Key Ecological Function Research Articles

How does the National Key Ecological Function Area policy affect the upgrading of the industrial structure?—based on the examination of the Yellow River Basin in China

The transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure constitute a pivotal task for sustainable economic development, and the factors influencing this process are also of concern to developing countries around the world. Unfortunately, there is still relatively little systematic discussion on the impact of environmental policy on the industrial structure. Against this backdrop, we have employed the multi-period differences-in-differences (DID) model to assess the impact of the implementation of the National Key Ecological Function Area (NKEFA) policy on the industrial structure in the Yellow River Basin. Our findings reveal that this environmental policy fosters the advancement of industrial structure but does not influence its rationalisation. Regarding mediating effects, we confirm the positive impacts of population density and the investment in education. Furthermore, the policy effects are more pronounced in non-ethnic provinces with better basic conditions, whereas ethnic provinces exhibit almost no effect. The policy effects are more significant in large cities than in small and medium-sized cities. These findings enrich the existing exploration of the impact of environmental policy on industrial structure and provide a strong reference for policy practice in developing countries.

Simulating Changes in Ecosystem Carbon Storage and Analyzing Influencing Factors in the Central Zhejiang under the Background of LUCC

Central Zhejiang is the key ecological function area of Zhejiang Province and an important part of the Qiantang River ecological corridor. Conducting simulations of ecosystem carbon storage changes and analyzing influencing factors under land-use changes in this region is of significant importance for achieving the goals of "peak carbon" and "carbon neutrality" at an early stage. This study, based on the land use data of five periods from 1980 to 2020 in central Zhejiang, coupled the GeoSOS-FLUS and the InVEST model to analyze the spatiotemporal changes in carbon storage in the region over time and project for the year 2030. The study also explored the impact of socio-economic and natural factors on changes in carbon storage. The results showed that： ① Between 1980 and 2020, urban construction land in the Zhejiang Central Region increased by 289.91%, with cultivated land and forest land being the main sources, leading to a 3% decrease in ecosystem carbon storage, amounting to 588.88×104 tons. ② High-value areas of carbon storage in the Zhejiang Central Region were concentrated in P'an-an County, Jinyun County, Wuyi County, and other areas. ③ Under the two different scenarios of natural development and ecological protection, carbon storage in the research area was projected to decrease by 1.05% and 0.05%, respectively, by 2030 compared to that in 2020. ④ Natural factors dominated the distribution of carbon storage, but their influence was gradually decreasing over time. The impact of socio-economic factors was increasing, and the combined effect of socio-economic and natural factors far outweighed the influence of a single factor on carbon storage distribution. These findings can serve as a scientific reference and guide for mitigating carbon loss in ecosystems, promoting ecosystem protection, facilitating sustainable social development, and achieving the "dual carbon" goals in Zhejiang and other regions nationwide.

Can ecological zoning act as an environmental management tool for protecting regional habitat quality: Causal evidence from the national key ecological function zone in China

Habitat degradation is one of the most serious environmental problems worldwide, which threatens human wellbeing and sustainable development. Exploring how to protect natural habitats has become a research hotspot in the environmental management field. Ecological zoning has been widely used in habitat protection, but its actual effectiveness has been rarely revealed, especially with the robust and reliable causal inference method. Therefore, taking the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) in China as the study area, we first quantified habitat quality and changes at the district/county scale during 2005–2019. Then, we used the National Key Ecological Function Zone (NKEFZ) as a representative ecological zone scheme, and explored the effectiveness of the NKEFZ in protecting habitat quality with the Propensity Score Matching and Difference-in-Difference combined method, which is a representative causal inference method. We found that habitat quality showed an uneven distribution during the study period, and habitat quality of districts/counties within the NKEFZ was higher than that outside the NKEFZ with statistical significance. Most districts/counties experienced a habitat quality decrease, but the decrease within the NKEFZ is less than that outside the NKEFZ. We observed that the NKEFZ can protect habitat quality from the causal relationship perspective, but there was the spatio-temporal heterogeneity of the NKEFZ effectiveness. In terms of the spatial dimension, the NKEFZ was the most effective in the Lower Reach of the YREB. In terms of the temporal dimension, there was a 1-year time-lag effect of the NKEFZ effectiveness, and NKEFZ effectiveness experienced a sharp increase from 2016. The NKEFZ contributed to protecting habitat quality through multiple management strategies such as urban land quota, high pollution industry prohibition, and ecological compensation. Overall, this study verified that the ecological zone scheme can contribute to habitat quality protection, and emphasizes that the effectiveness of ecological zoning may vary across time and space. This work can support ecological zoning implementation with robust evidence, and provides a novel perspective for understanding the effectiveness of ecological zoning.

