Evaluating the green development level of marine molluscan shellfish aquaculture industry and analyzing obstacle factors that hinder its improvement: The case of China

As a Chinese term, green development (GD) is defined as a development that simultaneously fulfills the three criteria of environmental sustainability, social acceptability, and economic profitability. Based on this understanding, we construct a GD indicator system, and integrate the multi-indicator comprehensive evaluation model and factor analysis to evaluate the green development level (GDL) of marine molluscan shellfish aquaculture industry (MMSAI) in China and its nine provincial regions from 2001 to 2021. To identify the main factors constraining the improvement of the GDL of China's MMSAI, we calculate the obstacle degree (OD) of each indicator using the OD model. Results indicate that during the past 20 years, the GDL of China's MMSAI at the national level has generally shown a trend of initially downward and then upward fluctuation. In contrast, the GDL of MMSAI across different provincial regions is characterized by significant spatiotemporal variations, which can be roughly classified into four levels: high, medium-high, medium-low, and low. At the national level, industry-led employment is the most crucial obstacle factor negatively influencing GDL growth, followed by industrial growth potential, industrial support capacity, and the income-generating effect of aquaculturists. Obstacle factors and their degrees of influence vary across provincial regions, exhibiting both similarities and notable differences. To overcome those obstacles, we suggest that China should consolidate the environmental-social-economic bases and nourish its MMSAI's vitality, enhance rule- and organization-building to ensure good governance, promote technological advancements to empower development, and achieve the codevelopment of MMSAI with other economic activities and communities through integrated planning and management. • As a Chinese term, green development is defined as a development that simultaneously fulfills the three criteria of environmental sustainability, social acceptability, and economic profitability. • A green development indicator system is constructed for the marine molluscan shellfish aquaculture industry, with 12 indicators selected from economic, social and environmental dimensions.