Spatial heterogeneity and management challenges of ecosystem service trade-offs: a case study in Guangdong Province, China.

Ecosystem services (ESs) play a crucial connecting role between human well-being and natural ecosystems. Investigating ESs and their interrelationships can aid in the rational distribution of resources and benefits and inform planning decisions that align with the principles of ecological civilization. Nonetheless, our current understanding of these relationships remains limited; thus, further theoretical exploration is required. This study employs the InVEST model to assess the key ESs in Guangdong Province for 2000 and 2018 and applies the multi-scale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) method to identify the primary drivers of ES changes and capture trends in spatial variations. The results showed that (1) from 2000 to 2018, the total carbon storage (CS) and habitat quality (HQ) decreased while the water yield (WY) and net primary productivity (NPP) increased. These ESs also showed spatial differences, with higher values observed in the hilly and mountainous areas of the north compared with the coastal and plain areas of the south. (2) Although the spatial distribution of ES trade-off strength varied, the overall pattern remained consistent from 2000 to 2018. The pairwise trade-off strength of CS-WY and WY-HQ decreased significantly in the northern region of Guangdong due to low rainfall, while that of CS-HQ decreased significantly in the Pearl River delta as a result of urbanization. Cultivated and forested land displayed higher and lower levels of NPP and WY, respectively, with forested land exhibiting greater trade-off strength than the other land use types. (3) Evident spatial heterogeneity was observed in the properties and intensity of the correlations between driving factors and changes in ES trade-offs. Natural factors were the primary determinants of trade-offs among ESs. However, at a regional scale, the landscape index and socioeconomic factors tended to represent stronger drivers. Based on these findings, we suggest that ecological management should be adjusted based on the geographic scale. This study offers a valuable approach to understanding the relationship between ES trade-offs and their drivers in geographic space and serves as a reference for the sustainable provisioning of ESs both locally and globally.

How does the digital service trade nonlinearly affect carbon emissions? Empirical evidence from G20 countries.

This study explores the nonlinear relationship between digital service trade and carbon emissions using the data of 42 G20 countries from 2005 to 2021. It is concluded that this relationship appears to be an inverted U-shape. When the digital service trade is inadequate, this exacerbates carbon emissions. Only when the digital service trade is above this point does it become beneficial to environmentally sustainable development. Mediation analyses indicate that the digital service trade increases carbon emissions by increasing emissions from digital infrastructure and decreases them by optimizing the industrial structure and adopting low-carbon technologies. Furthermore, the nonlinear association is moderated by human capital. When human capital is insufficient, it is harder for the digital service trade to curb carbon emissions. Accordingly, this study is helpful to develop the digital service trade and achieving the goals of carbon peak and neutralization and the sustainable growth of the environment.

Incorporating fire-smartness into agricultural policies reduces suppression costs and ecosystem services damages from wildfires.

In southern Europe, land abandonment and an unbalanced investment toward fire suppression instead of prevention has gradually increased wildfire risk, which calls for a paradigm change in fire management policies. Here we combined scenario analysis, fire landscape modelling, and economic tools to identify which land-use policies would reduce the expected wildfire-related losses in the Transboundary Biosphere Reserve 'Gerês-Xurés' (Spain-Portugal). To do so, we applied the least-cost-plus-net-value-change approach and estimated net changes in wildfire damages based on their implications for the 2010-2050 period and five ecosystem services: agriculture, pasture, timber, recreation and climate regulation. Four land-use scenarios were considered: (1) Business as Usual (BAU); (2) fire-smart, fostering more fire-resistant (less flammable) and/or fire-resilient landscapes (fire-smart); (3) High Nature Value farmlands (HNVf), wherein the abandonment of extensive agriculture is reversed; and (4) a combination of HNVf and fire-smart. HNVf is the best scenario for suppression cost savings, but it generates the lowest net present value of societal benefits from climate regulation. In fact, the most efficient scenario with the lowest societal discounted net suppression costs and change on ecosystem services damages is the HNVf + fire-smart scenario, as it also generates suppression cost savings from agricultural expansion, and lead to a significant reduction in damages on timber and recreational benefits. Therefore, reverting land abandonment through recultivation and promoting fire-resistant tree species is the most efficient way to reduce wildfire hazard. In this sense, payments for ecosystem services should reward farmers and landowners for their role in wildfire prevention. This study improves the understanding of the financial and societal benefits derived from reducing fire suppression spending and ecosystem services damage by undertaking fire-smart land-use strategies, which can be essential to enhance local stakeholders' support for Payments of Ecosystem Services policies for wildfire prevention.

