| As the economy and tourism develop rapidly, more and more people choose to visit scenic areas. An increasing number of tourists, excessive development and unreasonable construction cause unprecedented pressure on the survival of old and famous trees. Meanwhile, logging, transplantation, destruction of surrounding environments and imperfect management measures frequently occur. All of these reasons lead to tree illnesses and withering. Everywhere, the numbers of old and famous trees are decreasing rapidly. Based on an investigation of old and famous trees and the forest landscape in Jiuhua Mountain Scenic Area in Anhui province, the individual plant landscape of old and famous trees and the landscape values of old woods were studied. The economic value of protection of old and famous trees and public recognition and attitude towards protection of old and famous trees were then examined. Understanding landscape aesthetic value and economic value of protection of old and famous trees can increase government officials and the public's awareness towards protection, as well as to provide a reference for coordinating the development and the protection of old and famous trees. Main concepts and results of the research are the following:(1) A composite index system for landscape evaluation of old and famous trees was built based on aesthetic, ecological and resources requirement value. Old and famous trees were evaluated using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) method. The results showed that, tree shape is the most influential factor for landscape evaluation of old and famous trees based on this evaluation system. This is followed by interesting legends, color, plant season change, etc. Amongst all of the 449 old and famous trees in Jiuhua Mountain Scenic Area,14 plants belonged to extremely high landscape value, accounting for 3.12% of total; 84 plants belonged to high value, accounting for 18.71%; 217 plants belonged to medium value, accounting for 48.33%; 123 plants belonged to low value, accounting for 27.39%; 11 plants belonged to very low value, accounting for 2.45%. The species with higher landscape value were Ginkgo biloba, Pinus taiwanensis, Osmamthus fragrans, Diospyros glaucifolia, Lindera megaphylla, Acer buergerianum, Emmenopterys henryi, Lindera erythrocarpa, and the scenic spots were Taibaishutang, Ganlusi, Tonghuisi.(2) Based on the composite index system of individual plant landscape of old and famous trees, rough sets theory was used to evaluate old and famous trees with "very high" landscape (AHP and FSE) values. Thus the results of FSE and AHP evaluation method were obtained for verification. The results showed that two kinds of assessment methods were almost identical for sorting index weight, only "growth potential" and "conservation level" were reversed. All of old and famous trees had very high landscape values, only the Diospyros glaucifolia (around Huachensi, DBH=101.91cm) and Acer buergerianum (around Tonghuisi) were reversed. Research results from the two methods had a high comparability.(3) Taking the old-tree community in Jiuhua Mountain Scenic Area as the object of our study, photos and sample plots information of 26 old forest stands and 45 contrast forest stands were collected, and the scenic beauty values were acquired using scenic beauty estimation (SBE) method. Using the semantic differential (SD) method, the landscape elements of old tree community were quantified, then the multi-regression model was adopted to evaluate the relationship between scenic beauty values and specific landscape elements. The results showed that the scenic beauty values of old-tree communities were significantly greater than that of other forest stands. In old-forest stands, arrangement of trees, light perception and the variation of tree size were ranked as most important by respondents. The main elements affecting landscape aesthetic value of old tree community were the trunk form, richness of color, arrangement of trees, uniformity of ground plants, landscape gradation, natural pruning and uniformity of shoot and leaf in tree layer. F-test showed that the landscape evaluation model was effective.(4) The willingness to pay (WTP) values of the conservation of old and famous trees in Jiuhua Mountain Scenic Area was measured by contingent valuation method (CVM), and the influential factors were analyzed. The payment card and single-bounded dichotomous choice question formats were used, which were more popular than the others of the contingent valuation method. The results indicate that 83.8% of the respondents thought that we ought to protect old and famous trees, while only 30.2 of the respondents were satisfied with the current situation. Under the payment card format, the mean WTP value of conserving old and famous trees in Jiuhua Mountain Scenic Area was RMB 8.08 yuan per capita per month and the total economic value was 1.500×108 yuan for the tourists of Jiuhua Mountain Scenic Area in 2010. Under single-bounded dichotomous choice format, the mean value of WTP for old and famous trees conservation in Jiuhua Mountain Scenic Area was 9.54 yuan per capita per month and the total economic value was 4.598×108 yuan. The significant variables influencing the result of the payment card are age, education, annual income and vocation, while the main factor for the single-bounded dichotomous choice format was annual income.(5) The reliability of economic value for protecting old and famous trees in Jiuhua Mountain Scenic Area was analyzed according to respondents'zero willingness to pay, a comparison of two different methodologies (payment card and single-bounded dichotomous choice) and time stability inspection of CVM. The results showed that the reasons (ratio) for zero willingness to pay from high to low are funds would be "taken by government (A4)", "worrying about funds diversion (A5)", "low income (A1)", "not interested in protection (A2)", "worrying about old and famous trees without effective protection (A6)", "little impact on themselves (A3)", "purchased tickets included the cost (A7)". By comparing the two different methodologies (payment card and one-bounded dichotomous choice), the WTP values were found to show a large difference. The value of single-bounded dichotomous choice is higher than the value by card payment. The total value ratio of the two different ways varies from 2.93 to 3.01. This result corresponded to results from international experiences, which reported the ratio ranges from 1 to 6 times. Comparing this result to that of the first study three months ago, the WTP of PC2 was higher than PC1 with 0.62 yuan per capita per month, while the WTP of DC2 was higher than DC1 with 1.73 yuan per capita per month. There was no significant discrepancy between the two studies from two independent sample t-tests (double tail P= 0.473) and Mann-Whitney U test (double tail P= 0.413,α>0.05), which gives good reproducibility and reliability to this study.(6) 19 questionnaires were designed. Local residents, scenic area management staff and visitors were interviewed at random using semi-structured questionnaire surveys. It is valuable to study different groups'understanding and their attitudes towards protecting old and famous trees, as well as analyze the influence of people's social and economic characteristics towards protection of famous trees. The results showed that people's recognition and attitude towards protection of old and famous trees was low, but scenic area management staffs scored slightly higher and local residents scored lowest. The results of crossover column contingency table X2 test showed that in the following aspects: "The economic value of old and famous trees", "The ecological value of old and famous trees", "The public benefits of old and famous trees", "The scientific value of old and famous trees", "Set up special fund for protecting old and famous trees", "Should build a fence around old and famous trees in areas with many visitors", "Resilience towards visitors of the environment surrounding old and famous trees", "Management and protection efforts towards old and famous trees", "Willingness to participate in the protection of old and famous trees in Jiuhua Mountain Scenic Area", "Reaction and action taken in response to vandalism to old and famous trees", "Willingness to participate in old and famous trees protection training" and "Is willing to adopt old and famous trees protection", the difference in attitude is significant between local residents, scenic area management staffs and tourists, but on other issues there are no significant differences. Men and women responded differently to 2 questions; respondents of different ages responded differently to 7 questions, respondents with different incomes responded differently to 3 questions; respondents with different education level responded differently to 9 questions and different professionals differed on only one question, the difference in results was significant for all the above categories. Overall, age and education level of respondents have a significant influence towards understanding of the issue and protective attitude towards old and famous trees. |
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