Perceptions Of Villagers On Environmental Development Of Rural China In The Context Of Rapid Urbanization

Abstract

. In the context of rapid urbanization, pollution and ecological degradation problems have frequently shown up and influenced environmental sustainability of rural China in the past decades. The rural residents have begun to pay attention to local environment protection, and researchers have been taking public perceptions into regional planning. However, comprehensive studies on the perceptions of villagers on rural environment development still remain less.  This research carried out a face-to-face questionnaire investigation of 187 villages and ten residents from each village at a nationwide scale of China. The investigated village committee managers and residents were interviewed by asking the questions including the existing environmental problems, the targets of rural environment development, the ways to achieve these targets and the willingness to pay for pollution control. The results showed that household waste pollution, air pollution and pesticides pollution etc. are top concerned problems. A big proportion (65%) of the interviewed residents chose “environment with good quality for health” as their preferred living environment. While, more than half of the interviewed village managers took “green villages with sustainable agriculture” as their village development targets. And more than 50% of the interviewed residents advocated to increase the forest coverage rate to mitigate the degeneration of rural ecosystem services. As well, most residents strongly support rural green development and are willing to pay for pollution control. Our findings may provide new insights into rural environment development and rural revitalization in the context of rapid urbanization.