Balancing the management of powerline right-of-way corridors for humans and nature.

Green space in electric powerline rights of way (ROWs) can be a source of both ecosystem services and disservices in developed landscapes. Vegetation management within the ROW may influence tradeoffs that maximize potential services or disservices. Frequently mowed ROWs managed as lawn harbor less biodiversity than ROWs with taller vegetation, but may be preferred by people for aesthetic reasons and because they provide space for recreational activities. We conducted a survey of residents living by ROWs in the Chicago, Illinois USA metropolitan area to determine if residents prefer ROWs managed as lawn over those managed as native prairies or allowed to grow freely with only woody vegetation removed ("old-field ROWs"). We found that respondents did not prefer mowed over prairie or old-field ROWs. Furthermore, respondents living near mowed ROWs were least likely to think that the ROW is attractive, while those living near prairie ROWs were most likely to. Survey respondents tended to believe it was important for ROWs to provide habitat for wildlife, and wildlife observation was the most frequently reported activity conducted in the ROW. Finally, we found that a respondent's perception of biodiversity in the ROW was more closely correlated with positive feelings about the ROW than measured biodiversity levels. Our results suggest that managing ROWs for wildlife habitat is fully compatible with managing them for human enjoyment. We therefore recommend that where possible, ROW vegetation is managed in a more "natural" way than lawn because it has the potential to benefit both wildlife and people.

Analysis on International Competitiveness of Service Trade in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Based on Using the Entropy and Gray Correlation Methods.

Based on the analysis and measurement of the overall situation, import and export structure and international competitiveness of the various sectors of service trade in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, with the help of MATLAB and Gray System Modeling software, the synergy degree model was established to quantitatively analyze the synergy level of service trade in the Greater Bay Area with the help of grey correlation analysis method and entropy weight method. The results show that the overall development trend of service trade in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is good. The service trade industries in different regions are highly complementary and have a high degree of correlation. The potential for the coordinated development of internal service trade is excellent, and the overall situation of service trade in the Greater Bay Area is in a stage of transition from a moderate level of synergy to a high level of synergy. The Greater Bay Area can achieve industrial synergy by accelerating industrial integration and green transformation, establishing a coordinated development mechanism, sharing market platform, strengthening personnel security, and further enhancing the international competitiveness of service trade. The established model better reflects the current coordination of service trade in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and has good applicability. In the future, more economic, technological, geographic, and policy data and information can be comprehensively used to study the spatial pattern, evolution rules, and mechanisms of coordinated development in the broader area.

Habitat Quality Differentiation and Consequences for Ecosystem Service Provision of an Amazonian Hyperdominant Tree Species.

