The impact of habitat regulatory policies on ecological protections and rural livelihoods: The case of giant panda protected areas in China

The project aims to investigate the current regulatory policies of giant panda habitats and to explore the effects on the panda’s habitat and local livelihoods in Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Gansu Provinces in China. In the context of the stringent government regulatory polices of giant panda habitat, the main objective of this study is to determine how regulatory policies can be effectively improved to ensure giant panda population growth, with their habitat quality enhanced as part of an inclusive development model that considers local livelihood needs.

There are four main research objectives of this project:
1) Measuring the actual enforcement of current regulatory policies of giant panda habitat.
2) Investigating the effect of regulatory policies on giant panda habitat through ecological evaluation.
3) Investigating the effect of regulatory policies on local household livelihoods in giant panda habitat areas.
4) Exploring the inclusive development of ecological protection and livelihoods in giant panda habitats, from the regulatory policy improvement perspective.