Search Results (93)

Existing studies of China’s overarching ideological framework for national development, “Ecological Civilization”, have focused narrowly on environmental governance; how it reshapes sustainable rural development remains underexplored. This paper pursues two analytically distinct tasks. First, it reconstructs the policy history of how President Xi Jinping’s “Two Mountains” theory was incorporated into the Eco-civilization framework and how Zhejiang Province’s “Green Rural Revival” (GRR) program, as a lived example of Eco-civilization, was elevated as the national template for rural development in 2024. Second, drawing on three cases from a sample of 21 villages in Zhejiang, it identifies three core practices of GRR and conceptualizes it as a post-productivist project: withdrawal from extractivist production, restoration of ecological resources, and development of facilities catering to urban consumption. We argue that GRR has directed rural development in Zhejiang toward a post-productivist transition and question the model’s replicability and sustainability as the central government promotes it nationwide. Full article

This article explores Eco-Civic Communities (ECCs) as a potential framework for integrating ecological governance with democratic participation across multiple scales of political organization. Drawing on scholarship in ecological democracy, deliberative governance, polycentric institutional theory, civic ecology, and multilevel governance, the article examines how localized participatory structures may contribute to broader ecological coordination amid growing planetary interdependence. The study develops a conceptual and analytical model of ECCs as territorially grounded, participatory, ecologically oriented, and institutionally integrated governance formations. It further proposes an analytical framework for evaluating ECCs based on criteria such as democratic depth, ecological effectiveness, inclusiveness, accountability, institutional feasibility, scalability, and resilience. Through comparative analysis, the article situates ECCs alongside existing governance initiatives, including ecovillages, Transition Towns, participatory budgeting, eco-districts, and community-based sustainability projects. The paper also examines possible pathways for institutional integration within multilevel governance systems while acknowledging important risks, constraints, and implementation challenges. Rather than presenting ECCs as definitive solutions, the article argues that they may provide a useful framework for investigating how ecological transformation and democratic renewal can become more systematically interconnected. Full article

Traditional villages represent vital living heritage in China. We develop a multi-scale eco-coupling framework integrating GIS spatial analysis and 3D laser scanning to analyze the natural and social environment, spatial patterns, and architectural forms across macro–meso–micro levels in traditional villages of southern Shaanxi, and use partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the hypothesized cross-scale pathways. The results show significant spatial clustering, mainly in the water-adjacent low-mountain valleys and under moderate gradients of GDP, population density, and road density. The morphology is classified as clustered, linear, or scatter shaped, while buildings are dominated by courtyard, patio, and single-row layouts with timber structures, rammed earth or stone walls, and double-pitched roofs. After reliability and validity checks, the PLS-SEM confirms significant macro–meso–micro pathways, with the meso scale as a key mediator. Overall, the study reveals that persistence depends on long-term coupling among multi-scale factors, providing theoretical and methodological support for conservation and sustainable development. Full article

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) cultivation is highly vulnerable to fungal, bacterial, and viral leaf diseases that can significantly reduce crop yield and fruit quality when not detected at early stages. Although recent deep learning approaches have achieved remarkable performance in plant disease classification, many state-of-the-art architectures remain computationally expensive and therefore difficult to deploy on resource-constrained edge devices commonly used in smart agriculture environments. To address this challenge, this paper introduces EcoTomHybridNet, an adaptive resource-aware CNN–Transformer framework designed for efficient tomato leaf disease classification under edge-computing constraints. The proposed architecture combines a lightweight convolutional backbone with a dual-branch inference mechanism composed of a fast convolutional branch for computationally efficient prediction and a Transformer-enhanced branch with local self-attention for richer contextual feature extraction. Unlike conventional lightweight hybrid models relying on static inference pipelines, EcoTomHybridNet integrates a lightweight policy-guided routing mechanism that dynamically allocates inputs between the fast convolutional branch and the Transformer-enhanced branch according to input complexity. This adaptive inference strategy dynamically reduces unnecessary Transformer computations for simpler samples while preserving strong predictive performance on more challenging inputs through policy-guided branch allocation. To further improve representation capability without significantly increasing computational complexity, the proposed student network is trained using knowledge distillation from a ViT-Tiny teacher model. Experimental results on the PlantVillage tomato dataset demonstrate that EcoTomHybridNet achieves 99.42% test accuracy and 99.0% validation accuracy under the full hybrid inference configuration. Additional validation strategies, including 5-fold cross-validation and robustness evaluation under Gaussian noise and motion blur perturbations, indicate stable performance across different data splits and moderate image degradations, suggesting improved generalization capability beyond simple dataset memorization. Furthermore, adaptive routing experiments using a lightweight threshold-based policy mechanism achieved 99.20% test accuracy while reducing computational complexity from 0.36 GFLOPs to 0.25 GFLOPs per image, corresponding to approximately 30% computational savings. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of policy-guided adaptive inference for balancing predictive performance and computational efficiency in edge-oriented plant disease classification. Overall, EcoTomHybridNet provides an efficient and adaptive framework for intelligent plant disease monitoring in IoT-enabled smart agriculture systems. Full article

