Yunjie Wei

Tourism is an essential pillar to promote economic development. Under the context of “dual carbon” goal, which means the Chinese government delivery that China will reach peak CO2 emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, the measurement of tourism carbon emissions facilitate preparation for carbon reduction work, and premise the development of sustainable tourism. In this study, based on existing studies, meta-analysis was used to extract relevant data of all studies on carbon emissions of domestic scenic spots before 2022, and visualized methods and SPSS correlation analysis were used to analyze the relationship between per capita carbon emissions of tourists of scenic spots and other variables of scenic spots. The results show that: (1) With the year 2010 as the node, the number of study areas and the per capita carbon emissions of tourists in the scenic spot show an increasing trend over time. Before 2010, the average per capita carbon emissions in the scenic spot was 23.47 kg person–1, and after 2010, it increased to 55.29 kg person–1; (2) Within different types of scenic spots, the per capita carbon emissions of tourists were ranked as follows: natural category > mixed category > humanistic category. The per capita carbon emission of natural scenic spots is the largest, which is 66.13 kg person–1; (3) By analyzing the factors affecting per capita carbon emissions, it is found that there is a significant positive correlation between per capita carbon emissions of tourists and the area of the scenic spots, whereby the larger the area of the scenic spots, the larger the per capita carbon emissions; (4) An increase in the number of days of tourist routes leads to a rise in per capita carbon emissions, and in this part of the research, the influence of the source of tourists, the type of hotels and the mode of transportation on per capita carbon emissions was studied.

Food security is critical for socioeconomic development. In grassland areas, inappropriate food consumption patterns can cause irreversible damage to vulnerable local ecosystems. This study aims to examine the household dietary diversity status and development trend over the past 20 years in Chinese herder communities. We draw on a cross-sectional dataset of 230 households involving 652 family members from the Xilin Gol Grassland areas in North China. Household dietary diversity was assessed using the household dietary diversity score (HDDS), which was calculated based on 12 food groups. Results show that HDDS increased from 3.74 in 1999 to 5.92 in 2019, with an annual average growth rate of 2.45% during the past 20 years. The increase in plant-based food scores made a major contribution to the HDDS improvement. The variations in household dietary diversity status between pastoral areas and agro-pastoral areas showed differences among different types of grassland in arid and semiarid transitional zones. It is worth paying more attention to monitoring the main impact factors that affect HDDS and how these changes might impact the local ecosystem, which will benefit regional sustainable development.

In the face of increasingly severe ecological degradation in the typical fragile ecological regions around the world, many different ecological technologies (ET) have been developed. However, there is still a lack of any comprehensive analysis of these technologies and the effects of their implementation on regional ecological systems, and this largely limits the promotion of the excellent technologies and their applications. Based on the Web of Science core online database and specific literature screening criteria, 3409 papers were selected to summarize and analyze the development trends, research hotspots and regional comparisons of ecological technology effect research. Furthermore, 19 publications from 14 regions were selected to compare and analyze the effects of eight commonly applied ET: shelterbelt, artificial afforestation, water-saving irrigation, terrace, stereo-agriculture, contour tillage, ban/rest/rotational grazing and fallow/no tillage/minimum tillage. The results show four key features: (1) The research on the effect of ecological technology is still in the period of continuous development. (2) “Erosion” is the largest node in the keyword co-occurrence map of ecological technologies effect research, followed by “management”. (3) Most countries pay attention to the studies of “erosion” and “runoff”, although there are differences in research on the effects of ecological technologies in different countries. (4) The same technology could be applied to different regions but the effects varied, and the ecological technologies that have been implemented have generally achieved good restoration effects; however, the improper use of ecological technologies may bring negative consequences. This study provides important support for ecosystem restoration and improvement in the ecologically degraded areas in China and around the world, and it provides a reference for the export and introduction of excellent technologies.

Global economic development and increasing human activities have brought great challenges to fragile ecosystems. In order to avoid, reduce, and reverse desertification, Chinese and foreign scientists and ecological governance institutions have developed a series of ecological restoration technologies (ERTs) and models in the past few decades. These technologies can improve residents' livelihoods, strengthen disaster resilience, and launch a comprehensive review of degraded ecosystems in desertification regions. However, some studies and practices have limited the selection and promotion of good technologies and the assessments of these technologies, resulting in the waste and loss of funds and manpower. The objective of this study is to identify desertification control and restoration technologies and models, summarize the evolutionary features and trends of these technologies under different natural conditions, and evaluate the various ERTs that are now available. The data sources of this study include the databases of international organizations, CNKI, related literature and reports, and questionnaires from institutions and experts. First, the three stages of ERTs evolution were summarized, and the key events and social-economic developments were identified as the driving forces of evolution. Then, the four categories of ERTs were identified as biological, engineering, agricultural, and management ERTs. Finally, the key ERTs were evaluated in the five dimensions of the degree of difficulty, the degree of maturity, effectiveness, suitability, and potential for transfer. The management ERTs scores for the degree of difficulty, the degree of maturity, and potential for transfer are higher. This study provides a reference for adapting to local conditions, the comprehensive management, rational development, and utilization of dryland resources, improving the application of ecological technologies, and promoting the export and import of the excellent technologies.

