Ecotourism is widely promoted as a conservation tool and actively practiced in protected areas worldwide. Theoretically, support for conservation from the various types of stakeholder inside and outside protected areas is maximized if stakeholders benefit proportionally to the opportunity costs they bear. The disproportional benefit distribution among stakeholders can erode their support for or lead to the failure of ecotourism and conservation. Using Wolong Nature Reserve for Giant Pandas (China) as an example, we demonstrate two types of uneven distribution of economic benefits among four major groups of stakeholders. First, a significant inequality exists between the local rural residents and the other types of stakeholder. The rural residents are the primary bearers of the cost of conservation, but the majority of economic benefits (investment, employment, and goods) in three key ecotourism sectors (infrastructural construction, hotels/restaurants, and souvenir sales) go to other stakeholders. Second, results show that the distribution of economic benefits is unequal among the rural residents inside the reserve. Most rural households that benefit from ecotourism are located near the main road and potentially have less impact on panda habitat than households far from the road and closer to panda habitats. This distribution gap is likely to discourage conservation support from the latter households, whose activities are the main forces degrading panda habitats. We suggest that the unequal distribution of the benefits from ecotourism can be lessened by enhancing local participation, increasing the use of local goods, and encouraging relocation of rural households closer to ecotourism facilities.

Background: Polyfluorinated iodine alkanes (PFIs) are important intermediates in the synthesis of organic fluoride products. Recently, PFIs have been detected in fluoropolymers as residual raw materials, as well as in the ambient environment.Objectives: High production volumes and potential environmental releases of PFIs might become a concern, but the exposure risk and toxicity of these chemicals are still unclear. In this study, we investigated the potential estrogenic effects of PFIs.Methods: We studied the estrogenic effects of fluorinated iodine alkanes (FIAs), fluorinated telomer iodides (FTIs), and fluorinated diiodine alkanes (FDIAs) using the E-screen and MVLN assays and the evaluation of estrogen-responsive genes in MCF-7 cells.Results: FIAs have an iodine atom at one end of the perfluorinated carbon chain. 1-Iodoperfluorohexane (PFHxI) and 1-iodoperfluorooctane (PFOI) promoted the proliferation of MCF-7 cells, induced luciferase activity in MVLN cells, and up-regulated the expression of TFF1 and EGR3. In these assays, other FIAs gave negative responses. FDIAs have an iodine atom at each end of the perfluorinated carbon chain, and all the FDIAs showed estrogenic effects. The estrogenic potencies of FIAs and FDIAs correlate well with the carbon chain length of the chemicals. The optimum chain length for estrogenic effects is six carbons, and then eight and four carbons. All FTIs have a single iodine atom at the end of a partially fluorinated carbon chain. None of the FTIs showed estrogenic effects in the tests.Conclusions: The estrogenic effects of PFIs are dependent on the structural features of iodine substitution and chain length. This research will be helpful in further understanding the estrogenic effects of perfluorinated compounds.

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Aims To identify dietary patterns that influence cardiometabolic risk among individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D) in China. Methods Data are from a cross-sectional study of T1D in China (n=99). Dietary intake was assessed using three 24-hour recalls. Reduced rank regression was used to identify dietary patterns from a set of 20 food groups that maximized the explained variation in glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Results Dietary pattern 1 was characterized by low intakes of wheat products and high-fat cakes, and high intakes of beans and pickled vegetables. Dietary pattern 2 was characterized by low intakes of high-fat cakes, nuts/seeds, fish/shellfish, and teas/coffee, and high intakes of rice and eggs. Participants in the highest tertile of dietary pattern 1 had significantly (p<0.05) higher HbA1c and LDL cholesterol compared to participants in the lowest tertile: mean difference in HbA1c was 1.0 percentage point (11mmol/mol) and in LDL cholesterol was 0.36 mmol/L after adjustment for age and household income. Dietary pattern 2 was not associated with HbA1c or LDL cholesterol. Conclusions We identified a dietary pattern that is significantly related to HbA1c and LDL cholesterol. These findings provide support for behavioral strategies to prevent complications in individuals with T1D in China.