Impact of National Key Ecological Function Areas (NKEFAs) Construction on China’s Economic Resilience under the Background of Sustainable Development

Impact of National Key Ecological Function Areas (NKEFAs) Construction on China’s Economic Resilience under the Background of Sustainable Development

Urban sustainable development goals and ecosystem services: Pathways to achieving coordination

It has been widely recognized that progress toward achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) must be better harmonized with Ecosystem Services (ESs) to tackle global challenges. In China, the National Key Ecological Function Areas (NKEFAs) were set up as one of the ecological fiscal transfer projects. Despite its significant influences on the SDGs-ESs nexus, there is a lack of empirical studies on the effects and mechanisms of policy. In response, this study provides a synthesized framework that incorporates the coupling coordination degree between the Urban Sustainable Development Goals (USDGs) and Ecosystem Services Scores (ESSs), empirically verifies the policy effect using the difference-in-differences model, and then further investigates the mechanisms of government action to coordinate urban SDGs and ESs. The results show that: (1) The coupling coordination degree between USDGs and ESSs varies significantly across different regions but steadily increases over time, with a faster increasing rate of coordination degree growth in NKEEFAs pilot cities compared to non-pilot cities. (2) The policy has demonstrated benefits in coordinating USDGs and ESSs with a coefficient of 0.005. In detail, the policy enhances ESSs but concurrently exerts a negative influence on USDGs, with coefficients are 0.008 and −0.004 respectively, suggesting an uneven distribution of the policy's impacts. (3) The study unveils the 'technological innovation effect' and the 'industrial agglomeration effect' as crucial mediating pathways for policy effect, laying a solid foundation for USDGs and ESSs coordination. In total, the study highlights the critical need to account for regional development disparities and adequate funding in ecological protection policies to ensure fairness and effectiveness from a central decision-making standpoint. It recommends enhancing transparency in fiscal expenditures and fostering regional joint coordination to address local government challenges. These insights from this study can offer valuable guidance for policymakers to refine policy implementation and promote the coordination of regional ESs and SDGs.

Increased ecological land and atmospheric CO2 dominate the growth of ecosystem carbon sinks under the regulation of environmental conditions in national key ecological function zones in China

Increased ecological land (IEL) such as forests and grasslands can greatly enhance ecosystem carbon sinks. Understanding the mechanisms for the magnitude of IEL-induced ecosystem carbon sinks is crucial for achieving carbon neutrality. We estimated the impact of IEL, specifically the increase in forests and grasslands, as well as global changes including atmospheric CO2 concentration, nitrogen deposition, and climate change on net ecosystem productivity (NEP) in National Key Ecological Function Zones (NKEFZs) in China using a calibrated ecological process model. The NEP in NKEFZs in China was calculated to be 119.4 Tg C yr−1, showing an increase of 42.6 Tg C yr−1 from 2001 to 2021. Compared to the slight contributions of climate change (−8.0%), nitrogen deposition (11.5%), and reduction in ecological land (−3.5%), the increase in NEP was primarily attributed to CO2 (66.5%) and IEL (33.5%). Moreover, the effect of IEL (14.8 Tg C yr−1) surpassed that of global change (13.1 Tg C yr−1) in the land use change zone. The IEL-induced NEP is significantly associated with CO2 fertilization, regulated by precipitation and nitrogen deposition. The high values of IEL-induced NEP occurred in areas with precipitation exceeding 800 mm and nitrogen deposition exceeding 25 kg N ha−1 yr−1. We recommend prioritizing the expansion of ecological land in areas with sufficient water and nutrients to enhance CO2 fertilization, while avoiding increasing ecological land in regions facing unfavorable climate change conditions. This study serves as a foundation for comprehending the NEP response to ecological restoration and global change.

