This SALSA-based review of 197 WoS and CNKI articles synthesizes advances and gaps in SESR theory, methods, model construction, empirical demonstration, and benefit evaluation. It examines how resilience thinking may inform a shift from static conservation to adaptive management in Karst World Natural Heritage buffer zones, while clarifying the conditions under which SESR insights may be relevant to uncertainty, conservation-development tensions, and long-term heritage sustainability.

Clarifying how cross-boundary linkages between the core areas and buffer zones of World Natural Heritage Sites (WNHSs) are transformed into conservation–development synergy is a key scientific question for reconciling heritage conservation and community development beyond static zoning governance. Taking the Libo Karst World Natural Heritage Site (KWNHS) as a case study, this study develops a spatial linkage–social transformation–conservation–development synergy framework based on survey data from 253 residents across seven villages and integrates PLS-SEM, NCA, and fsQCA to identify net effects, necessary conditions, and configurational pathways. The results show that tourism–economic linkage promotes synergy through both direct effects and value transformation, whereas organizational linkage operates mainly through governance transformation via community participation. Ecological linkage contributes primarily through heritage identity. Cross-method analysis further reveals that benefit feedback represents a relatively weak but significant necessary constraint and a core condition across high-synergy configurations, while heritage identity represents a stable value foundation. These findings demonstrate that spatial linkages generate conservation–development synergy only when they are effectively transformed into benefit sharing, participatory governance, and shared heritage values.

Sustainable livelihoods for farmers are crucial to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In particular, the sustainability of farmers’ livelihoods in plain agricultural areas is strategically important for poverty alleviation, food security, and the reduction in urban–rural disparities. Drawing on data from a sample survey of farmers and field interviews conducted in the Jianghan Plain, this study evaluates farmers’ sustainable livelihoods in plain agricultural areas. The results indicate the following: (1) In 2022, the sustainable livelihood level of farmers in the Jianghan Plain was relatively low; the average Sustainable Livelihood Index (SLI) of the sampled farmers was 0.3462, with livelihood capital and livelihood outcomes accounting for 50.58% and 49.42% of the SLI, respectively. (2) A significant bidirectional positive interaction existed between farmers’ livelihood capital and livelihood outcomes. Specifically, the coefficient of the promotion effect of livelihood capital on livelihood outcomes was 0.1312, whereas that of the feedback effect of livelihood outcomes on livelihood capital was 1.0128. (3) The coupling coordination degree between farmers’ livelihood capital and livelihood outcomes was moderately unbalanced, with livelihood capital identified as the primary obstacle to farmers’ sustainable livelihood development. The average obstacle degree of livelihood capital was 0.7305, indicating a high degree of constraint. The cumulative obstacle degree of social capital (0.2707), human capital (0.1876), and natural capital (0.1460) reached 60.43%, indicating that these three factors collectively constituted the key obstacles. These findings provide valuable insights into promoting farmers’ livelihood sustainability and rural revitalization in plain agricultural areas.