In China, rapid urbanization in recent decades has led to increasingly serious ecological and environmental problems, threatening sustainable development. Thus, a clear understanding of the relationship between urbanization and eco-environment is the basis for achieving regional sustainable development. However, despite the current global explosion of research interests on this topic, few studies have focused on ecologically fragile areas. To fill this gap, taking Aba Autonomous Prefecture in the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau as a case study, we explored the relationship between urbanization and eco-environment from 2001 to 2018 using a coupled coordination degree model. The results show that the urbanization level and eco-environmental quality in Aba Prefecture achieved stable and continuous improvements from 0.202 to 0.428 and 0.372 to 0.422, respectively. Moreover, the coupling degree between them ranged from 0.524 to 0.652, indicating that the study area had transformed from uncoordinated development in the initial stage to transformation development in the final stage. Additionally, over the 18 years, the coordinated state of urbanization and eco-environment improved, with the coordinated level increasing from reluctant to moderate coordination after 2011. Lastly, we confirmed that urbanization in Aba Prefecture had an overall positive effect on the local eco-environment, although it gradually decreased as urbanization progressed. These findings have important implications for political decision-makers to achieve high-quality development in ecologically fragile areas.

Wilderness plays a crucial role in biodiversity conservation, and its preservation represents a pivotal objective emphasized in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). Nonetheless, wilderness frequently faces threats from the escalating impact of human activities, leading to significant repercussions on diverse ecological processes. Despite the abundance of previous studies on wilderness, there has been a limited focus on the temporal dynamics at the local scale, as well as on identifying the conservation priorities in terms of their ecosystem services. In this study, taking the Lhasa River Basin in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China as an example, the spatio-temporal variations of wilderness were analyzed, and conservation priorities of them were further identified based on ecosystem services. The results revealed a persistent decline in the wilderness from 1990 to 2020, particularly in terms of bare land and grassland. Furthermore, we identified that 33.56% of the remaining wilderness necessitated special attention. These findings offer valuable insights into potential future threats to wilderness and hold critical importance for formulating regional conservation strategies at the local scale.

Organic farming is a good choice for agricultural development in southwest China under the trade-off between environmental protection and agricultural development. However, no researcher has investigated the current state and development of organic agriculture in southwest China. As a result, this paper explored the spatial structure of organic agriculture in southwest China by examining the distribution of organic certificates, as well as the environmental and socioeconomic impacts. The results show a dramatically uneven distribution of certified organics among different provinces, cities, and organic certificate types. On the province scale, Guizhou has the highest number (1174) and density (73.40 per 10¹⁰ m²) of organic certificates. On the city scale, Zunyi and Chengdu have the highest densities (218.77 and 342.52 per 10¹⁰ m², respectively). Most of the certified organics are plants, accounting for 76.95%. The spatial distribution of organic farming is influenced by the interaction of several factors, including precipitation, temperature, GDP, highway density, gross agriculture output, agriculture machinery, and rural employed persons. However, the related and determinant factors of organic certificate distribution vary greatly across different regions, spatial scales, economic development levels, and agricultural development statuses. For the entirety of southwestern China, the factors significantly related to the distribution of organic certificates are GDP, highway density, gross agriculture output, agriculture machinery, and rural employed persons. However, these factors are GDP, gross agriculture output, agriculture machinery, and rural employed persons for Sichuan, and gross agriculture output and rural employed persons for Guizhou. Factors constraining the development of organic agriculture in regions with better economic and agricultural conditions are much fewer than in poorer regions. All of the nine selected variables, except global radiation, are significantly related to organic certificate distribution in regions with better economic conditions, while none of them had a significant correlation with organic certificate distribution in poorer regions. Furthermore, climate is no longer a constraint in regions with better agricultural conditions. These findings are of great significance for the development and research of organic agriculture in southwest China. The development of organic agriculture in southwest China requires consideration of both the combination of multiple factors and the stage of regional economic and agricultural development.