Search Results (3)

National parks have implemented restrictive measures on human activities to protect the ecological environment, which has changed the livelihood dependence and strategies of farmers and herders. Exploring the impact of livelihood strategies on the human well-being of farmers and herdsmen within the national park construction area can help to better develop livelihood intervention measures to achieve sustainable livelihoods for farmers and herders. A total of 329 farmers and herders in Qilian Mountain National Park in China were investigated, and one-way ANOVA and ordinary least squares were employed to analyze the impact of farmers’ and herders’ livelihood strategies on human well-being in different periods of national park construction. Our results show that the livelihood strategies of farmers and herders play an important role in their well-being. Farmers and herders adopted diversified livelihood strategies after the National Park System Pilot officially launched (after 2015). The well-being advantage of adopting a diversified livelihood strategy became evident over time. Specifically, farmers and herders adopting the settlement diversification livelihood strategy were able to better adapt to the development concept of the national park after the national park pilot was officially established (after 2017). However, nomadic, settled agricultural, and pastoral households were always at a disadvantage in terms of well-being. In addition, distance, nationality, gender, and education level were important factors affecting the well-being of farmers and herders. The results of this study are helpful for improving our understanding of the influence of livelihood strategies on the well-being of farmers and herders and the related challenges they face in the construction of national parks. Full article

Protected areas are critical for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services. In the last few years, there has been growing recognition of the role of indigenous peoples and local communities in the management of government designated protected areas, and thus their perceptions and adaptability were paid much attention. Drawing on a survey of 487 residents in the Qilian Mountain National Park Pilot of Northwestern China, this study used the adaptive analysis framework to study the adaptability of local residents. The main contribution of this paper is to select a typical social-ecological system to study the adaptability of local residents, and using Elinor Ostrom’s Social-Ecological System framework to analyze the adaptability mechanism. The results show that different types of residents had different adaptability to environmental change. People whose income mainly depends on work salary with a small part of herding have the highest level of adaptability, while people whose income mostly comes from farming with a small part of herding have the lowest level. This result is related to people’s living location, as people living in the core zone and buffer zone of the reserve mainly earned from grazing, and people living in the experimental zone and peripheral zone earned mainly from outside work. Moreover, people living in the core zone and buffer zone are mostly elders and ethnic groups, while people in the experimental zone and buffer zone are Han people. To improve management effectiveness and to avoid conflict between local residents and managers, this paper suggests that more attention should be paid to these who have lived for a long time in the core zone and buffer zone. They are the most vulnerable groups and show low adaptability in almost all domains. For the long run, education quality should be improved to decrease the population in the reserve. Full article

As a management strategy, community participation is to implement the coordinated development of communities and protected areas. In recent years, the development of China’s national parks has faced many challenges related to human and environmental constraints. Community participation plays an essential role in solving such issues. As one of the critical indicators to test community participation, community residents’ willingness to participate significantly impacts community participation in constructing national parks. As such, this study was conducted using the extended model of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the structural equation model. Taking the Tianzhu county and Sunan Yugu county as examples, and based on 230 valid questionnaires, we investigated the impacts of the Qilian Mountain National Park System Pilot Area on community residents’ willingness to participate and provided relevant suggestions for amendments. The results indicated that, for the Qilian Mountain National Park System Pilot Area, behavioral attitude, subjective norms, and perceptual behavior control positively impacted the participation intention of community residents. At the same time, the variables mentioned above positively impacted the implementation of the participation intention of community residents. Specifically, the order of impacts is as follows: perceptual behavior control (path coefficient = 0.89) > participation behavior attitude (path coefficient = 0.68) > related impact system (path coefficient = 0.41) > subjective norms (path coefficient = 0.38). According to the results, we put forward three suggestions: (1) providing relevant instructions and guidance on various methods to ensure that the pilot policies on the construction of national parks can form a positive relationship with the participation intentions of the community residents; (2) making full use of the function of perceptual behavior control, so the subjective initiative of community residents can be maximized, thereby enhancing the willingness of community residents to participate in constructing national parks; and (3) strengthening the impacts of subjective norms, enhancing the soft culture of national park communities’ participation, reshaping the community cultural landscapes with the goal of constructing national parks, and establishing community residents’ sense of honor as the builders of national parks. Full article