Spatial-temporal differences and evolution of eco-efficiency in China's forest park

Forest parks are typical areas where human-land relationships interact specially. The research on eco-efficiency is the basis for the formulation and implementation of inclusive and sustainable development policies and measures. The eco-efficiency of forest parks shows a strong spatial and temporal difference and evolution pattern because of uneven economic development. Relevant data of China's forest parks in 30 provinces (excluding Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) are taken as the research object. Super-SBM-Malmquist model with undesirable outputs is utilized to measure and analyze the dynamic changes of eco-efficiency. In addition, spatial heterogeneity is analyzed by using a spatial model. The results show that the eco-efficiency in 2007-2017 has made some improvement in fluctuations while there are still obvious differences in eco-efficiency between provinces and regions. After decomposition, it is found that the comprehensive eco-efficiency of economically developed regions is mainly driven by pure technical efficiency while in economically underdeveloped regions is mainly driven by scale efficiency. In terms of spatial evolution, the eco-efficiency shows a tendency of high-value and low-value agglomeration; some neighboring provinces are closely related, and the Matthew effect is significant. In terms of the moving path of the barycenter, it moves to the southeast on the whole. The movement trajectory of the comprehensive efficiency and pure technical efficiency in each year is roughly U-shaped evolution, and the scale efficiency is roughly M-shaped evolution. Finally, reasonable and effective suggestions for the future forest parks management and the reverse of the spatial imbalance of the eco-efficiency are put forward on the basis of empirical evidence, which is of great significance to the optimal allocation and sustainable development of tourism resources in forest parks.

Automated summary

The research on eco-efficiency in Chinese forest parks over the last decade showed improvements, but significant differences in eco-efficiency among provinces and regions persist. Economically developed regions were mainly driven by pure technical efficiency, while economically underdeveloped regions were mainly driven by scale efficiency. There is a tendency for high and low-value agglomeration in eco-efficiency, with a noticeable Matthew effect.