This paper examines male characters in Nilakshi Chaliha Gogoi’s Assamese novel Oiya Mor Dibru-Saikhowa (Oh, My Dibru-Saikhowa) through the lens of Eco Masculinity, drawing primarily on Hultman and Pulé’s tripartite typology of industrial, eco-modern, and ecological masculinities. The study reads the novel’s two principal male characters—Bakul Bora and Seuj—as contrasting masculine trajectories shaped, respectively, by socio-economic deprivation, displacement, patriarchal conditioning, and legal criminalization on the one hand, and by maternal ecological ethics, generational mentorship, and affective formation on the other. The analysis proceeds through three connected registers. First, it attends to the novel’s narrative form, arguing that its principal focalizing consciousness is Dr. Irina Baruah, a physician through whose perception the male characters are largely presented. Second, it develops the political ecology of the Dibru-Saikhowa region—its colonial and postcolonial conservation history, the institutional gap between the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 and the Forest Rights Act 2006, and the slow violence visited on the Mising villagers of Laika and Dadhiya. Third, it engages intersectional critiques of eco-masculinity and confronts the structural tension of applying a male-centered framework to a female-focalized novel. The paper argues that Eco Masculinity, applied with due attention to narrative form, historical specificity, and eco-feminine agency, offers a productive tool for South Asian ecocritical scholarship, and it suggests two modifications to the framework that follow from this application. Full article

This article investigates the relevance of selected and adapted representations of Krishna from the broader ISKCON tradition for sustainable and self-sufficient practices within Krishna Valley. Krishna Valley is an ISKCON community established in 1993 in the remote areas of Hungary, and it covers 300 hectares. As a self-sufficient and sustainable community, it is part of the Global Environmental Network, and as an ISKCON community, it belongs to the global movement of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The synchronic interconnections of Krishna Valley as an ecovillage and as a religious place intertwine in the same place. In this article, Krishna Valley serves as an explanatory case study to investigate the relevance of ISKCON religious representations for ecological imagination: the process of perceiving relationships through the use of metaphors, images, narratives, symbols, and sematic frames that are central to and constitutive of human ecological thinking. This study uses two units of analysis (cow service and water management) to explore how in Krishna Valley ecological imagination takes shape in the interaction between local sustainable and self-sufficient practices and specific religious representations that are part of the ISKCON tradition. By looking at how the community interprets and treats cows and water pollution from a religious and environmental perspective, this case study answers the question of how ecovillages might benefit from religion-based ecological imagination for their sustainable livelihoods. Full article

