Relatively little attention has been paid to examining the spatial expansion features of cities at various tiers at the regional level in China, especially those located in central and western regions of the country. Based on Landsat satellite imagery from four years—1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010, this paper investigates the spatio-temporal pattern of urban land expansion and its influencing factors in the Wuhan Urban Agglomeration (WUA) in central China. The research found that the total area of urban land expanded from 203.66 km² in 1980 to 1370.07 km² in 2010, and that urban land areas increased by 423.82, 167.42, and 574.93 km² in the periods 1980–1990, 1990–2000, and 2000–2010 respectively, exhibiting significant fluctuation between the different periods studied. Geographically, this spatial expansion pattern was characterised by conspicuous concentrations and regional imbalances across the overall study period. Whilst these spatio-temporal differences were found to be closely related to industrialisation, urban population growth, land-use policies, urbanisation guidelines (governmental plans and regulations addressing urbanisation), and national development strategy, the dominant mechanisms driving those differences varied over time. In response, the paper presents an urban-rural and regional integration strategy, with the aim of avoiding economic gaps and the inefficient utilisation of various resources in the urban agglomeration areas.

Purpose: The development of tourism around Wolong Nature Reserve changes the local communities' ways of life. This study discusses how ecotourism affects the households' use of their capitals, the livelihood strategies as well as illustrates the impact on the habitats in the reserve through Department for International Development’s (DFID) Sustainable Livelihood Framework (SLF) with data collected during fieldwork.Design/methodology/approach: The study focuses on (1) Calculating Livelihood Capital Index. (2) The effects of livelihood capitals on livelihood strategy were calculated by multinomial logistic regression.Findings: The study has yielded the following results: (1) In general, tourism promotes people's livelihood capitals. The growth in different types of households under tourism settings is ranked as full-time tourism operators > part-time tourism operators > traditional living households. (2) Tourism development mainly shifts livelihood strategies in two ways. Firstly, travel operating replaces some traditional practices that make livings; secondly, increased needs for potherbs and herbs from tourists let households enter into the hills to pick the plants more actively, which intensifies the destruction of giant panda's habitats. (3) Nine types of livelihood capitals indicators, namely farmland quality, distance between house and roads, number of laborers, average housing area, average income per person, whether family members being village cadres, and ever having received skills training shape livelihood strategies in different levels.Originality/value: Three discussions are drawn from the study: (1) Enhancing the exploit for tourism resources to form a diversified competition. (2) Introducing herb growing to fulfill tourists' needs and improve people's livelihood in the meantime. (3) Optimizing the tourism surveillance and management system and improving the rules and regulations.

Land degradation, especially natural forest land degradation (NFLD), is a severe environmental concern in China. This natural disaster itself and its derivative control policies have caused some impacts on surrounding farmers’ livelihood level and strategies, but the literature on the sustainable livelihood of different households in NFLD vulnerability is limited, and there is an urgent need to bridge the gap and conduct studies on the sustainable livelihood of Changting, Libo, Lixian, Menghai and Wuxi, the typical NFLD-prone areas in China. A new livelihood sustainability index (LSI) including livelihood asset, livelihood strategy and sustainability engagement is constructed to assess the basic situation. The results showed that: (1) The overall LSI of five NFLD areas was not high, and the social, financial and natural assets, in particular, were relatively low. A disparity was found among the five areas, and the rank sequence of the LSI value was sorted in a descending order: Changting > Menghai > Libo > Lixian > Wuxi. (2) In detail, farmers in Changting had the relative highest LSI because of the inherent high value of livelihood assets, which constrain the scores of the livelihood strategy and sustainability engagement. (3) Households in Libo, Menghai and Lixian had middle level LSI scores. The relative low livelihood assets in Libo and Menghai drove parts of local farmers to carry out off-farm/forestry employment, leading to high scores of livelihood strategy, while farmers in Lixian had lower livelihood diversification scores and higher sustainability engagement due to their working content for the local forestry bureau. (4) The low scores of the livelihood asset and sustainability engagement restricted farmers in Wuxi. A discussion of LSI in the NFLD vulnerability was conducted to determine the characteristics and analyze the reasons. Accordingly, targeted policy recommendations were proposed to realize a sustainable livelihood in NFLD areas.

Purpose: The main objectives of collective forest tenure reform in China are to stimulate rural households to invest in forestry management, protect the ecosystem and improve their livelihood. By constructing the unbalanced panel data of household investment, this study discusses the dynamic changes and influencing factors of household investment, which will lay a foundation for further research and provide a reference for decision-making.Design/methodology/approach: Based on 3,500 samples from rural households in the provinces of Fujian, Hunan, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Jiangxi, Gansu, and Liaoning collected during field investigations from 2010 to 2015, this study conducts an empirical analysis of the household investment in forestry management and its factors with nonbalanced panels.Findings: According to the analysis, the average investment in forestry management per household from 2010 to 2015 fluctuates greatly; the age of the householder, increased forestry area, subsidies, joining professional cooperatives, and forest tenure mortgage show positive effects on achieving the objectives.Originality/value: The discussions are drawn from the study that supporting policies such as the forest tenure transfer system, professional cooperatives, financial services and subsidies should be further improved to sustain a positive in the forestry industry.

Background and Objectives: China’s natural forest conservation policy impacts community livelihoods, with farmers’ policy awareness being a key determinant of conservation effectiveness. However, research gaps remain regarding how this policy shapes farmers’ perceptions of livelihood capital drivers and influences their willingness to participate in sustainable forest management. With this study, we aim to quantify the relationship between livelihood capital and farmers’ policy awareness, providing scientific evidence for formulating more effective sustainable policies. Materials and Methods: Using household survey data, we conducted empirical analysis on 498 randomly sampled households from nine villages in Menghai County and Changting County. Generalized ordered logit and binary logistic regression models were employed to examine the impact of multidimensional livelihood capital on policy awareness levels. Results: Our findings indicate heterogeneous effects of livelihood capital. Conclusions: Policymakers should prioritize targeted interventions to enhance the effectiveness of natural forest conservation policies by moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach. Research Highlights and Significance: This study reveals that livelihood capital across different dimensions exerts complex and inconsistent effects on farmers’ policy cognition. Through comparative analysis of two representative regions in China, this study provides empirical evidence for this core finding from both ecological and economic perspectives. The results further offer precise policy implications for enhancing forest conservation policy effectiveness by optimizing livelihood capital structures.