Abstract: With all-round advancement of Middle Route Project of South-to-North Water Diversion, the pressure on ecological environment in water source area is bound to increase as well. How to coordinate the development and the ecological safety in water source area is a key issue. Among 6 poor counties in Shangluo water source area, 5 counties are national level ones and 1 county is provincial level one. So, the research on the coordination between development and ecological protection in this area is of typical significance. We construct the evaluation index system of ecological safety for Shangluo water source area using "pressure - state - response" conceptual model. With mean square deviation weighting method, we evaluate the ecological safety situation from 2004 to 2014 through calculating the ecological safety indexes. The results show: the ecological safety index of Shangluo water source area changed from 0.258 (Level 1) in 2004 to 0.718 (IV) in 2014; the ecological safety experienced a main turning point in 2009 and quickly entered a more secure state after 2010. The overall ecological safety of Shangluo water source area manifests a positive trend owing to the development of ecological economy.