The mulberry-dyke fishpond system represents China’s traditional circular agricultural heritage yet faces challenges of “circularity without economic viability” and preservation under modernization pressures. Taking the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System site of Digang in Huzhou as a case study, this paper reveals fundamental shifts in its value structure through local research and interviews. Key findings include the following: (1) Significant decline in traditional economic value: Annual income from mulberry-dyke fishpond systems is extremely low, far below the per-mu yield of modern intensive aquaculture in the area. This has led to producer withdrawal and the disintegration of the base-pond structure. (2) Ecological and social values increasingly emerge and partially marketize: The system’s ecological service value is substantial and policy-recognized, with markets responding through a 100% premium on eco-fish prices. Concurrently, heritage-based cultural tourism integration generates significant new value—for instance, Digang village’s 2023 tourism revenue reached 140 million. However, these prominent non-market values still lack stable, adequate realization pathways. The core argument of this study is that the decline in mulberry-dyke fishpond systems stems from an imbalance in value structures rather than the disappearance of value. Their revitalization hinges on institutional innovation that transforms ecological and social value into sustainable market incentives. To this end, this paper proposes a systematic revitalization framework encompassing a concession system (incorporating community interest alignment and risk management clauses), regional brand certification, carbon sink value realization, and mechanisms for deep community participation. This approach aims to provide a Chinese solution for the sustainable development of similar agricultural cultural heritage sites, offering both theoretical insights and practical value. Full article

This article provides a systematic literature review of the scientific literature on forms of communitization that feature alternative nutritional practices to reveal their organizational structures, opportunities, challenges, and transformative potential. The forms studied are alternative food networks and are characterized by their sustainable commitment in food production, distribution, and consumption practices. This review focused solely on articles investigating these forms of communitization in Germany. A systematic literature search was conducted using the databases Web of Science and Business Source Premier in accordance with the PRISMA statement guidelines. Forty-two articles were included in the final analysis, with the oldest article published in 2006 and the newest in 2025. The systematic literature review identifies five forms of communitization with alternative nutritional practices: community, urban and self-harvest gardens; food cooperatives or cooperative initiatives; food sharing and redistribution initiatives; community-supported agriculture and networks; and ecovillages, commune, food initiatives, and other partnerships. The review highlights key forms of communitization that feature alternative nutritional practices, the methods used, and the geographical areas involved. Using content analysis, the organizational structures, opportunities, and challenges of various forms of communitization that feature alternative nutritional practices are identified and their transformative potential discussed. Full article

A comfortable and livable living environment can be created through the design of patios in traditional southern rural Chinese dwellings. By connecting indoor and outdoor spaces, patios enable the comprehensive functions of ventilation and shading. To investigate the effects of patios on the building environment and energy conservation, the field parameters of the Wu Family Mansion in Cuijiao Village, Fujian Province, southern China, were measured in August 2016. The results indicate that patios located at the center of dwellings can effectively mitigate the impact of outdoor climate on the indoor environment. Furthermore, a reasonable depth-to-width ratio of the patio is conducive to natural ventilation and energy utilization. Through discussions and simulations using CFD and EcoTECT, it is determined that the reasonable depth-to-width ratio should not be less than 0.06, and a depth of 1.6 m is the most appropriate for patio design to achieve adequate ventilation and illumination. With the Adaptive Predicted Mean Vote (APMV) value ranging from 0 to 1.41, the indoor environment of this rural building falls within the adaptive comfort zone. Compared with air-conditioned rooms, the energy-saving rate achieved by natural ventilation is approximately 26.2%. Full article

Italian inner areas face population decline, limited access to services and fragile infrastructure; however, the micro-mechanisms through which community practices generate tangible improvements often remain unclear. Still, local communitarian initiatives, such as those represented by ecovillages, can be an effective response to the ongoing process of marginalisation, becoming true living labs for place-based transitions. Through the analysis of the Torri Superiore Ecovillage (Imperia, Italy), a recognised and well-known good practice in the national and international ecovillage circuit, we want to find answers to three research questions: (RQ1) To what extent can an ecovillage act as a living lab for social innovation and ecological transition in inner areas? (RQ2) Which demographic and governance conditions enable territorial resilience and which ones block it? (RQ3) Which environmental practices generate locally significant improvements and with what limitations? Based on qualitative and interpretative evidence (2016–2025)—field observations, internal documents and testimonies—and on essential demographic indicators (ISTAT/SNAI), this study examines the Torri Superiore Ecovillage as a small-scale living lab. Torri Superiore and the surrounding municipalities are ageing and have reduced demographic bases; however selective immigration and heterogeneity of skills act as partial buffers. The governance of the Torri Superiore Ecovillage combines clear rules, participatory routines and coordination mechanisms, promoting problem solving while remaining sensitive to leadership burdens. The “bridging” between multiple actors enables terrace maintenance, local water resource management, agroecological practices, renewable energy adoption, waste prevention/composting and light mobility to achieve tangible environmental improvements on a small scale. We frame transferability as analytical (not statistical), specify the enabling conditions (sufficient active participants, stable routines, territorial management) and outline the relevant policy implications for SNAI classes and a lightweight longitudinal observatory. Full article

