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Research on factors affecting sustainable development in ecologically fragile areas based on a social-ecological system framework
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  • Published: 04 February 2026

Research on factors affecting sustainable development in ecologically fragile areas based on a social-ecological system framework

  • Dandan Yang1,2,
  • Wei Zhang3,
  • Chengjiang Li3,4,
  • Jing Yang5 &
  • …
  • Shiyuan Wang6 

Scientific Reports , Article number:  (2026) Cite this article

We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.

Subjects

  • Ecological modelling
  • Ecological networks
  • Ecology
  • Environmental economics

Abstract

Since modern rural development results from a complex interaction between various exogenous forces, the sustainable development of rural communities in ecologically fragile areas is inherently a systemic endeavor. This study, guided by the social-ecological system theory, examines the impact of social, economic, political, natural, and other external factors on the sustainable development of rural communities in these areas. The goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying causes of delayed development in these communities. The results are as follows: First, labor outflow, ecological fragility, and informal institutions significantly hinder the sustainable development of rural communities, while regional economic development demonstrates a strong positive relationship with the sustainability of rural communities. Second, regional economic development primarily influences the sustainability of communities through its impact on locational conditions. Communities closer to the county and town experience a more pronounced positive effect from regional economic development. Thirdly, informal institutions inhibit the sustainable development of rural communities by obstructing the land rights reform process. Finally, for small-scale communities, the inhibitory effect of ecological fragility and the facilitating effects of regional economic development are more substantial, while labor outflow and informal institutions exert a pronounced inhibitory effect primarily on large-scale communities. For low-poverty communities, labor outflow exerts a more significant inhibitory effect on community sustainability. In contrast, for high-poverty communities, the regional economic development contributes more significantly to sustainability, while ecological fragility and informal institutions have a stronger inhibitory effect.

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Data availability

The data sets are not publicly available for privacy reasons, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Please contact the corresponding author (cjli3@gzu.edu.cn).

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Funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [72464005].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Digital Economy and Finance, Guizhou University of Commerce, Guiyang, 550025, China

    Dandan Yang

  2. School of Economics, Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, Guiyang, 550004, China

    Dandan Yang

  3. School of Management, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China

    Wei Zhang & Chengjiang Li

  4. School of Engineering, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS7005, Australia

    Chengjiang Li

  5. State Key Laboratory of Public Big Data, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China

    Jing Yang

  6. School of Public Management, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China

    Shiyuan Wang

Authors
  1. Dandan Yang
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  2. Wei Zhang
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  3. Chengjiang Li
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  4. Jing Yang
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Contributions

Dandan Yang: Writing-original draft, Methodology, Conceptualization; Wei Zhang: Writing-review & editing, Visualization, Supervision; Chengjiang Li: Writing-review & editing, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition; Jing Yang: Writing-review & editing, Formal analysis, Visualization; Shiyuan Wang: Formal analysis, Supervision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chengjiang Li.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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All participants were provided with information regarding the study and gave their written informed consent prior to participation. This study was conducted in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki and all applicable ethical guidelines. All study participants were fully anonymized before further analysis.

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Yang, D., Zhang, W., Li, C. et al. Research on factors affecting sustainable development in ecologically fragile areas based on a social-ecological system framework. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-37865-5

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  • Received: 25 December 2024

  • Accepted: 27 January 2026

  • Published: 04 February 2026

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-37865-5

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Keywords

  • Sustainable development
  • Rural communities
  • Ecologically fragile areas
  • Social-ecological system
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