Rural tourism in developing countries has been regarded as a means for rural development, environment conservation and poverty alleviation. This study aims to examine the determining factors for rural households’ willingness to participate in rural tourism in western areas under the context of China’s rural revitalization strategy. Based on survey data from 22 tourism poverty alleviation villages located in the poor areas of western China, we characterize our results by stating that rural households’ livelihood resilience “push” on their willingness to participate, and that poverty alleviation policy perception and involvement “pull” on it. Among distinct livelihood adaptive strategy groups, i.e., farming-oriented households, migratory-oriented households and tourism-participating households, this study also revealed that buffer capacity was a significant driving force for the three types of household’s willingness. Positive poverty alleviation policy perception could attract migratory households to return to their hometowns to start tourism businesses; however, better self-organizing capacity decreased their willingness. In addition, both self-organization and learning capacity and positive policy perception and involvement encouraged tourism-participating households to engage in tourism activities continually. Finally, some practical implications and recommendations for further research are also discussed.

Poverty is increasingly stressed in Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes, from targeting to outcomes. As the world’s largest PES scheme of its kind, the Sloping Land Conversion Program in China started its new stage (NSLCP), aiming to convert another 2.9 million ha sloping croplands into forest or grasslands. This paper examines whether and to what extent different dimensions of poverty impact households’ participation in the NSLCP. By using the data collected from a key demonstration area, Wuqi County in 2015, based on Sen’s capability theory, we measure the multidimensional poverty of the households, like poverty in education, physical health, food security, rights, assets and living standards. Then, we evaluate the effects of different poverty dimensions on households’ participation in the NSLCP and their efforts to comply with the policy. We find that different dimensions of poverty had very different impacts, as revealed in the participating rate and the intensity of efforts to manage the enrolled lands through different methods. The households with poverty in education, food security, or rights were less likely to be enrolled in the NSLCP. Dimensions like income, health and assets were significant contributions to fulfill the practices required by the NSLCP. Besides, the degree of multidimensional poverty further weakened households’ efforts to manage and protect the trees on enrolled lands.

The Yellow River Basin, as one of China's major agricultural production regions, faces significant challenges related to agricultural water scarcity. Therefore, exploring the decoupling relationship between agricultural water use and output value in the basin is of great importance for promoting the intensive use of water resources and sustainable agricultural development in this basin. Based on provincial-level data from 2004 to 2024, this study employs the Tapio decoupling model, the super-efficiency SBM model, and grey relational analysis to examine the decoupling status, dynamic characteristics, and influencing factors, while also validating the results through an analysis of agricultural water-use efficiency. The results indicate that agricultural water use and output value in the basin have generally decoupled over time, with strong decoupling as the dominant pattern. Spatially, the middle and lower reaches are mainly characterized by strong decoupling, whereas some areas in the upper reaches exhibit weak decoupling. The nine provincial-level regions can be classified into four categories: continuous optimization, leapfrogging improvement, alternating strong-weak fluctuations, and decoupling lagging. Climate risk and advances in agricultural technology are identified as the key influencing factors. Accordingly, it is recommended to accelerate the decoupling process in the upper reaches, strengthen policy support for areas facing high climate risks, promote technological upgrading, and implement differentiated strategies to facilitate the coordinated decoupling of agricultural water use and output value across the basin.