Search Results (7)

Achieving a balance between environmental protection and high-quality economic development forms the cornerstone for fostering a harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature. Consequently, the interplay between these two domains has garnered extensive attention from various stakeholders. However, the current discourse on environmental policies tailored for high-quality economic development remains insufficiently robust. From a policy standpoint, we employ the difference-in-differences methodology to investigate whether China’s National Key Ecological Function Areas Policy, enacted in 2016, can catalyze high-quality economic development. Our findings reveal that this environmental policy has a notably positive influence on high-quality economic development. This effect is indirectly potentiated through increased investments in science and education, as well as the stimulation of consumer demand. Notably, the policy effect varies by region. To ensure a steady enhancement of the policy’s effectiveness, it is imperative to implement differentiated measures tailored to the unique characteristics of different regions, thereby fostering coordinated development. Furthermore, we anticipate that our study will offer empirical insights and data-driven examples for the implementation of environmental policies in developing countries. Full article

National Key Ecological Functional Areas (NKEFAs) play an important role in forestry restoration, water source conservation, soil and water conservation, windbreak and sand fixation, and biodiversity maintenance. They are the strategic core of ecosystem protection and restoration projects, not only directly related to ecological environment construction, but also profoundly affecting the sustainable development capacity of regional economy. This article selects 1256 ecologically and economically representative counties in China with complete data as research objects. Based on the data of the selected counties from 2007 to 2021, the entropy weight TOPSIS method is used to construct an economic resilience index, and a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model is adopted to explore the specific impact of the establishment of national key ecological functional areas on China’s economic resilience. Research has shown that national key ecological functional areas can enhance the resilience of county-level economies by promoting economic agglomeration and factor agglomeration, increasing fiscal expenditure and investment levels, and promoting sustainable development of county-level economies. The establishment of national key ecological functional areas in economically underdeveloped areas has had a positive effect on economic resilience, and the establishment of water source conservation, soil and water conservation, and biodiversity maintenance ecological functional areas has a significant impact on economic resilience. Therefore, national key ecological functional areas have generally promoted the improvement of China’s economic resilience, but in the process of policy implementation, the establishment of national key ecological functional areas should be promoted according to local conditions. This article not only provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of China’s national key ecological function areas policies, but also provides methodological inspiration for formulating more precise and scientific ecological protection policies, which has reference significance for the implementation of similar policies in other regions around the world. Full article

The Grain for Green Project (GGP) is an essential ecological system protection and restoration measure which can effectively improve the ecological environment. Constructing ecological monitoring system and obtaining ecological parameters can scientifically evaluate the ecological benefits of the GGP, consolidate the existing achievements, take the road of high-quality development, and promote the construction of a national ecological civilization. Firstly, an index system was constructed based on the factors driving forest ecosystem functions, involving climate (thermal and moisture conditions), vegetation types, and typical ecological zones. Then, GIS spatial analysis technology and the merging criteria index method were used to identify GGP ecological function monitoring zones. Finally, according to the scale of the project, the spatial distribution of existing stations, typical ecological zones, and the density of monitoring stations, the eco-efficiency monitoring stations, were arranged in an overall way, which constitutes the GGP ecological monitoring network. The results showed that the ecological function monitoring zones of GGP included 77 divisions, and 99 ecological monitoring stations (20 compatible level-1 stations, 31 compatible level-2 stations, 18 professional level-1 stations, and 30 professional level-2 stations) were arranged. Among them, 83 are located in national major ecosystem protection and restoration engineering areas (NMEPREA), 79 in national ecological fragile areas (NEFA), 41 in national ecological barrier areas (NEBA), and 58 in national key ecological function areas (NKEFA). The proportion of types of NMEPREA, NEFA, NEBA, and NKEFA covered by monitoring is 66.7%, 100%, 100%, and 76%, respectively. The ecological monitoring system of GGP can not only meet the monitoring needs of the GGP but also effectively monitor the effectiveness of protection and restoration of typical ecological zones. In addition, this study can provide a methodological basis for other countries or ecological projects to build a more scientific and reasonable ecological monitoring system. Full article

China’s National Key Ecological Function Areas (NKEFAs) provide important ecosystem services but lose significant development opportunities. An NKEFA consists of a few National Key Ecological Function Counties (NKEFCs). China’s central government annually makes fiscal transfers to NKEFCs to compensate for their fiscal imbalance and ecosystem protection costs. The eco-compensation coefficient (ECC), together with the fiscal revenue and expenditure gap (FREG), determines the transfer payment, but the central government fails to provide practical methods for its estimation. This article proposes a framework for ECC estimation by integrating ecosystem service supply (ESS), ecosystem protection cost (EPC), and public service provision capability (PSC) of NKEFCs, and clarifies the criteria and indicators for ESS, EPC, and PSC evaluation. The framework was implemented in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YZEB), and the results were compared with the payments in the current central-to-local fiscal transfer (CTLFT) system. The key findings and conclusions include: (1) The payment in the current CTLFT system mainly depends on the FREG rather than ESS and EPC of NKEFCs. (2) Some counties are notably under-compensated because their ESS or EPC are underestimated, or the province that administers them has a stronger fiscal capability. (3) The framework contributes to fair allocation and efficient use of eco-compensation payments by improving the ECC estimation method and identifying the main stressors and public service weaknesses in NKEFAs. This study gives the following policy implications: (1) Inner-provincial and cross-provincial watershed eco-compensation programs need to be developed to supplement the central-to-local eco-compensation program in the YZEB. (2) Environmental management strategies should be based on the characteristics of stressors and people’s livelihood in NKEFAs. Full article

