International Dissemination of TCM Culture under the "Belt and Road" Initiative: Opportunities and Challenges

The international dissemination of TCM culture, as a carrier of the implementation of the"Belt and Road"Initiative, is being endowed with greater importance. However, the spread of TCM culture into the world faces opportunities as well as challenges. To better serve the"Belt and Road"Initiative, measures should be taken to strengthen TCM communication and cooperation in different aspects and build a sound intellectual property protection system.

Ecological Carrying Capacity and Green Development in the “Belt and Road” Initiative Region

Since the 1970s,resource crisis,environmental pollution and ecological degradation have become prominent globally,and the limits to growth have always been an important theoretical and policy issue.The technological system of early warning and regulation based on carrying capacity evaluation has great potential in natural resource utilization,environmental management and ecosystem conservation.In this paper,the evolution of carrying capacity research and the concept of ecological carrying capacity are summarized,and the existing evaluation methods of ecological carrying capacity are classified into ecological footprint method,comprehensive index system method,ecosystem service analysis method and human appropriation of net primary productivity method.The current problems in ecological carrying capacity study were analyzed and the trend was outlooked.Combined with the special issue,the recent proceeding of ecological carrying capacity study in the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI)region was narrated,from the aspects of ecological carrying capacity evaluation method and application,the supply and consumption of ecosystem services,and the resources use and environment change.Some suggestions have been proposed to improve the accuracy and reliability of ecological carrying capacity evaluation:1)the spatial heterogeneity and temporal dynamic change of ecological carrying capacity should be explored furtherly;2)the interaction between ecological process and human activities should be simulated;3)factors such as climate change,human activities and ecological products and ecological service flows should be integrated into the evaluation system of ecological carrying capacity.

Characteristics of Agricultural and Livestock Products Trade Flows between China and the “Belt and Road” Initiative Region: From the Perspective of Biocapacity

In the context of global ecological overload,international trade has become one of the most important ways to make up for the ecological deficit.This study takes the"Belt and Road"Initiative as the study area to analyze the biocapacity and ecological footprint characteristics between China and other countries along the"Belt and Road"Initiative.Trade flow characteristics were explored from the perspective of biocapacity.The import and export of virtual land was used to assess the effect of trade on compensating for the resource gaps in crop and grazing land.The main results show that:1)In 2005-2014,the majority of"Belt and Road"countries were experiencing increasing degrees of overload.In China,cropland takes up the largest proportion of biocapacity,while the ecological footprint is dominated by the carbon footprint.2)The trade flow of agricultural and livestock products in the mainland of China shows a trend of increasing imports and decreasing exports,which increases dependence on specific regions.3)In 2005-2014,China’s trade in cereals and oil crops along the“Belt and Road”Initiative were generally net imports,and the share of cereals traded along the“Belt and Road”Initiative is increasing gradually,but that of oil crops decreased rapidly.4)The import trade has alleviated ecological deficit,as the selected products compensated for 1.03 times of the cropland deficit and 0.65 times of the grazing land deficit in China.This study is helpful to understand the relationship between the land use and trade deeply,and provide decision-making references for reducing ecological deficits,optimizing land resource allocation,and promoting win-win cooperation among China and other countries in the"Belt and Road"Initiative.

Sustainable Agriculture in the “Belt and Road” Region in Conjunction with the Sustainable Development Goals

The countries along the“Belt and Road”(B&R)should devote their efforts to top-level planning in the field of agriculture,so as to ensure the sustainable development of agriculture in the region.This will require a precise assessment of the sustainability of agriculture along the B&R.With a view to understanding the concept of sustainable agriculture along the B&R,combined with the interpretation of the agricultural objectives contained in the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs),this study uses statistical regression analysis and trend prediction to predict the social and economic development trends in terms of economic growth and urbanization in the countries along the B&R up until 2030,and the corresponding impacts on agricultural resources and the environment.The results show that the future prospects for agricultural resources and the environment along the B&R are not promising,and meeting the future food security needs of the region will be difficult.Only by adopting innovative policies and implementing strategic planning can the goals of sustainable agricultural development and food security by 2030 be achieved in this region.Therefore,countries along the B&R should formulate agricultural development strategies from three aspects:building an agricultural cooperation platform,setting up special funds,and innovating the agricultural cooperation mode,so as to achieve the sustainable development of agriculture in the region.