Coupling relationship analysis on households’ production behaviors and their influencing factors in nature reserves: A structural equation model

Abstract

A households’ production behavior directly influences the quality of the environment and determines the successful development of nature reserves. Meanwhile, the households’ production behaviors are complicated by interrelated factors, such as protection attitudes, resource endowment, and family wealth. This research evaluated households near the Crested Ibis National Nature Reserve in Shaanxi Province, acquiring data from 436 households around Yang County and Ningshan County in the south slope of Qinling Mountains, China. Based on the collected data, we developed a structural equation model to evaluate the coupling relationships among households’ protection attitudes, production behaviors, resource endowment, and family wealth. The results showed that: 1) households with great resource endowment had more negative attitudes, probably due to their greater protection costs; 2) the households with higher education levels had worse protection attitudes; 3) the households with more family wealth were likely to use fewer fertilizers, pesticides, and firewood; 4) the households with more resource endowment showed less production and management behaviors; 5) the enhancement of households’ attitudes improved production behaviors to protection the environment, but the effects were not statistically significant. Our results provide a basis for the government’s protection policy making, exploring the effective management measures that are beneficial for both nature reserve management and community development.