Effects of social capital on energy poverty: Evidence from the national key ecological function zones in Northeast China

In the contemporary discourse of sustainable development, the phenomenon of energy poverty emerges as a formidable challenge to the trajectory of human progress in the 21st century. Employing a comprehensive four-period longitudinal dataset spanning from 2018 to 2021, which encapsulates the national key ecological function zones (NKEFZs) in Northeast China, this study utilize two-way fixed effects models and mediating effect model to disentangle the intricate relationship between social capital and energy poverty, while also elucidating the fundamental mechanisms that underlie this association. This study shows that social capital has an inhibitory effect on energy poverty among residential households, a result substantiated by a series of robustness checks. And social capital can indirectly alleviate households' energy poverty by fostering their borrowing and lending behavior and enhancing their energy service perception. Additionally, the impact of social capital on households' energy poverty exhibits heterogeneity contingent upon their information access, business engagement, and housing conditions. This study contributes significantly to the accurate measurement of the magnitude and distribution of multidimensional energy poverty among residential households in NKEFZs in Northeast China. Furthermore, it offers valuable insights for the design of a social capital framework aimed at reducing household energy poverty.

Chemical and Microbial Differences of Root and Rhizosphere Soil among Different Provenances of Fokienia hodginsii

Aims: Fokienia hodginsii is a threatened conifer tree species, known as the dominant nursery-grown species capable of colonizing the challenging woodland environments in southern China due to its strong root penetrating ability. The ecological phenotype of Fokienia hodginsii is not well documented during its breeding process, which limits the potential planting area and its ecological function. This study aims to understand how Fokienia hodginsii associates with microbes to conduct its key ecological function and provide a theoretical basis for further improving the forest nursery management of Fokienia hodginsii. Methods: This study explored the ecological traits of 11 main Fokienia hodginsii provenances in a homogeneous garden experiment by analyzing their nutrient utilization strategies and associated microbial features in the rhizosphere soil and roots. Results: The study found that the paramount difference in the rhizosphere soil among provenances is in Ca and Fe content. Some microbial communities, namely Crenarchaeota, Verrucomicrobiota, and Desulfobacterota, were positively correlated with the amounts of the soil nutrient elements, whereas Abditibacteriota and Dependentiae were negatively correlated. The abundance of N- and Fe-related bacteria in the Fu Jian Chang Ting (FJCT) provenance was significantly higher than that in other provenances, while the C-, P-, K-, and Mg-related fungal communities, respectively, had higher abundances in the FJCT, Fu Jian Long Yan (FJLY), Fu Jian Gu Tian (FJGT), and Fu Jian Xian You (FJXY) provenances than the others. The impacts of the Gui Zhou Li Ping (GZLP), Hu Nan Dao Xian (HNDX), Jiang Xi Shang Yao (JXSY), and Guang Dong Shi Xing (GDSX) provenances on the rhizosphere soil are similar, but the differences in nutrient utilization arise from the plant itself. Conversely, the root nutrient contents of the FJCT, Fu Jian You Xi (FJYX), Fu Jian An Xi (FJAX), FJLY, Fu Jian De Hua (FJDH), FJGT, and FJXY provenances are highly correlated with soil nutrient features. Conclusions: For the native provenances, their economic traits are better than the exotic provenances. The native provenances are more sensitive to local soil conditions, so they should benefit more from human interventions, rendering them more suitable for artificial cultivation. The growth of the exotic provenances is less affected by the soil environment, making them better suited for the ecological transformation of forest stands and soil improvement.

