Revealing public preferences regarding the ecological restoration of a river basin and evaluating the associated social benefits provide important references for the development of related policies. Taking the Shiyang River Basin as an example, this study quantified and analyzed the difference in public preferences regarding the ecological restoration of the river basin by the choice experiments method and the random parameters logit (RPL) model. It also evaluated the social benefits of river basin ecological restoration. The results showed that (1) The residents all hoped to improve the ecological environment of the Shiyang River Basin and were willing to bear certain restoration costs. (2) There were significant differences in public preferences for ecological restoration of the river basin. These differences existed between the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the river and between urban and rural residents. (3) The average annual cost of ecological restoration that the basin residents were willing to pay was between 505.833 ∼ 948.571 RMB yuan, and the total annual benefits of ecological restoration were 381.2 million RMB yuan. Based on these conclusions, the following recommendations were made. First, future ecological and environmental policies should be further combined with public preferences; and even cross-regional ecological compensation can be introduced to balance the interests of different social groups, to win public support. Second, increased water-saving technology in industries and agriculture, residents’ awareness of water conservation, and the management of water pollution measures should be promoted in order to improve the ecological environment of the river basin. Third, the budget for the ecological restoration of the Shiyang River Basin should be 381.2 million yuan per year. Costs should be controlled while meeting the restoration goals.

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Encouraging farmers to protect their environment is of great significance in improving watershed ecological environments and promoting the sustainable development of the watershed economy. To explore the factors influencing farmers’ ecological protection behaviours in the river basin, we constructed a structural equation model to analyse the survey questionnaire responses of 719 farmers in the Wei River Basin, Shaanxi Province, China. The theoretical framework incorporated farmers’ watershed belonging and social capital into an extended value-belief-norm model. Robustness tests revealed that incorporating these variables was valid. Personality norms, watershed belonging, and social capital all had direct positive effects on farmers’ watershed ecological protection behaviour. Value orientation, environmental concern, consequences awareness, and responsibility attribution influenced the next variable in a causal chain and finally acted on watershed ecological protection behaviour indirectly through personality norms. Farmers’ watershed belonging and social capital positively impacted individual norm; through this, there was an indirect positive impact on their watershed ecological protection behaviour. Moreover, watershed belonging and social capital reinforced each other.

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