Efficiency accounting for the conversion of "Green Mountains and Clear Water" into "Gold and Silver Mountains": An empirical study of Qilian Mountain national park in China

Abstract

The research on the conversion efficiency of "Green Mountains into Clear Water" (Green) and "Gold and silver Mountains" (Gold) is of great significance to promote the coordination between natural resource conservation in national park and the local economic and social development. This paper pays attention to the linking role of ecosystem services in different stages of the conversion process between the Green and Gold. Based on the two-stage division, this paper constructs the accounting framework for conversion efficiency of Green and Gold. That is, the comprehensive conversion efficiency of Green and Gold is decomposed into the I-stage efficiency of ecological inputs conversion to Green and the II-stage efficiency of ecosystem services conversion to economic output. Furthermore, the Qilian Mountain National Park in China and its surrounding area Zhangye City, is taken as an example. Using a two-stage non-oriented super-efficiency network EBM model and panel data from 2007 to 2018 to empirically analysis the dynamic evolution characteristics of the conversion efficiency of Green and Gold. Based on this, the heterogeneity improvement strategy is proposed. The results show that: (1) the comprehensive efficiency of the Two Mountains conversion in Zhangye City decreased first and then increased. The highest was 1.715 in 2007; the lowest was 1.367 in 2012; since 2012, the development has gradually improved. The main reason for the decrease in the comprehensive efficiency from 2007 to 2012 is the lower conversion efficiency in II-stage. (2) Spatial difference analysis shows that the areas with low the comprehensive efficiency were concentrated in Sunan, Minle, and Shandan Counties along the Qilian Mountains. The comprehensive efficiency was 0.406, 0.489 and 0.482 respectively. The key to improving the comprehensive efficiency of Sunan County and Minle County is II-stage, while the focus of improving Shandan County is I-stage. (3) Redundancy analysis found that the main factor affecting the comprehensive efficiency of the Two Mountains conversion is insufficient output. In the future, we should focus on expanding effective pathways for the Two Mountains conversion and innovating institutional mechanisms for realizing ecological value.