Ecosystem degradation is a key issue facing the world. Rapid economic development has been achieved at the cost of degradation and environmental pollution, which has affected human well-being, particularly in fragile ecosystems. To achieve the United Nations sustainable development goals, it is essential to develop technologies to control degradation and restore ecosystems. However, a comprehensive assessment of the different types of degradation, of the methods used in different regions, and of the differences between regions has not been carried out. In this study, we examined databases of international organizations, interviewed experts to evaluate existing methods based on five dimensions, identified restoration technologies (hereinafter referred to as RTs) suitable for different types of degradation, and summarized the restoration effectiveness in different regions. We found 101 RTs around the world and found that the same technology can be applied in different regions. The RTs were dominated by engineering and biological RTs, accounting for 19.2–26.7% and 33.4–34.7% of the total, respectively. 45, 30, and 26 RTs were suitable for controlling soil erosion, sandy desertification, and degraded ecosystem, respectively. The average evaluation index of RTs for controlling these degradation problems are 0.81, 0.78, and 0.73, respectively meaning RTs used to fight soil erosion are more effective. The potential to transfer a technology to other regions and the readiness of the technologies were low for degraded ecosystems, and the ease of use was high for sandy desertification RTs. Although a given technology could be applied to different regions or degradation types, results varied. Our study will help ecosystem managers to deal with specific degradation issues, phases, and severities, and will support the transfer of RTs among regions.

Given the high alpine grassland coverage and intensive animal grazing activity, the ecosystem and livelihood of the herders are extremely vulnerable in the headwater region of the Yellow River. A series of programs have been implemented by the Chinese government to restore degraded grasslands in this region, and major function-oriented zones (MFOZs) applied in 2014, have divided the region into three zones, i.e., the development prioritized, restricted, and prohibited zones, based on environmental carrying capacity, as well as the utilization intensity of grassland. This study identified various restoration approaches adopted in different MFOZs, and assessed the effects of the approaches in order to determine the most effective approaches. We collected 195 questionnaires from herders to analyze the effects of the various restoration approaches, and additional remote sensing and statistical data were also used for the analysis. Four distinct differences in the ecological and socioeconomic characteristics were found in three MFOZs. (1) Five technologies were applied in the study areas. (2) The grassland recovery rate was higher in development prioritized zones than in restricted and prohibited zones during 2000 and 2016, and especially high and very high coverage grasslands increased in the areas where crop-forage cultivation and grass seeding dominated in the prioritized zones. (3) The net income of households in the development prioritized zone was the best of all three zones. (4) The degree of awareness and willingness of herders to restore grassland was more positive in development prioritized zones than in restricted zones, where more herders adopted approaches with a combination of enclosure + deratization + crop-forage cultivation + warm shed. Based on these findings, it is recommended that decision-makers need to increase their efforts to narrow the gap of willingness and behavior between herders and other stakeholders, such as researchers and grassland administrators, in order to ensure grassland sustainability in the MFOZs. It is also beneficial to understand the effects of restoration on the ecological carrying capacities in different zones depending on the different development goals.

Government policy is a major human factor that causes changes in land use. Thus, simulating the dynamics of land-use systems provides important information to support decisions on land management and land-use planning, and to analyze and quantify the consequences of policies. In the present study, we predicted land-use changes and their potential impacts on food security in the environmentally fragile Guyuan District, in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of north-central China, under the influence of a program to convert sloping agricultural land to conservation uses. Baseline and conservation policy scenarios (2005 to 2020) were developed based on input from local stakeholders and expert knowledge. For the baseline and conservation policies, we formulated high-, moderate-, and low-growth scenarios, analyzed the driving mechanisms responsible for the land-use dynamics, and then applied a previously developed "dynamics of land systems" model to simulate changes in land uses based on the driving mechanisms. We found that spatially explicit policies can promote the conversion of land to more sustainable uses; however, decreasing the amount of agricultural and urban land and increasing grassland and forest cover will increase the risk of grain shortages, and the effect will be more severe under the conservation and high-growth scenarios than under the baseline and low-growth scenarios. The Guyuan case study suggests that, during the next decade, important trade-offs between environmental conservation and food security will inevitably occur. Future land-use decisions should carefully consider the balance between land resource conservation, agricultural production, and urban expansion.