自然保护地类型之一,管理目标的多样性,决定了其具有多风险源-多受体的灾害风险特征,因此,进行全面有效的灾害风险评估是支持国家公园生态系统管理、游客管理、社区管理等具体管理目标的必要环节.在明确国家公园灾害风险的特征与内涵的基础上,以国际减灾署灾害风险定量评估框架为依据,细分灾害风险源和风险受体,然后针对国家公园不同类型的灾害风险受体,以灾害风险源的危险性与灾害风险受体的脆弱性(包含敏感性、暴露性和适应性)衡量灾害风险度,结合压力-状态-响应(Pressure-State-Response,PSR)模型,构建了适用于国家公园综合灾害风险管理的评估指标体系,旨在为国家公园的灾害风险管理提供理论基础和科学依据,服务于国家公园多元化管理目标.

Rural tourism has been the leading alternative livelihood of farmers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in recent years. However, the trade-off between agricultural production and rural tourism has been gradually serious. Therefore, we selected the Zhagana Village, an example of rural tourism on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, to discuss the agricultural production under rural tourism from smallholder farmers' perspective, and analyze its existence severity of the trade-off. Based on the comparative analysis of smallholder farmers' agricultural production behavior (including the production scale, agricultural input, agricultural output, and production efficiency), we reviewed the agricultural production in the whole study region in 2005–2019. The results show a certain degree of trade-off between agricultural production and rural tourism on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. At the level of smallholder farmers, under the background of rural tourism development, agricultural production efficiency (mainly the production efficiency of grassland) has significantly increased due to the further expansion of the scale of livestock husbandry by smallholder farmers. At the regional level, with the development of rural tourism, the regional production structure has gradually changed from the integrated management of farming, forestry, and animal husbandry into the mode of taking animal husbandry as a dominant industry, farming and forestry as supplementary industries, but the regional agricultural productivity has not been stagnated or weakened.

Agri-cultural Heritage Systems (AHS) have not only various values but also important enlightening roles for modern agriculture. With agro-scientific and technological progress, the traditional agriculture that has lasted for thousands of years is declining gradually, thus is attached the importance of exploring and protecting our AHS. As a traditional agricultural system for 1300 years, the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces System (HHRTS) has many significant characteristics such as beautiful landscapes, distinctive rice varieties, ecologically clean agricultural production systems, systematic methods of managing water and soil and special ethnic culture. It was designated successively as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) in 2010 and as a World Heritage (WH) in 2013. In this paper, taking HHRTS as an example, we analyzed the economic, ecological, aesthetic, cultural, and social values, as well as the research values, of the GIAHS. We conclude that the restrictions on increasing p...

In the early 1990s, China stepped into the stage of rapid urbanization with a flourishing economy and new technological development. Surplus labor from rural areas flooded into cities and became the main force of urban development. However some severe threats to human survival emerged from urbanization, such as over-extensive urban development, excessive resource consumption, ecological degradation, food security and safety risks and social crises. It has become an imperative to balance urban and rural development to achieve greater harmony between nature and society. This paper firstly tried to focus on public dietary change, agricultural industry development, institutional guarantee, ecological restoration, as well as cultural tourism in urban and peri-urban agricultural heritage sites. Then, it established a development model, balanced the urbanization and urban-supported agriculture. This paper proposed “Agricultural heritage systems” as an entry point for balancing the development of urban ...

Zhejiang province is one of China's smallest provinces in terms of land area, but one of the most active economically. It was also the first to conserve agricultural heritage systems and achieve great results in this area. An analysis and evaluation of the status and problems of agricultural heritage systems in Zhejiang province can serve as a useful example for other places to develop agricultural heritage systems protection. Based on nearly a decade of practice in conserving agricultural heritage systems in Zhejiang province, this thesis analyzes the significance, status and problems, evaluates the potential in terms of traditional agricultural products, special cash trees and fruit trees, tea cultures, marine resource utilization, water-land resources use and eco-agricultural models, and gives targeted development advice. Studies have shown that heritage conservation nurtures traditional agriculture and promotes its sustainable development, fosters the passing on of farming culture and cultur...

