Balancing Security, Development, and Ecology in Border Land Governance: An SDET Diagnostic Framework and Flexible Authorization Pathway for Advancing the SDGs in China

Abstract

Border regions are where sovereign security, economic development, and ecological protection collide most acutely. These competing demands often stall progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, most land governance frameworks are built for inland agricultural or urban settings. They rarely address how rigid security constraints reshape institutional arrangements for SDG-aligned land use in border regions. Addressing this gap requires both diagnosis and institutional design. This study develops a framework that combines a Security-Development-Ecology Triad (SDET) diagnostic model with a customized Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) system. The framework is applied to China’s border collaborative spatial legislation. This study draws on 47 policy and legal documents (2012–2025), three internal legislative consultation minutes, and nine semi-structured interviews. Three imbalanced cases—the Lancang River basin in Yunnan, Pingxiang Port in Guangxi, and the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park (Jilin–Heilongjiang)—are compared with a balanced reference case of black soil protection in Northeast China. The SDET model uses three measurable indicators: agenda-setting veto power, clause-weight tilt, and preset legality-review thresholds. These capture how security priorities reshape the organizational-legal prerequisites of land governance: actor eligibility, authority boundaries, and entry-into-force rules. Three imbalance patterns emerge: development–ecology disjunction, security–development squeeze, and multidimensional security–development–ecology tension. The SIA component translates seven SDG targets (SDGs 1, 6, 8, 10, 15, 16, and 17) into auditable legislative criteria. It provides the calibration basis for flexible authorization of land governance. Based on the diagnosis, a three-stage flexible pathway is proposed: ecology-unit horizontal collaboration, dynamic authority lists under subsidiarity, and security-development synergy cultivation. The framework converts securitization pressures into measurable institutional indicators. It offers context-specific policy tools for China and other Global South border regions seeking to balance security, development, and ecology under centralized governance.