Abstract
(1) Background: It is of great significance to evaluate the impact of forestry subsidies on the income of forest farmers to improve policy and enhance efficiency. (2) Methods: Based on the static panel data of household tracking surveys from 2014 to 2018 in Sichuan, Liaoning, and Zhejiang provinces in China, the impacts of forestry subsidies on forest farmer income and impact paths were systematically verified via parameter estimation with the Fixed-Effect model. (3) Results: Forestry subsidies significantly increased forest farmer income. The impact paths could be summarized as follows: First, from the perspective of operating income, forestry subsidies effectively motivated forestry production and promoted the expenditure on forestry production, and thus increased forest farmer operating income. Second, from the perspective of wage income, forestry subsidy policies played a negative role in releasing the forest farmer labor force for off-farm employment. Third, from the perspective of transfer income as a kind of transferred governmental financial subsidy, forestry subsidies covered a large proportion of transfer income for forest farmers. (4) Conclusions: Forestry subsidies could directly increase the transfer income, effectively improve the forestry production capacity, and increase the income of forest farmers. However, forestry subsidies could also bind forest farmers to forestry production to a certain extent, which was not conducive to the liberation of the labor force.
Highlights
IntroductionDuring 2009–2010, the Chinese central government successively launched the Afforestation, Forest Insurance Premium, Forest Tending, and the Seeds and Saplings subsidies
Based on the survey data of forest farmers in Sichuan, Liaoning, and Zhejiang provinces from 2014 to 2018, we established static panel models and used the FixedEffect model to systematically analyze the impact of forestry subsidies on forest farmer income
Our research showed that forestry subsidies had a significant positive impact on the income of forest farmers, and the impact of forestry subsidies on forest farmer income could be realized through increasing operating and transfer income
Summary
During 2009–2010, the Chinese central government successively launched the Afforestation, Forest Insurance Premium, Forest Tending, and the Seeds and Saplings subsidies. The amount of these forestry subsidies increased steadily from USD 0.93 billion in 2011 to USD 2.15 billion in 2018 (USD 1 was equivalent to an average RMB 6.61 in 2018), with an amount of USD 13.01 billion cumulatively and an average increment of 12.70%. The government offers a one-off grant to forest operators after afforestation and forest tending are completed according to relevant technical standards and a Forest Management Plan. While the objects of the Seeds and Saplings Subsidy are national key forest seed bases and forest germplasm resource banks, the objective of the Forest Insurance
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