Has the Establishment of National Key Ecological Function Zones Improved Eco-Environmental Quality?—Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in 130 Counties in Sichuan Province, China

China’s National Key Ecological Function Zones (NKEFZs) currently represent the largest and most extensive ecological conservation policy in China, with one of the core objectives of this policy being to improve eco-environmental quality (EEQ). This study regards the establishment of NKEFZs as a quasi-natural experiment. Based on panel data from 130 counties in Sichuan Province from 2001 to 2021, a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model was employed to evaluate the impact of NKEFZ establishment on EEQ. The findings indicate the following: ① The establishment of NKEFZs can significantly enhance the EEQ of the covered areas, albeit as a gradual long-term process. This conclusion not only meets the parallel-trends assumption but also holds true in a series of robustness tests such as placebo tests. ② Mechanism analysis reveals that NKEFZs can enhance EEQ through the effects of optimizing land spatial allocation and upgrading industrial structure. ③ Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the beneficial effect of NKEFZs on EEQ varies across different functional zone types, geographic spaces and ethnic regions. Our study not only contributes to the accumulation of empirical evidence and institutional refinement in the sustainable implementation of ecological policies in China but also offers valuable insights and references for other countries in formulating policies for eco-environmental protection.

Can China’s transfer payment in national key ecological function zones promote green poverty reduction? Quasi-natural experiment evidence from China

Can China’s transfer payment in national key ecological function zones promote green poverty reduction? Quasi-natural experiment evidence from China

Repression or promotion? Transfer payments, ecological constraints, and enterprise development

The establishment of national key ecological function areas constitutes a pivotal policy tool for China's environmental preservation and restoration initiatives. Nevertheless, the economic ramifications of policy implementation on the growth of regional enterprises remain substantial. This research employs the quasi-natural experiment framework provided by the national key ecological function area, focusing on 102 counties in Hebei Province from 2014 to 2018. By employing the difference-in-difference method, this study scrutinizes the policy's impact on enterprises surpassing designated size thresholds, ensuring the robustness of results through multiple tests. The findings reveal a pronounced negative effect on regional enterprise development subsequent to policy implementation, as evidenced by a 12.57 percent decline in the developmental metrics of enterprises exceeding the specified size threshold. Furthermore, this adverse impact exacerbates with prolonged policy duration, thereby accentuating the imposition of “ecological constraints” that restrict enterprise expansion in the pursuit of comprehensive ecological protection. Heterogeneity analysis underscores disparate policy impacts, particularly affecting counties characterized by low levels of industrialization and substantial local fiscal expenditure. This study posits that the prevalent utilization of environmental surveillance and punitive measures may contribute to these adverse effects, fostering a passive rather than innovative enterprise comportment.

An analysis on the spatial heterogeneity characteristics of landscape ecological risk in Qilian Mountain National Park

As a key ecological function area and a priority area for biodiversity conservation in China, Qilian Mountain National Park is facing a severe test of its ecological environment, and the study of its landscape ecological risk is of great significance to the construction and high-quality development of the Qilian Mountain National Park. In this research, based on land use data from six periods (i.e., year in 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020) in the Qilian Mountain National Park, we divided the ecological risk plots, calculated the landscape pattern, and constructed the landscape ecological risk index to deeply explore the temporal and spatial heterogeneity of landscape ecological risk in Qilian Mountain National Park by using ArcGIS, Fragstats and GeoDa. The results showed that: Grassland is the predominant land use type, the area covered by woodland and grassland have exhibited a significant increase since 1995. Landscape fragmentation and disturbance indices exhibit fluctuations across different years, but showed an overall decreasing trend, and landscape stability was improved in the study area. There were obvious differences in the disturbance indices of different landscape types, with grassland and bare land having the highest values. Ecological risk in the study area is heterogeneous, with an overall low ecological risk and a shift to a lower risk level, and a decreasing trend in ecological risk, which is positively correlated spatially and mainly manifested as a “low-low” aggregation. Global warming and unreasonable human activities have exacerbated the ecological degradation of Qilian Mountain National Park, but a series of ecological restoration strategies after the establishment of the national park have gradually improved the regional ecological environment.

