Ecological security pattern construction is a fundamental approach to ensuring regional ecological security and enhancing human welfare. Taking Henan Province, a typical region of China’s main agricultural production area, as the study area, we use multi-source spatial data to calculate the high-value areas of ecosystem services and identify ecological source sites. On the basis of calculating the degree of land use development and GDP per land and population density to determine high-demand areas of the ecosystem, the ecological resistance surface coefficient is modified with nighttime lighting data, and the ecological corridor between the source site and the high-demand area is extracted using the minimum cumulative resistance model, so as to construct and optimize the regional ecological security pattern. The following results are presented. (1) The total area of ecological source sites in Henan Province is 3.02 × 104 km2, accounting for 18.12% of the total study area, which is concentrated in the mountainous areas of East Henan and South Henan. (2) The high-demand area of ecosystem services has a total area of 4.1 × 104 km2, accounting for 24.73% of the total study area, mainly concentrated in the central and eastern regions of Henan, with poor spatial matching of ecosystem service supply and demand. (3) The total length of ecological corridors is 1062.3 km, and the overall pattern forms the main corridor axes. The identification of ecological corridors focuses on the ecological demand space and puts forward suggestions for the optimization of the regional ecological security pattern based on it.

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Vespine wasps, along with other insects, are undergoing decreases at alarming rates. However, wasps are universally disliked by the public and therefore receive little conservation attention. This antipathy may be caused by the vespine sting, which can cause great pain and severe allergic reactions in humans, but it is most likely a result of a lack of public awareness of the various ecosystem services provided by wasps. In this study, we conducted an ethno-zoological survey on the use of vespine wasps, underlining their economic value by conducting face-to-face interviews with local gatherers and sellers in a market in Guiyang city, China. Five species were observed in trade. The larvae and pupae are considered highly nutritional foods with prices ranging from 160 to 300 yuan per kilogram, whereas adults and empty combs are used to produce medicinal wines to cure rheumatism and arthritis. Using the weight of nests encountered in the market, we found that the sale of one nest from each of the five recorded species can produce an economic income up to the average disposable income per year for a rural inhabitant living in this city. Our study can be regarded as a small but important step to promote a positive image of wasps to the public. To reconcile the conflict between vespine stings and conservation, we recommend removing but not destroying nests that threaten people for domestication and sustainable use by experienced gatherers. Furthermore, local knowledge can be incorporated into the management of this threat to public safety.