Uncovering the patterns and driving forces of virtual forestland flows in China

Abstract

Nowadays, virtual land use related to consumption and trade flows has become an important part of land use. However, there has been little discussion about virtual forestland use. Therefore, this study performs the multi-regional input-output model on virtual forestland use and its changes in thirty provinces in China. And the influencing factors behind the dynamics of virtual forestland have been explored through the structural decomposition analysis. The results show that the area of virtual forestland embodied in trade was 673,277 km2 and 566,791 km2 in 2007 and 2012, equivalent to 32.14% and 27.03% of the total forestland area in China, respectively. There was north to east coast virtual forestland trade mode in China. The developed provinces or cities in China such as Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin and Guangdong have a disproportionate share of virtual forestland imports (over 90%) from least developed provinces and forest-rich provinces. In addition, 11.06% and 7.47% of China's total forestland in 2007 and 2012 was used to supply consumption of foreign countries and regions. In addition, forestland use intensity and consumption volume were the main reasons for the dynamic changes of virtual forestland in most provinces. Through the exploration of the virtual forestland flow pattern helps to develop forestland conservation and restoration policies from the consumer side and achieve sustainable development of China's forest land.