The Hani Rice Terraces System is one of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) sites which can successfully resist extreme droughts. The reason is not only that the forests and terraces have the important function of water conservation, which provide and conserve adequate water resources for this complex ecosystem, but also that Hani traditional ecological knowledge plays an important role in the drought-resistance process. In this paper, drought-resistant mechanisms of the Hani Rice Terraces System have been analyzed first, then Hani traditional ecological knowledge has been analyzed based on a comprehensive literature review, a questionnaire survey and key informant interviews. The results show that the Hani nationality has developed knowledge of water management techniques, including water conserving construction, water allocation and ditch management. The Hani people are also highly conscious of water resources protection. There is a good deal of forest resource managem...

The Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) has been established by FAO to protect valuable agricultural systems that are rich in biodiversity and home to indigenous knowledge, technology and cultural values. GIAHS has been accepted by many countries as a tool to maintain traditional agrosystems as “living heritage”. This paper examined the Xinghua Duotian agrosystem in eastern China to explore whether the GIAHS programme is an effective instrument for top-down implementation of conservation policies initiated by the government. An intensive social survey using a questionnaire was conducted in the core conservation area to examine farmers' understanding of the agrosystem and their willingness to conserve it. Statistical analyses including factor analysis, a linear model, a logit model and an optimal scale model were used to reveal farmers' perception of GIAHS and the factors that impact their willingness to conserve. Results show that the agrosystem faces challenges of aging and population loss. Farmers were not very familiar with GIAHS. They did not link GIAHS to the agrosystem because they generally understood GIAHS as a title meant to bring economic benefits, although they also thought the agrosystem had non-economic values worth conserving. Because farmers were not sure about the economic outcomes of the GIAHS programme, they thought the government, not them, should take the main role in conservation. Therefore, GIAHS as a tool to encourage farmers to become active in conservation does not seem very effective. It will not become so until it truly facilitates the transformation of non-economic values to economic values in the agrosystem. We suggested that the concepts of GIAHS should be matched to farmers' perceptions to provide farmers with conservation incentives.

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 le...

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.

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.

In rural life, everything is connected to everything else. Seen as a complex adaptive system, the “rural” in most regions of the world has evolved over many centuries and is well known to have endured invasive predations and conflicts and to have adapted to changing conditions, both physical and human, many times. Such changes are recorded in the culture and in the landscapes which have continuously evolved and which characterize rural places today. These features of contemporary rural life—economy, culture and landscape—are the key elements of rural systems. Interestingly, they have also become the elements that attract tourists to rural areas. This theoretical paper, starts from the position that the rural world as a whole is complex and that systems adjust in the face of uncertainty, and a type of dynamism that is generated externally in the form of shocks and stresses. Complex Adaptive Systems theory provides an excellent opportunity to examine living systems such as Globally Important Agric...

This study seeks to isolate a select group of landscape metrics particularly well-suited for describing the Hani Terrace in southwest of China. We examined the response of 47 landscape metrics to a large range of imagery grain sizes. Based on a correlation analysis, the original 47 metrics were placed into 21 groups such that all metrics within a group were strongly correlated with each other with a value of more than 0.9, and were represented by a single descriptor. Using these cross-sectional metrics in the context of principal components analysis, we found that five factors explained almost 93% of the total variation in the landscape pattern. The highest loadings for these five factors were the Splitting index (SPLIT), Patch area distribution (AREA_CV), Shannon's diversity index (SHDI), Euclidean nearest neighbor distance distribution (ENN_AM), and Total core area (TCA), respectively. Considering the real landscape, we added the Patch fractal dimension distribution (FRAC_MN) as the sixth land...

The Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) initiative was launched by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in 2002 with the aim of establishing the basis for the global recognition, dynamic conservation and adaptive management of outstanding traditional agricultural systems and their associated landscapes, biodiversity, knowledge systems and cultures. There is anecdotal evidence that designated GIAHS are economically better than non-GIAHS sites. However, there have not been done an economic analysis to prove this. Nor are any sophisticated economic performance criteria for GIAHS in place for a continuously monitoring of the functioning. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to conduct an economic valuation for a GIAHS system versus a similar non designated GIAHS system. For this, a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) is chosen. The major constraint is the data availability. Therefore, a framework for economic analysis shall be developed with the in...

