Resolving the Conflicts Between Biodiversity Conservation and Socioeconomic Development in China: Fuzzy Clustering Approach

Abstract

Resolving the conflicts between biodiversity conservation and socioeconomic development is a global pursuit for the long-run prospects of the human species. Based on Wenchuan County, a typical county in southwestern China, a group of 20 indicators quantifying regional biodiversity and socioeconomic development was established to classify and evaluate the county area spatially. A fuzzy c-means clustering (FCM) algorithm was used as the classification method. Three indices including BD, DL and DR characterizing the value of biodiversity, the level and rate of socioeconomic development of the delineated regions were formulated. The results indicated that Wenchuan County was optimally classified into 4 types of regions (region I to IV). The area percentages of the regions vary widely from 4.3 to 65.7%. The sequences of the regions on biodiversity, socioeconomic development level, and socioeconomic development rate were, respectively, IV>II>III>I, I>III>II>IV and III>I>II>IV. The spatial strategy on coordinating biodiversity conservation and regional development is to develop mainly from the east(I, II, III) and to conserve mainly in the west(IV). Eco-industry, such as eco-tourism and eco-agriculture, need to be emphasized in the process of regional development. The quantitative methods used here may have a wide applicability.

Applying Fuzzy Logic to Assess Human Perception in Relation to Conservation Plan Efficiency Measures Within a Biosphere Reserve

“…Close cooperation and risk-sharing initiatives must be formed based upon mutual collaboration, transparency, and accountability (Hillborn 2007), including community-based preservation of common property, traditional ecological knowledge, environmental ethics, political ecology, environmental history, and ecological economics while addressing governance and communities at various scales appropriate to the problems of conservation in question (Berkes 2004). In addition, substantial input of resources such as land, human power, and financial support have to be considered (Lu et al 2006). Co-management between SEMARNAT (Ministry of Conservation and Environmental Protection who regulates these matters) and local people must be enacted, including surveillance and enforcement of the proposed managerial measures if the goals and objectives of the UGCCRDBR are to be met (Santos et al 2009).…”

“…Nevertheless, the MPA is not perceived as a socioeconomic trigger and, in combination with the implementation of the RPP, an overall perception lingers that quality of life will worsen in time for most fishermen. In this sense, FL is useful to resolve conflicts between biodiversity conservation and socioeconomic development (Lu et al 2006). Implementation of any programs based on this method for nature conservation and regional socioeconomic development will be possible if the common resource pool, as well as the participation of multi-attribute and multi-stakeholder social decision-making processes at all stages, are taken into account within and around the MPA.…”

Managing landscape heterogeneity in different socio-ecological contexts: contrasting cases from central Loess Plateau of China and southern Finland

“…The operational units (township areas in Baota District or municipalities in Vanajavesi) were allocated into different clusters by minimizing the variability within clusters and maximizing the variability between clusters. The rules for determining the optimal number of clusters include: (1) none of the resulting clusters has only one administrative unit; and (2) the number of resulting clusters is as large as possible (Lu et al 2006).…”

Redlines for the greening of China

“…This situation often leads to conflicts among different stakeholders because of the unbalanced share of the costs and benefits for implementing redline management. This is typical in the field of conservation and can be exemplified by the traditional conflicts faced by protected area management and more recently by the bargaining on the extent of DRZ and DPZ in the demarcation of MFOZ in China (Lu et al, 2006;Ma et al, 2009a;Fan et al, 2012). Therefore, economic incentives need to be created to make redline management work smoothly on the ground through payment schemes for environmental services (PES).…”