Coupling between ecological environment vulnerability and multidimensional poverty: An empirical analysis from 1586 poverty-stricken villages in Hechi City, Guangxi, Southwest China

Abstract

Examining the interaction mechanism between ecological environment and regional poverty at fine scale is an important prerequisite and guarantee for sustainable development of resources, environment and social economy from the combined perspectives of precise poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. We established the evaluation models of ecological vulnerability, multidimensional poverty, and the coupling coordination degree model, beased on which we systematically and comprehensively revealed the interaction between ecological environment and multidimensional poverty. The test results from 1586 administrative villages showed that the higher-vulnerability area of ecological environment was mainly distributed in the southeast region. Multidimensional poverty was increasing from northwest to southeast, with a spatial distribution pattern of "overall dispersion, local aggregation". In the coordinated development zone, ecological environment vulnerability and multidimensional poverty was positively correlated. In the disordered declining zone, the degree of coupling between ecological environment vulnerability and multidimensional poverty was lower, wth significantly negative correlation, indicating that the improvement of ecological environment quality and the development of multidimensional poverty reduction were asynchronous. There was a close and complex relationship between eco-environmental vulnerability and multidimensional poverty. Therefore, during poverty alleviation and development, we should pay more attention to environmental protection to prevent the poverty-stricken areas falling into the trap of ecological poverty.