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By referring to the sustainable livelihood analysis and capability approach and taking Fuhong town in Qingbaijiang district, China, as an example, this paper classifies the livelihood assets of farm households before their residential land exit using the livelihood asset quantification method, and then analyzes the changes in their welfare after exit from residential land by adopting fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. The research results indicate that (1) the sample farm households are classified into three types, i.e., richness type, balance type, and shortage type, according to the configuration of livelihood assets, including human capital, natural capital, physical capital, financial capital, and social capital, before the exit from residential land; (2) after the exit from the residential land, the welfare of farm households has generally been improved, but the extent of such improvements varies from type to type; (3) there is a certain relationship between the configuration of livelihood assets before the exit from residential land and the welfare level after such an exit. It is suggested that importance should be attached to the heterogeneity or level of differentiation of farm households, and furthermore, measures should be taken so as to ensure that the welfare level will not be downgraded after farm households exit from their residential land.

Forest landscape models (FLMs) are important tools for simulating forest changes over broad spatial and temporal scales. The ability of FLMs to accurately predict forest changes may be significantly influenced by the formulations of site-scale processes including seedling establishment, tree growth, competition, and mortality. The objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of site-scale processes and interaction effects of site-scale processes and harvest on landscape-scale forest change predictions. We compared the differences in species’ distribution (quantified by species’ percent area), total aboveground biomass, and species’ biomass derived from two FLMs: (1) a model that explicitly incorporates stand density and size for each species age cohort (LANDIS PRO), and (2) a model that explicitly tracks biomass for each species age cohort (LANDIS-II with biomass succession extension), which are variants from the LANDIS FLM family with different formulations of site-scale processes. For early successional species, the differences in simulated distribution and biomass were small (mostly less than 5 %). For mid- to late-successional species, the differences in simulated distribution and biomass were relatively large (10–30 %). The differences in species’ biomass predictions were generally larger than those for species’ distribution predictions. Harvest mediated the differences on landscape-scale predictions. The effects of site-scale processes on landscape-scale forest change predictions are dependent on species’ ecological traits such as shade tolerance, seed dispersal, and growth rates.

Temperate forests in Northeast China have been severely exploited by timber harvesting in the last century. To reverse this trend, China implemented the Classified Forest Management policy in the Natural Forest Conservation Program in 1998 to protect forests from excessive harvesting. However, the policy was unable to meet the 2020 commitment of increasing growing stock (set in the Kyoto Protocol) because of high-intensity harvesting. Accordingly, China banned all commercial harvesting in Northeast China in 2014. In this study, we investigated the long-term impacts of the no commercial harvest (NCH) policy on ecosystem services and biodiversity using a forest landscape model, LANDIS PRO 7.0, in the temperate forests of the Small Khingan Mountains, Northeast China. We designed three management scenarios: The H scenario (the Classified Forest Management policy used in the past), the NCH scenario (the current Commercial Harvest Exclusion policy), and the LT scenario (mitigation management, i.e., light thinning). We compared total aboveground forest biomass, biomass by tree species, abundance of old-growth forests, and diversity of tree species and age class in three scenarios from 2010 to 2100. We found that compared with the H scenario, the NCH scenario increased aboveground forest biomass, abundance of old-growth forests, and biomass of most timber species over time; however, it decreased the biomass of rare and protected tree species and biodiversity. We found that the LT scenario increased the biomass of rare and protected tree species and biodiversity in comparison with the NCH scenario, while it maintained aboveground forest biomass and abundance of old-growth forests at a high level (slightly less than the NCH scenario). We concluded there was trade-off between carbon storage and biodiversity. We also concluded that light thinning treatment was able to regulate the trade-off and alleviate the negative effects associated with the NCH policy. Our results highlighted limitations of the NCH policy and provided new insights into sustainable forest management and the interdependence between human society and the forest ecosystem.