A Study on the Coupling Coordination between Forestry Production Efficiency and Regional Economic Development in China

Abstract

Abstract Forestry production is one of the fundamental industries of the national economy, and enhancing production efficiency can aid in balancing the contradiction between the economic growth of forestry and forest resource conservation. Therefore, studying the coupling coordination between forestry production efficiency and regional economic development is of great practical significance for obtaining the development philosophy of green and circular economies and implementing supply-side structural reform in forestry. In this study, the forestry production efficiencies and economic development levels of 31 provincial-level administrative regions of China during 2009 to 2018 are estimated using the super efficiency slacks-based measure model and the entropy weight method. Additionally, the coupling coordination and development trends of forestry production efficiencies and regional economic development levels are investigated by means of the coupling coordination model and GM (1,1) model. Research findings suggest that forestry production efficiencies and economic development levels of 31 provincial-level administrative regions in China maintained steadily growing trends during 2009 to 2018; however, there was middle to low-level coupling coordination between regions. Such coupling coordination remains to be improved because it indicated a spatial pattern of high in the east and south and low in the west and north. To conclude, some suggestions for promoting sound and coordinated interactions between forestry production efficiency and regional economic development are offered.