Changes in NDVI and human population in protected areas on the Tibetan Plateau

Understanding the Tibetan Plateau’s role in environmental change has gained increasing scientific attention in light of warming and changes in landmanagement. We examine changes in greenness over the Tibetan Plateau using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from the Global Inventory Monitoring and Modeling Study (GIMMS3g) to identify significant changes over the entire plateau, six ecoregions, and protected areas based on a multiyear time series of July imagery from 1982 to 2015. We also test whether there have been changes in human populations in protected areas. There has been relatively little change in mean NDVI over the Tibetan Plateau or ecoregions, however, there were significant changes at the pixel level. There are sixty-nine protected areas on the Tibetan Plateau; sixtytwo protected areas had no significant change in mean NDVI and seven protected areas experienced a significant increase in NDVI. There has been an increase in population within protected areas from 2000 to 2015; however, mean populations significantly increased in two protected areas and significantly decreased in four protected areas. Results suggest a slow greening of the Tibetan Plateau, ecoregions, and protected areas, with a more rapid greening in northern Tibet at the pixel level. Most protected areas are experiencing minor changes in NDVI independent of human population

“Road Home” from Glasgow Youth Summit; Voices of Optimism and Agents of Change

Road Home from Glasgow Youth Summit; Voices of Optimism and Agents of Change. Conference Proceedings for The 4th Global Virtual Conference of the Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education. The present compilation contains abstracts of research projects presented at the 4th Global Virtual Conference of the Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education held on Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Evolution of tourism in a flagship protected area of China

Nature-based tourism in protected areas, which is growing worldwide, offers much potential to enhance biodiversity conservation, poverty alleviation, and ultimately sustainable development. Understanding the evolution of protected areas as tourism destinations and the causes and consequences of changing supply and demand elements is an essential step toward sustainably managing tourism in these critical ecosystems. This research applied the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) model to illustrate and analyze the 30-year evolution of tourism in Wolong Nature Reserve. Being inscribed in UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage programmes, Wolong is a flagship protected area in China. We showed that the Reserve experienced exploration, involvement, and development stages of the TALC before tourism growth was completely halted by the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008. We systematically investigated the changes related to the evolution of tourism and identified various internal and external driving forces. We examined the dynamics of politics, economy, and tourism growth that might propel the Reserve through the life cycle and identified significant tourism governance structural changes through the stages. The results have implications for sustainable tourism development in China's protected areas and also contribute to a broader and general understanding of the complex relationships between protected areas, sustainable tourism, and community development

Drivers and Socioeconomic Impacts of Tourism Participation in Protected Areas

Nature-based tourism has the potential to enhance global biodiversity conservation by providing alternative livelihood strategies for local people, which may alleviate poverty in and around protected areas. Despite the popularity of the concept of nature-based tourism as an integrated conservation and development tool, empirical research on its actual socioeconomic benefits, on the distributional pattern of these benefits, and on its direct driving factors is lacking, because relevant long-term data are rarely available. In a multi-year study in Wolong Nature Reserve, China, we followed a representative sample of 220 local households from 1999 to 2007 to investigate the diverse benefits that these households received from recent development of nature-based tourism in the area. Within eight years, the number of households directly participating in tourism activities increased from nine to sixty. In addition, about two-thirds of the other households received indirect financial benefits from tourism. We constructed an empirical household economic model to identify the factors that led to household-level participation in tourism. The results reveal the effects of local households' livelihood assets (i.e., financial, human, natural, physical, and social capitals) on the likelihood to participate directly in tourism. In general, households with greater financial (e.g., income), physical (e.g., access to key tourism sites), human (e.g., education), and social (e.g., kinship with local government officials) capitals and less natural capital (e.g., cropland) were more likely to participate in tourism activities. We found that residents in households participating in tourism tended to perceive more non-financial benefits in addition to more negative environmental impacts of tourism compared with households not participating in tourism. These findings suggest that socioeconomic impact analysis and change monitoring should be included in nature-based tourism management systems for long-term sustainability of protected areas

Effects of conservation policies on forest cover change in panda habitat regions, China

To restore forests and protect remaining natural forests, in 1998 the Chinese government initiated two nationwide conservation policies, the Natural Forest Conservation Program (NFCP) and the Grain-To-Green Program (GTGP). This study evaluated the effects of conservation policies and other potential driving forces on forest-cover change in 108 townships located in the Qinling Mountains and Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuary (both known giant panda habitat regions) between 2001 and 2008. Forest-cover change was evaluated using land-cover products derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Most townships in both regions showed either stable or increased forest cover. An Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression model was applied to identify potential driving forces of this forest-cover change. The model suggests that conservation policies had significantly positive effects on forest cover, while population density, percentage of agricultural population, road density, and initial forest cover (i.e., in 2001) had significantly negative effects. This study helps to clarify not only the patterns of forest-cover change after conservation policy implementation, but also to identify the impacts of potential driving forces of forest-cover change, at township level. This information could be, in turn, useful in the development of future giant panda habitat restoration projects.Thesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, 2010Includes bibliographical references (pages 45-58

Patterns and impacts of tourism development in a coupled human and natural system

