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The varying roles of ecosystem services in poverty alleviation among rural households in urbanizing watersheds

Landscape Ecology volume 37, pages 1673–1692 (2022)Cite this article

Abstract

Context

Understanding the relationship between ecosystem services and human well-being in rural areas of rapidly urbanizing watersheds is one of the core research questions of landscape sustainability science. It is important for poverty alleviation and forming related policies. However, there is insufficient investigation on the impacts of ecosystem services on poverty alleviation on multiple scales in such region.

Objectives

This paper investigates whether ecosystem services at the landscape level and household characteristics play important roles in connecting ecosystem services and poverty alleviation in a rapidly urbanizing landscape from the perspective of landscape sustainability science.

Methods

We use an urbanizing watershed with a large number of poor people, analyzing the impacts of ecosystem services on poverty alleviation among different types of rural households based on surveys, nonparametric tests, and multinomial logit models.

Results

The results suggested that differences in household-level endowments had significant impacts on poverty alleviation. In terms of ecosystem services, regional (village-level) food supply were significantly associated with poverty alleviation (p < 0.1); while household-level benefits from cultural services had a significant positive effect (p < 0.01) on households moving to the better-off group.

Conclusions

Differentiating the roles of ecosystem services on poverty alleviation between landscape level and household level is important for policy making. In urbanizing watersheds, offering ecological compensations, and providing trainings and financial supports for rural poor people should be adopted to help them get out of poverty.

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Funding

This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41971225), the Beijing Municipal Natural Science Fund, China (Grant No. 8192027), and the Beijing Normal University Tang Scholar.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing, 100875, China

    Dan Yin, Qingxu Huang, Chunyang He & Ling Zhang

  2. School of Natural Resources, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Dan Yin, Qingxu Huang, Chunyang He, Ling Zhang & Yansong Bai

  3. Jiangsu Institute of Urban & Rural Planning and Design Co., Ltd., Nanjing, China

    Dan Yin

  4. College of Humanities and Development Studies, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China

    Xiaobo Hua

  5. School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, 85281, USA

    Chuan Liao

  6. Institute of Geography, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Luis Inostroza

  7. Universidad Autónoma de Chile, 7500912 , Santiago, Chile

    Luis Inostroza

Authors
  1. Dan Yin
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  2. Qingxu Huang
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  3. Chunyang He
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  4. Xiaobo Hua
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  5. Chuan Liao
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  7. Ling Zhang
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  8. Yansong Bai
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Contributions

YD and QH conceived the study, designed the framework, and wrote the paper. CH, XH, CL, LI, LZ and YB reviewed and edited the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Qingxu Huang.

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Yin, D., Huang, Q., He, C. et al. The varying roles of ecosystem services in poverty alleviation among rural households in urbanizing watersheds. Landsc Ecol 37, 1673–1692 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-022-01431-x

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Keywords

  • Livelihood strategies
  • Targeted poverty alleviation policies
  • Landscape sustainability science
  • Sustainable development goals
  • Urban sustainability