Agricultural heritage systems (AHS) provide vital ecosystem services and play an important role in regional ecological security. However, existing ecological security pattern (ESP) construction seldom accounts for their need for holistic protection, and inappropriate corridor design may fragment heritage landscapes. This study selected Wannian County, Jiangxi Province, China, home to the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System of the Wannian Rice Culture System, to develop an ESP construction and optimization framework for AHS sites. Remote sensing and GIS techniques were integrated with the Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) model, circuit theory, and complex network analysis. Priority conservation areas for ecosystem services were identified using the OWA model, and seven ecological source areas were delineated using an area-threshold method, covering 192.86 km² and accounting for 16.9% of the county. To protect the integrity of the AHS core area, this area was assigned the maximum resistance value in the comprehensive resistance surface. Based on circuit theory, 27 ecological corridors and 123 ecological nodes were extracted. Complex network analysis showed that the initial ESP had limited connectivity, with nodes of degree > 3 and betweenness > 0.045 accounting for only 10.06% and 8.05%, respectively. Network robustness declined markedly after key nodes were removed, indicating structural vulnerability associated with the high-resistance heritage core. An edge-addition strategy introduced seven new corridors, improving network connectivity and robustness. The results demonstrate that integrating AHS into ESP construction can coordinate heritage integrity protection with regional ecological security.

IntroductionThe development of ecologically and culturally significant agricultural products offers promising solutions for enhancing agricultural system sustainability and supporting traditional agricultural landscapes. This study focuses on agricultural products derived from Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS), aiming to explore effective value-adding strategies that align with both food quality and sustainability goals.MethodsThis study proposes a conceptual framework rooted in value chain theory to establish value-adding pathways from production to consumption. The framework is applied to the Qingtian Rice-Fish Culture System (QRFCS), a designated GIAHS site in China, through qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews, with secondary data used for triangulation and supplementation.ResultsThe results indicate that promising value-adding measures lie in the development of eco-agriculture and product certification at the production stage, primary processing at the processing stage, and packaging, labelling, and both online and offline marketing at the marketing stage. These measures are linked through defined pathways and supported by an actor interaction model that facilitates coordination among actors and enhances implementation efficiency.DiscussionThis study provides practical insights into how traditional agricultural systems can be integrated into modern markets while maintaining and leveraging their ecological and cultural significance.

Formulating effective conservation and management policies plays a key role in helping Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (IAHS) cope with the threats and challenges brought by modernization. An important criterion to measure their effectiveness is whether they maintain or enhance the resilience of IAHS. In this study, we first integrate IAHS resilience into the social-ecological systems (SES) framework and propose a SES-based analytical framework for IAHS resilience, which helps analyze how IAHS adapt to external disturbances under the drivers of policies. Then, we suggest the trade-off of ecosystem services as the surrogate of IAHS resilience and use the carbon footprint per unit output value as an indicator to quantify IAHS resilience. The application in Qingtian Rice-Fish Culture System (QRFCS) reveals that the rice-fish culture systems in three villages have formed different development models driven by different conservation and management policies when challenged by modernization, and have displayed different resilience in different development models. The development model centering on enlarged-scale fish farming in Xinpeng Village has shown the highest resilience; the development model with a combination of moderate-scale land management and experiential heritage tourism in Longxian Village has displayed a moderate resilience; and the development model with organic rice-fish culture integrated into terrace sightseeing tourism in Xiaozhoushan Village has shown the lowest resilience. Based on this, we put forward suggestions for maintaining and enhancing the resilience of QRFCS, so as to improve the management of the heritage system. We present that the results will not only enrich the resilience study of SES, but also promote IAHS management and regional sustainable development.