Ecosystem services of Amazonian forests are disproportionally produced by a limited set of hyperdominant tree species. Yet the spatial variation in the delivery of ecosystem services by individual hyperdominant species across their distribution ranges and corresponding environmental gradients is poorly understood. Here, we use the concept of habitat quality to unravel the effect of environmental gradients on seed production and aboveground biomass (AGB) of the Brazil nut, one of Amazonia's largest and most long-lived hyperdominants. We find that a range of climate and soil gradients create trade-offs between density and fitness of Brazil nut trees. Density responses to environmental gradients were in line with predictions under the Janzen-Connell and Herms-Mattson hypotheses, whereas tree fitness responses were in line with resource requirements of trees over their life cycle. These trade-offs resulted in divergent responses in area-based seed production and AGB. While seed production and AGB of individual trees (i.e., fitness) responded similarly to most environmental gradients, they showed opposite tendencies to tree density for almost half of the gradients. However, for gradients creating opposite fitness-density responses, area-based seed production was invariable, while trends in area-based AGB tended to mirror the response of tree density. We conclude that while the relation between environmental gradients and tree density is generally indicative of the response of AGB accumulation in a given area of forest, this is not necessarily the case for fruit production.

Recognizing the insurance value of resilience: Evidence from a forest restoration policy in the southeastern U.S.

The long-term supply of ecosystem services is dependent on properly functioning ecosystems and their susceptibility to natural and anthropogenic disturbances such as climate change and urbanization, as they can alter ecosystem structure and function. Forest function is not static, but rather a risky asset that fluctuates and can decrease as a result of forest disturbance. Therefore, concepts such as resilience and insurance value as well effective policy formulation, management, and restoration are key to maintaining these benefits. This study estimates the insurance value that the public places on a policy that promotes restoration for increased resilience and ecosystem services using binary choice (BC) and best-worst scaling (BWS) models to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) and to vote for the restoration of longleaf pine (LLP) forests in the southeastern United States. Our BWS findings indicate that respondents seemed to only prefer programs with low risk of forest damage and lower monthly costs, while BC models show that low and moderate risk programs increased the likelihood of voting for them and that excellent wildlife habitat was also highly valued by our respondents. Positive attitudes towards the environment also positively influence voting for forest restoration programs. Findings contribute to an emerging body of literature on social-ecological systems and how the voting public conceptualizes trade-offs among ecosystem services, insurance value, and resilience. Results may help assess the use and incorporation of concepts such as resilience, ecosystem services, and insurance value in restoration, environmental, fire management, and climate change-related policy instruments and programs.

Assessing Changes in Ecosystem Service Values in Response to Land Cover Dynamics in Jiangxi Province, China.

This paper examines the ecosystem service values of Jiangxi province, China using the benefit transfer approach. The land cover dynamics results show that cropland and forest are the main land cover types in Jiangxi province. Urban land drastically increased after 2000, expanding from 846.54 km2 in 2000 to 2317.48 km2 in 2015. Forest and water obviously decreased across the study periods. Consequently, the total ecosystem service values decreased from 37.91 × 1010 Yuan in 1995 to 35.27 × 1010 Yuan in 2015. The values showed a declining trend, especially during the 1995-2000 period. The largest declines in ecosystem service values were caused by decreases in forest and water cover. Regulating services experienced the largest declines in ecosystem services value. Moreover, water supply showed the largest decline in ecosystem service value between 1995 and 2015. Not surprisingly, food production increased in the whole period, especially in the 1995-2000 period. Forest and cropland played the most important roles in the total ecosystem service values of Jiangxi province. We then discussed the relationship among ecosystem services based on the ecosystem service trade-off degree. The results show that the dominant relationship among ecosystem services in Jiangxi province was synergy; thus synergy mostly occurred in all ecosystem services except for food production from 1995 to 2015. However, during the 1995-2000 period, trade-offs mainly existed in both food production and waste treatment. The proportion of synergy greatly increased in the 2000-2015 period, and the synergistic relationship between waste treatment and other ecosystem services increased. However, the trade-off relationship between food production and other ecosystem services still has not improved, which should be concerned in the future. Changes in the percentage share of cropland showed a declining trend; thus, the potential risk of cropland loss should be monitored.

Co-producing ecosystem services for adapting to climate change.

