Coupling Coordination Relationship Between The Ecological Benefits Of Watershed Eco-compensation And Farmers’ Well-being In The Upper Basin Of Xin’an River

The ecological compensation mechanism is an important part of the construction of ecological civilization system,and is an important means to mobilize the enthusiasm of all parties,implement the rights and responsibilities of ecological protection,and promote the construction of ecological civilization.With the continuous improvement of China’s ecological compensation mechanism and the in-depth development of ecological compensation pilot projects,the effectiveness of ecological protection has been significantly enhanced.At the same time,ecological compensation is closely related to rural development and farmers’ interests.The interests and well-being of farmers in the compensated areas directly affect the effective implementation of ecological compensation policies and the sustainable promotion of ecological protection.Therefore,it is of great theoretical and practical significance to study the spatio-temporal coupling coordination between ecological benefits and farmers’ well-being under the ecological compensation policy.This paper takes the upper reaches of the Xin’an River Basin as the research area,constructs an ecological benefit accounting index system and an evaluation index system for farmers’ well-being,uses remote sensing data and statistical data from 2012 to 2020,and applies RS and GIS technologies to quantitatively assess the ecological benefits and farmers’ well-being in the upper reaches of the Xin’an River using model simulation and mathematical statistics,and analyses their spatial and temporal variation characteristics and regional differences.On this basis,the coupling degree coordination model was used to analyze the coupling coordination relationship between ecological benefits and farmers’ well-being,and the panel Tobit model was used to explore the factors influencing the coupling coordination degree.The main findings of the study are as follows:(1)The ecological benefits in the upper reaches of the Xin’an River Basin have been significantly improved during the three rounds of pilot ecological compensation,showing an upward trend period by period,with the total value of ecological benefits in the second and third rounds increasing by 85% and 91.98% respectively compared to the first round;the order of magnitude of each ecological benefit is water conservation > carbon sequestration and oxygen release > soil conservation > water quality improvement > air purification >habitat provision.The spatial distribution of ecological benefits varies significantly,with the ecological benefits in the eastern part of the upper watershed being significantly higher than those in the western part.(2)The overall level of farmers’ well-being in the upper reaches of the Xin’an River Basin has been increasing year by year from 2012 to 2020,with the level of farmers’ wellbeing in 2020 being 2.4 times higher than that in 2012;the spatial distribution of farmers’ well-being is clearly differentiated,with the farmers’ well-being in the western parts of the upper reaches of the basin being significantly higher than those in the eastern parts.(3)There is a certain degree of coupling coordination between the ecological benefits of ecological compensation and farmers’ well-being in the upper Xin’an River Basin,with the degree of coupling increasing and then decreasing from 2012 to 2020,but the degree of coupling coordination is increasing,from 0.426 in 2012 to 0.745 in 2020,with the overall state changing from dissonance to coordination.There is spatial heterogeneity in the degree of coupling coordination between ecological benefits and farmers’ well-being in each district and county,and during the first round of the pilot scheme,most areas were out of tune,with the southeast showing a decline in tune and the southwest showing a near-dissonance.During the second round of piloting,the degree of coupling coordination between ecological benefits and farmers’ well-being improved significantly,with all districts,except Tunxi,showing coupling coordination,of which the largest number of primary coupling coordination districts were concentrated in the western region.During the third round of the pilot project,the whole area in the upper reaches of the watershed has achieved coupling coordination between ecological benefits and farmers’ well-being,with the southern area showing primary coupling and the northern area showing intermediate coupling coordination.(4)The government expenditure on environmental protection,forest coverage and rural per capita disposable income exerted a significantly positive effect on the degree of coupling coordination,while the use of pesticide and fertilizer caused a significantly negative inhibitory effect on the degree of coupling coordination.The ecological benefits of ecological compensation and farmers’ well-being in the upper Xin’an River Basin show different relationships and degrees of correlation at different pilot stages and spatial scales,with the degree of correlation rising and then falling as the compensation pilot progresses,while the degree of coordination continues to rise.Based on the above findings,this paper makes the following recommendations: First,deepen the ecological compensation system and establish a long-term mechanism for the protection and restoration of watershed ecosystems;Second,implementing the strategy of promoting agriculture and enriching the people through industry,and promoting the integration of industrial ecology and ecological industrialization;Third,scientifically plan the ecological space and promote the coordination of ecological protection of watersheds and rural enrichment of the people to increase their income.