To explore how traditional knowledge acts in the soil and water conservation in mountain agricultural systems, this study selects the Shexian Dryland Stone Terraced System (SDSTS) as the study area and employs the social-ecological system (SES) framework and ecosystem service (ES) evaluation methods in a joint way. Results of the action mechanism analysis show that local farmers, as the main actors, fully utilize a variety of traditional knowledge, which constitutes a set of action situations at both the field and landscape scales. This has not only improved the soil and water conservation capacity of the SDSTS, but also met the livelihood need of the local people. Evaluation of the action outcomes further displays that the stone terraced fields have a higher capacity for soil and water conservation than other land use types and they also show a superior performance in food production. This has led to the highest comprehensive benefit per unit area found in the stone terraced fields (1.69 × 104 dollars·ha−1), much higher than forests (3.48 × 103 dollars·ha−1) and the grasslands (2.58 × 103 dollars·ha−1) on slopes. The traditional knowledge is proven extremely important for the SDSTS to achieve sustainable development and effective measures are thus needed to promote its inheritance and development. The combination of these two methods makes up for the shortcomings of the current traditional knowledge research, which mainly focuses on qualitative description and is lack of systematic explanation of mechanisms. The con-joint use of them also provides theoretical reference and technical support for more case studies of traditional knowledge in the future.

The high fertilizer application in tea planting and the large energy consumption in tea processing have raised concerns about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of tea production. China is the world's largest tea production country, but its tea production is dominated by smallholder farmers. Therefore, when it comes to GHG emission reduction in tea production, specific measures need to be developed for the smallholder mode. The purpose of this study is to reveal the characteristics and influencing factors of GHG emissions of smallholder tea plantations, as well as to develop GHG emission reduction measures suitable for the smallholder mode. Here, we focus on Fenghuang Dancong tea and two types of smallholder tea plantations, the high-altitude tea plantation (HTP1) and the mid-low-altitude tea plantation (MLP), in Fenghuang Town, Chaozhou City, China. The carbon footprint (CF) method is employed, which is a widely used method for estimating GHG emissions and expressed in CO2 emission equivalent (CO2-eq). The assessment on the CF of the Fenghuang Dancong tea production and a comparative analysis between the HTP and the MLP have been made. Results show that (1) at the tea planting stage, fertilizer input is the main contributor to the CFplanting; electricity input is the primary component of the CFprocessing at the tea processing stage; (2) considering the two stages of tea planting and processing, the CFtea of the MLP is more than twice that of the HTP; (3) the production and management measures adopted by tea farmers have a significant impact on the CFtea, which are mainly driven by economic interests. In view of these findings, we emphasize the importance of balancing GHG emission reduction with economic benefits and propose GHG emission reduction measures such as formulating subsidy policies for organic fertilizers, promoting green and organic product certification, improving the energy input structure and strengthening scientific guidance. We submit that this study will not only help local managers formulate efficient GHG emission reduction measures, but also provide references for other studies on GHG emissions of tea production in the smallholder mode.

Climate change and rapid urbanization pose significant challenges to the conservation and management of agricultural heritage systems, including decline in agricultural land, loss of labor, and ecosystem degradation. Although existing studies have proposed general strategies with theoretical guidance and specific strategies for particular systems to promote the conservation of agricultural heritage systems, there remains a large knowledge gap in effective and differentiated management strategies at the regional level. This is especially so in China because of the clear regional differences in the natural and socioeconomic conditions of the widely distributed China Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (China-NIAHS). In this study, we integrated multi-source data and spatial analysis to reveal the distribution characteristics of existing China-NIAHS and proposed differentiated management strategies. Results show that there are four clustering distribution zones of China-NIAHS, i.e., the northwest clustering zone west of the Heihe-Tengchong Line (Zone I), the clustering belt with ‘Northeast-Hebei-Shandong’ as core (Zone II), the Yangtze River Delta clustering zone (Zone III), and the Hunan-Chongqing-Yunnan-Guizhou clustering zone (Zone IV). Different management strategies are proposed for the China-NIAHS in each clustering zone. Specifically, Zone I should focus on maintaining their ecological functions and services, while Zone II should aim for livelihood supply, sustainable resource use, and ecological protection. For Zone III, rapid urbanization could become a positive driving force for China-NIAHS conservation through sustainable tourism and reasonable urban zoning. Zone IV should emphasize the mutual support between characteristic product development and the brand effect of the China-NIAHS. These findings will help establish regional and targeted management strategies for China-NIAHS and provide a reference for the conservation of agricultural heritage systems in other countries.

Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (IAHS) are complex adaptive systems that are multidimensional and exhibit strategic values of sustainability. In the context of modernization, IAHS have been increasingly challenged. Thus, the heritage sites must explore dynamic conservation approaches and formulate adaptive management strategies. However, few studies have provided either theoretical methods or practical cases as support. In this study, we put forward an analytical framework for IAHS conservation and development measure formulation based on the Driver –Pressure–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR) model and applied it to the Shexian Dryland Stone Terraced System (SDSTS). With this framework, we analyzed the supportive mechanisms for the stable state of the SDSTS, diagnosed the threats and challenges it faces, and then formulated 34 conservation and development measures from six aspects, namely management mechanism construction, ecological conservation, cultural inheritance, green and organic product development, sustainable tourism development, and capacity building. It is demonstrated that the DPSIR-based analytical framework can provide both theoretical and technical support for the formulation of IAHS conservation and development measures, thus having the potential to become a general tool for the dynamic conservation and sustainable development of IAHS.

东亚地区是农业文明的重要起源地和全球重要农业文化遗产 (GIAHS)的主要分布区域.截至 2023 年5 月,中国、日本、韩国三国拥有GIAHS项目共 37 项,占全球总数的一半.基于中国、日本、韩国三国悠久的农业历史文化、领先的农业文化遗产研究与试点工作及其国际影响,东亚地区农业文化遗产研究会(ERAHS)于 2013 年 10 月在中国科学院地理科学与资源研究所 (以下简称中科院地理资源所)正式成立,并将每年一度的东亚地区农业文化遗产大会作为推动农业文化遗产研究和保护经验分享的重要平台.

Recent research has suggested that East Asia has experienced a prevailing monsoon climate since the Eocene. However, there is little knowledge about the development of the East Asian monsoon system before the Miocene, particularly in southern China, due to a lack of well‐dated continuous sediment records. Here, we present new magnetic proxy records from International Ocean Discovery Program Site U1501 in the northern South China Sea. We conducted rock magnetic experiments, made scanning electron microscopy observations and performed diffuse reflectance spectrum analysis on the late Eocene‐early Oligocene core sediments. The magnetic signal of the sediments is dominated by detrital magnetite and titanomagnetite formed during the silicate weathering and erosion processes, which were used to infer the evolution of summer monsoon precipitation in southern China. Our results along with geochemical and clay mineral data from Site U1501 strongly indicate that the East Asian summer monsoon generally weakened across the Eocene‐Oligocene transition. This change was linked to coeval global cooling rather than tectonic processes. Prior to the Eocene‐Oligocene transition, the summer monsoon intensified, likely due to the latest Eocene warming event caused by the enhancement of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which may have preconditioned the Earth system for the greenhouse‐to‐icehouse transition.

Agricultural heritage systems have great advantages in clean production, because they well maintain productivity while having low environmental impacts. However, as they are increasingly challenged by modernization, whether they can keep clean production in a modern society has become a general concern. In this study, we first put forward a theoretical framework for the environmental impact assessment of agricultural heritage systems. Then, we apply it to Qingtian Rice-Fish Culture System (QRFCS), the first Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems in China. We focus on its environmental impact in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and analyze the changes in its capacity for reducing GHG emissions under dual impacts of modernization and conservation measures with the carbon footprint model. Results show that the rice-fish culture has obvious advantages in GHG emission reduction over the rice monoculture in the study area, but it is in face of environmental risks brought by the increased inputs of fertilizers and feed. The environmental impact of QRFCS in terms of GHG emissions has decreased these years, but the risk of the rice-fish industry shrinking has increased due to the negative feedback formed by the low input and low output status. However, the positive aspect is that the moderate land scale management has increased the capacity of QRFCS for reducing GHG emissions and promoted its conservation as an agricultural heritage system. We propose that this theoretical framework and its application results will not only provide suggestions for giving full play to the clean production capacity of agricultural heritage systems, but also provide countermeasures for their conservation in the context of modernization.

