Land Use/Cover Change and Its Policy Implications in Typical Agriculture-forest Ecotone of Central Jilin Province, China

During the 21st century, policies toward agriculture, forestry, and urbanization have emerged to ensure food security, ecological restoration, and human well-being by managing land in Northeast China. However, the integrated effects and relationships of various policies are still not well understood. This study observed the land use land cover changes in Central Jilin from 2000 to 2019 and, by considering policy involvement, aimed to understand the effects and trade-offs of policies. Results showed that the cropland, including dryland and rice paddy, and the forest, including coniferous forest and deciduous forest, are dominant land types in Central Jilin. During 2000–2019, the land changed diversely, of which the main changes were the expanded dryland (+0.43 million ha), the increased deciduous forest (+22 million ha), the decreased coniferous forest (−0.08 million ha), and the expanded urban settlement (+0.04 million ha). With these changes, despite the unit grain yield showing a rising trend, the yield contribution of Central Jilin to the national total decreased. The poor cultivating structure made for the cropland expansion and reduced the implementation space of environmental restoration projects such as the Grain to Green. Thus, in Central Jilin that transits from the agri-food production zone to the eco-regulation zone, environmental projects coexisted in a trade-off manner with agricultural policies that aim to liberate agricultural productivity. In the key urban agglomerations of Central Jilin, the increase in the proportion of green space improved the thermal environment and carbon balance. The gross domestic product of the large city and its local proportion also rose. These improvements benefited from the promotion of development policies and urbanization policies at key time points. In the future, it is necessary to coordinate agricultural policies and environmental projects and promote the progress of small- and medium-sized cities to ensure the equality of regional development. This study has implications for making decisions to revitalize Northeast China and researchers who inform decisions.