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For a long time, Chinese people have been considered to be concerned only with commercial interests but not ecological systems and biodiversity conservation, even though their trade and investment footprints are globalizing rapidly. This study intended to reveal the non-market valuation on the non-use value of African elephant to Chinese people. Taking the ban of ivory trade as the background, in this study, Chinese netizens' willingness to pay for African elephant conservation was investigated using the contingent valuation method. Four versions of questionnaires were designed and distinguished by offering different background information and payment vehicles (tax and donation). It was demonstrated that the differences in both given information and payment vehicles had no significant impacts on the estimated mean willingness to pay value. 53.36% of the respondents gave positive responses for the hypothetical projects of African elephant protection. The mean willingness to pay was 83.62 RMB (12.59 USD) and 158.58 RMB (23.88 USD) per year per household and the aggregated willingness to pay or benefits for the protection of African elephants from Chinese netizens were estimated to be 16.31 billion RMB (2.45 billion USD) and 30.92 billion RMB (4.65 billion USD) per year after grouping regression and benefit transfer adjustments, respectively. The current research shows that Chinese people, living thousands kilometers away from Africa, have a high public awareness for and valuation to the endangered elephants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To enhance ecosystem conservation in protected areas, natives' behavior, mainly the use of natural resources or direct human disturbance to ecosystems, must be well intervened and regulated. To explore the determinants and incentives of the conservation behavior of natives, this paper establishes a theoretical behavior model emphasizing livelihood assets and conservation policy impacts, and specifies it with structural equation modeling. The protected areas of Chishui county in southwest China and the Three-River-Source National Park in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were selected for empirical analyses based on household surveys. Results show that conservation intentions that shape the natives' conservation behavior are collectively decided by conservation attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. Livelihood assets exert indirect positive effects on conservation behavior by influencing the aforementioned psychological variables. The impacts on conservation behavior of the governmental policy instruments, Grain to Green Program , Grassland Ecological Protection Subsidy and Incentive Policy , and Ecological Ranger Post Setting are evaluated. The command & control functions of the first two instruments are verified to be effective. The propaganda & education functions of all three policy instruments affect conservation intention and behavior by influencing conservation attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control of the natives. The ecological compensation functions of the policies prevent the loss of the natives' livelihood assets but fail to enhance it. The findings demonstrate that besides the direct impacts on conservation behavior of the protection policy instruments, the indirect policy impacts affecting the protection consciousness of natives should not be underestimated. In the long run, a suggestion is to strengthen eco-compensation to improve livelihood assets, to better promote the protection behavior of the local residents and obtain sustainable ecosystem conservation in the protected areas. This research demonstrates applicability and feasibility of the behavioral theory and causal model method in natural conservation study and shows strong policy implication. Unlabelled Image • Natives' behavior disturbance to ecosystem matters and policy incentive is needed. • Psychological & livelihood factors have multiple impacts on conservation behavior. • Command and control policies impose directly influences on natives' behavior. • Propaganda, education and eco-compensation generate indirect but long-term impacts. • Behavioral theory framework helps support conservation policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]