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Since Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (IAHS) were launched by the FAO to protect the sustainable traditional agricultural systems around the world, their conservation has become a new difficult issue under the context of urbanization. Farmers in IAHS sites giving up small-scale traditional farming due to their low economic benefit and high labor intensity are considered as the main cause hindering effective conservation of these heritages. This study takes the Kuancheng traditional chestnut cultivation system (KTCCS) in northern China as a case to assess its economic and socio-cultural sustainability. Based on questionnaires and interviews, this study found that: the traditional ecological farming methods were still used by local farming households to plant chestnut trees, and most farmers support IAHS conservation. KTCCS performs economic and socio-cultural sustainability. For a household, the labor productivity of chestnut cultivation was 1.33 times that of their non-farm jobs because of the low labor input of chestnut cultivation. Farmers widely consider they live in a harmonious social environment but are lower than other households in economic status. Most farmers still lack an understanding of indigenous traditional knowledge and cultures. In the future, secondary and tertiary industries should be developed to provide farmers with employment opportunities in their hometowns for protecting KTCCS.

How we scientifically measure residents’ perception of tourism developments and earn their understanding and support have an important impact on the scientific management and sustainable utilization of tourist attractions. This study analyzes the mediating role of perceived justice and community identity between residents’ perceptions of tourism’s impact and their support for tourism development by integrating the theories of social exchange theory (SET) and ‘cognition–affection–conation’ (CAC) relationship theory. We surveyed 334 interviewees in the Xinghua Duotian Agrosystem (XHDA), a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) site in Jiangsu Province, China. The findings of our study are as follows: (1) Residents’ perceptions had both a direct and indirect influence over behavioral intentions. Specifically, benefit perception of tourism had a significant positive influence, while cost perception had a significant negative influence on residents’ support for tourism development. (2) Perceived justice and community identity played an intermediary role in the relationship between tourism impact perception and support for tourism development. (3) The mediating role of emotions had strong effects on their behavioral intentions via its psychological transmission chain of perceptions. The results suggest that community-based tourism (CBT) may be an effective tool for local residents to diversify their livelihoods in the GIAHS site, and the mediating role of perceived justice and community identity should be taken seriously for the development of CBT in GIAHS sites.

Rural communities are taking active roles in conservation. However, the basic modes and content of community participatory approach are seldom summarised or reflected on in China, leaving the use of terms confused and their links to practice disconnected. By reviewing the literature, we traced back to the protected area-community relations from the perspective of features of rural communities, namely knowledge accumulation, social bond, collective actions, and risk-aversion, and reflected on changing roles of community conservation through recognition of these features. Combining case studies and our own research experience, we focused on the de facto practices behind the somewhat casual use of several terms and re-classified community participation in conservation to three modes of community participatory management, community co-management, and community dominant management, along a continuum in which, from low to high level, conservation is more a means rather than an end for the community to be empowered for their own resource management. We argued that the success of community participation must ensure stable and flexible land tenure so that the right to benefit can be guaranteed, and the collective action in managing resources can be achieved by empowerment. In practice, further institutional changes of improvement in the legislation and optimisation in benefit sharing and compensation are needed to promote community participation in a broader social participation context.

To cope with the problem of the global agricultural environment, food security, and the crisis of sustainable agricultural development, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), together with other relevant national organizations and several countries, launched the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) in 2002. The Qingtian Rice-Fish system was designated as China&rsquo, s first GIAHS and was included in the first batch of GIAHS pilot sites, in 2005. Since then, study of systematic agricultural heritage and its conservation and development has progressed in China. On the basis of a comprehensive collection of relevant studies, the author reviews the main achievements in conservation and development of China-Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (China-NIAHS) over the past 15 years. At the present stage, the core contents of study on agricultural heritage are focused on two aspects. One is the benefit of exploration with multi-functional development. Another is dynamic conservation with adaptive management. There are many controversies around the concept and connotation of agricultural heritage, which, in turn, promote the understanding of this new type of heritage. The sustainable mechanism within agricultural heritage gives itself value diversity. Study about the value of agricultural heritage highlights the significance of conservation. The development of multi-functional industrials based on its multi-functional value is the pathway for the development of China-NIAHS, including the production of high-quality and characteristic local agricultural products, the development of ecotourism, and the development of cultural industries. To carry out dynamic conservation and adaptive management, the establishment of "five in one" benefit-sharing, multi-stakeholder mechanisms, legally guaranteed incentive mechanisms, government-leading, multi-financing mechanisms, and multi-disciplinary scientific support mechanisms are indispensable. Although China has made great progress in the study of agricultural heritage, it still needs to carry out additional research through heritage resources surveys, regular patterns of system evolution, and sustainable mechanisms, as well as perform more applicable research in framework and mechanism construction and paradigms of dynamic protection. Multidisciplinary comprehensive studies are necessary as well.

