Exploring land use conflicts within the ecological conservation redline through spatial analysis and governance perspectives

China’s ecological conservation redline (ECR), an ecosystem-based management tool, is critical for protecting natural ecosystems without jeopardizing socioeconomic development. However, effectively mitigating land use conflicts within ECR remains challenging, as these conflicts arise from the spatial competition among diverse land use types and negotiations among stakeholders with different objectives. Accordingly, this study integrates spatially explicit quantitative analysis with qualitative interviews on departmental negotiation to investigate the patterns, influencing factors, and governance responses of land use conflicts within the Dongzhai National Nature Reserve (DNR) in Henan Province, China. The study first measured landscape pattern dynamics and constructed a spatial conflict index to identify land use conflicts and analyze their influencing factors. Subsequently, local institutional solutions to land use conflicts were explored through semi-structured interviews. The results indicated the following: (1) During the study period, forestland and cropland declined by 404.80 ha and 196.02 ha, while construction land expanded by 255.88 ha. The increase in patch density (PD), landscape shape index (LSI), and area-weighted mean fractal dimension index (FRAC_AM) indicated increased landscape fragmentation and patch shape complexity, reflecting that a certain level of human disturbance persisted within the reserve. (2) Land use conflicts changed slightly from 2000 to 2020, with moderate and medium conflicts consistently covering more than 90% of the total area. Intense and severe conflicts occurred mainly in the general control zone between the two core protection areas, a transitional region between forestland and cropland that also serves as a topographical transition. Topography was a key factor influencing land use conflicts. (3) Field investigations indicated that to avoid land use conflicts, five blocks (1566.43 ha) were transferred out of the redline as the “windows” that sacrifice the landscape integrity, while one block was transferred into this line. Importantly, these “windows” partly avoid overlapping with the severe land use conflict zones, implying that the ECR adjustment largely avoided deregulating ecologically fragile areas and may reduce potential ecological risks. By integrating the spatially explicit diagnosis with the qualitative interview analysis, the study provides insights into the dynamics, influencing factors, and governance solutions of land use conflicts within ECR, while suggesting that spatial conflict assessment could inform future ECR adjustment to advance more sustainable and effective ECR governance.