Abstract: There are rich and diverse ecological types in Erhai Lake Basin, diverse ethnic, ecological, and religious coexist, which present the ecological and cultural connotations of the coupling between the Cang’er ecosystem and local culture. The current task of ecological protection in the Erhai Lake Basin is arduous, and the protection and development of traditional ethnic culture are also facing challenges. To provide scientific decision-making basis for the high-quality development of the Erhai River Basin, this paper established an ecological and cultural evaluation system that emphasized both ecology and culture at the township level. This study found that: The ecological and cultural comprehensive index D values of Xizhou Town, Fengyu Town, and Wase Town in the Erhai Lake Basin were all above 0.5, making them the regions with the best ecological and cultural comprehensive development in the basin. The ecological and cultural comprehensive index D value of Dengchuan Town was relatively low, at 0.26. The well-developed areas of the cultural and ecological subsystems intersected with the Erhai Lake, ultimately forming a spatial pattern of ecological and cultural development radiating from the Erhai Lake Basin with Fengyu Town, Xizhou Town, and Wase Town as the core axis.The coupling and coordination of ecological and cultural subsystems in various townships within the basin were at moderate and mild levels of imbalance. Based on this, the Erhai Lake Basin was divided into four major development types: ecological and cultural collaborative protection zone, ecological and cultural collaborative development zone, ecological protection priority zone, and cultural development priority zone, and specific development suggestions are proposed.