Ecosystems can sustain social adaptation to environmental change by protecting people from climate change effects and providing options for sustaining material and non-material benefits as ecological structure and functions transform. Along adaptation pathways, people navigate the trade-offs between different ecosystem contributions to adaptation, or adaptation services (AS), and can enhance their synergies and co-benefits as environmental change unfolds. Understanding trade-offs and co-benefits of AS is therefore essential to support social adaptation and requires analysing how people co-produce AS. We analysed co-production along the three steps of the ecosystem cascade: (i) ecosystem management; (ii) mobilization; and (iii) appropriation, social access and appreciation. Using five exemplary case studies across socio-ecosystems and continents, we show how five broad mechanisms already active for current ecosystem services can enhance co-benefits and minimize trade-offs between AS: (1) traditional and multi-functional land/sea management targeting ecological resilience; (2) pro-active management for ecosystem transformation; (3) co-production of novel services in landscapes without compromising other services; (4) collective governance of all co-production steps; and (5) feedbacks from appropriation, appreciation of and social access to main AS. We conclude that knowledge and recognition of co-production mechanisms will enable pro-active management and governance for collective adaptation to ecosystem transformation. This article is part of the theme issue 'Climate change and ecosystems: threats, opportunities and solutions'.

Situation and suggestions for the development of traditional Chinese medicine in the State of Qatar / 国际中医中药杂志

With the integration of acupuncture into Qatar’s national medical system in 2016, TCM has made great progress in the State of Qatar. At the same time, the launch of the Qatar National Vision 2030 and the Belt and Road Initiative has provided a good opportunity for TCM development there. At present, the state of Qatar lacks local education and policy support for TCM development and there exists competition from other traditional medicine. However, the domestic investment environment is stable. TCM development in Qatar has to focus on expanding the Chinese medicine market, promoting scientific research cooperation, encouraging herbal medicine enterprises to develop planting industry, and striving for preferential policies to develop TCM service trade.

Research on the development status and suggestions of traditional Chinese medicine service trade in the United Arab Emirates / 国际中医中药杂志

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is an important partner in China's The Belt and Road initiative.It has a broad prospect of pharmaceutical market which is an important market for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)'s development.TCM has existed in UAE's market in a short time,so TCM service trade in UAE has the shortcomings of small scale of the consumption and a large number of unprofessional practitioners.But it also has advantages of the good traditional medicine's inter-communion between two countries and the university jointly organization of building hospitals of TCM.This article analysizes the market opportunities and potential risks traditional Chinese medicine in UAE's market,and puts forward to remote technical power development,medical tourism to stimulate consumption abroad,strengthens the cultural and research communication,sets up guidance department to accelerate the development process of Chinese medicine.

The current situation of Sino-Vietnam traditional medicine communication and strategy for traditional Chinese medicine development in Vietnam / 国际中医中药杂志

Vietnam,as an important country along the "one belt and one road",is closely related to China.Chinese traditional medicine has entered Vietnam and gained strong support from policy and public recognition.It has a good foundation for development and a bright future.Based on the current situation of traditional Chinese medicine exchanges between China and Vietnam and Vietnam's basic national conditions,the author puts forward that exploring new cooperative models through multi-level cooperative projects,which relys on the role of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce,and adheres to the complementary promotion between trade in services and trade in goods.They are the feasible ways for Chinese medicine to develop in Vietnam.The development of Chinese medicine in Vietnam needs the adherance to the four principles of bidirectional positioning,suiting measures to local conditions,standardizing standards and risk prevention.

Influence of land use change on the ecosystem service trade-offs in the ecological restoration area: Dynamics and scenarios in the Yanhe watershed, China.

