Effect of Land Property Rights on Forest Resources in Southern China

Yang Yang, Hua Li, Long Cheng and Youliang Ning
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Yang Yang: School of Economics and Management, Xi’an University of Posts & Telecommunications, Xi’an 710061, China
Hua Li: College of Economics and Management, Northwest Agriculture & Forestry University, Yangling 712100, China
Long Cheng: School of Economics and Management, Xi’an University of Posts & Telecommunications, Xi’an 710061, China
Youliang Ning: Research Institute of Forestry Policy and Information, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 4, 1-15

Abstract: The land tenure reform is important for forest resource management worldwide. Since China initiated a new round of collective forestland tenure reform (CFTR) in 2003, improving forest output by clarifying property rights plays a crucial role in realizing sustainable forest resource management. Using survey data of 312 bamboo plantation households from Southern China, this paper empirically examines the impact path of land property rights on forest resources. The estimation results show that both the forestland use right and disposal right are able to significantly improve the forest output by encouraging households to invest and optimizing the allocation of forestry labor. Particularly, the results reveal that the use right has a positive impact on forest output through forestland investment. With regard to the disposal right, we find that it has a positive effect on forest output through forestland investment, but it has a negative impact on forest output through the forestry labor allocation. The findings of this study suggest that to promote the growth of forest resources, the government should endow households with a more complete set of rights, and further strengthen their understanding of property rights. In addition, our findings enhance the understanding of the collective forestland tenure reform in China; they also have implications for the decentralized management of forestry elsewhere in the world.

Keywords: land property right; forest resources; forest output; forestland investment; forestry labor allocation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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