Diachronic study on the residents' well-being in natural reserves: A case study of Foping National Nature Reserve, China

An important challenge for the ecosystem management is to manage ecosystem services on a local scale and improve the residents' well-being. In this paper, we use survey data and conduct the diachronic study of the well-being of the residents in Foping National Nature Reserve. First, we construct three item index to measure multiple dimensions of subjective well-being, which consists of subjective, objective, and human well-being based on the millennium ecosystem assessment(MA) framework. Next, we describe and evaluate these three well-being index across three time points ranging from 1995 to 2015. The results show that the residents' overall well-being has been significantly improved, and greater increase observed from 2005 to 2015 than those from 1995 to 2005. Both subjective and objective well-being has been improved. Human well-being such as basic life and service, safety, freedom of choice and action, increased, though the self-rated health status has declined. Regression analysis indicates that the distance to the nature reserve has positive effects on the residents' subjective, objective, and human well-being. Finally, based on the actual situation in Foping County of Shanxi Province, suggestions are provided to improve local residents' well-being, such as consolidating the achievements of ecosystem service, promoting shared economic development, co-management and scientific development, and strengthening ecological civilization education.