A Review of Ecological Assets and Ecological Products Supply: Implications for the Karst Rocky Desertification Control

Abstract

Ecological assets refer to natural resource assets that can provide ecological products and services for human beings. Researching ecological assets and the supply of ecological products contributes to the sustainable development of natural–social–economic complex systems. This study conducts a literature search and statistical analysis based on the Web of Science, CNKI and Foreign Journal Resource Service System of Guizhou Normal University Library literature databases. We review 117 publications on the studies of ecological assets and ecological products supply. Based on summarizing the landmark results, the key scientific issues that need to be solved are proposed, and their implications for karst rocky desertification control are discussed. The results show that: (1) the number of publications each year from 2001 to 2020 shows a fluctuating growth trend. (2) The research concentrates on four dimensions: theoretical, evaluation, mechanism, and strategies research. Among them, evaluation research is the focus and hotspot of the research. (3) It is necessary to expand the research on the definition and distinction of ecological assets, services and products; the evaluation system of ecological products; the supply mechanism of ecological products from the perspective of resource endowment and the research of ecosystem coherence at different scales. (4) The karst rocky desertification control should focus on ecological assets’ management to promote the supply capacity of ecological products, pay attention to the quality assessment of ecological assets, explore the influencing mechanism of ecological assets and its optimization and promotion paths and strengthen the research on village ecosystems under karst rocky desertification control.

A Review of Research on Progress in the Theory and Practice of Eco-Product Value Realization

“…The hedonic price method estimates the economic value of pure public ecological products (e.g., environmental quality) based on individuals' willingness to pay for them. Additionally, scholars have extensively employed non-traditional valuation methods such as the factor income method, shadow pricing method, and market price method [37][38][39][40]. The factor income method is employed to estimate the future expected economic value of quasi-public ecological products or operational ecological products (such as land, water, wood, etc.)…”

The Value Expression and Driving Factors of Rural Spatial Ecological Products: A Case Study of B&Bs in Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces, China

“…In this case, this type of tertiary industry space possesses ecological attributes such as rural landscapes. It undergoes spatial production and market transactions from ecological resources to ecological assets and capital [48]. Fundamentally speaking, this is the process of transforming "ecological advantages" into "product economy" in the realization of ecological product value [49], reflecting a development approach that combines ecological environment protection with economic development and rural construction.…”

Impact of land use and land cover change on the landscape pattern and service value of the village ecosystem in the karst desertification control

“…The impact of urban expansion is not confined to cities but has extended to rural areas (Su et al, 2011). Village ecosystems, a special kind of ecosystem with landscape characteristics (Su et al, 2011;Tang et al, 2022;Zhou et al, 2022), provide a range of goods and services to sustain the livelihoods of rural inhabitants who depend on natural resources and to sustain the functioning of cities (Egoh et al, 2012;Pereira et al, 2005;Sandhu and Sandhu, 2014;Sinare et al, 2016). Thirdly, existing research methods make it difficult to uncover the spatial significance of ecosystem services.…”