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In rural areas, indigenous knowledge plays an important role in the protection of forests and wildlife, but the rapid developments occurring in the society and economy impose several challenges to the continued role of indigenous knowledge. This study records how a Bulang village in the Yunnan Province of China uses indigenous knowledge to protect forests and wildlife and analyzes the underlying reasons. In this study, we found that even without specific punishment measures, local people effectively controlled the use of natural resources through moral constraints, public-opinion constraints, and worship rituals. Furthermore, they formed a forest- and wildlife-protection system with banyan trees and the Derbyan Parakeet at the core. This protection system is based on primitive nature worship and indigenous knowledge passed down orally from generation to generation. Such knowledge inheritance reflects the relationship between local people and nature. However, the lack of scientific guidance regarding ecological protection may lead to the destruction of the ecosystem. One such instance is illustrated using birdwatching tourism, for which the Bulang people are attracting birds by artificial feeding. This practice, while prescribed by indigenous knowledge, deviates from scientific knowledge on ecological protection. Therefore, we propose that there should be an intermeshing of indigenous and scientific knowledge to ensure the inheritance of and innovation in the former and effective biodiversity protection.

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Sustainability of ecosystems is crucial for improving human well-being and sustainably developing human society. In recent years, global attention towards ecosystems and human well-being has been increasing. Exploring and understanding the relationship between ecosystems and human well-being, and establishing the well-being of residents while protecting the ecosystem have become urgent problems. Based on 618 valid samples collected from communities surrounding seven nature reserves in the Qinling Mountains region of China, this study analyzed the impact of ecosystem services on farmers’ well-being from the perspective of their subjective perception of ecosystem services by using multiple linear regression and seemingly unrelated regression methods. The main conclusions are as follows: supply of vegetation and clean water improves farmers’ well-being, improvement of air quality increases farmers’ life satisfaction, and the sense of belonging and tourism value brought by the ecosystem are important factors for farmers’ physical and mental pleasure and economic benefits. Therefore, the following countermeasures and suggestions are proposed: focusing on establishing the ecological well-being of farmers, improve implementation of the services and benefits provided by the ecosystem to farmers, increase publicity and education to improve the protection consciousness of farmers, and improve community participation mechanisms while mobilizing enthusiasm for protection. This article starts from the perspective of farmers’ perception, attempting to explore whether changes in ecosystem service functions will affect farmers’ well-being, so as to provide new opinions and suggestions for improving farmers’ well-being.