| As a major component of the terrestrial ecosystem,forests play an important role in enhancing human wealth,maintaining ecological balance and protecting biodiversity.For a long time,due to population growth and people’s unreasonable development and utilization of forest resources,forest resources have been cut and reclaimed on a large scale,and the ecosystem has been seriously damaged,resulting in a series of natural disasters such as flood,drought,acid rain,haze,desertification and so on.In recent years,more and more attention has been paid to the protection and rational utilization of forest resources.Although the global total forest area has been in the process of continuous reduction,more and more countries including China have experienced forest area growth phenomenon.In 1992,geographer Mather pondered this phenomenon and first proposed the concept of"forest transition".Subsequently,the discussion on forest transition in the academic circle has been gradually deepened,and the connotation of the research on the driving force of forest transition has been greatly enriched.However,the study on forest transition lags behind that of foreign countries.There is no study on the difference of forest resources change in different regions and its driving forces.Therefore,it is of great significance to analyze the spatial and temporal changes of forest resources in China and identify the differences of forest resource changes and driving forces between regions for the protection and rational utilization of forest resources and the maintenance of a good ecological environment.The Yangtze River Economic Belt(YREB)is across three regions of our country,east,middle and west,which is the important growth pole of our country’s economic development.The forest resource in the YREB is an important part of the ecological security pattern.In recent years,with the continuous economic development,a series of ecological and environmental problems have also appeared in the Yangtze River basin,such as soil erosion in the upper reaches,drought and flood disasters in the middle and lower reaches,and water ecological security problems.Forest coverage has decreased in some areas and wetland area has been reduced,posing a threat to the ecological security of the YREB.Therefore,it is of great significance to master the changes of forest resources in the YREB and explore the driving forces of forest resources changes to promote the construction of clean water and green mountains in the YREB and achieve sustainable development.In view of this,this paper takes 127 prefecture-level cities in 9 provinces and 2 cities of the YREB as the research area,and uses land cover data to analyze the spatial-temporal change characteristics of forest resources in the YREB during 2001-2020.Based on the forest transition path theory,combined with meteorological data and socio-economic statistical data,the paper applies the spatial econometric regression model to analyze the spatial-temporal change characteristics of forest resources in the YREB from the level of the whole region.The driving forces of forest resources change in the YREB were analyzed and compared from the perspectives of upper,middle and lower reaches regionalization as well as different terrain regionalization,and countermeasures and suggestions were put forward to promote the forest transition in each region of the YREB.The main research results are as follows:(1)The whole YREB has entered the stage of net increase of forest transition area,but still some areas have not realized stable growth of forest area,and the temporal and spatial changes of forest resources have obvious regional characteristics.(1)During 2001-2020,the total forest area of the YREB has a net increase of 10,400 km~2,and the overall forest transition area has entered the stage of net increase.During the study period,only64 cities in 127 research units realized the growth of forest area,and still 63 cities showed a trend of forest area decline.The main source of forest area increase and the main destination of forest land loss in the YREB are cultivated land and grassland,among which the conversion between forest land and cultivated land is relatively frequent.From the perspective of time series,it presents the change characteristics of"the area of cultivated land converted to forestland decreases first and then increases,and the area of forestland converted to cultivated land increases first and then decreases".(2)Forest distribution in the YREB presents a pattern of"high in the west,low in the east,high in the south and low in the north".Forest increase is mainly distributed in the upper and middle reaches of the YREB and north of the Yangtze River,while forest loss mainly occurs in the lower reaches of the YREB and in the middle reaches and south of the Yangtze River.In different economic development areas and topographic areas,the characteristics of forest distribution area are“the upper Reaches>the middle reaches>the lower reaches”and“hills and mountains region>plain and platform area”.The dynamic change of forest resources presents the situation of“increase in the upper reaches,decrease in the middle reaches and lower reaches”and“increase in the hilly and mountainous areas,decrease in the plain platform areas”.The distribution center of forest resource loss shifted to the northwest direction,and showed a trend of accelerating dispersion.The phenomenon of sporadic forest loss tended to be common in all regions,which should be paid attention to.(3)The forest cover of prefecture-level cities in the YREB showed obvious spatial dual structure characteristics of"high-high"and"low-low"agglomeration.Meanwhile,the effect of high agglomeration was gradually enhanced during the study period,and the area with high forest coverage could drive the increase of forest cover in the neighboring areas.(2)The empirical analysis of the driving forces of forest resource change in the YREB found that economic development and the implementation of national forest policy played an important role in promoting the overall forest transition in the YREB,but there were differences in the driving forces of forest resource change in different zones.(1)The growth of forest resources in the YREB was mainly promoted by economic development and the implementation of national forest policy.The economic development was mainly reflected in the improvement of urbanization level,while the increase of population pressure and temperature had a significant negative impact on the change of forest resources.(2)The changes of forest resources in the YREB,middle and lower reaches were all promoted by economic development,but the main ways of economic development were different.The implementation of national forest policy had a significant positive effect only in the upper and middle reaches.In the lower reaches,however,the policy promotion effect is not significant,and the development of agricultural mechanization and population pressure growth are the main causes of forest reduction in the lower reaches,and the temperature rise has an inhibitory effect on the change of forest resources in the three regions.(3)The changes of forest resources in the hilly,mountainous and plain platform areas of the YREB are both promoted by economic development,and the ways of their effects are different.The implementation of national forest policy has a significant promoting effect on the growth of forest resources in the hilly and mountain areas,while the effect is not obvious in the plain platform areas.The main reason for the unrealized increase of forest area in the plain platform area is that the development of agricultural mechanization and the growth of population pressure produce restraining effect.Based on the above research results,this paper puts forward specific suggestions on promoting the forest transition in the YREB.Efforts should be made from three aspects:promoting urbanization development,optimizing industrial structure and intensive agricultural development,so as to fully show the promoting role of economic development on forest transition.Continue to implement key forestry projects,improve the construction of shelterbelts on plain farmland,and give full play to the strong driving role of national policies.Strengthen publicity and education,raise public awareness of environmental protection,see the long-term benefits of afforestation and ecological construction.Promote the development of forestry industry reasonably,give play to multiple functions of forestry,and drive ecology with industry. |
PDF Full Text Request