The development of China’s national parks is still in the initial stage, and few scholars have studied the effects of soundscapes on human physiology and psychology from the perspective of the auditory senses in national parks. In this study, the Qianjiangyuan National Park System Pilot Area was taken as the research subject, physiological indicators of subjects were collected through a biopAC-MP150 multi-channel physiological instrument data platform, and the subjective psychological response of soundscapes was measured using a Likert scale. The results showed that the sound of water had the most significant effect on the heart rate and respiratory rate of the subjects. Agricultural sound had the greatest impact on the skin conduction levels, while conversation had the least overall impact on human physiology. There were significant differences in comfort, excitement, and significance among the different soundscapes (p < 0.001). The sounds of insects are more likely to elicit feelings of comfort and excitement, while the sounds of birds are more likely to arouse curiosity. No significant correlation was observed between the physiological indices and psychological indices. The study on the effects of different soundscapes on human physiology and psychology in China’s national parks will provide a basis for the decision makers of national parks to formulate more effective planning, design, and management policies regarding soundscapes.

Based on the pilot ecosystem analysis of Qianjiangyuan National Park, the ecosystem services function value index system was determined; multiple methods such as market value method and shadow engineering method were used to evaluate the four major categories in the years 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2018 of the ecological services of Qianjiangyuan national park which are provision, regulation, culture, and support. Results show that the total value of the pilot ecosystem services in Qianjiangyuan national park had increased to 7430.11 × 10⁶ yuan, 9128.41 × 10⁶ yuan, 12,718.38 × 10⁶ yuan, and 15,539.99 × 10⁶ yuan for each category respectively. The regulation category has always been the core ecosystem services function in the national park, accounting for more than 40% of the value of the total services. The increase in the value of ecosystem services in the park was due to the implementation of ecological measures such as logging bans and people paying more attention to environmental protection.

Financial returns of forest plantations are an important concern around the world. In this research, we focused on South China’s timber investments, collected data from the Pingxiang, Guangxi Province, China, which is the demonstration zone of Fast-growing and High-yielding Timber Plantation Base Construction Program and National Timber Strategic Storage and Production Bases Construction Program, and used capital budgeting analysis method and sensitivity analysis to compare different scenarios of planted forest management. The results showed that excluding land costs, (1) the financial returns of Eucalyptus forest managed by small business were excellent, having an IRR of 28% per year and a LEV of $7555 per ha, but it had a high risk with fluctuations of cost, timber price and timber yield; (2) the results for the Experimental Center of Tropical Forests indicate that the Eucalyptus forest and Castanopsis hystrix forest returns were greater than those for Cunninghamia lanceolata forest and Pinus massoniana forest, with having IRRs of 24%, 21%, 13% and 10% per year respectively. The mixed planted forest of Castanopsis hystrix × Eucalyptus and Castanopsis hystrix × Pinus massoniana had the features of high profits and low risks; (3) the forest farmers had lower levels of returns for Eucalyptus forest management in South China, but were still in the middle rank of global comparisons. This study gave a view of China’s timber investment and provided more options of improving the economic returns of planted forest management to both small businesses and forest farmers in South China.

Improvements in vegetation coverage are driven by both resource endowment conditions and policy behaviors. To accurately reflect the vegetation restoration effect after ecological policies, this study used the potential realization model to calculate the potential realization degree of vegetation restoration on the Loess Plateau and to assess the vegetation restoration effect after the Grain for Green Program from 2000 to 2020. Then, the influencing factors were explored using the spatial Dubin model. The results reveal that (1) the EVI value of the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi increased from below 0.25 at the beginning of the study to approximately 0.35 by the end, indicating that the green territory of the Loess Plateau gradually expanded to the northwest over the study period, and that the east and west of the Loess Plateau are key areas of vegetation cover for further improvement; (2) compared to the traditional EVI indicator, the potential realization degree can more accurately evaluate the vegetation restoration effect driven by ecological policies; (3) policy intensity is positively correlated with the growth rate of the vegetation restoration potential realization degree by 0.183 and significant at 1% level, making it the primary factor influencing the effect of vegetation restoration. Additionally, annual average precipitation and annual sunshine percentage have significant spatial positive contributions to the improvement of vegetation restoration on the Loess Plateau. The study’s findings are expected to contribute to the development of a scientific basis for adjusting the vegetation restoration policy on the Loess Plateau and enhancing ecological restoration efforts.

The high quality development of national parks plays an important role in promoting the formation of a reasonable, moderate and orderly land space protection pattern and building a harmonious coexistence of human and nature. However, a lack of public participation has limited the development of high-quality national parks in China. Understanding public concern and awareness of national parks is necessary for promoting greater public participation. This paper provides insight into this problem by combining Weibo and questionnaire survey data, then uses a combination of text mining, a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) theme model, and descriptive statistics to analyze the current state of public concern and awareness of national parks. By analyzing Weibo data, we find: (1) Public concern for national parks is increasing year by year. (2) More economically developed regions may pay more attention to national parks. (3) Public concern for national parks focuses on the construction of national parks in other countries and the institutional reform and ecotourism of national parks in China. Meanwhile, we also find that: (1) Most of the public are willing to actively pay attention to the construction of national parks. (2) The public is not yet fully aware of national parks in China; for example, the number of national parks, their construction, and other issues are still not widely known. (3) Public awareness of the construction goals, functional positioning, and other issues are not generally understood. To sum up, there is still much room for the public to improve their control and awareness of national parks. Finally, we put forward some suggestions to improve the public’s concern with and awareness of national parks, which can promote public participation in their development. This study will be important for sustainable development of the natural reserve system and global biodiversity protection in China.