Green growth and urban employment: Evaluating the impact of ecosystem conservation on diverse sectors in Yunnan Province, China

Abstract

This study explores the critical yet often overlooked interplay between Sustainable Development Goal 15 (SDG 15), which focuses on preserving natural capital, and SDG 8, which targets economic growth and employment. While extensive research has examined the direct benefits of ecosystem conservation, namely ecosystem service value, the indirect benefits, particularly on employment outcomes, have frequently been neglected. Utilizing a comprehensive dataset of employment statistics and prefecture‐level ecosystem service valuations in Yunnan province from 2010 to 2020, we investigate the impact of ecosystem conservation on employment across various sectors. Our analysis reveals a significant correlation between improved ecosystem services and reduced unemployment rates in Yunnan province over the past decade, with pronounced positive impacts in sectors such as provisioning, ecotourism, and hydropower engineering. Furthermore, incorporating geospatial variables into our econometric model, we find that urbanized coastal cities experience a more substantial reduction in unemployment rates—by an estimated 0.8%—compared to forest‐abundant inland regions. These findings underscore the potential of ecosystem conservation to stimulate urban employment and highlight the need for targeted policies that align with both SDG 15 and SDG 8.