Landscape evolution in China’s key ecological function zones during 1990–2015

Landscape evolution has profound effects on ecosystems. Recently, some studies suggest that China has implemented plans leading in the greening of the world by mainly describing the changes based on satellite data. However, few studies have analyzed the policy effect on ecosystem improvement from the perspective of landscape pattern evolution. Among the numerous ecological policy plans, China’s key ecological function zones plan is an important one. In this study, we focus on depicting the long-term and large-scale landscape evolution in China’s key ecological function zones, which are accounting for 40.2% of China’s land area, and include four-type ecoregions where ecosystems are fragile or important, to comprehensively explore the environmental influences of policy planning. For this purpose, we first described the landscape composition changes and conversion mechanisms in China’s key ecological function zones from 1990 to 2015. Then we captured the detailed pattern evolution characteristics by landscape indices. The results show that these ecoregions were mostly evolving in an unfavorable direction in these 25 years, i.e. destruction of habitats and increment of fragmentation. Although greening areas increased based on other recent researches, the landscape pattern became worse, indicating it is necessary for the detailed analysis of landscape ecology and more accurate ecological planning. We also found the deterioration of the ecological environment had been uncharacteristically stopped or even improved in wind prevention and sand fixation ecoregions and biodiversity maintenance ecoregions after the implementation of this plan. Furthermore, we assumed that the policy is more prominent in these prohibiting sabotages and protecting areas with fragile ecological bases, which may be caused by the differentiated transfer payments in different ecoregions. Finally, some planning suggestions, such as stricter land use control, the regional balance of ecological transfer payments and deepening of ecological migration policies, etc., were proposed for promoting better future environmental changes.

Scenario Simulation and Driving Force Analysis of Ecosystem Service Values Based on Land Use/Cover in the Tumen River Basin, China

Key ecological function areas play a crucial role in safeguarding and rehabilitating ecosystems and mitigating regional ecological degradation. Unraveling the interconnectedness between land use/cover (LULC) transformation and the ecosystem service value (ESV) in these regions is of profound importance for sustainable development. In this paper, the LULC response in the Tumen River Basin (TRB) to an assessment of ESV from 2000 to 2020 was explored. An advanced equivalent factor that incorporates both biomass and socioeconomic factors was used to evaluate the ESV of the TRB. Taking the potential impact of factors such as temperature (TEM), precipitation (PRE), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), digital elevation model (DEM), soil organic matter content (SOMC), and human activity intensity of land surface (HAILS) into account, the patch-generating land use simulation model (PLUS) was used to simulate and predict the spatial evolution of the ESV under different land resource management strategies in 2030. The results indicate an increasing trend in the total ESV in the study area from 2000 to 2020, with forested land accounting for nearly 94% of the total ESV for the TRB. HAILS, DEM, and NDVI were identified as the main factors affecting the spatial differentiation of ESV. A negative correlation (−0.65) was found between ESV and the landscape shape ndex (LSI), indicating that more irregularly shaped landscapes have a lower ESV. Positive correlations were observed between the Shannon’s Diversity Index (SHDI) (0.72) and the Aggregation Index (AI) (0.60), suggesting that more diverse and interconnected landscapes have a higher ESV. The PLUS simulation results provide valuable data-based support for achieving planning objectives under different land resource management strategies. Specifically, these findings can serve as a reference for the integrated planning of land resources and environmental protection, promoting the sustainable development of ecological functional areas along the northeast border of China.

Is there an environment and economy tradeoff for the National Key Ecological Function Area policy in China?

