Spatiotemporal characteristics and interactive effect between ecology and economy in forest ecological protection area: conflict or coordination?

The coordinated development of EEQ and economic quality is a critical aspect of achieving environmental protection around the globe. Studies on the interplay and impact of these two aspects remain insufficient. More significantly, there is a gap in the link between the ecology and economy in small-scale, county-level areas under the intervention of government policies. Therefore, exploring the complex effects of ecological environment quality (EEQ) and economic development quality (EDQ) is essential for promoting the coordinated development of ecology and economy under ecological protection policies. We add NDVI in EEQ and economic development vitality part in EDQ in an innovative way, and set up a more systematic and comprehensive indicator system for EEQ and EDQ, using 186 counties in 9 forest ecological protection areas (CFPA) in China as samples. The present study conducts an empirical investigation of the changes in coordination between regional EEQ and EDQ under strict Chinese ecological protection policies. Research findings reveal that under the ecological protection policy from 2010 to 2022, both EEQ and EDQ had shown an upward trend. Likewise, their coordination gradually increased. Despite this progress, coordination has remained in a primary state. During this period, the coordination was evident not only in the overall relationship between the two qualities but also in the connections between specific parts of EDQ, where remarkable correlations were observed. However, certain ecological indicators, such as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), showed conflicting interactions with EDQ. From the spatial and correlation differentiation between the two qualities, there was spatial heterogeneity in the 9 protection areas. These insights suggest that this coordination relationship has exhibited spatiotemporal heterogeneity across different county areas and that factors like urbanization rate and NDVI emerged as key determinants of coordination between EEQ and EDQ across the forest ecological protection areas in China. The findings offer scientific support and policy recommendations reference for avoiding conflicts between ecological environment and economic development, and promoting coordinated development in ecological protection areas.