In agriculture, synthetic fertilizers have played a key role in enhancing food production and keeping the world&rsquo, s population adequately fed. China&rsquo, s participation is essential to global efforts in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions because it is the largest producer and consumer of synthetic fertilizers. A field experiment was conducted in a Jasminum sambac (L.) field to evaluate the impact different doses of fertilizers (half, standard, and double) and their combination with straw on ecosystem (including crop plants and soil) GHG emissions. The results showed that in comparison with the control or straw treatments, the straw + standard fertilizer treatment increased the soil water content. The fertilizer treatments decreased the soil pH, but the straw and combination treatments, especially the straw + standard fertilizer treatment, had higher soil pH in comparison with the fertilizer treatment. The active soil Fe (Fe2+ and Fe3+) concentration was slightly increased in the straw + standard fertilizer treatment in comparison with the control. Moreover, fertilizer increased the CO2 emission, and we detected a positive interaction between the straw application and the double fertilization dose that increased CO2 emission, but the straw + standard fertilizer treatment decreased it. Fertilizer decreased CH4 and N2O emissions, but when straw and fertilizer treatments were applied together, this increased CH4 and N2O emissions. Overall, considering the soil properties and GHG emissions, the straw + standard fertilizer treatment was the best method to enhance soil water retention capacity, improve soil acid, and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions for sustainable management of J. sambac dry croplands.

An agricultural heritage system is a special type of protected area that is both culturally and ecologically important. Biological resources are an essential component of an agricultural heritage system. They are necessary to support human livelihood, and their usage is key to ensuring biodiversity. This study used a survey questionnaire and key informant interviews to investigate the use of edible biological resources (EBRs) in the Shuangjiang Mengku ancient tea and culture system (SMATCS). We investigated similarities and differences in EBR use between four minority groups as well as the driving forces behind them. The four groups used 245 EBR species in 113 families, and diversity of EBR use was found in terms of species, edible parts, harvest season, and usage. EBR use within groups was driven by natural, cultural, social, and economic forces. Two social factors (infrastructure and communication), two economic factors (overall economic development and farmer income), and a biological resource (species diversity) drove EBR utilization in all the groups convergently, while three cultural factors drove EBR utilization divergently. To assure the long-term sustainability of EBRs, the preservation of cultural diversity should be combined with the conservation of biodiversity. Targets must be set to adjust the impacts of the driving factors, and more stakeholders must be involved in the conservation of EBRs.

Fifteen years have passed since Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) project in 2002. In this time, participation from East Asian countries has been increasing rapidly with interest flowing over into several related subjects and disciplines. Culture is one of the selection criteria that has to be satisfied to become a GIAHS site, and equally culture plays an important role in the development of tourism to a destination. However, few scientists or GIAHS members have discussed directly how to apply cultural features in GIAHS. Therefore, the purposes of this paper are firstly to recognize the importance and contribution of culture in GIAHS. Then, through detailing the current forms of cultural management in the GIAHS located in Japan, Korea, and China, we identify some of the key cultural problems and prospects in those sites. Two social surveys conducted in Japan show that culture is a prime motivation for tourist visitation, as well as being a core GIAHS selection criteria. These surveys further highlight that GIAHS needs to incorporate culture more effectively into their management strategies. Detailed descriptions of the three countries analyzed in this paper outline each has to engage with particular cultural management challenges: Japan has a well-arranged list of cultural assets, but is unclear how to move forward with that information and data. Korea has just begun to generate a strategy on how to manage cultural heritage features in GIAHS with the use of approaches such as Agrostories or Gil tourism, in recognition of the gradual changes that are occurring in local identity. China has the longest history of engagement with GIAHS in the East Asia region. However, the utilization of the model here has recognized further issues of change in cultural identity not least through commercialization. This paper therefore identifies, discusses and arranges eight problems and prospects for collaborative research on aspects of cultural management amongst the GIAHS in East Asia.