The human-nature relationship is entering a new period of intense and accelerating changes at local, regional, and global scales. To sustain and improve human well-being without impairing the ecosystems on which it depends, it is needed to holistically view and manage the human society and the natural environment as a coupled system. Tourism is one of the world's largest and fastest growing industry and has great potential to contribute to the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals, especially on enhancing global biodiversity conservation and fighting poverty. Although it has been widely practiced in protected areas in less developed countries, few have been successful in balancing the needs of both conservation and development and achieve sustainability in the long run. To harness the great potential of tourism for sustainability, there is an urgent need for long-term research of tourism development in protected areas that takes a holistic perspective and integrates both the socioeconomic and ecological dimensions of this globally emergent phenomenon. In this dissertation I studied the evolution of tourism in Wolong Nature Reserve, a flagship reserve in China, across three decades. I investigated both the patterns and drivers of tourism development and also its socioeconomic and ecological consequences. The Tourism Area Life Cycle model was employed to classify and interpret the dynamic drivers and changes associated with tourism through its different development stages. Through a longitudinal analysis on the income sources of over 200 local households, I showed that the local community benefited economically from tourism in various direct and indirect ways. However, most households who benefited more from tourism are those used to possess more livelihood assets than the others; thus the poorer was marginalized during tourism development. To assess the ecological impacts of tourism development, I used a novel habitat-based approach to assess giant panda population capacity and viability to investigate how tourism, as an emerging land use type, affects panda habitat use and its consequences at population level. I found that past human disturbance has depleted more than half of the Reserve's capacity for giant pandas. Although recent forest restoration is likely to help provide more habitat for panda population recovery, over 60% of the potential gain in panda population capacity could be lost if the current expansion of tourism, especially through the use of the multiple trails traversing the Reserve, continues in the future. This interdisciplinary study provided a solid example of how the complexity of coupled human and natural system can be studied using a mixed quantitative and qualitative methods. It makes substantial contributions to the conservation of giant pandas as tourism has become a major threat to their long-term survival in the remaining habitats. It also provides useful tools and essential information for a better management of tourism in protected areas. The findings from this dissertation also have broad implications for sustainable rural development, tourism development, wild land management, and biodiversity conservation.Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Fisheries and Wildlife, 2012Includes bibliographical references (pages 160-176

The sense of Chengdu: embodied heritage in tastescape

Chengdu is famous for its Sichuan Cuisine with its unique spicy flavor. From the sources distributed and transported to local restaurants, then prepared, served, and eventually eaten by consumers, food is a significant part of Chengdu's culture. Eating is not only just about the food itself, but also about where to eat, how to eat, when to eat, whom to eat with. Culinary heritage is proposed to be conserved through the concept of "tastescape", which is planned as a combination of landscape and culture in which eating becomes a situated event. The design study focuses on the streets in historic neighborhoods in the inner city of Chengdu. The relationship between food, landscape and culture, and tastescape is proposed by combining eating with participating in theaters, local artworks, and cooking

Pleistocene glacial cycle effects on the phylogeography of the Chinese endemic bat species, Myotis davidii

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Global climatic oscillations, glaciation cycles and the unique geographic topology of China have profoundly influenced species population distributions. In most species, contemporary distributions of populations cannot be fully understood, except in a historical context. Complex patterns of Pleistocene glaciations, as well as other physiographic changes have influenced the distribution of bat species in China. Until this study, there had been no phylogeographical research on <it>Myotis davidii</it>, an endemic Chinese bat. We used a combination of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA markers to investigate genetic diversity, population structure, and the demographic history of <it>M. davidii</it>. In particular, we compared patterns of genetic variation to glacial oscillations, topography, and environmental variation during the Pleistocene in an effort to explain current distributions in light of these historical processes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>M. davidii </it>comprises three lineages (MEP, SWP and SH) based on the results of molecular variance analysis (AMOVA) and phylogenetic analyses. The results of a STRUCTURE analysis reveal multi-hierarchical population structure in <it>M. davidii</it>. Nuclear and mitochondrial genetic markers reveal different levels of gene flow among populations. In the case of mtDNA, populations adhere to an isolation-by-distance model, whereas the individual assignment test reveals considerable gene flow between populations. MDIV analysis indicate that the split of the MEP and SWP/SH lineages, and from the SWP and SH lineages were at 201 ka BP and 158 ka BP, respectively. The results of a mismatch distribution analysis and neutrality tests indicate a population expansion event at 79.17 ka BP and 69.12 ka BP in MEP and SWP, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The complex demographic history, discontinuous extant distribution of haplotypes, and multiple-hierarchy population structure of <it>M. davidii </it>appear associated with climatic oscillations, topography and eco-environmental variation of China. Additionally, the three regions are genetically differentiated from one another in the entire sample set. The degree of genetic differentiation, based on the analysis of mtDNA and nDNA, suggests a male-mediated gene flow among populations. Refuges were in the MEP, SH and the lower elevations of SWP regions. This study also provides insights for conservation management units (MEP, SWP and SH).</p

Session 2.2 Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries

The Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries: Wolong, Mt. Siguniang, and Jiajin Mountains is the largest panda sanctuary in the world. This sanctuary helps conservation efforts not only for pandas, but for forestry and bamboo, and other land species as well. Because pandas are such a cute species, this helps to inspire people worldwide to become passionate about their conservation efforts. This park has a rich history, and is sandwiched between multiple big cities, making it a refuge for wildlife and people alike. SDG Theme: SDG 15 – Life on Land Type: E-poste