Hidden biodiversity threats from fixed capital depreciation and regional inequality in China: Implications for conservation solutions

The continuous resource consumption and ecological externalities associated with the depreciation of China’s fixed assets pose systematic, yet often invisible, threats to biodiversity. This study constructs China’s yearly consecutive multi-regional input-output tables and a refined fixed capital investment database from 2000 to 2020, to support the spatial mismatch analysis between biodiversity responsibility and economic returns driven by capital depreciation. A structural decoupling, reflected in a Gini coefficient of 0.47, is observed as the ecological burdens are concentrated in southwestern resource-exporting provinces but eastern developed provinces capture value added through ecological outsourcing, and the use of assets in the transportation and real estate industries is the main factor causing the relocation of biodiversity risk areas. Strengthening budget management for fixed asset investment projects and extending the life of construction-related fixed assets can help reduce the biodiversity footprint, but have limited effects on reducing the inequality between provincial biodiversity loss and economic gains. This study underscores the urgent need to incorporate biodiversity metrics into fixed asset management and integrate regional policies to balance capital efficiency with ecological equity.