Alleviating environmental pressure from livestock production: A “livestock-resource environmental carrying capacity” perspective in China

Scientific assessment of the relationships and influencing factors between livestock and resource-environmental carrying capacity (LS-RECC) is essential for alleviating environmental pressure. The crop-livestock balance method was used to measure China's livestock production potential from 2005 to 2020. The improved coupling coordination degree model (I-CCDM) and exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) were used to analyze the spatial-temporal coordinated development characteristics of the LS-RECC. Furthermore, geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) was used to identify the factors influencing the coordination development of the LS-RECC. The findings showed that (1) From 2005 to 2020, the nutrient demand for crop cultivation in China increased, and, the crop system nutrient demand exceeded the livestock nutrient supply in 2007 to 190 ×104 tons, reaching a maximum of 925 ×104 tons in 2019. However, the production potential of livestock in Ningxia, Tibet, Guizhou, Gansu, Yunnan, and Qinghai was severely overloaded. (2) The coupling coordination degree (CCD) of the LS-RECC showed a progressively increasing trend, which indicates that the sustainable development ability of China's livestock industry is constantly increasing. However, compared with that in eastern and central China, the coordinated development level of the LS-RECC in western China was lower, further indicating excessive livestock industry development in western China. (3) Environmental regulation had the strongest effect on the regional coordinated development of the LS-RECC, with obvious spatial differences. The economic development level had a positive effect, but urbanization and Engel's coefficients had the opposite effect. These results provide not only references for reducing environmental pressure on the livestock industry in China but also guidance for the sustainable development of the livestock industry in other large livestock production countries.