Abstract
Ecological or environmental compensation policies are usually designed with multiple policy objectives such as protecting the ecological environment and promoting farmers’ livelihoods, but in the enforcement process, there are often inconsistencies between realistic choices and policy objectives. Based on pooled cross-section data from the 2017–2019 public announcement of the selection of ecological forest rangers (EFRs, who mainly refers to manage and protect forests, grasslands, deserts and rivers, and report or prevent the situation or behavior of the forest area disasters, animal and plant resources, and infrastructure damage in time) among the poor in Sichuan Province in China, we used the Probit model to analyze the influencing factors of the re-employment behavior of EFRs among the poor, with the aim of assessing the differences between central government goal positioning and local government enforcement options. We find that (1) EFRs from poor households who have not yet escaped poverty and have a high per capita income level are given priority to be re-employed. This finding shows that the policy of ecological forest rangers for the poor (PEFRP, it mainly refers to an environmental protection policy that only hires the poor) pays close attention to poverty reduction goals, but it does not consider the poorest people because the EFRs with a higher income obtain higher re-employment opportunities. (2) Age, health, and education, which represent the human capital level, have no significant impact on renewal. This finding shows that the local government has not jointly achieved the goal of “poverty reduction and environmental protection” in the enforcement of the PEFRP and has deviated from the initial goal positioning of the central government. Therefore, in order to achieve the multiple policy objectives such as poverty reduction and environmental protection together, future policy enforcement needs to be adjusted in terms of local administrative assessment and the selection and recruitment of EFRs.
Highlights
As the world’s most populous and largest developing country, China has played an important role in global poverty reduction, making tremendous contributions in this regard
Renewal, we use the probit binary selection model to evaluate the influencing factors of EFRs’ renewal behavior, and based on the poverty characteristics and human capital characteristics of renewed EFRs, we evaluate the consistency between target positioning of central government and the actual behavior of local governments in the PEFRP
A practical inspection of the enforcement of the EFR policies in the Wolong Special Zone and Pingwu and Qingchuan in Wenchuan County revealed that the choice behavior of the village group seems to indirectly prove the existence of the social capital hypothesis, but the inspection was limited by the content structure of the public data
Summary
As the world’s most populous and largest developing country, China has played an important role in global poverty reduction, making tremendous contributions in this regard. According to the current poverty standards in China, all poor people live in rural areas. According to the poverty standard of $327.72 USD/person/year (constant prices in 2010), the rural population in poverty at the end of 2019 was 5.15 million (distribution: 3.23 million in western China, 1.81 million in central China, and 470,000 in eastern China). The case we chose is Sichuan Province in China It was one of of thethe first provinces in the country to. It was one first provinces in the country start a pilot for public for posts EFRs. for It isEFRs
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
