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Special Issue "Changes in the Value of Forest Resources: Impacts of Human Activities"

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A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Economics, Policy, and Social Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2023 | Viewed by 4965

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Baodong Cheng

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Guest Editor

School of Economics and Management, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: forest product market and trade; timber safety; forest transformation; forest city; resource economics; environmental economics; environmental management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Xiaodi Zhao
E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor

Research Institute of Forestry Policy and Information, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Interests: natural resource and environmental economy: value accounting and transformation of ecological products; major reform and high-quality development of forestry

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

On 15 August 2005, the Secretary of Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, Xi Jinping, first made the scientific conclusion that “Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” (the “Two Mountains” concept), a creative explanation of the unity of opposites relationship between economic development and environmental protection. Over the past 17 years, the concept of "Two Mountains" has profoundly changed China and deeply connected with the world. After being tested both in practice and theory, it has increasingly shown the great power of truth and become a theoretical and practical guide for green development in the new era.

This Special Issue intends to deeply understand and analyze the relationship between human socioeconomic activities and natural resources such as forests. We encourage the submission of studies from all scientific fields, including methodological approaches and empirical and case studies, to advance scientific knowledge and promote better public policy making and public awareness. We encourage studies at multiple levels (international, national, regional, community, and individual) as well as those considering spatiotemporal concerns. Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary investigations are particularly welcome.

Prof. Dr. Baodong Cheng
Dr. Xiaodi Zhao
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

ecosystem service valuation
socioeconomic activities
ecological products
carbon sink
agricultural, rural, and forestry policies
sustainable forest management
national park
community sustainable development

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Open AccessArticle

Why Agree to a Forest Easement? Perception of the Residents about the Adaptation of the Conservation Easement in Qianjiangyuan National Park

Siyuan He

and

Yu Wei

Forests 2023, 14(5), 872; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14050872 - 24 Apr 2023

Viewed by 402

Abstract

Conservation easements (CEs) were introduced in the Chinese context to resolve the conflict between rural land use and area-based conservation measures. As conservation easements are usually set on private lands, little is known about their adaptation to the collective land tenure. We introduced a social-psychological aspect to sustainable livelihoods (SL) for an integrated decision-making mechanism to assess rural residents’ motivations for granting CEs. We surveyed farmers in the Qianjiangyuan National Park pilot area in order to explore how tangible factors, i.e., the livelihood assets, and intangible factors, i.e., farmers’ perceptions of the livelihood environment, affected their true feeling of conservation easements. Results suggested that CEs that were adapted to the collectively-owned forestland followed a well-established grassroots democracy but sacrificed the CE’s diversity in restricted uses tailored to specific landowners and properties. Institutional capital and perception of the economic environment appeared most important to affect farmers’ acceptance of CEs. Furthermore, the livelihood assets affected farmers’ perception of the livelihood environment, and their acceptance of CEs affected the perception of policy outcomes. Overall, our findings demonstrate the acceptance of conservation easements as a livelihood strategic choice and strengthen the importance of securing economic rights in the changing institutional environment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Changes in the Value of Forest Resources: Impacts of Human Activities)

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Open AccessArticle

Has the Development of the Non-Timber Forest Products Industry Achieved Poverty Alleviation? Evidence from Lower-Income Forest Areas in Yunnan Province

and

Forests 2023, 14(4), 776; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14040776 - 10 Apr 2023

Viewed by 1449

Abstract

Considering the notion that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”, the effective exploitation of the economic value of forest resources is an important research topic, especially in forest-rich areas. The development of the non-timber forest products (NTFPs) industry has promoted both ecological and economic benefits and has effectively improved farmers’ incomes while protecting forest resources. In order to evaluate the effects of the NTFPs industry on sustaining farmers’ livelihoods and protecting ecological environments, we constructed a performance evaluation index system to determine the poverty alleviation performance of the NTFPs industry in Yunnan Province using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which covered three aspects: the achievement of poverty alleviation, the sustainability of poverty alleviation and satisfaction with poverty alleviation. Then, we selected Sanhe Village in Nujiang Prefecture, Yunnan Province, as an example to verify and rationalize the evaluation index system and comprehensively evaluate the poverty alleviation performance of the NTFPs industry. Based on data from questionnaires and field interviews, we found the following: (1) the overall poverty alleviation performance of the NTFPs industry in Sanhe Village was 79.33, which indicated that the effect was good; (2) the scores for the achievement of poverty alleviation, the sustainability of poverty alleviation and satisfaction with poverty alleviation were 50.56, 18.57 and 10.2, respectively; (3) there were some problems with the poverty alleviation performance of the NTFPs industry, such as limited capital investments, the weak roles of cooperatives and enterprises, the low enthusiasm of lower-income households and incomplete poverty alleviation projects. Finally, we devised some suggestions that could improve the poverty alleviation performance of the NTFPs industry. This paper presents the performance evaluation index system for the poverty alleviation performance of the NTFPs industry, which could provide a reference for evaluating the developmental effects of the NTFPs industry in other lower-income forest areas. Through our empirical analysis of the development effects of the NTFPs industry on farmers’ livelihoods and ecological environments in Sanhe Village, we found that the development of the NTFPs industry significantly improved the farmers’ livelihoods and ecological environments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Changes in the Value of Forest Resources: Impacts of Human Activities)