The background of this study is grounded in the economic importance of Planococcus ficus (P. ficus) Signoret (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), commonly known as the vine mealybug, which is a major pest in vineyards across South Africa, the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, Argentina, California, and Mexico. This pest causes both direct damage to grapevines and indirect damage by promoting the development of sooty mold, which reduces fruit quality and marketability. The limited effectiveness of conventional pesticides—due to the pest’s concealed habitats and biological resistance—combined with their negative impacts on beneficial arthropods, underscores the need for alternative and environmentally sustainable pest management approaches. The methodology of this study involved a field trial conducted in Koruk Village, Elazığ Province, Turkey, from March to October 2022. The aim of the study is to determine the repellent and toxic effects of two types of wood vinegar (WV) and hazelnut vinegar (HV) on P. ficus populations under natural vineyard conditions by using statistical data analysis methods used in basic engineering. Various concentrations of each vinegar wereapplied to the vines, and pest population dynamics were monitored. Additionally, the potential repellent effects of the vinegars on beneficial predatory insects, particularly members of the Coccinellidae family, were assessed. The results of the study indicated that wood vinegar (WV) was more effective than hazelnut vinegar (HV) in reducing P. ficus populations. Both vinegars demonstrated statistically significant, dose-dependent reductions in pest numbers compared to the untreated control. Although both treatments also exhibited repellent effects on Coccinellidae species, these effects were not statistically significant when compared with the positive control group. These findings support the potential application of vinegar-based products in integrated pest management. The conclusion of this study is that wood vinegar (WV) and hazelnut vinegar (HV), as natural carbonization-derived products, can serve as environmentally friendly alternatives for controlling P. ficus in vineyards. Their application may reduce reliance on synthetic pesticides, contribute to sustainable viticulture practices, and minimize negative impacts on non-target beneficial organisms. This research introduces an innovative, eco-compatible control that could be effectively integrated into broader Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies. Full article

The Mutanchis, known by their derogatory exonymic term ‘Lepcha’, are autochthonous to Sikkim, India. The name ‘Mutanchi’ derives from the phrase ‘Mutanchi Rumkup Rongkup’, eliciting the response ‘Achulay’, meaning ‘Beloved children of It-bu-mu, who have come from the snowy peaks’. The nomenclature prompts an ontological understanding rooted in the community’s eco-geographical context. Despite possessing a well-developed script categorised within the Tibeto-Burman language family, the Mutanchis remain a largely oral community. Their diminishing, scarcely documented repository of Mutanchi clan narratives underscores this orality. As a Mutanchi, I recognise these narratives as a medium for expressing Indigenous value systems upheld by my community and specific villages. Mutanchi clan narratives embody spiritual and cultural significance, yet their fantastic rationale reveals complex epistemological tensions. Ideally, each Mutanchi clan reveres a chyu (peak), lhep (cave), and doh (lake), which are propitiated annually and on specific occasions. The transmigration of an apil (soul) is tied to these three sacred spatial geographies, unique to each clan. Additionally, clan etiological explanations, situated within natural or supernatural habitats, manifest beliefs, values, and norms rooted in a deep ecology. This article presents an ecosophical study of selected Mutanchi clan narratives from Dzongu, North Sikkim—a region that partially lies within the UNESCO Khangchendzonga Man-Biosphere Reserve. Conducted in close consultation with clan members and in adherence to the ethical protocols, this study examines clans in Dzongu governed by Indigenous knowledge systems embedded in their narratives, highlighting biocentric perspectives that shape Mutanchi lifeways. Full article