China implemented the National Key Ecological Function Area (NKEFA) policy, the world's largest ecological compensation program, aimed to breaking the vicious cycle of poverty and environmental degradation. However, previous studies have often overlooked the poverty and environment impact of the policy and paid little attention to the distortions it may have inadvertently fostered. This study used panel data from 1749 county-level units from 2002 to 2020, supplemented with remote sensing and Geographical Information System data, to quantify ecological poverty indicators. Subsequently, a multi-period difference-in-differences model was deployed to identify the impact of the NKEFA policy on ecological poverty and rural residents' incomes in the pilot counties. Finally, the mechanisms of policy effectiveness were examined from the perspective of administrative constraints and fiscal incentives. The results show that, firstly, the NKEFA policy has exerted a substantial positive impact on both ecological poverty and rural residents' income growth. However, ecological poverty reduction displayed a rebound effect characterized by initial improvement followed by deterioration, primarily due to inadequate incentives, leading to local government distortion behavior. Meanwhile, rural residents' incomes exhibited a consistent upward trend. Secondly, the improvement of ecological poverty is premised on weakening industrial development incentives and aided by some level of ecological migration. However, this also leads to reduced fiscal revenues, increased fiscal expenditures, and expanded fiscal deficits. The significant increase in rural residents' income largely depends on the financial intervention of local governments, especially the non-agricultural income brought about by the transfer and transformation of non-agricultural labor, as well as the agricultural income brought about by the improvement of agricultural production and efficiency. Thirdly, the NKEFA policy has yielded more apparent improvements for ecologically impoverished, resource-dependent, economically strong, and industrial backbone counties. However, resource-dependent and industrial backbone counties have experienced negative income effects. These findings provide a practical Chinese-style example of global eco-poverty reduction policies in developing countries.

Spatiotemporal Analysis of Ecosystem Status in China’s National Key Ecological Function Zones

The National Key Ecological Function Zones (NKEFZ) serve as crucial ecological security barriers in China, playing a vital role in enhancing ecosystem services. This study employed the theoretical framework of ecological benefits assessment in major ecological engineering projects. The primary focus was on the ecosystem macrostructure, ecosystem quality, and key ecosystem services, enabling quantitative analysis of the spatiotemporal changes in the ecosystem status of the NKEFZ from 2000 to 2019. To achieve this, remote sensing data, meteorological data, and model simulations were employed to investigate five indicators, including land use types, vegetation coverage, net primary productivity of vegetation, soil conservation services, water conservation services, and windbreak and sand fixation services. The analysis incorporated the Theil–Sen Median method to construct an evaluation system for assessing the restoration status of ecosystems, effectively integrating ecosystem quality and ecosystem services indicators. The research findings indicated that land use changes in NKEFZ were primarily characterized by the expansion of unused land and the in of grassland. The overall ecosystem quality of these zones improved, showing a stable and increasing trend. However, there were disparities in the changes related to ecosystem services. Water conservation services exhibited a decreasing trend, while soil conservation and windbreak and sand fixation services showed a steady improvement. The ecosystem of the NKEFZ, in general, displayed a stable and recovering trend. However, significant spatial heterogeneity existed, particularly in the southern region of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and at the border areas between western Sichuan and northern Yunnan, where some areas still experienced deteriorating ecosystem conditions. Compared to other functional zones, the trend in the ecosystem of the NKEFZ might not have been the most favorable. Nonetheless, this could be attributed to the fact that most of these areas were situated in environmentally fragile regions, and conservation measures may not have been as effective as in other functional zones. These findings highlighted the considerable challenges ahead in the construction and preservation of the NKEFZ. In future development, the NKEFZ should leverage their unique natural resources to explore distinctive ecological advantages and promote the development of eco-friendly economic industries, such as ecological industry, ecological agriculture, and eco-tourism, transitioning from being reliant on external support to self-sustainability.

Ecological gatekeeping: Black-backed jackals are left to crave carrion in absence of large facultative scavengers

Carrion removal is a key ecological function of scavengers, and they promptly dispose of carcasses in those large African conservation areas where predator assemblages remain intact. Despite its species richness, the grassland biome is critically threatened in southern Africa, and the predator assemblage is no longer intact in most of the biome. We used camera traps to monitor scavenger activity at five blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) carcasses on the Telperion Nature Reserve, characterized by rocky highveld grassland. We found that, in absence of larger vertebrate scavengers, black-backed jackals (Canis mesomelas) were unable to access fresh blue wildebeest carcasses, gaining access only once invertebrate action opened the skin. We also observed black-backed jackals eating flies accumulating on grass near to carcasses. These observations show that the avenues of resource provisioning by carcasses are not limited to direct carrion consumption. Moreover, they raise questions about potentially important cascading effects of not having intact predator assemblages, in smaller conservation areas.

