IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i16p10364-d893014.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do the National Key Ecological Function Zones Promote Green Development? Evidence from the Yanshan–Taihang Mountainous Area in Hebei Province, China

Author

Listed:
  • Meiyu Liu

    (School of Economics, Hebei GEO University, Shijiazhuang 050031, China
    Hebei Province Mineral Resources Development and Management and the Transformation and Upgrading of Resources Industry Soft Science Research Base, Shijiazhuang 050031, China)

  • Guofeng Zhang

    (School of Economics, Hebei GEO University, Shijiazhuang 050031, China
    Hebei Province Mineral Resources Development and Management and the Transformation and Upgrading of Resources Industry Soft Science Research Base, Shijiazhuang 050031, China)

  • Du Yang

    (School of Economics, Hebei GEO University, Shijiazhuang 050031, China)

Abstract

National key ecological function zones (NKEFZs) in China are critically important to maintain ecological security and accelerate the construction of the ecological civilization system. The quantitative impact of NKEFZs on green development at the county level has not received much attention. In this study, the county-level statistics of the Yanshan–Taihang Mountainous area in Hebei province from 2013 to 2018 were selected as samples. The symbiotic relationship between economy and ecology was measured and development patterns were identified using an improved Lotka–Volterra model. Then, a difference-in-differences (DID) model was used to empirically test the green development effects of establishing NKEFZs, as well as the dynamic changes of the effects and the heterogeneity of different development patterns. The results show that: (1) Green development in the sample area can be classified into four patterns: Low-High, High-Low, High-High, and Low-Low; (2) NKEFZs reduce the level of green development in the study interval and have a persistent negative effect on the level of green development; and (3) NKEFZs have a significant negative effect on areas of Low-High and High-Low development patterns, while the effect on areas of Low-Low development patterns is not significant. Overall, the results indicate that NKEFZs have a negative impact on the green development of the Yanshan–Taihang Mountainous area in Hebei Province. Finally, to promote green development in mountainous areas, the paper makes the following recommendations: Firstly, to improve the transfer payment system for NKEFZs and bring into play a long-term mechanism for the compensation effect of transfer payments. Secondly, to cultivate special industries to achieve the differentiated development of county economies. Thirdly, to accelerate the optimization and adjustment of industrial structures and promote the coordinated development of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Meiyu Liu & Guofeng Zhang & Du Yang, 2022. "Do the National Key Ecological Function Zones Promote Green Development? Evidence from the Yanshan–Taihang Mountainous Area in Hebei Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-19, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:16:p:10364-:d:893014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/16/10364/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/16/10364/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhijun Feng & Wei Chen, 2018. "Environmental Regulation, Green Innovation, and Industrial Green Development: An Empirical Analysis Based on the Spatial Durbin Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-22, January.
    2. Grieg-Gran, Maryanne, 2000. "Fiscal Incentives for Biodiversity Conservation: The ICMS Ecologico in Brazil," Discussion Papers 24135, International Institute for Environment and Development, Environmental Economics Programme.
    3. Wei JIANG, 2018. "Can Environmental Protection in Ecological Functional Zones Break Free from the Constraints of Focusing Just on Economic Benefits? — A Case Study of the Plateau Ecological Zone’s Tiamitcheen," Chinese Journal of Urban and Environmental Studies (CJUES), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 6(03), pages 1-14, September.
    4. Chakrabarti, Anindya S., 2016. "Stochastic Lotka–Volterra equations: A model of lagged diffusion of technology in an interconnected world," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 442(C), pages 214-223.
    5. D'Amato, D. & Korhonen, J., 2021. "Integrating the green economy, circular economy and bioeconomy in a strategic sustainability framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    6. Zhang, Yue-Jun & Wang, Wei, 2021. "How does China's carbon emissions trading (CET) policy affect the investment of CET-covered enterprises?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    7. Jia, Ruining & Shao, Shuai & Yang, Lili, 2021. "High-speed rail and CO2 emissions in urban China: A spatial difference-in-differences approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    8. Pradhan, Basanta K. & Ghosh, Joydeep, 2022. "A computable general equilibrium (CGE) assessment of technological progress and carbon pricing in India's green energy transition via furthering its renewable capacity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    9. Changan Gong & Jianhua Zhang & Hao Liu, 2021. "Do industrial pollution activities in China respond to ecological fiscal transfers? Evidence from payments to national key ecological function zones," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 64(7), pages 1184-1203, June.