The National Key Ecological Functional Areas (NKEFAs) of China rely on the main functional area planning, with the core goal of enhancing the supply of ecological products. Carbon sink is an important ecological product, and it is necessary to understand whether the establishment of NKEFAs has enhanced vegetation carbon sink (CS). Considering the establishment of NKEFAs as a quasi-natural experiment, based on the panel data of prefecture-level cities in China from 2001 to 2019, a time-varying difference-in-differences (DID) model is used to systematically examine the impact of NKEFAs on CS. The study found that the establishment of NKEFAs has significantly enhanced the CS, and compared to the non-NKEFAs, NKEFAs has increased CS in the covered areas by an average treatment effect (ATE) of 2.1625. The establishment of NKEFAs can enhance CS through the optimization of territory spatial structure, the upgrading of industrial structure and the inter-industrial mobility of labor. The enhancement roles of NKEFAs on CS are heterogeneous across different functional area types, geospatial locations, and quantile levels, with higher enhancement of CS at windbreak–sand fixation type, northwestern region and high quantiles, respectively. In addition, NKEFAs not only have a significant positive ecological spillover effect, but also balanced with local economic growth, they achieve the goals of “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”. Full article

Overgrazing plays an important role in the grassland desertification in global drylands. The effectiveness of policies related to grazing directly affects efforts to combat desertification and sustainable rangeland management. However, there remain questions around how the interplay of grassland desertification and poverty affects the implementation of policies. To reveal the effectiveness of the desertification prevention policy that delineates national key ecological function areas (NKEFAs), the main objective was to perform a sustainability assessment and on-site investigation in Northwest China. A parallel index system, which integrates the indices for economic input–output and material supply–demand to represent sustainability, and the indices for interview records from managers and questionnaires from residents to represent the effectiveness of NKEFA policy, was proposed to comprehensively judge the performance of NKEFA policy, and the underlying causes behind undesirable effects were further analyzed. The results indicate that (1) the performance of desertification control policy is related to socioeconomic conditions—a few counties with increased socioeconomic and land resource sustainability (SLS) are peri-urban or resource-rich; (2) the fact that the socioeconomic benefits of the NKEFA policy are not obvious to impoverished farmers greatly reduces their enthusiasm for preventing desertification; and (3) the livelihood needs and defective ecological compensation force residents with underdeveloped comprehensive quality to overdevelop or use grassland resources even though they have received subsidies for conserving grassland. It is concluded that poverty and grassland desertification interact to influence potential policy performance. Our analysis can help decision makers to formulate desertification control policies with multiple goals to achieve sustainable performance in an economy–ecology system. Full article

The shortage of water resources is a key factor limiting the sustainability of the economy and society. Most of the 25 National Key Ecological Function Areas (NKEFAs) in China serve as a source and supplementation for numerous rivers and playing an important role in water resource conservation. Based on the analysis of eco-environmental quality changes in NKEFAs, this study analyzed the spatial pattern of water conservation services in 2000 and 2010 by using a water balance equation. The results indicate that the land cover type of NKEFAs was dominated by grassland, and the proportion of ecological land conversion to non-ecological land (0.3%) was higher than that of non-ecological land conversion to ecological land (0.21%). The fractional vegetation coverage (FVC) and biomass density of NKEFAs gradually decreased from southeast to northwest. The FVC of the Changbai Mountain Forest Function Area (CBS) was the highest, while the biomass density and total biomass were highest in mountain areas in the Middle of Hai’nan Island (HND) and in the Great Khingan and Lesser Khingan Mountains (XAL) respectively. The FVC and biomass of NKEFAs mostly increased in 2000–2010. Water conservation amounts of NKEFAs decreased from southeast to northwest. The average water conservation and total water conservation amount of Nanling Mountain (NL), Guangxi-Guizhou-Yunnan (GQD), and the Wuling Mountain Function Area (WLS) were the highest, while the Yinshan Mountain (YS), Alkin Grassland (AEJ), and the Qilian Mountain Function Area (QLS) had the lowest values. In 2000–2010, the water conservation service of 60% of NKEFAs decreased. Spatial and temporal differences in water conservation services are the result of a combination of ecological environment quality and meteorological conditions. Protection of the ecological environment and vegetation coverage improvement should be strengthened to enhance the function of water conservation. Full article