Effective protected area (PA) management should deliver better conservation results and improved welfare for local people, especially for many developing countries (DCs) with mega-biodiversity, where pressing conservation demands for global value and urgent economic growth requirements for local development co-exist. Here, we proposed a conservation-compatible livelihoods approach that forms a closed loop of rural livelihoods and biodiversity conservation to support the policy design of effective protected area (PA) management in the DCs. By reviewing the transition of conservation discourse from “fortress conservation” to “community conservation”, the conservation-compatible livelihoods approach returns to the principle of human-land reciprocity, and aims to regulate the local resource utilisation through recognition of biodiversity values of global meaning. We define conservation-compatible livelihoods (CCLs) by deepening the meaning of sustainable livelihoods and strengthening cultural inclusiveness. Building on literature and practices, we provided a typology of various CCLs and a triple-judgement procedure strengthening the different needs as a mutual decision-making process and facilitating realistic livelihood alternatives not exclusive of traditional wisdom for developing CCLs. We presented the mechanism model of CCLs to illustrate how to achieve a fair and sustainable livelihood through value generation based on the resource endowments, and through the cooperation of stakeholders. Finally, we discussed the trends for the CCLs approach to take effect and why this systematic approach can apply to DCs for their self-reliant development.

The objective of this paper is to seek an eco-friendly development path for traditional industries in protected areas. We propose a conceptual framework that is built on the combination of ecological, multifunctional agriculture, and industrial integration literature. The framework provides a conceptual foundation for analysing the potential of traditional industry transformation in a single national park to improve rural livelihoods under conservation restraints. In a problem-oridented way, we conceptualise two transformation paths for traditional industries - the ecologicalisation of industry and the diversification of industrial functions – which aim to maintain and promote the stability of the social-ecological systems of national parks in general, and to enhance the added-value of traditional industries in specific. We apply our conceptualisation to two case studies in a comparative way to represent the feasibility of the framework to provide context-specific measures following the two paths. We identify and analyse key elements and conditions that are possible to transform the pastoralism in the Qilianshan National Park and tea cultivation in the Wuyishan National Park of China. Matching key elements to the conceptual framework, the results show that pastoralism needs to improve the branding of products and herders’ capabilities of adjusting to the changing world; tea industries need to regulate branding, strengthen cooperation between producers of different scales, and promote cultural valorisation. Therefore, the regional industrial policies must coordinate with conservation policies to make sure rural communities realise their development rights while taking the responsibility of conservation. The theoretical contribution of this paper is that we conceptualise industrial development to be inclusive with conservation when economic development and conservation are thought incompatible. Our conceptual framework can be extended as a prescriptive management tool for integrated industrial planning and protected area management in China and other developing world.

Agricultural production is considered one of the most important sources of water quality deterioration in the Taihu Lake Basin, China. Crop farming, livestock & poultry breeding and aquaculture are primary agricultural non-point sources and their impacts on the water environment are, in most cases, evaluated separately. Therefore, it is a challenge for current research to consider all of the different agricultural non-point sources as a whole and assess their combined influence on the water environment. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the conjoint impact that agricultural non-point sources such as crop farming, livestock & poultry breeding and aquaculture have had on the local water environment in the Taihu Lake Basin by taking Huzhou City of Zhejiang Province as a case study. To achieve this, a new, innovative approach named the “Waste Absorption Footprint” (WAF) is applied. The results show that nitrogen and phosphorus pollution generated by agricultural production are more serious than that of organic substances, while aquaculture and crop farming are more critical pollution sources compared with livestock and poultry breeding, and so they should be the focus of environmental management and pollution control initiatives. There is a regional discrepancy in the spatial distribution of agricultural non-point source pollution across counties and districts, which provides information for determining the key regions for the treatment of agricultural pollution. This study demonstrates that the WAF method can make a comprehensive assessment of the influence of agricultural production on the water environment and provide references for the control and management of agricultural non-point source pollution, which is of great importance for management of the water environment.

