Transferring culture and livelihoods into sustainability

Purpose This study aims to develop an expert-informed decision framework for China’s province–county context to prioritize psychosocially informed conservation criteria and rank implementable strategies under uncertainty, aligned with rural revitalization objectives. Escalating ecological stress and socio-economic pressures require conservation approaches that connect ecological recovery with cultural continuity, livelihood security, institutional trust and psychosocial well-being. Design/methodology/approach A hierarchical model with 5 criteria and 20 sub-criteria is evaluated using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)/Fuzzy AHP-based weighting to derive criteria priorities; candidate strategies are then assessed using Fuzzy-Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution. The framework combines expert elicitation, pairwise comparison, linguistic strategy ratings and sensitivity analysis to support transparent prioritization. Findings Results indicate that cultural integrity and social cohesion and livelihood resilience dominate the decision space, with youth engagement and identity, fairness and conflict reduction and asset protection emerging as key sub-criteria. The strategy ranking places participatory payments for ecosystem services (PES) with psychosocial support, performance-based eco-compensation hubs and cross-provincial PES with open data at the forefront, supported by digital co-monitoring with rapid grievance and community co-management/heritage safeguards. Sensitivity analysis across alternative weight sets yields stable rankings within the tested cases, strengthening confidence in the internal robustness of the results. Together, the findings outline an actionable conservation portfolio: culturally anchored engagement, asset-security buffers, clear and enforceable rules, verifiable outcome-based finance, transparent data systems and responsive grievance mechanisms. Originality/value The framework enables Chinese policymakers to target high-leverage levers, align budgets with measurable ecosystem services and sustain compliance and well-being across heterogeneous regions while advancing adaptive, equitable ecological stewardship.