Classification-based forest management program and farmers' income: evidence from collective forest area in southern China
China Agricultural Economic Review
ISSN: 1756-137X
Article publication date: 2 February 2022
Issue publication date: 9 August 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This article's purpose is to examine the effect of a Classification-Based Forest Management (CFM) program on farmers' income and determine whether its effect varies with the degree of farmers' concurrent occupations.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use representative panel survey data from Longquan to explore the welfare effects of CFM on farmers. The analysis uses differences-in-differences with propensity score matching (PSM-DID) estimation techniques to deal with endogeneity problems when farmers make the decision to participate in CFM.
Findings
The results show that CFM has a positive effect on part-time forestry households (where forestry income accounts for between 5 and 50% of total income). In contrast, it has a negative impact on full-time forestry households (forestry income accounts for more than 50%), and no clear effect on nonforestry households whose forestry income is less than 5%. This research also shows that the positive effect of CFM on farmers' total income is mainly due to increase of off-farm income driven by CFM, while the negative effects consist of CFM's reduction of forestry income.
Originality/value
The extent of CFM's economic benefits to farmers is uncertain and largely unexplored. This paper analyzes the impact of CFM on income structure to explore the mechanisms explaining its effects on farmers' income. There are still challenges in ensuring the reliability and accuracy of CFM assessment. This paper collected natural experimental data and used the estimation technology of PSM-DID to solve the possible endogeneity problems.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are indebted to the anonymous reviewers and the editor. The authors thank Zhigang Xu, the professor at Nanjing Agricultural University, and Junfei Bai, the professor at China Agricultural University, for their invaluable assistance in helping us revise this study. All errors are our own.
Citation
Xu, C., Cheng, B. and Zhang, M. (2022), "Classification-based forest management program and farmers' income: evidence from collective forest area in southern China", China Agricultural Economic Review, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 646-659. https://doi.org/10.1108/CAER-07-2021-0127
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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