With the mobility and off-farm employment of rural villagers, agricultural production has been influenced by the absence of labor force in the past few years. In particular, the inadequate assignment of resources has threatened the sustainability of some Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems due to their low profit. In this paper, the influences of labor force and capital on agricultural heritage systems are analyzed, taking the Qingtian Rice-Fish Culture System (QRFCS) as an example, so as to maximize profit along with the sustainability of agricultural heritage. The Cobb-Douglas Production Function is applied to examine the impacts of these major factors on agricultural productivity based on a survey held among 32 households in Longxian Village, Qingtian County, China. Subsequently, the profit maximization problem can be solved by a marginal rate of technical substitution under production standard. We come to the conclusion that the output elasticity coefficients of labor and capital are 0.6 and 0.4. Our results also indicate that the maximum yield of rice and field-fish is 0.84 kg under the level of 9 Yuan RMB and 0.24 man-days per square meter. The net profit can hit 24.8 Yuan RMB regardless of human resource cost. In contrast, the demand of 218,800 m2 paddy fields exceeds the human resources available for the Rice-Fish system in QRFCS, thereby it is necessary to promote the refluence of skilled farmers.

The Honghe Hani Rice Terraces System (HHRTS) is one of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) sites approved by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2010. In recent years, with the development of modern agriculture and tourism, cultivation practices for high yield and uniform variety cropping, has threatened the stability of the system of forest-village-paddy-rivers in the Hani terraces. From the viewpoint of farming behavior, we carried out our surveys to learn about the local rural households’ planting situations and the factors that influence their planting choices. A Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was used for gaining information in Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province. Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) were used to test the theoretical result at the individual rural household level. Then, this paper summarized the status quo of crop cultivation structures and analyzed their driving factors in HHRTS. The results showed as follows: ① In the 41.23 hm2 available farmland referred in survey, the crops grown, ordered by total cultivated area, are hybrid rice, corn, and fruit, which rank as the top three for all crops. As the regional traditional crop, the cultivated area of red rice is only 12.04% of total available farmland referred to in the survey. ② According to the actual plantation, the rural household is divided into two categories and marked as “the red-rice-plantation-oriented household (RR household)” and “the hybrid-rice-plantation-oriented household (HR household)”. The result of the SUR model showed that the driving factors to plant hybrid rice and red rice varied greatly with different categories of the rural household. ③ Consistent with the results of correlation analyses and factor analyses, significant driving factors of red rice planting included the ethnicity of the household, the average altitude of the farmland, and the labor productivity of red rice. Significant restraint factors included the total number of family members and the yield of red rice per unit area. Thereupon, in order to realize the dynamic protection of HHRTS, we established an encouragement mechanism for improving the proportion of red rice plantings in relation to aspects of the rural household, the community, and the local government.

In past decades, ecological services and functions of alpine grassland in the Three-River Headwater Region (TRHR), Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, have been severely degraded due to overgrazing and overuse of yak dung as a fuel. Therefore, the eco-migration project has been implemented by the national government for improving eco-environmental quality in this region. This paper examines the carbon cycle change from clean energy use of households and assesses its influence on the local grassland ecosystem. Based on the data of household fuels from questionnaire surveys and local statistical yearbooks, we have calculated carbon emission and the ecological benefits by using clean energies. The results showed that total carbon in the process from Net Primary Productivity (NPP) of the ecosystem to dung fuel decreases sharply, and carbon emission from dung is approximate 6% of ecosystem NPP. Reducing the use of yak dung as a fuel has no significant influence on carbon emission, but improves the ecological benefits of the grassland ecosystem, because it is a very important part of the ecosystem carbon cycle. With the most abundant solar energy resources in China, the region should make full use of its advantage for improving ecosystem service values of alpine grassland by making more dung returns to grassland. In conclusion, a clean energy policy (CEP) can effectively improve the ecological services and functions of alpine grassland in the TRHR.