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Open AccessArticle

How Did the Comprehensive Commercial Logging Ban Policy Affect the Life Satisfaction of Residents in National Forest Areas? A Case Study in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia

Yapei Liu

Rong Zhao

and

Shaozhi Chen

Forests 2023, 14(4), 686; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14040686 - 27 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1040

Abstract

To protect the forest ecological environment, China implemented the Comprehensive Commercial Logging Ban Policy (CCLBP), yet it has a major impact on forest residents. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the CCLBP from the perspective of the satisfaction of residents. In this study, we used 242 questionnaires from residents in national forest areas in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia to evaluate satisfaction and its influencing factors by factor analysis combined with the entropy method and multiple linear regression, respectively. The results show that: (1) the overall policy satisfaction of residents in national forest areas is 60.9, which is lower than the theoretical neutral value of policy satisfaction. Increasing employment opportunities, transferring surplus employees and developing forest economy are important to improve the satisfaction of residents. (2) Life satisfaction was higher in the high-income group than in the low-income group. Increasing wage income can improve the satisfaction of residents in national forest areas. (3) The satisfaction of the worker group was significantly higher than that of the forest farmer group. Improving job stability and policy equity are important to promote life satisfaction of residents in national forest areas. (4) The satisfaction of the Yichun Forest Industry Group was significantly higher than the Inner Mongolia Forest Group. Natural resource endowment and adaptability to the CCLBP are the main factors affecting the satisfaction of different forest industry groups. At the same time, focusing on the institutional supply of external support policies in order to provide them access to information, employment advice and other services is very significant. This research provides a new approach to studying the CCLBP, which is of great practical significance for raising the wellbeing index of national forest areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Changes in the Value of Forest Resources: Impacts of Human Activities)

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Open AccessArticle

Effects of Human Social-Economic Activities on Vegetation Suitability in the Yellow River Basin, China

Qingjun Wu

Junfeng Zhu

and

Xiaodi Zhao

Forests 2023, 14(2), 234; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14020234 - 27 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1027

Abstract

Vegetation suitability assessment is the premise of scientific vegetation restoration and identifying its effect factors is conducive to imposing more targeted measures. In this paper, we take 24 social-economic factors that may affect vegetation suitability as indicators and construct the three criterion layers of production, life and policy. Then, we use cross-sectional data of 448 counties in the Yellow River Basin during 2018 to analyze how the social-economic factors influence the vegetation suitability. The results show that human activity factors affecting vegetation suitability vary a lot for counties in different reaches of the Yellow River. To be specific, overirrigation and overfertilization have negative influences on vegetation suitability in upstream counties. In the middle reaches, development of the secondary industry and urbanization have the most significant negative effects on vegetation suitability. When it comes to the lower reaches, economic advance contributes to the vegetation suitability, but an excessive population density counteracts this positive effect. We also find that the implementation of major ecological projects has played a positive role in improving vegetation suitability in the last few years, and the more targeted the policies are, the more significant their effects will be. In summary, there is no doubt that overfrequent human activities can interfere with the vegetation suitability. At the end of this article, we put forward some pertinent suggestions on how to better play the subjective initiative of human activities to improve the suitability of vegetation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Changes in the Value of Forest Resources: Impacts of Human Activities)

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Open AccessEssay

The Impact of Grassroots Forestry Institutions on Forest Carbon Sequestration: Evidence from China’s Collective Forests

and

Forests 2023, 14(3), 643; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14030643 - 21 Mar 2023

Viewed by 498

Abstract

Many countries have established grassroots forestry institutions to manage and protect small-scale forestry resources and provide technology and services to private foresters. Since the inception of township forestry workstations (TFWs) in China almost 70 years ago, TFW has supported resource protection and forest property reform. In this paper, we employ fixed effect models to test the effects of TFW on collective forest carbon density and provide evidence for improving the quality of collective forests. Our results demonstrate that TFWs in China improve the carbon density of collective forests by performing forestry management and service functions. However, significant differences in TFWs exist under different management systems, and the dual leadership township forestry workstation (D_TWF) is more effective in increasing the carbon density of collective forests. The management system’s heterogeneity directly affects its performance, with D_TWF performing better management functions and the single leadership township forestry workstation (S_TWF) performing better service functions. These results underscore the importance of reforming the TFW management system in accordance with local conditions. In areas with abundant forest resources, the TFW’s management system should shift to single leadership (jurisdictional or vertical management). In forest resource-scarce regions, the TFW’s management system should change to dual leadership. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Changes in the Value of Forest Resources: Impacts of Human Activities)

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