Land use change can result in variations in ecosystem services (ESs) and their relationships. Studying the temporal dynamics of ESs and their relationships can support scenario analyses that provide the theoretical basis for policy decisions and regional ecosystem management. Previous studies have revealed the trade-offs between two ESs on multiple scales, while the trade-offs between multiple ESs require further analysis. Furthermore, trade-offs are rarely considered in scenario constructions, which weakens the ability of scenarios to inform land use policy. In this study, the InVEST model was applied to assess carbon sequestration, habitat quality, nutrient retention, sediment retention and seasonal water yield at five-year intervals from 1990 to 2015 and to construct five simulated scenarios that represented different ecological restoration and land reclamation policies. The results indicated that the Grain for Green Project (GFGP) increased all ESs, with seasonal water yield increasing by approximately 1.29 times above the initial stage. However, decreasing cropland area reduced the correlations between ESs both in trade-offs and synergies. Among all scenarios studied, the Returning Cropland to Grassland trade-off scenario had the maximum effect, while the natural succession to shrubland scenario had a minimum effect at the pixel level. Except for the land reclamation scenario, the overall ES benefits in the other scenarios exceeded the benefits received in 2015. Given the extent of watershed areas impacted by different overall ES benefit and trade-off situations, the Returning Cropland to Grassland scenario appears to best reduce the impacts of the worst situation compared to 2015, reducing the negative impacts by 22.6%. We suggest that scenarios that combine both overall ESs values and their trade-offs can support more effective and efficient land use decisions.

Situation and suggestions for the service trade of traditional Chinese medicine in Singapore / 国际中医中药杂志

With the establishment of the singapore college of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and the landing of the TCM Practitioners Act in 2000, TCM is booming in Singapore. At present, TCM service trade consumes less outside Singapore, but cross-border consumption, commercial existence and natural person flow have greater advantages. At the same time, the treatment of damp-heat disease, geriatric diseases and tourism of TCM in Singapore made the trade of TCM services show broad prospects for its development. This paper suggests that we should attach importance to the location of service agencies, integrate resources to treat special diseases, increase peer exchanges, take mobile payment as an entry point, and adopt a culture-first approach to develop trade in TCM services.

Current Situation and Suggestions for Development of TCM Medical Service Trade / 中国中医药信息杂志

TCM medical service trade is an important component of TCM service trade. Developing TCM medical service trade has wide market and strategic importance. Development of TCM medical service trade in China is still in the initial exploring stage with small scale and dominated by the government. Recently, foreign patients prefer TCM medical serve. TCM medical service trade in abroad shows the partial and small scaled characteristics. The number of joint venture TCM treatment centers is small, and movement of personnel is rare. In order to promote the development of TCM service trade, this article proposed the following four suggestions: conducting TCM international tele-medicine service trade, developing TCM medical travel, investing more in the development of foreign TCM medical centers, expanding the scale of exporting TCM medical talents.

Trends and structural shifts in health tourism: evidence from seasonal time-series data on health-related travel spending by Canada during 1970-2010.

There has been a growing interest in better understanding the trends and determinants of health tourism activities. While much of the expanding literature on health tourism offers theoretical or qualitative discussion, empirical evidences has been lacking. This study employs Canada's outbound health tourism activities as an example to examine the trends in health tourism and its association with changing domestic health care market characteristics. A time-series model that accounts for potential structural changes in the trend is employed to analyze the quarterly health-related travel spending series reported in the Balance of Payments Statistics (BOPS) during 1970-2010 (n = 156). We identified a structural shift point which marks the start of an accelerated growth of health tourism and a flattened seasonality in such activities. We found that the health tourism activities of Canadian consumers increase when the private investment in medical facilities declines or when the private MPI increases during the years following the structural-change. We discussed the possible linkage of the structural shift to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which went into effect in January, 1995.

Opportunities and Challenges of TCM Service Trades in China / 中国中医药信息杂志

TCM service trades grew rapidly and enjoyed optimistic future during the 12th five-year period, which was in good development trend. However, it is still in its primary stage of development and facing various challenges. This article argued that the development of TCM service trades will meet great opportunities, such as governmental policy encouragement, cooperation with other industries, the increasing acceptance of international market and the acceleration of internationalization of TCM. Meanwhile, there are also some difficulties - small industry scale and weak brand management, absence of legislation, lack of qualified professionals and various service trade barriers.