Background: Landscape approaches are recognized for their holistic view on development and conservation. However, they encounter sustainability and localization challenges due to short-term funding constraints and dependence on external experts. In this paper, we examine commoning as a means of land tenure interventions that enable mixed land use and community stewardship. Methods: Based on desk research and 20 interviews, an institutional analysis was performed on two landscape management cases to shed light on commoning processes and land tenure changes, as well as their impact on land use and community stewardship. Results: In the first case, a collaborative governance model was developed through policy interventions, which provided not only institutional frameworks but also financial resources to incentivize landowners to cooperate with nature conservation groups and share management rights over their land. In the second case, a community land trust model was used by self-organized civil society actors to develop ecovillage practices and ensure the balance of conservation and agricultural uses. In both cases, we found that land tenure innovations in terms of boundary rules, choice rules, aggregation rules, as well as rules for higher-level action situations, were key to enabling land rights sharing, mixed land use, and different levels of stewardship depending on the preferences and capacity of stakeholders. Conclusions: Commoning could address the sustainability and localization challenges faced by landscape approaches to mixed land use and long-term adaptive management. Full article

The ethnic villages in karst regions, where the ecosystem and social systems are intricately linked, face the dual challenges of poverty and ecological sustainability. Tourism, as an emerging strategy adopted for poverty alleviation, has inevitably posed complex impacts on social–ecological systems (SES). However, due to the particularity of the SES in this region, the mechanisms through which tourism influences social–ecological systems remain unclear, hindering the achievement of eco-friendly economic growth. In this study, we first applied the vulnerability spectrum diagram (VSD) model assessment framework to various remotely sensed and socially sensed data to evaluate ecological and social vulnerability, taking Leishan County, a typical karst region in Guizhou, southwest China as a case study. Then, advanced geospatial analysis methods were adopted to investigate the spatial characteristics of the vulnerability index. Finally, we utilized the geographical detector to identify influencing factors and investigated their synergistic effects. Our results reveal that, within the studied area, social vulnerability is generally lower in the north than the south, while ecological vulnerability shows the other way around. Social vulnerability is significantly influenced by several tourism-related factors, such as transportation convenience and the preservation of traditional dwellings. These factors collectively exert a pronounced effect on social vulnerability mitigation. Moreover, ecological vulnerability, with the exception of rocky desertification, shows significant co-directional changes with social vulnerability, reflecting the fact that tourism factors indirectly shape the ecosystem. The development of ethnic village tourism in villages with better socio-economic conditions tends to effectively improve the quality of the ecological environment, whereas those with poorer conditions tend to exacerbate ecological damage. The findings drawn from this study convey important practical implications that assist in identifying key vulnerable areas in karst ethnic villages and support their sustainable development goals. Full article

Despite traditional knowledge’s (TK’s) potential to mitigate climate-induced vulnerabilities across diverse climates, cold-region communities remain critically understudied. To bridge that gap, this study adopts the pressure–state–response (PSR) framework to analyze how Indigenous knowledge in China’s Jinjiang Chalet Village—a 300-year-old cold-region settlement—embodies dynamic resilience across ecological, climatic, social, and economic dimensions. Combining semi-structured interviews with Indigenous Elders, UAV-based multispectral analysis, and environmental simulations, we identify strategies rooted in sustainable wisdom: ecosystem stewardship, climate-responsive architecture, community governance, and adaptive economic practices. A key innovation lies in the Eco-Wisdom Laboratory—a pilot project operationalizing TK through modern passive design and participatory education, demonstrating how traditional woodcraft and microclimate management can be integrated with contemporary technologies to achieve scalable, low-carbon solutions. Crucially, we advance the concept of living inheritance by showcasing how such hybrid practices decolonize static preservation paradigms, enabling communities to codify TK into tangible, future-oriented applications. This study provides a replicable framework for embedding TK into global sustainability agendas, particularly for severe cold regions facing similar stressors. Our findings advocate for policy reforms centering Indigenous agency in climate adaptation planning, offering actionable insights for architects, policymakers, and educators working at the nexus of cultural heritage and ecological resilience. Full article