    10. Capello, Roberta & Faggian, Alessandra, 2002. "An economic-ecological model of urban growth and urban externalities: empirical evidence from Italy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 181-198, February.
    11. Guangqin Li & Lingyu Li & Xing Li & Yu Chen, 2021. "Can the establishment of National Key Ecological Functional Zones improve air quality?: An empirical study from China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(2), pages 1-14, February.
    12. Cui, Lianbiao & Weng, Shimei & Nadeem, Abdul Majeed & Rafique, Muhammad Zahid & Shahzad, Umer, 2022. "Exploring the role of renewable energy, urbanization and structural change for environmental sustainability: Comparative analysis for practical implications," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 215-224.
    13. Rodriguez-Gonzalez, Pablo T. & Rico-Martinez, Ramiro & Rico-Ramirez, Vicente, 2020. "Effect of feedback loops on the sustainability and resilience of human-ecosystems," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 426(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gao, Ming, 2023. "The impacts of carbon trading policy on China's low-carbon economy based on county-level perspectives," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    2. Zhuo, Chengfeng & Xie, Yuping & Mao, Yanhua & Chen, Pengqin & Li, Yiqiao, 2022. "Can cross-regional environmental protection promote urban green development: Zero-sum game or win-win choice?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    3. Zhu, Chen & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2022. "The effects of low-carbon pilot policy on technological innovation: Evidence from prefecture-level data in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    4. Wang, Juan & Li, Ziming & Wang, Yanan, 2024. "How does China's energy-consumption trading policy affect the carbon abatement costs? An analysis based on spatial difference-in-differences method," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    5. Wang, Mingzhe & Huang, Hai & Xiong, Jie & Yuan, Zhe & Zeng, Keya, 2023. "Impact of ecological reserves on the local residents’ health: Evidence from a natural experiment in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    6. Lingzhang Kong & Jinye Li, 2022. "Digital Economy Development and Green Economic Efficiency: Evidence from Province-Level Empirical Data in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-26, December.
    7. Liu, Duan & Yu, Nizhou & Wan, Hong, 2022. "Does water rights trading affect corporate investment? The role of resource allocation and risk mitigation channels," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    8. Yan, Sen & Sun, Xinyu & Zhang, Yurong, 2024. "High-speed railway ripples on the greenness: Insight from urban green vegetation cover," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    9. Zhipeng Tang & Ziao Mei & Jialing Zou, 2021. "Does the Opening of High-Speed Railway Lines Reduce the Carbon Intensity of China’s Resource-Based Cities?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-18, July.
    10. Lan, Xiujuan & Hu, Zheneng & Wen, Chuanhao, 2023. "Does the opening of high-speed rail enhance urban entrepreneurial activity? Evidence from China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    11. Xingwei Li & Jingru Li & Yicheng Huang & Jinrong He & Xiang Liu & Jiachi Dai & Qiong Shen, 2022. "Construction enterprises’ adoption of green development behaviors: an agent-based modeling approach," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    12. Xueyang Wang & Xiumei Sun & Haotian Zhang & Chaokai Xue, 2022. "Digital Economy Development and Urban Green Innovation CA-Pability: Based on Panel Data of 274 Prefecture-Level Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-21, March.
    13. Wang, Xiong & Wang, Xiao & Ren, Xiaohang & Wen, Fenghua, 2022. "Can digital financial inclusion affect CO2 emissions of China at the prefecture level? Evidence from a spatial econometric approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    14. Chen, Yu & Zhao, Changyi & Chen, Shan & Chen, Wenqing & Wan, Kunyang & Wei, Jia, 2023. "Riding the green rails: Exploring the nexus between high-speed trains, green innovation, and carbon emissions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    15. Zhao, Feifei & Hu, Zheng & Yi, Ping & Zhao, Xu, 2024. "Does environmental decentralization improve industrial ecology? Evidence from China's Yangtze River Economic Belt," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 1250-1270.
    16. Ren, Xiaohang & Zeng, Gudian & Dong, Kangyin & Wang, Kun, 2023. "How does high-speed rail affect tourism development? The case of the Sichuan-Chongqing Economic Circle," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    17. Jiang, Hong-Dian & Pradhan, Basanta K. & Dong, Kangyin & Yu, Yan-Yan & Liang, Qiao-Mei, 2024. "An economy-wide impacts of multiple mitigation pathways toward carbon neutrality in China: A CGE-based analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    18. Jing Tao & Ying Wang & Rong Wang & Chuanmin Mi, 2019. "Do Compactness and Poly-Centricity Mitigate PM 10 Emissions? Evidence from Yangtze River Delta Area," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-18, October.
    19. Purnamita Dasgupta & Kavitha Srikanth, 2021. "Achieving the climate goal with intergovernmental transfers to the forestry sector: insights from the Indian experience," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 164(3), pages 1-24, February.
    20. Li, Zhaohua & Pang, Suqin & Zhu, Zhiyun, 2024. "The impact of pilot free trade zones on entrepreneurship: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:16:p:10364-:d:893014. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.