Rural Development under Poverty Governance: The Relationship between Rural Income and Land Use Transformation in Yunnan Province

Abstract

The process of eliminating absolute poverty is inevitable for China’s social and economic transformation. However, there are currently few studies on the relationship between land use transformation (LUT) and rural income under different stages of poverty governance. This study, therefore, uses spatial autocorrelation analysis and a multiscale geographic weighted regression (MGWR) model to explore the mechanisms of LUT on rural income and its spatiotemporal heterogeneity in Yunnan Province during the comprehensive poverty alleviation (CPA) period and the targeted poverty alleviation (TPA) period at the county scale. The results demonstrate that: (1) the numbers of both low-income and high-income counties continued to decrease, while the number of middle-high-income counties increased, and rural income demonstrated a positive spatial correlation. (2) Most of the variables in the dominant recessive increased in the CPA and decreased in the TPA period. As for recessive morphology, the ecological function variables decreased first and then increased. (3) The driving force of dominant morphology is strong and sustained, and the driving force of recessive morphology is gradually enhanced. The results are vital for consolidating the results of poverty eradication and bridging rural revitalization. They may also provide useful references for sustainable land use and effective poverty alleviation in other developing countries.