Dynamic change of habitat quality and its key driving factors in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China

Habitat quality reflects the level of biodiversity, and habitat maintenance functions are related to human well-being and ecosystem stability. Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is a typical ecologically fragile region in Western China with complex human-nature relationships. Maintaining good habitat is not only a fundamental requirement for biodiversity conservation but also a necessary path for sustainable regional development. In this study, we assessed and analysed the spatial and temporal patterns and changes in habitat quality in Ningxia from 2000 to 2020, and explored the driving factors of habitat quality using a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. The results indicated: (1) The overall habitat quality level in Ningxia was low to intermediate, with an upwards and then downwards trend during the past 20 years, showing a small change in overall magnitude. (2) The high- and higher-level habitat quality patches in Ningxia were mainly distributed in areas with high vegetation cover, such as the Helan Mountain and Liupan Mountain. The patches of moderate-level habitat quality mainly included cultivated land, while the low- and lower-level patches were mainly distributed in areas subjected to more frequent human activities, such as cultivated land and construction land. (3) The spatial and temporal distribution patterns and changes in habitat quality in Ningxia from 2000 to 2020 were mainly influenced by fractional vegetation cover (FVC), soil moisture content (SMC), proportion of construction land area (PCL), and proportion of cultivated land area (CLP). Among them, FVC and SMC were positive driving factors, and PCL and CLP were negative driving factors. The results support that increasing vegetation cover and reducing anthropogenic disturbance to natural habitats are important measures to maintain fragile habitats and that key ecological function areas such as nature reserves are crucial for habitat quality protection in ecologically fragile areas.

Do vertical ecological compensation policies promote green economic development: A case study of the transfer payments policy for China’s National Key Ecological Function Zones

The transfer payment policy for National Key Ecological Function Zones is a typical vertical ecological compensation (VEC) policy that has been in place in China since 2008. This study treats this VEC policy as a quasi-natural experiment and utilises a slack-based measure model to calculate each county’s green economic efficiency based on China’s county-level data for the period 2003–2020. Then, the difference-in-differences method is used to evaluate the impact of the VEC policy on green economic efficiency and to verify its possible mechanisms. The results indicate that the VEC policy significantly improves the green economic efficiency of compensated areas, demonstrating that this policy promotes regional green economic development. Moreover, we find that the VEC policy may improve green economic efficiency by reducing the pollution caused by industrial development, promoting eco-industrial development and accelerating technological innovation. From the perspective of realising its three policy goals, the VEC policy not only improves the compensated areas’ ecological environment quality, but also promotes economic growth and optimises public services in the compensated areas. Furthermore, an inverted U-shaped curve relationship between the scale of VEC and green economic efficiency is identified.

Exploring the impacts of spatial regulation on environmentally sustainable development: A new perspective of quasi–experimental evaluation based on the National Key Ecological Function Zones in China

AbstractWith increasing ecological damage caused by regional development, many countries seek to promote sustainable development through spatial regulation. This study treated China's development of National Key Ecological Functional Zones (NKEFZ) as a quasi–natural experiment, applying a time–varying difference–in–differences model to data from 148 water quality monitoring cross–section points of major river systems in China from 2004 to 2018. The results revealed that NKEFZ improved the mean of comprehensive water quality (CWQ) and individual water quality indicators of dissolved oxygen and ammonia nitrogen content index by restricting urbanization and increasing government investment. The mean value of CWQ was improved by about 0.22 grades, and the optimization effect of spatial regulation on average water quality was more prominent in coastal cities, cities with high–pollution levels, and large–sized cities. Nevertheless, the impact of NKEFZ on water quality exhibited a “Matthew effect”, in which NKEFZ were not effective in improving the bottom line standard of water quality in the pilot zones, as NKEFZ did not significantly improve the peak values of CWQ or individual pollutant indicator. In addition, an economic effect estimation indicated that NKEFZ significantly facilitated local economic growth and primary industry development and had a significantly negative impact on secondary industry growth and foreign investment. This study contributes new evidence for measuring the effect of the trans–regional spatial regulation, eliciting policy implications for improving ecological spatial regulation and incentive mechanisms, and promoting the sustainable development of the regional environment and economy.