Research highlights: Ecological policies must balance ecosystem protection by promoting the sustainable livelihoods of farmers living in or near protected areas; however, the intrinsic motivations of farmers to adopt green production behaviors (GPBs) are poorly understood. Background and objectives: We explored how ecological policies affect the GPBs of farmers in agroforestry. Materials and methods: We conducted questionnaires of farmers in 11 counties of Sichuan Province, China, with abundant protected areas and large-scale agroforestry, after which a structural equation model of farmers’ ecological awareness, policy perception, and GPBs was constructed. Results: (1) Ecological policies can stimulate farmers’ GPBs by improving their ecological awareness, creating positive subjective norms, and inducing the “herd effect”. Increases in protection intensity and scope amplify the pressures on farmers to maintain more than long-term policy consistency. (2) Green production is more time-consuming, laborious, expensive, and difficult to learn compared with traditional production methods, which have somewhat limited GPBs adoption. (3) In the rural “acquaintance society”, information and communication from others have a substantial impact on farmers’ perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors; thus, positive subjective norms from formal and informal channels could promote GPB adoption. Conclusions: Future policies should prioritize environmental education over environmental publicity by helping farmers understand the long-term relationship between ecological protection and economic development, teaching individual environmental responsibility, enhancing positive feedback to farmers who adopt GPBs, actively exploring mechanisms for realizing the value of ecological products, and improving farmers’ management skills and learning ability.

The conflict between biodiversity conservation and economic development is intense in developing countries. With the decline in biodiversity, the Chinese government imposed a 10-year fishing ban in the priority waters of the Yangtze River Basin, which resulted in many fishermen losing their livelihood. However, a compensation policy was subsequently introduced. To investigate the impact of the ban, we conducted a two-year study using balanced panel data and the PSM-DID model for 365 households in the Poyang Lake area and introduced fixed effects to discuss the impact of the Yangtze River fishing ban compensation policy on the income of returning fishermen and their choices for alternative income. We also explored the interactive effects of fishing ban compensation and other biodiversity conservation policies on their income. The results showed that the fishing ban negatively impacted the agricultural income of households but not the total household income, and the compensation somewhat subsidized the fishermen’s loss of income. Moreover, this was an opportunity for farmers to adjust their livelihood strategies. These findings improve our understanding of the impact of this fishing ban and compensation policy on the household incomes of returning fishermen and their adaptive strategies for alternative income.

Understanding the response of the ecological well–being to ecosystem services of urban green space is imperative for urban ecosystem conservation and management. However, few studies have focused on the response process and spatial relationship of ecological well–being to ecosystem services of urban green space in mega cities, while residents’ demand and evaluation of ecological well–being have not been fully considered. In this study, the ecological well–being evaluation index system was developed through integrating subjective and objective indicators. Using the main urban area of Beijing as an example, our results indicate that from 2015 to 2023, the ecological well–being has been continuously increasing. Moreover, this study indicated that the coupling and coordination degree between ecological well–being and ecosystem services of urban green space still need to be improved. In addition, three modes of spatial relationship were identified in this study: high coordination area, moderate coordination area, and low coordination area. The finding extracted from these spatial relationship models should provide references for urban green space planning to maintain sustainable urban ecosystem conservation and management.

Enhancing forestry management efficiency is critical for global sustainable development goals, yet how institutional arrangements can effectively incentivize farmers’ performance requires deeper investigation. This study constructs an integrated framework to examine the effects of well-defined property rights and market certification on the output and technical efficiency of household bamboo management. Utilizing survey data from 1090 households in China, we employ stochastic frontier analysis (SFA), propensity score matching (PSM), and mediation models. The findings reveal a key divergence: (1) Forest tenure certificates significantly increased bamboo output but not technical efficiency. This “quantity-driven” effect stemmed from increased capital and land inputs. (2) Market certification enhanced both output and technical efficiency, operating via a “quality-driven” mechanism of standardized management. (3) Significant technical efficiency losses persist, indicating substantial potential for productivity gains through optimized practices. This study concludes that singular property rights institutions are insufficient to overcome the “output-without-efficiency” bottleneck. Complementary, market-based mechanisms are essential for a dual-pillar policy system. This research offers theoretical support for optimizing forestry policies and provides insights for other developing countries seeking sustainable resource management.

Major public health events pose a huge challenge to the sustainable improvement of city dwellers’ ecological well-being, hindering the achievement of urban ecological construction goals. In the context of resilient city and all-aged friendly city construction, age factor is given special consideration in urban green space management to meet the heterogeneous demands and preferences of city dwellers for urban ecological benefit. However, young, middle-age and elderly city dwellers’ utilization of urban green spaces during different periods of pandemic are poorly known. Meanwhile, insufficient discussion on the differences in ecological well-being contributions of different types of urban green spaces has led to difficulties in effectively connecting urban green space management planning with the city dwellers’ demands for ecological well-being. To help fill this gap, this study utilizes field study data on urban ecological construction and urban landscape and greening in Beijing from 2019 to 2023 to analyze the evolution and differences in utilization behaviors of urban green space among different age group city dwellers. Furthermore, this study applies the ordinary least square regression model (OLS) to explore the differences in the impact of various types of urban green space on the ecological well-being of city dwellers. The results revealed significant age effects in the utilization of urban green space during 2019–2023. It outlines the increased time spent in urban green space by younger city dwellers. In addition, the results demonstrated that the utilization behavior of park green space has a significant positive impact on the ecological well-being level of city dwellers, and the impact of utilization behavior on the ecological well-being level of city dwellers varies depending on the type of green space. Compared with community green space, the impact of park green space utilization behavior on the ecological well-being level of city dwellers is more significant. The conclusion from the main urban area of this Beijing case study contributes to the international discussion on urban green space management and urban green resilience governance in metropolitan areas worldwide as they add additional insights on the change and difference in the utilization behavior of urban green spaces, particularly looking at elderly, middle-aged and young city dwellers as well as the importance of a timely response to the heterogeneity preference of city dwellers’ ecological well-being demand.

The gut microbiota is closely linked to nutrient metabolism and host health in birds, but whether variation in plant-derived diet composition is accompanied by corresponding gut microbiota variation during winter remains unclear. In this exploratory study, we analyzed 150 fecal samples from five groups of wintering Common Cranes (Grus grus) in the Yellow River Estuary during the 2025/2026 wintering season. Plant DNA metabarcoding and 16S rRNA sequencing were used to characterize the plant-derived diet composition, fecal microbiota, and predicted microbial functions. Both plant-derived diet composition and fecal microbiota structure differed significantly among groups. Groups J1 and J2, sampled concurrently in January, differed markedly in plant-derived diet composition, whereas overall fecal microbiota separation and differences in most predicted functions were relatively limited. Five plant family–bacterial genus associations passed FDR correction without sampling-group adjustment, but none remained significant after adjustment. Overall, plant-derived diet composition and fecal microbiota both varied across the sampled groups, but their patterns of differentiation were not fully concordant. Because sampling time and site were not fully crossed, these patterns cannot be attributed to diet alone. These findings support considering farmland foraging habitats in the management of wintering Common Cranes, with attention to food resource availability throughout winter.