The Huzhou mulberry-dyke and fish-pond system (HMFS) is a compound structure of agriculture with interaction among several subsystems, and it is an effective example of a circular economy by exogenous input and waste reduction to maintain a harmonious relationship between humans and nature. As increases in rural urbanization and transition of peasants occur, the traditional systems remain in a constant state of change, along with different kinds of adaptation models. In this study, two main existing models are examined by field investigation and extensive literature analysis. Emergy theory and methods are adopted to make a further quantitative analysis from emergy structure and indices synthetically and systemically. In this process, the models of HMFS are split into several subsystems, including mulberry dyke, fish pond, rape dyke, and silkworm, in terms of a modularization approach. The proportion of combinations among different subsystems is calculated by the average production level of local peasants. The empirical results of emergy analysis indicate that the two existent patterns of HMFS are themselves superior in terms of environmental capacity and commercial efficiency. The mulberry&ndash, silkworm&ndash, fish model possesses more sustainable characteristics than the rape&ndash, fish model by the mass flow and energy flux. In addition, the rape&ndash, fish model may obtain considerably better economic returns by more inorganic resources, and thus achieve higher economic benefits. Therefore, the rape&ndash, fish model may be an evolutionary model to make directions for further research and protection, while other adaptive units are introduced to form multiple systems.

The livelihood of peasant households is one of the selection criteria of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems and a critical factor that affects agricultural heritage system conservation and inheritance. Taking the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces System (HHRTS) and Shexian Dryland Terraces System (SDTS) as examples, we investigated 304 households through a participatory rural appraisal method to discuss the livelihood assets and strategies of households in agricultural heritage systems. From the viewpoint of livelihood strategies, household strategies can be divided into pure agricultural, nonagricultural, and part-time agricultural strategies. The livelihood strategies of households in the HHRTS feature a higher proportion of nonagricultural, while those in the SDTS have a diverse distribution. With respect to livelihood assets, we constructed a livelihood assets accounting framework to highlight the important role of traditional culture and information technology in agricultural activities. The average livelihood assets value in the HHRTS and SDTS was 2.249 and 1.832, respectively. Then, applying the multinomial logit model, we quantitatively analyzed the relationship between livelihood assets and strategies. The results show that in both terrace systems, the understanding of traditional agricultural knowledge is important to suppress the shift of pure agricultural households to nonagricultural or part-time agricultural households. Therefore, in order to achieve dynamic conservation of terrace systems, it is necessary to effectively increase the cultural assets level of households, especially farmers&rsquo, understanding of traditional agricultural knowledge.

The designation, conservation and tourism development of agricultural heritage systems, which are embedded with intricate human–nature relations, could significantly influence community livelihoods. Therefore, a livelihood approach is critical for agricultural heritage conservation and the sustainability of the hosting community. Taking Guanhou Village, Xuanhua Grape Garden Urban Agricultural Heritage Site as an example, this study examines impacts of heritage conservation and tourism on the community livelihood system and its implications for community livelihood sustainability. A sustainable livelihood framework is adopted to guide the analysis. Face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with management officials, village leaders and village residents. The research identified the importance of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designation on raising government support and public awareness on conservation. Tourism emerges as an alternative livelihood to some residents which exerts positive economic influence. However, tourism participation is currently at a low level which restricted the distribution of benefits. The sustainability of local rural livelihood is at risk due to the rapid urbanization, the decline of human resources and the insufficient integration of traditional agriculture with tourism. Practical implications were discussed to enhance local participation and tourism contribution to GIAHS conservation.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations launched a global partnership initiative for the conservation and adaptive management of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) in 2002. China is one of the first countries that responded to the GIAHS initiative, witnessed by the designation of Qingtian Rice-Fish Culture by FAO in June 2005. It is also the first country that identifies and conserves agricultural heritage systems at the national level, demonstrated by the initiation of China-Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (China-NIAHS) by Chinese Ministry of Agriculture in March 2012. In the past five years, progress on the identification, conservation and management of China-NIAHS has been widely achieved in China; however, challenges such as lack of adequate mastery of potential agricultural heritage systems, lack of local popularization of their concept and connotations, and lack of endogenous motives for their conservation and development are also in front of China. This paper reviewed the progress and discussed the challenges, aiming to help formulate suggestions for the future conservation and management of agricultural heritage systems and also to provide an opportunity for other countries to understand the nation’s efforts on the conservation and management of agricultural heritage systems.