Considering the notion that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”, the effective exploitation of the economic value of forest resources is an important research topic, especially in forest-rich areas. The development of the non-timber forest products (NTFPs) industry has promoted both ecological and economic benefits and has effectively improved farmers’ incomes while protecting forest resources. In order to evaluate the effects of the NTFPs industry on sustaining farmers’ livelihoods and protecting ecological environments, we constructed a performance evaluation index system to determine the poverty alleviation performance of the NTFPs industry in Yunnan Province using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which covered three aspects: the achievement of poverty alleviation, the sustainability of poverty alleviation and satisfaction with poverty alleviation. Then, we selected Sanhe Village in Nujiang Prefecture, Yunnan Province, as an example to verify and rationalize the evaluation index system and comprehensively evaluate the poverty alleviation performance of the NTFPs industry. Based on data from questionnaires and field interviews, we found the following: (1) the overall poverty alleviation performance of the NTFPs industry in Sanhe Village was 79.33, which indicated that the effect was good; (2) the scores for the achievement of poverty alleviation, the sustainability of poverty alleviation and satisfaction with poverty alleviation were 50.56, 18.57 and 10.2, respectively; (3) there were some problems with the poverty alleviation performance of the NTFPs industry, such as limited capital investments, the weak roles of cooperatives and enterprises, the low enthusiasm of lower-income households and incomplete poverty alleviation projects. Finally, we devised some suggestions that could improve the poverty alleviation performance of the NTFPs industry. This paper presents the performance evaluation index system for the poverty alleviation performance of the NTFPs industry, which could provide a reference for evaluating the developmental effects of the NTFPs industry in other lower-income forest areas. Through our empirical analysis of the development effects of the NTFPs industry on farmers’ livelihoods and ecological environments in Sanhe Village, we found that the development of the NTFPs industry significantly improved the farmers’ livelihoods and ecological environments.

Agroforestry has gained increasing attention as a sustainable land use mode to ensure food security, mitigate global climate change, and improve farmers’ livelihoods. Likewise, agroforestry plays a key role in alleviating poverty, mitigating climate change and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in China. Lanxangia tsaoko, as a typical agroforestry species in Nujiang Prefecture, plays a vital role in improving farmers’ livelihoods. After years of development, the Lanxangia tsaoko industry (LTI) in Nujiang Prefecture has made remarkable achievements and accumulated useful experiences. Taking the development of LTI as an example, this paper analyzes the impact of agroforestry on farmers’ livelihoods and its mechanism through field survey and theoretical deduction. First, by investigating the willingness of households to choose LTI, we found that most farmers have a positive attitude toward LTI, and they actively participate in cooperative organizations. Then, by analyzing the development stage and mode of LTI in Nujiang Prefecture, we found that the industry has made significant progress under the external and internal effects. We also found that the mechanism by which agroforestry affects farmers’ livelihoods is a process in which various stakeholders, including government, enterprises, farmers, etc., participate in industrial development with their production components and advantages. Although agroforestry is an effective way to improve farmers’ livelihoods and promote sustainable agricultural development, it is also necessary to pay attention to risk prevention. This paper discusses the role of agroforestry in farmers’ livelihoods, which provides a reference for lower-income forest areas.

Vegetation, serving as the primary constituent of terrestrial ecosystems, plays a crucial role in regulating energy flow and material cycles and providing vital resources for human socio-economic activities. This study analyzes the spatio-temporal patterns of economic density and vegetation coverage in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) based on forest resource inventory and socio-economic data from 448 counties in 2008, 2013, and 2018. A three-tiered criterion layer is constructed using economic density as the core explanatory variable, encompassing social development factors, land use factors, and natural factors. A two-way fixed effects model is then utilized to analyze the impact of economic density on vegetation coverage. Results reveal that: (1) Spatially, economic density demonstrates a “low in the west and high in the east” pattern, with an overall upward trend in the YRB. Conversely, vegetation cover exhibits a “high in the west and low in the east” pattern, displaying a downward trend. (2) Over the 2008–2018 period, a significant negative correlation between economic density and vegetation cover is observed in each county of the YRB, with vegetation cover decreasing by 1.108% for every 1 unit increase in economic density. Notably, the upstream areas of the YRB experience a significant increase in vegetation coverage, while the middle and lower reaches witness a decrease. (3) Considering control variables, the proportion of the primary industry, urbanization rate, forest protection level, and cultivated land area exert a significant influence on vegetation coverage across the entire basin. Policymakers should formulate relevant policies to achieve sustainable development in the YRB, as discussed in the proposed countermeasures. This study delineates a practical pathway for high-quality economic development and high-level ecological protection in the YRB, offering a valuable reference for analogous research in other regions.

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.

This paper uses a questionnaire and interviews from households in ethnic minority areas of the Jianchuan County (Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture) and Pingbian County (Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture) in Yunnan Province to explore the willingness of foresters to manage forests. Using the Sustainable Livelihoods Analysis framework, we select three indicators including the variables of individual social economic attributes, the cognition and experience of forest landowners, and policy guidance. We use a binary logistic regression model to analyze the factors affecting the willingness of foresters to participate in forest management. Through the above analysis, we found the following: (1) Forest landowners’ willingness to engage in forest management in ethnic minority regions is relatively high, at 71.98%. (2) Variables of individual social economic attributes have the most significant degree of influence on the willingness to engage in forest management. (3) Standard of living and the woodland area have a significant positive effect on forest land management intentions, while education level, whether they are compensated by public welfare forests, and whether they have participated in the project of returning farmland to forest and grassland have a significant negative effect on management intentions. (4) There are significant differences between forest landowners’ willingness to engage in forest management and the influencing factors between minority regions and non-minority regions.

The genus Panax contains traditional herbs that have been widely used in traditional medicine. The active constituents, collectively known as ginsenosides, are well characterized in the most representative species, P. notoginseng. However, the major bioactive chemical constituents of P. stipuleanatus together with P. vietnamensis are relatively less studied. In this study, an untargeted metabolomic analysis was performed in P. notoginseng, P. stipuleanatus, and P. vietnamensis using root and leaf organs. Further metabolomic differences in P. stipuleanatus were compared with those of the two most prevalent species. The analysis results revealed tissue-specific qualitative and quantitative metabolic differences in each species. Several differentially accumulated metabolites were enriched in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, including the biosynthesis of ginsenosides I. The ginsenosides Rb1, Rf, Rg1, Rh1, Rh8, and notoginsenosides E, M, and N had a higher abundance level in the roots of both P. notoginseng and P. vietnamensis. In P. stipuleanatus, the accumulation of potentially important ginsenosides is mainly found in the leaf. In particular, the dammarane-type ginsenosides Rb3, Rb1, Mx, and F2 as well as the notoginsenosides A, Fe, Fa, Fd, L, and N were identified to have a higher accumulation in the leaf. The strong positive correlation network of different ginsenosides probably enhanced secondary metabolism in each species. The comparative analysis revealed a significant differential accumulation of metabolites in the leaves of both species. The various compounds of dammarane-type ginsenoside, such as Rb1, Rg1, Rg6, Rh8, Rh10, Rh14, and majoroside F2, had a significantly higher concentration level in the leaves of P. stipuleanatus. In addition, several notoginsenoside compounds such as A, R1, Fe, Fd, and Ft1 showed a higher abundance in the leaf. These results show that the abundance level of major ginsenosides is significant in P. stipuleanatus and provides an important platform to improve the ginsenoside quality of Panax species.