Can Ecological Protection Affect High-Quality Forestry Development?—A Case Study of China

Abstract

As the global ecological environment faces serious challenges, ecological protection has attracted global attention. As a basic industry of the national economy, China’s total forestry output value is 8.04 trillion RMB in 2022. This study aims to assess the impact of ecological protection on high-quality forestry development and find its mechanism by using provincial panel data from 2010 to 2021 in China. The variables of environmental regulation and urbanization level were introduced. The benchmark regression model, mediation effect model and threshold effect model were employed for empirical analysis. The results show that: (1) The estimated ecological protection coefficient is 0.146. The ecological protection level significantly promotes high-quality forestry development; (2) The effect is more significant in the western region and the area with higher forest coverage. The estimated coefficients are 1.392 and 0.745. It is less affected by the marginal effect of the ecological protection level in the east; (3) The estimated environmental regulation coefficient is −0.021. Ecological protection promotes high-quality forestry development by reducing environmental regulations; (4) The impact increases with the level of urbanization. The p-value of the double threshold is 0.073. Therefore, policy recommendations are proposed to strengthen ecological protection and promote high-quality forestry development.