Optimizing Wildlife Habitat Management in Socio-Ecological Systems: An Evolutionary Game Theory Approach

Abstract

This paper focuses on the issue of balancing interests between stakeholders and ecosystems in the process of wildlife habitat conservation. By employing evolutionary game theory, an analysis framework for the socio-ecological system of wildlife habitats is constructed, comprising four main entities: central government, farmers, local government, and ecosystems. This framework explores the influencing factors of habitat protection strategies adopted by various stakeholders and the conditions required for the socio-ecological system to evolve towards an ideal state. In this paper, we analyze how the central government can design cost–benefit-based policy mechanisms, control the evolution of the socio-ecological system by altering conditions, and achieve a balance of interests among all parties involved in the habitat protection process. In this study, we find that the central government should establish disturbance monitoring indicators for human activities and ecological restoration, based on different compensation standards. Moreover, the hierarchical management of wildlife habitat according to different management levels can enhance the probability of the socio-ecological system evolving towards an ideal state, while achieving the sum of social costs. Additionally, shifting the compensation strategies for farmers and local governments from cost compensation to benefit compensation will reduce the harmful costs that the ecosystem imposes on the social system, thereby facilitating the realization of an ideal wildlife habitat protection and management model. Therefore, the central government should intensify compensation efforts and design reasonable compensation standards, transitioning the compensation function from cost recovery to income generation. Simultaneously, guidance should be provided to farmers for the rational utilization of forest resources to increase their income. The alignment of agricultural activities with habitat protection goals should be encouraged, and local governments should establish mechanisms for realizing the value of ecological products, making relatively implicit long-term social welfare explicit.