Population growth, loss of biodiversity, and climate change necessitate a new vision for the future of both agriculture and biodiversity. In order to safeguard and support the world's agricultural heritage systems, in 2002 the FAO started an initiative for the conservation and adaptive management called Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS). Tourism is suggested as part of the future as it is considered to be an alternative income source that will not only promote local economic development, but also provide the opportunity for tourists to learn about agriculture and ecology. However, inappropriate tourism in GIAHS sites will bring impacts on local culture and living styles, which not only threatens tourism's sustainable development, but also has the potential to damage these unique agricultural systems. This paper proposes that agriculture-based tourism is suitable for GIAHS and that Multi-functionality of Agriculture (MFA) can be the link between agriculture and tourism. Thi...

The conifer Torreya grandis is endemic to China and is a rare esculent species in the family Taxaceae. The plant culture of Torreya includes classification,food and medicine,landscape gardening,forestry,and related literature. The species was originally recorded on bamboo strips during the reign of the first emperor Qin Shi Huang. All the identifying features of the species have been described since the Ming Dynasty. The species was described scientifically in 1857. Torreya seeds have been used in herbal medicine since the Eastern Han Dynasty. More information on the potency of the species has been revealed since then. The use of the esculent torreya nut can be traced back to the middle of the Tang Dynasty. The cultivated variety,Chinese Torreya(T. grandis cv. Merrillii),was successfully cultivated by grafting. The West Zhejiang and South Anhui provinces are regarded as the origin of this variety. The selection of this species for landscape gardening began in the Western Han Dynasty. The conifer has even been planted in the Luoyang region,far from its natural source region in the Tang Dynasty. The use of the species in forestry can be traced back to the Song Dynasty. Its use reached its peak during the late Ming and the early Qing Dynasty in the Zhejiang and Anhui provinces. The appreciation of this species was encouraged by Su Shi,which led to Chinese torreya becoming fashionable during the Song Dynasty. Many poems were created about the conifer at this time.

For natural resource science, resource productivity studying is an important subject. But researches on tourism resource productivity are limited. The most significant influencing factor on tourism resource productivity is the potential market scale of tourist locations, and second most important influencing factor is the resource endowment. Regional urban population is significantly correlated with region tourist numbers, being the decisive factor of region potential tour market scale. In tourism development, the dual model should be adopted: on one hand to enhance tour spot attractiveness, on the other hand to cultivate the potential market by improving urbanization level and other means. In the situation of tourism development fever spreading, the dual model for improving tourism productivity helps to avoid the “Great Leap Forward” which means that too rapid tourism construction divorces from actual market demand.

In the current study, the ecosystem services (ES) of conventional and organic rice paddies in Wannian, Jiangxi Province, China are investigated. First, the ES at the field level under organic and conventional paddies were investigated. Total economic value of ES in organic rice paddies was 30093.08 yuan RMB/ha per year and that of conventional rice paddies was 22 793.31 yuan RMB/ha per year. The total indirect value of ES was 14 813.7 yuan RMB/ha per year in organic rice paddies and 12 424.56 yuan RMB/ha per year in conventional ones. There were significant differences between organic and conventional rice paddies for the economic values. Then, this economic information was used to extrapolate and to calculate the total and indirect value of ES from rice paddies in Wangnian. The total and indirect economic values of ES from conventional rice paddies in Wannian were 6791 million and 3702 million yuan RMB per year respectively, and the total and indirect economic values of ES from organic rice padd...

Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) is a wide program to promote the conservation and adaptive management of such systems and their associated landscapes, biodiversity, knowledge systems and cultures. Rice-Fish Systems (RFS) in Longxian village of China, as a traditional agricultural system, was selected as one of the five pilot sites of GIAHS in 2005. Researchers have paid more attention to the dynamic conservation and adaptive management of RFS because it is under severe threats from global development challenges. Tourism is suggested to be brought into the RFS conservation program as an alternative industry. This paper presents a comparative study of residents in three types of farm household in Longxian, seeking attitudes to the RFS conservation and tourism development and ways in which such information may guide future strategies. Results show residents, belonging to the household type in which most family members are abroad, have the most positive attitudes to RFS conse...

