Aim: Although protected areas (PAs) are assumed to reduce natural threats within boundaries, their spillover effects remain equivocal. It is necessary to determine whether PAs truly achieve conservation targets and whether they promote or inhibit natural habitat degradation in adjacent areas by blockage or leakage spillover. This study aims to choose 54 nature reserves (NRs) focusing on forest protection as a case study to assess PA conservation effectiveness and spillover prevalence.Location: PAs on the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau (QTP).Methods: We used matching methods to compare deforestation rates inside PAs and their 20 km buffer zones with matched control areas based on the Global Forest Change dataset from 2001 to 2019. We contrasted the effects of NRs with different management levels, ages and areas. We designed five concentric buffer zones to assess spillover change with distance and estimated potential drivers of the spillover effect to explain its directions and magnitudes.Results: 75.9% of the NRs were effective in preventing deforestation within their boundaries. NRs with different properties showed similar performance on forest conservation. Spillover effects were heterogeneous around NRs. One hundred and twenty‐two buffer zones had positive spillover ranging from 0.1% to 5.3%. One hundred and nineteen buffer zones had leakages from −8.84% to −0.1%. Blockages slightly outnumbered leakages at different distances, while leakages happened more frequently when we treated buffer zones as a whole spillover area. The linear model indicated NR age and population density of buffer zones were the most relevant predictors to spillover value.Main conclusions: Most PAs performed well in forest conservation. Leakages could undermine or offset PA conservation efforts and were related to multiple natural or socio‐economic factors. We recommend considering the plurality of PAs as well as spillover effect and incorporating a social‐ecological framework in further PA establishment and management.

Conducting research aimed at establishing the relationship between economic development and non-violation of the environment and developing optimal ways of their interaction is possible only by studying the features of regional development, which requires a comprehensive assessment of the ecological and socio-economic situation of the territories. The Baikal region includes Irkutsk Oblast, Republic of Buryatia, and Zabaykalsky Krai and occupies an exceptional place in Russia, due to Lake Baikal and unique natural features. The results of the assessment of the state of purity and quality of the environment indicate the emerging negative trends associated with water pollution, atmospheric air, and waste disposal in the Baikal region. Therefore, this article proposes the solutions to the problems in achieving sustainable development based on the implementation of the principles of the green economy, providing recommendations on how to reverse the current ecological and socio-economic situation of the Baikal region in a positive direction. Obtained practical assessments are essential for solving the problems of conservation and creating favorable conditions for the life of the population. Implementation of key government regulatory measures and changing existing approaches to managing the region based on the principles of the green economy will reduce the level of anthropogenic pressure on the environment.

In recent years, with rapid urbanization, the underlying urban surface has changed dramatically. Various urban eco-environmental problems have emerged globally, among which the urban heat island effect has become one of the most obvious urban eco-environmental problems. In this study, Nanjing, China, was chosen as the study area. Based on Landsat 8 remote sensing image data collected in Nanjing from 2014 to 2018, land surface temperatures were retrieved, the spatiotemporal variation track and characteristics of the thermal environment pattern were systematically depicted, and the driving factors of these variations were revealed. The results show that over the past five years, the spatial pattern of the heat field in Nanjing changed from a scattered distribution in the periphery of the city to a centralized distribution in the centre of the city, and the heat island intensity increased annually. Changes in administrative divisions, changes in the layout of the transportation trunk lines, transfer of industrial centres, and ecological construction projects are important driving factors for the evolution of the land surface thermal environment patterns of these regions. These research results will provide scientific and technological support for similar cities with typical heat island effects elsewhere in the world to formulate urban development plan, and to improve the urban ecological environment.

The problems of preserving the natural environment are relevant for unique natural complexes of territories, such as the Baikal region (Russia). There are few studies devoted to forecasting the green economic development of the eco-socio-economic system of the Baikal region. The previous studies are mainly dedicated to the theory of forming the green economy in the Baikal region. This study aimed to forecast and determine future trends in the Baikal region’s eco-socio-economic development based on the green economy. The methodological approach to assess the Baikal region development prospects is based on determining the factors affecting the relationship between various eco-socio-economic components using multiple regression models. We constructed the forecast using the artificial neural networks method, and we assessed the possible impact of anthropogenic factors on the Baikal region’s eco-socio-economic system in the future. Based on the obtained forecast, we proposed a mechanism for regulating the green economy formation in the region. The regional governments of the Baikal region should perform the management function. This requires establishing a special interregional Green Development Fund to restructure incoming public funds by redistributing financial flows from contaminating brown to green industries and develop a state program for the Green Development of the Baikal region. The constructed forecast is informational support for decision making for the long-term development of the economy during the transition to the green economy, the development and justification of program activities, and the future’s main strategic priorities.

The Mongolian culture is unique and attractive for its eco-friendly concept, and the Republic of Buryatia is a typical and representative region of this ethnic culture. Sustainable utilization of Mongolian ethno-cultural tourism resources has great significance on the promising and developing regional market of tourist services. In this study, Mongolian ethno-cultural tourism resources in the Republic of Buryatia were certified and classified in accordance with the Classification, Investigation and Evaluation of tourist resources of the Chinese National Standard GB/T 18972-2017. The spatial pattern of Mongolian ethno-cultural tourism resources in the CEZ BNT (Republic of Buryatia) was also revealed. The results showed that the Mongolian ethno-cultural tourism resources in Republic of Buryatia can be classified into 6 types and 23 subtypes, and the spatial distribution pattern is along the Lake Baikal and the main traffic lines. With the right approach to the organization and classification of ethno-cultural tourism resources, the cultural tourism industry can become the emerging power industry for the green sustainable development of the region and the country. The results will contribute to the protection and development of Mongolian ethno-cultural tourism resources, as well as promote the construction of the China–Mongolia–Russia economic corridor.

The construction of the Primorsky No. 1 and No. 2 international transport corridors is of great strategic significance to China and Russia. These corridors will solve the problem of the absence of an estuary in Northeast China by sailing from Russian ports and concurrently greatly improve Russia’s position in the world’s transport system. However, existing research studies mainly focus on the strategic significance of these corridors, while research studies on the identification, evaluation, and mitigation policies of their construction risks are rare, which inhibits the construction progress. To promote the construction of these corridors, we firstly identify the main risks in the construction of these corridors, which are economic, transport infrastructure-related, policy-related, eco-environmental, and disaster-related risks. Then, we establish a comprehensive evaluation system, and by applying the entropy method, we quantitatively evaluate the degrees of risks in regions along the transport corridors, reveal their spatial distribution patterns, and identify the key prevention and control regions for these risks. Afterwards, we propose targeted mitigation policies such as establishing innovative cooperation modes and a special foundation to mitigate economic risk and formulate further regional development policies to mitigate policy-related risk. This research will provide scientific support for risk prevention and control for the construction of these corridors.