从当前全球实现可持续发展目标——自然受益角度出发,分析全球重要农业文化遗产(GIAHS)作为富有传统智慧和随着现代技术而发展的食物生产体系在推动全球食物系统根本性变革中的可能性,从自然受益的食物系统转型的需求与挑战提出GIAHS研究和治理的需求.研究表明,GIAHS作为活态系统运作所依据的整体观是当下自然受益观念的具体体现,可以系统推动农业和食物系统走上生态农业发展方向,并能够提供基于自然解决方案的3条有效路径:(1)保护自然生态系统免于退化和转化;(2)更可持续地管理现有生产系统来支持(农业)生态系统健康和维持景观层面的恢复力;(3)恢复退化生态系统的生产力,提升生态系统服务功能.面对GIAHS面临的困境,要通过强化研究和完善治理体系促进其帮助自然受益的食物系统转型.

Exploring win-win approaches to ecological conservation and community development goals is a central issue in the management of PAs. Achieving sustainable management of ESs in PAs is more of a social governance issue, requiring the SES managers to understand the diverse tradeoffs among ESs and well-beings and design management plans with supportive governance processes and institutions. To solve this issue, ESs importance was chosen as the entry point, which is good at "understanding" but weak in "designing" in most cases. We proposed a "KESs-based PAs management plans formulating framework," which is born out of the ESs importance analysis and knowledge for win-win management in PAs. Through the six steps and two tools ("Identification Methodology for PAs KESs" and the "Standard Strategies for PAs KESs Management") embedded in the framework, the win-win management plan for dual goals could be formulated. By applying the framework in the Shennongjia National Park in China, we obtained three directions for adjusting strategies and eight directions for adjusting measures for the National Park Services to formulate management plans. The framework promotes the sustainable management of ESs in PAs by making up for the gap in applying ESs importance in designing feasible, specific, and systematic management plans with policies and institutions.

Management evaluation is increasingly required for national parks worldwide as it is an essential mechanism for improving management levels and achieving management objectives. The management capacity evaluation (MCE), an integral component of management evaluation, emphasizes the suitability of management measures. It helps identify the deficiencies in existing management measures and form feedback to improve them, thus increasing the overall management level of national parks. However, the existing MCE methods from international programs suffer from limited adaptability and are difficult to promote in other countries. In this research, we apply the best practice-based (BPB) method to the Three-River-Sources National Park (TNP), the first national park in China, to reveal the changes in its management capacity during the pilot period. The BPB method is new compared with other MCE methods, but is more adaptable to the current situation of China’s national parks. Results show that TNP’s comprehensive management capacity and the five aspects of management capacities improved effectively, which means the management measures adopted during the pilot phase were generally appropriate and practicable. Some management capacities, such as management organization, legal system construction, management planning, and natural resources confirmation and registration performed well or improved significantly during the pilot period, providing beneficial lessons for other national parks in China. Some management capacities, such as the ecological compensation scheme, monitoring and early warning system, and management team, are still deficient and should be prioritized for future improvement. The effectiveness and operability of the BPB method are validated in this research, as it provides a rapid and accurate diagnosis of TNP’s management capacities and useful feedback for improving them. We submit that the BPB method not only contributes to the theoretical improvement of MCE methods, but also shows wider adaptability to different protected area types and countries.

