Has China’s New Round of Collective Forestland Tenure Reform Caused an Increase in Rural Labor Transfer?

Liu Yang,Yang Ren

doi:10.3390/land9090284

Abstract

To investigate the rural labor transfer effects of China’s Collective Forestland Tenure Reform (CFTR), we employ binary probit models by using survey data of 694 households from China’s northern collective forest areas. The results reveal that the improved property rights, including rights for forestland use, disposition and beneficiaries, and refined tenure security under the CFTR generally have caused an increase in rural household labor transfer to the nonfarm sector. Besides, we find that forestry-dominated households’ risk perceptions on forestland reallocation and expropriation have significantly dampened rural labor transfer to the nonfarm sector. These can be explained by the fact that the strengthening of forestland property rights brought about by the CFTR can promote an increase in the forestland transfer rate and improve the forestland relocation efficiency. This, in turn, will lead to the liberation of the rural labor force, increase the non-agricultural employment rate of farmers, and ultimately lead to an increase in the rural labor transfer to the nonfarm sector. Therefore, these findings indicate that to motivate rural labor transfer to the nonfarm sector in the context of the Chinese government’s call for urbanization and other developing countries’ handling of similar circumstances, policymakers should further refine household forestland property rights and better protect forestland tenure security by continuing to improve related forestry policies.

Highlights

There are about 300.97 million hectares of forestland in China, of which 38% comprises state-owned forestland and 62% comprises collective-owned forestland [1]
It is apparent that the Collective Forestland Tenure Reform (CFTR) did promote forestland resource integration and rural labor resource flow to the nonfarm sector
In the context of China’s Collective Forestland Tenure Reform (CFTR), building on recent research advances, this study makes efforts to reveal the theoretical relationship between the CFTR and rural household labor transfer by employing binary probit models, using rural household survey data from three provinces located in the southern collective region of China

Summary

Introduction

There are about 300.97 million hectares of forestland in China, of which 38% comprises state-owned forestland and 62% comprises collective-owned forestland [1]. Before 2002, the property rights and tenure security of China’s collective forestland remained disordered and unstable, which significantly undermined the production efficiency of the collective forests [2]. This is mainly why 62% of the collective forestland contributes less than 43% of the total timber production of China and why the stocking level of the collective forestland is far lower than the international average standards [3]. To protect the interests of farmers engaged in forestry production and improve the production efficiency of the collective forestland, China’s Collective Forestland Tenure Reform (CFTR) was launched.

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion