Research on the Coupling Coordination between Ecosystem Services and Economic Development Based on Land Use Change: A Case Study of Yunnan Province, China

Coordinating ecological protection and economic development is the core proposition for achieving regional sustainable development, and this holds true for Yunnan Province, a key ecological security barrier area in Southwest China. Based on land cover datasets and socio-economic statistical data from 2000 to 2020, this study employs land use transfer matrix, ecosystem service value equivalent method, coupling coordination degree model, and obstacle degree model to systematically analyze the spatio-temporal interaction mechanisms and obstacle factors of the coupling and coordination between ecosystem services and economic development in the study area. (1) From 2010 to 2020, the evolution of land use exhibited an overall trend of "seven increases and one decrease," with a net increase of 1858.5 km² in forest land and a sharp decrease of 7209.8 km² in grassland. The dynamic degree of construction land ranked first, and the comprehensive dynamic degree maintained a low-level fluctuation between 0.08% and 0.14%. (2) The total ESV increased by 0.38% to 761.384 billion yuan, with regulation services accounting for a relatively high proportion and continuing to rise. There were no significant changes in the value of supply and cultural services. A highly synergistic phenomenon of "regulation-support-culture-partial supply service clusters" was observed in ecosystem services. The degree of system coupling and coordination exhibits significant spatial heterogeneity, with a generally high level of coupling. The coupling coordination degree demonstrates the characteristics of "overall improvement with local breakthroughs," being predominantly led by ecosystem services. To a certain extent, the ecological functional zoning has achieved the goal of focusing on ecological protection. Yunnan Province has preliminarily formed a pattern of coordinated development between ecology and economy, but the level of coordination remains low. Both the urban-rural income gap in the economic dimension and the equity of service supply in the ecological dimension constitute bottlenecks for the coordinated development of the system.