Sun Yehong

Residents’ Attitudes Towards Tourism in a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems Pilot Site: a Case Study in China

Abstract Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) is a wide program to promote the conservation and adaptive management of such systems and their associated landscapes, biodiversity, knowledge systems and cultures. Rice-Fish Systems (RFS) in Longxian village of China, as a traditional agricultural system, was selected as one of the five pilot sites of GIAHS in 2005. Researchers have paid more attention to the dynamic conservation and adaptive management of RFS because it is under severe threats from global development challenges. Tourism is suggested to be brought into the RFS conservation program as an alternative industry. This paper presents a comparative study of residents in three types of farm household in Longxian, seeking attitudes to the RFS conservation and tourism development and ways in which such information may guide future strategies. Results show residents, belonging to the household type in which most family members are abroad, have the most positive attitudes to RFS conservation and tourism development; while residents, as other household type in which less than 50% of family members are abroad, are the least sensitive group in these three household types, due to the motivation of moving abroad weakening their enthusiasm to participate in the local activities. Implications are discussed in the context of how resident attitudes will affect the future management of GIAHS conservation and tourism development, and then measures are put forward to foster tourism cooperation and multistakeholders process establishment.

Conceptual Framework for Economic Evaluation of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS): Case of Rice-Fish Co-Culture in China

Abstract: The Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) initiative was launched by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in 2002 with the aim of establishing the basis for the global recognition, dynamic conservation and adaptive management of outstanding traditional agricultural systems and their associated landscapes, biodiversity, knowledge systems and cultures. There is anecdotal evidence that designated GIAHS are economically better than non-GIAHS sites. However, there have not been done an economic analysis to prove this. Nor are any sophisticated economic performance criteria for GIAHS in place for a continuously monitoring of the functioning. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to conduct an economic valuation for a GIAHS system versus a similar non designated GIAHS system. For this, a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) is chosen. The major constraint is the data availability. Therefore, a framework for economic analysis shall be developed with the intention to provide directions, assumptions, and data requirement to carry out an economic analysis and so give guidance on future inclusion of economic valuations of GIAHS. Theconceptual framework for economic assessment will use the Rice-Fish pilot site in China as a case study. The example calculations on the rice-fish co-culture (RFC) have to be taken cautiously due to data availability on different activities (tourism, marketed products on local and international markets) as well as comparison to similar systems.

Terraced Landscapes as a Cultural and Natural Heritage Resource

The first International ‘Terraced Landscape Conference’ was held in the city of Menzi, in Honghe Hani and Yi Prefecture, Yunnan Province, south-west China, on 11–15 November 2010. The conference was initiated by Yunnan Hani Terrace Institute and sponsored by the World Heritage Center of UNESCO and the Honghe government, in collaboration with several international organizations, including the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations International (UN), Wetlands International, and the US Environmental Protection Agency. Over 200 delegates participated in the conference, coming from 18 terraced landscape research organizations and 16 different countries (including China, the USA, Australia, Peru, the UK and the Philippines). The Universidad de Lima will organize the second conference in Peru. Among the international conferences held in Yunnan, which is a hub of natural and cultural scientific research in China, this conference was outstanding because of its innovative approach in many respects. The conference was innovative for bringing together, for the first time, most of the countries with terraced field landscapes, irrespective of their degree of development or the watering methods, and regardless of whether the terraced fields are the main food source for the local people or mainly kept as a heritage landscape. Government officials from countries such as the Philippines

Identifying Landscape Pattern Metrics for the Hani Terrace in Yunnan, China

Abstract: This study seeks to isolate a select group of landscape metrics particularly well-suited for describing the Hani Terrace in southwest of China. We examined the response of 47 landscape metrics to a large range of imagery grain sizes. Based on a correlation analysis, the original 47 metrics were placed into 21 groups such that all metrics within a group were strongly correlated with each other with a value of more than 0.9, and were represented by a single descriptor. Using these cross-sectional metrics in the context of principal components analysis, we found that five factors explained almost 93% of the total variation in the landscape pattern. The highest loadings for these five factors were the Splitting index (SPLIT), Patch area distribution (AREA_CV), Shannons diversity index (SHDI), Euclidean nearest neighbor distance distribution (ENN_AM), and Total core area (TCA), respectively. Considering the real landscape, we added the Patch fractal dimension distribution (FRAC_MN) as the sixth landscape pattern metric. As the scale effect of landscape pattern metrics we design to investigate how a suite of commonly use landscape metrics respond to changing grain size. Based on the anlasis, we determined that the best domain of scale to characterise the Hani Terrace pattern metrics is between 40m and 45m. Through the fractal method, we found that the characteristic scale of the Hani Terrace is the same as the scale domain of metrics, among the 40m and 45m. We suggest that the majority of the patterns in the Hani Terrace landscapes, indeed for all those in southwest China,can be described effectively with these six metrics.