Experimental evidence on cooperation and coordination in forest and endangered species conservation in China

The growing prevalence of livestock as an alternative or complementary livelihood strategy has become a growing threat to wildlife and forest ecosystems in China. To achieve the dual objectives of biodiversity conservation and rural development requires cooperation and coordination from local commun...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tianqi Wu, Patrick S Ward, Binbin V. Li
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Resilience Alliance 2022-12-01
Series:Ecology and Society
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol27/iss4/art40
_version_ 1797969516911656960
author Tianqi Wu
Patrick S Ward
Binbin V. Li
author_facet Tianqi Wu
Patrick S Ward
Binbin V. Li
author_sort Tianqi Wu
collection DOAJ
description The growing prevalence of livestock as an alternative or complementary livelihood strategy has become a growing threat to wildlife and forest ecosystems in China. To achieve the dual objectives of biodiversity conservation and rural development requires cooperation and coordination from local communities. However, relatively little is known about the prevalence of these social attitudes in rural China, nor the extent to which cooperation and coordination could be leveraged for the enhanced natural resource management. In this study, we used a series of experimental games to study the propensity for cooperation in the management of common property resources among rural communities in national panda nature reserves in Gansu and Sichuan provinces. We also explored how variations in socioeconomic factors may explain differences in participants' voluntary contribution patterns. Our results show that expected cooperation among peers was a major determinant of voluntary cooperation under the provision point mechanism but not the voluntary contribution mechanism. The risk in the collective returns reduced the chance for voluntary cooperation while the private risk did not show a significant effect. Other socioeconomic factors contributed little to the voluntary cooperation behaviors. Our study suggests that alleviating uncertainty of rural resident's income could enhance collective action in endangered species conservation. A cooperative with support from the government to lower the potential risk in returns could be effective in managing the livestock number and promote sustainable livelihoods around protected areas.
first_indexed 2024-04-11T03:02:23Z
format Article
id doaj.art-0324171e3f5741ee95997a781076bb5b
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1708-3087
language English
last_indexed 2024-04-11T03:02:23Z
publishDate 2022-12-01
publisher Resilience Alliance
record_format Article
series Ecology and Society
spelling doaj.art-0324171e3f5741ee95997a781076bb5b2023-01-02T13:45:38ZengResilience AllianceEcology and Society1708-30872022-12-012744010.5751/ES-13671-27044013671Experimental evidence on cooperation and coordination in forest and endangered species conservation in ChinaTianqi Wu0Patrick S Ward1Binbin V. Li2Duke Kunshan UniversityUniversity of FloridaDuke Kunshan UniversityThe growing prevalence of livestock as an alternative or complementary livelihood strategy has become a growing threat to wildlife and forest ecosystems in China. To achieve the dual objectives of biodiversity conservation and rural development requires cooperation and coordination from local communities. However, relatively little is known about the prevalence of these social attitudes in rural China, nor the extent to which cooperation and coordination could be leveraged for the enhanced natural resource management. In this study, we used a series of experimental games to study the propensity for cooperation in the management of common property resources among rural communities in national panda nature reserves in Gansu and Sichuan provinces. We also explored how variations in socioeconomic factors may explain differences in participants' voluntary contribution patterns. Our results show that expected cooperation among peers was a major determinant of voluntary cooperation under the provision point mechanism but not the voluntary contribution mechanism. The risk in the collective returns reduced the chance for voluntary cooperation while the private risk did not show a significant effect. Other socioeconomic factors contributed little to the voluntary cooperation behaviors. Our study suggests that alleviating uncertainty of rural resident's income could enhance collective action in endangered species conservation. A cooperative with support from the government to lower the potential risk in returns could be effective in managing the livestock number and promote sustainable livelihoods around protected areas.https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol27/iss4/art40forestsgiant pandaslivestock grazingprotected areasprovision point mechanismsustainable livelihoodvoluntary contribution mechanism
spellingShingle Tianqi Wu
Patrick S Ward
Binbin V. Li
Experimental evidence on cooperation and coordination in forest and endangered species conservation in China
Ecology and Society
forests
giant pandas
livestock grazing
protected areas
provision point mechanism
sustainable livelihood
voluntary contribution mechanism
title Experimental evidence on cooperation and coordination in forest and endangered species conservation in China
title_full Experimental evidence on cooperation and coordination in forest and endangered species conservation in China
title_fullStr Experimental evidence on cooperation and coordination in forest and endangered species conservation in China
title_full_unstemmed Experimental evidence on cooperation and coordination in forest and endangered species conservation in China
title_short Experimental evidence on cooperation and coordination in forest and endangered species conservation in China
title_sort experimental evidence on cooperation and coordination in forest and endangered species conservation in china
topic forests
giant pandas
livestock grazing
protected areas
provision point mechanism
sustainable livelihood
voluntary contribution mechanism
url https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol27/iss4/art40
work_keys_str_mv AT tianqiwu experimentalevidenceoncooperationandcoordinationinforestandendangeredspeciesconservationinchina
AT patricksward experimentalevidenceoncooperationandcoordinationinforestandendangeredspeciesconservationinchina
AT binbinvli experimentalevidenceoncooperationandcoordinationinforestandendangeredspeciesconservationinchina