Residents' awareness of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) after Grain to Green Project implementation in Loess Plateau

Since GTGP (Grain to Green Project) has implemented in 1999, soil erosion and vulnerable habitat have substantially improved along with the enhancement of human living standards. Under vision of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), how residents evaluate sustainable development status plays important role in regulating objectives of the policy. Yet, few researches involved. In this study, we conducted interview survey to investigate the subjective viewpoints on SDG and ES. Overall, we collected 667 valid questionnaires from 13 counties (districts) in Yan’an city. Results indicated that environmental quality has been improved, which included improvement of water quality, amelioration of soil erosion, increase of vegetation types and spiritual acquirement, as well as maintenances of species diversity habitat quality. As for living standard, although respondents’ a grain output decreased, the income not decreased because of ecological compensation. Besides, farmers can increase their income by engaging in the tertiary industry. With regards to SDG awareness, there are trade-off between protecting biodiversity (SDG 15) and economic growth (SDG 8). In addition, farmers' awareness of environmental protection and social responsibility have been significantly strengthened. We conclude that, although perceptions of ES have showed a significant improvement, there are still gaps hindering achievement of regional SDGs, which reflected by lacking collective identification on economic and environment aspects.