Exploring the adoption of green production technologies by farmers (GTA) is of great significance, given the context of global climate change and sustainable agricultural development. This article starts from the perspective of the transformation of the farmland transfer market, based on research data from 2076 farmers, and uses the endogenous disposal effect model to examine its impact on GTA. The results indicate that the transformation of China’s farmland transfer market has a significant “greening” effect on agriculture. Specifically, the paid transfer of farmland, written leases, and clear lease forms promote GTA, while acquaintance transactions are not conducive to it. Participation in the farmland transfer market has increased the likelihood of GTA by 18.7% and is statistically significant at the 1% level. However, the adoption level of green production technology by ordinary farmers remains low, and achieving green development in agriculture is a long and arduous task. Mechanism analysis shows that the transformation of the farmland transfer market can effectively enhance GTA by increasing the scale of operations, farmers’ income, and mechanization levels. When the transfer targets new business entities, such as family farms, professional cooperatives, and enterprises, it significantly promotes GTA. The findings suggest that deepening the reform of the farmland transfer market, promoting large-scale agricultural operations, strengthening the application of green production technologies, improving the level of agricultural mechanization, and accelerating the process of sustainable agricultural development are all essential steps toward enhancing GTA and, ultimately, achieving sustainable agricultural development.

Environmental education is one of the main functions of China’s national parks, and it also plays a crucial role in the construction of an ecological civilization. Compared with the rest of Asia, the inception of national parks in China occurred relatively late, and fostering tourists’ pro-environmental behavior is a challenging endeavor. According to the theoretical paradigm of stimulus–organism–response (SOR), in this study, we selected place attachment, environmental attitude, and environmental quality to construct a theoretical model of the relationship between the perception of environmental education and pro-environmental behavior. We conducted a sample survey of 728 tourists who had been to Wuyishan National Park and constructed a structural equation model. Our findings indicate the following: (1) pro-environmental behavior is directly and significantly promoted by one’s perception of environmental education, place attachment, and environmental attitude; (2) place attachment and environmental attitude play an intermediary role between one’s perception of environmental education and pro-environmental behavior; and (3) the quality of the external environment positively influences the correlation between one’s perception of environmental education and place attachment. This study provides solutions and suggestions for Wuyishan National Park to improve the effectiveness of environmental education regarding tourists’ pro-environmental behavior.

Introduction: The deviation between high willingness and poor actual behaviors in community participation has become an obstacle to achieving effective management and resource protection of protected areas. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate this deviation and its influencing factors.Methods: Based on a field survey of community residents in the Shengjin Lake National Nature Reserve (SJLNNR) in Anhui Province, China, this study uses a Logistic-ISM model to analyze the key factors influencing the deviation and the hierarchical structure supporting those key factors.Results: There is a significant deviation between participation willingness and actual behavior in SJLNNR. This deviation is characterized by eight key factors. Among these, awareness of the necessity of establishing SJLNNR is a direct factor at the surface level. Participation of important or recognizable people; average annual family income; understanding of environmental protection laws and regulations; realization of environmental improvement effect; satisfaction with SJLNNR authority; and future earnings expectations are all intermediate indirect factors. Furthermore, resident member is a fundamental factor. Resident members refer to those who live at home for six months or more during a calendar year.Discussion: These results indicate that there are three possible practical reasons for the deviation: 1) The lack of young and middle-aged adults is the root cause. 2) Inadequate ecological compensation is the direct trigger. 3) Individual internal psychological factors have significant effects. Furthermore, this study provides policy implications for converting willingness into actual participation in the community and promoting sustainable development.

The spatio-temporal evolution of land use/land cover (LULC) and habitat quality (HQ) is vital to maintaining ecological balance and realizing regional sustainable development. Using the InVEST and CA-Markov model, with the Kendall coefficient as the sensitivity value, LULC and HQ in Lu’an City from 2000 to 2030 are simulated and evaluated. Then, Spearman is used to analyze the correlation between HQ and driving factors. Finally, the influence of policy factors on HQ is discussed. The results show the following: (1) from 2000 to 2030, the LULC of Lu’an is mainly cropland (about 40%) and forest land (about 30%) which are transferred to construction land; (2) the kappa coefficient is 0.9097 (>0.75), indicating that the prediction results are valid; (3) the Spearman coefficient shows that DEM (0.706), SLOPE (0.600), TRI (0.681), and HFI (−0.687) are strongly correlated with HQ, while FVC (0.356) and GDP (−0.368) are weakly correlated with HQ; (4) the main reasons for the decrease in HQ are the increase in construction land area, the decrease in forest area, the vulnerability of artificial forests to threat factors, and their low biodiversity. This study outlines exploratory research from two perspectives of HQ factors and policy effects to provide policy suggestions for the sustainable development of Lu’an City.

Biogas production is widely recognized as an effective solution for addressing agricultural waste treatment in rural areas. However, its development is often hindered by economic and environmental constraints. This study combined emergy evaluation and carbon footprint analysis methods to establish a new environmental radius assessment model for evaluating the ecological performance and optimization direction of an agricultural waste biogas production system, using a biogas production company in China as a case study. Compared with the straw return model and straw power generation model, the results of emergy indicators and carbon accounting showed that the biogas production model had a lower environmental load and higher economic output and level of emergy sustainability. Additionally, the biogas production system was found to reduce 0.47 kg of carbon emissions per 1 kg of agricultural waste utilized. The application of the biogas production model in rural areas had high ecological sustainability and carbon emission reduction benefits. Environmental radius assessment results confirmed that the reasonable changes in resource collection distance could further enhance the ecological sustainability, carbon mitigation ability, and economic benefits of the biogas production system. The environmental radius assessment method offers a new approach to the location planning of agricultural waste biogas utilization companies in rural areas.

Resource misallocation is one of the important manifestations of agricultural supply-side distortion and an important causal factor that hinders food production increase and affects food security. Did the COVID-19 pandemic intensify China’s food production misallocation? The extent and consequences require quantitative assessment and scenario analysis. In this paper, we use a combination of input-output model and computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, and further incorporate the most important input factor in agriculture—intermediate inputs—into the model. At the same time, simulation of the pandemic impact from the demand and supply sides, respectively, and scenario analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on China’s food production. The results of the study show that: first, compared with the baseline level before the epidemic, the overall TFP growth of China’s food industry chain decreased, and the TFP growth rate of the food distribution sector decreased most significantly. Second, there are significant factor misallocation distortions of capital, labor, and intermediate inputs. Third, in the short term, the period of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a decline in the vitality of the national labor market, but the return of non-farm employed labor in rural areas instead reduced the degree of labor misallocation in the food sector. Fourth, the demand side has a greater impact on China’s food production, among which the consumer demand has a particularly strong impact on the resource allocation of food production, and the short-term shock will mainly have a more obvious impact on the allocation of labor factors and the allocation of intermediate input factors in the food industry chain. Accordingly, this paper proposes that in order to guarantee China’s food security and adapt to the short-term characteristics of the era when the COVID-19 pandemic is rampant, China should make efforts in four areas: rational allocation of food production resources and factors, solid construction of the whole food industry chain, stable guarantee of the food market system and transfer to enhance social expectations.