The ecological water requirement of forests is defined as the water resources used to maintain and improve the natural balance of forest ecosystems, which can be expressed by evapotranspiration of trees during the growing season. The relationship of evapotranspiration and soil moisture of forestland with tree growth showed that, if the soil moisture was above the temporary wilting point or the point of growth retardation, the growth of trees can, respectively, be basically or normally sustained. Therefore, they can be taken as the minimum and the suitable ecological water requirements of the forest. These points can be estimated by introducing the soil factor (Ks) and tree species factor (Kt) to potential evapotranspiration with the Penman formula. With geographic information system (GIS), the ecological water requirement for forests in the Jinghe watershed, western China was estimated. The results revealed that the minimum and suitable ecological water requirements of the forests in the Jinghe watershed were approximately 204×107 and 340×107 m3, respectively.

There are more than 10000 years of agricultural development history in the world that has provided very fruitful and ingenious traditional knowledge and experiences reflecting the evolution of humanity and the nature. In 2002, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) initiated an international partnership initiative of “Conservation and Adaptive Management of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)” which aims to establish the basis for the international recognition, dynamic conservation and sustainable management of such systems, agricultural biodiversity and their associated biodiversity knowledge systems, food and livelihood security, landscapes and cultures. According to FAO, GIAHS are defined as “Remarkable land use systems and landscapes which are rich in globally significant biological diversity evolving from the coadaptation of a community with its environment and its needs and aspirations for sustainable development.” It is very obvious that GIAHS sites are different from other kinds of heritage. Generally, these traditional agricultural systems are selected on the basis of their importance for the provision of local food security, high levels of agricultural biodiversity and associated biological diversity, stores of indigenous knowledge and the ingenuity of their management systems. Correspondingly, some new and effective approaches to conserve and manage the new kinds of “heritage” should be found and developed. International and regional collaboration can play an important role in the process. Up to now, there are 31 GIAHS sites located in 13 countries. Most of them (23) are in Asia. China is one of the first countries responding and actively joining the GIAHS initiative. In 2005, the Qingtian Rice-Fish Culture System

Tongle Village in Weixi County of Yunnan Province, a typical Lisu village in Lancang River basin, is located at the national protection zone of traditional culture of Lisu people and named as the ecological cultural village by UNESCO. Based on the distinctive climatic characteristics at different altitudes, Lisu people have developed an effective vertical agriculture system. They cultivate rice and wheat in the river basin at an altitude of 1 740 m; plant corns, nuts, fruits and vegetables around the village at an altitude of 1 840 m and buckwheat, potato, herbs in the upper “swidden land†at an altitude of 2 000 m. They also herd animals in the alpine meadow at an altitude of 2 500 m. Based on a fieldwork, this paper studied the vertical agriculture system by applying the theories of Ecological Anthropology and employing several field work methods such as participant observation and in-depth interviews. According to the research findings, Lisu people have not only properly utilized local natural resources, but also developed a related cultural system to facilitate their agriculture production. But the vertical system also faces great challenges with the economic and social development of local areas. To respond positively, sustainable development is a way for Lisu people to enhance their living standards and maintain their traditional culture.

Tongle Village in Weixi County of Yunnan Province, a typical Lisu village in Lancang River basin, is located at the national protection zone of traditional culture of Lisu people and named as the ecological cultural village by UNESCO. Based on the distinctive climatic characteristics at different altitudes, Lisu people have developed an effective vertical agriculture system. They cultivate rice and wheat in the river basin at an altitude of 1 740 m; plant corns, nuts, fruits and vegetables around the village at an altitude of 1 840 m and buckwheat, potato, herbs in the upper “swidden land” at an altitude of 2 000 m. They also herd animals in the alpine meadow at an altitude of 2 500 m. Based on a fieldwork, this paper studied the vertical agriculture system by applying the theories of Ecological Anthropology and employing several field work methods such as participant observation and in-depth interviews. According to the research findings, Lisu people have not only properly utilized local natural resources, but also developed a related cultural system to facilitate their agriculture production. But the vertical system also faces great challenges with the economic and social development of local areas. To respond positively, sustainable development is a way for Lisu people to enhance their living standards and maintain their traditional culture.