随着我国自然保护事业进入新时代,以国家公园为主体的自然保护地体系建设思路得以明确,以国家公园为代表的自然保护地监测工作也被赋予了更高的要求.监测在促进国家公园科学规划与管理中发挥着重要作用,国家公园管理目标的实现离不开可靠的监测数据和信息的支撑.我国的国家公园试点由各类型自然保护地整合设立,因此面临不同监测类型之间的整合,存在缺乏统一的监测指标体系、有效的监测数据管理、健全的监测实施机制等问题.在对各类型自然保护地整合优化的基本思路下,基于国外国家公园监测实践与经验,综合考虑我国自然保护地的监测现状和需求,从顶层设计出发,构建了以自然资源清查为基础、以生态监测为核心、以自然与人为干扰监测为辅助、以管理有效性监测为补充并服务管理有效性评价的国家公园综合监测体系.在此基础上,进一步提出由三级监测网络、监测数据管理、管理有效性评价三部分组成的国家公园监测实施机制.在国家公园监测体系构建方面进行了探索与尝试,以期为我国国家公园监测体系以及监测制度的建立提供有益参考.

德清县是中国重要农业文化遗产——德清淡水珍珠传统养殖与利用系统的所在地,20多年来,在快速的城镇化进程中,德清县土地利用方式发生了较大变化.为刻画近年来德清土地利用变化特征,揭示其对农业文化遗产系统结构产生的影响,本研究基于访谈资料、第三次国土资源调查数据以及GlobeLand 30土地利用数据等进行了分析.结果表明,德清县在产业结构升级与城镇化扩张推动下,自2005年到2020年建设用地增加了53.36 km2,耕地减少了62.33 km2;在环境治理政策、经济效益和多种技术的综合作用下,养殖水面的面积快速增加,15年内共增长了117.75 km2;但桑地因经济效益不佳,1992年到2019年间面积减少了19.76 km2.在空间分布上,变化主要集中在东部水网平原区,这也是德清淡水珍珠传统养殖与利用系统所在地.研究显示,土地利用方式的转变,改变了当地"粮桑鱼畜"这一传统生态农业景观的结构及其背后的生态过程,减弱了不同土地利用方式之间的物质能量流动与循环,使得遗产系统面临较大的威胁.未来应进一步提高居民对农业文化遗产的认同感,保护相关的传统知识和技术,减少对生态环境的影响.

气候变化是21世纪人类所面临的严峻的挑战之一,气候变化及其背景下极端天气气候事件的增加,加剧了农户所面临的气候风险及其生计脆弱性.农户作为农村社区应对气候风险的基本单元,采取了多样的应对气候风险的适应策略.笔者在回顾国内外学者对农户应对气候风险的适应策略研究的基础上,从农户应对气候风险的适应策略的类型及其选择的影响因素分析、农户的适应策略效果评价这2个方面对近年来国内外相关研究进行了系统总结与梳理.并在此基础上,提出了农户适应策略选择的影响因素分析框架.同时还甄别了目前研究中对农户应对气候风险的适应策略存在的不足以及今后的重点研究方向,旨在促进农户的气候变化适应性研究及实践.

The protected area system in China is entering a new stage where its management seeks to consolidate governance while balancing multiple management objectives. National parks, as the mainstay of this new system, have received considerable attention in order to maintain the authenticity and integrity of ecosystems and protect globally recognized biodiversity. Well-designed ecological monitoring and the information it yields is increasingly recognized as compulsory for the effective management of national parks. However, pilot national parks in China were established through the integration of different types of protected areas and, as a result, are confronting the difficulties of integrating and synthesizing disparate monitoring programs. In this research, we put forward a theoretical framework for establishing an integrated ecological monitoring system for national parks in China. The proposed framework highlights the importance of balancing ecological conservation and community development objectives and offers the trade-off analysis method to pair key ecosystem services to the dual management objectives. It also emphasizes a unified and park-specific monitoring indicator system that requires matching the indicators to key ecological processes and specific management objectives. Moreover, we propose an implementation mechanism with a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches, and encourage local communities to participate in and have access to information generated through monitoring of national parks. We submit that this research described will not only provide scientific support for policy makers to establish an ecological monitoring system in national parks, but also contribute to more informed and efficient management of the expanding network of national parks in China.