The impact of Nanshan National Park concession policy on farmers' income in China

Abstract

National parks shoulder two essential responsibilities: environmental protection and community development, so the development of national parks has attracted much attention. To explore the effectiveness of China's national park system in promoting community economic development, we investigated Nanshan National Park (NNP). Based on the micro income data of 341 households in the NNP in 2018 and 2019, this paper studied the impact of the concession policy and the forest land transfer policy of NNP on family income. The results show that implementing both policies together can increase the total income of farmers. Implementing the concession policy alone will increase the operating income of the residents; implementing the forest land transfer policy will increase their property income. For the former group of farmers, the source of their family income is the operating income; for the latter group, the wage is their most basic and most important source of income, which is true to most farmers in the national park. Although the national park system does increase farmers' income, it will widen the income gap among farmers in the park. The regression results show that whether they have served as village leaders or not and whether they have received vocational training and other factors will affect farmers' policy participation. Therefore, the construction of the national park system needs to enhance the implementing awareness of non-participating residents and pay attention to their needs.