Study On The Reform Of The Collective Forestry Property Rights Institution And The Development Of Modern Forestry From The View Of Institutional Change

In the early 1980s, China began a widespread reform that practiced the household contract responsibility system replacing the production team system in rural areas. This reform has made our country's agriculture and the rural economy changed dramatically. Affected by the rural reform policy, the government took the same measures on the reform of collective forestry. However, the institutional change that allocated the forest to the family in the southern collective forestry areas did not appear the same encouraging situation as agricultural land reform did. In contrast, many regions still appeared large areas of deforestation. Why the similar reforms led to the different results utterly? Apart from the forestry own specificity, a fundamental issue is that the property rights institution of forestry is not suitable for the forestry development, such as ambiguous subjects of property rights, abstract operating entities, irregular transfer of forestry property rights, incompleted matching policies, vague path of development and so on. The lasting and interactive effects of these problems greatly reduced the mobility of forestry property rights, and affected the allocation efficiency of collective forest resources seriously. Thus, exploring the further institutionalized programs and policies to resolve the problem of collective forestry development is the basic background and subject of this research.This paper, based on the results of the study at home and abroad, takes full advantage of the theories and methods in the new institutional economics, social anthropology, forestry economics, and design the frame which is set up like this: the first section is to put forward questions, the second is to analyze questions, the third is to solve problems, and the last is to make clear conclusion and discussion, from the perspective of institutional change. The thesis includes 4 parts for 10 chapters. This paper, through analyzing the historical process and current situation of the institutional reform for collective forestry property rights, analyzed and judged the following five important fields: the system structure of collective forestry property rights, the choice of operating organizations, community management system, the reform of supporting policy, and the pattern of development, and put forward my own opinions and strategies, from the micro, meso and macro levels. In this process, a kind of critical perspective and innovative spirit are insisted. In order to provide a systematic theoretical support and institutional analysis means for improving the institutional reform of collective forestry property rights and promoting the sustainable development of modern forestry. The main research contents and conclusions are as follows:Firstly, the collective forestry rights system change was a mandatory government-driven change. According to the degree of separation between the ownership and the right to use of woodland and forest , the historical process of the collective forestry rights system is divided into five important historical phase. The study found that China's collective forestry rights was changeable, and it made the forestry ownership become more blurred. Foresters' enthusiasm continues to reduce. Each major change of forestry rights system was implemented by the governments' orders, directives, decisions, laws and regulations etc. such mandatory means and foresters' operating decision-making was affected by the government policy to some degree.Secondly, the paper suggests a general path and idea for the collective forestry rights reform and institutional changes. The Study suggests that the reform of collective forestry rights institution is a process of institutional change and innovation, and follows the general path of institutional change. The First Action Group (Government) led institutional change and institutional innovation process. The Second Action Group (Farmers) are actors that through clarifying property rights, implementing management entities, regulating the transfer of forestry property rights, improving important aspect of reform such as matching polices, achieve the objectives of property rights reform and forestry development.Thirdly, the paper taking Hubei Province as an example, using multiple regression model, quantitatively estimates the factors that affecting forestry economic growth in Hubei. Evidences show that the breeding of forest, forest products processing industries and logging affect evidently the development of forestry industry, but the contribution of forest products processing industry is the lowest. The results showed that the collective forestry property rights institutional reform is an important measure to optimize the structure of forestry production, so as to achieve the sustainable development of forestry.Fourthly, the paper set up the theoretical analysis framework and mathematical analysis model for the institutional structure of collective forestry property rights, and put the factor of institutional change into math model, which reveals the main impact factors affecting the path and efficiency of collective forestry property rights institutional changes. According to the institutional function analysis, modern forestry property rights system can be divided into the internal system and external system. The study found that external system led by government, take equity and stability as its goal and implements the initial allocation of forestry property rights. Thesis draws into a mandatory institutional factor "θ", and gets an exponential function equation to describe the mandatory change of external institution of collective forestry rights. Internal system achieves the secondary allocation of forestry property rights, and takes the efficiency and incentive as its objective. It promoted by farmers and belongs to the induced institutional change. Thesis pulls into system-induced factor "φ", and inferred that the internal system of collective forestry rights changes with local social average capital just in per capita power function equation. The combination of two types of institutional change constitutes the theoretical analytical frameworks and builds a dynamic mathematical model for the collective forestry rights institution, which found the main factors affecting the path and efficiency of collective forestry rights institutional changes. This conclusion provides an important institutional analysis method for improving the policy systems of the collective forestry rights institutional reform, which is critical for decision-making and theory innovations.Fifthly, the paper put social capital variables into the farmers' decision-making analysis model, and found the conditions of the optimal decision-making. The processes of "dividing the forestry property rights to the family" are autonomous decision-making, but the decision-making impact variables are different because of the difference of economic and social conditions and social capitals. Thesis sets up the mathematical model of farmers' decision-making, and describes the mathematical relations between the per social capital change rate and the mandatory regime factor "θ" and the system-induced factor "φ", which extends the explained border of institutional analysis model, and further expounds the relationships between social capital and the institution change paths of collective forestry property rights. The analysis methods and perspectives are rare in the present domestic researches, therefore, it is valuable and innovative.Sixthly, the community forestry is an effective management institution for the collective forestry resource management. In order to reduce system costs of the technical implementation and improve the allocation efficiency of natural resources and social resources, the paper suggests that as a system arrangement—community forestry that use the forest resources sustainable and improve the ecological environment can make a good combination between technical measures of biological and socio-economic means. The participating approach of villagers involved in community forestry shows various trends, because of the impact of their different economic conditions and costs.Seventhly, the reform and improvement of forestry policies are essential conditions of the collective forestry property rights institution reform. The study found because of defective forestry policies, the new forestry property rights institution will be conflict with other systems, reducing the efficiency of the institutional innovation. This paper suggests some important reform and improving measures, which is related to collective forestry property rights institutional reform, such as forest harvesting quota system, forestry tax and fee system, eco-efficient compensation system, woodland management, forestry management and other essential service system. These measures can effectually improve the policy system of the collective forestry property rights institutional reform.Eighthly, the eco-forestry model can be the way of sustainable development of modern forestry. The paper insists that the ultimate goal in the reform of collective forestry property rights institution is to promote the sustainable development of modern forestry. The eco-forestry development model is the way to achieve this goal and the inherent power of eco-forestry sustainable development is the eco-economic productivity. From the point of combination of productivity factors, the paper describes the mechanism of eco-economic productivity, the operation model of the eco-economic project and proposes "four-policy-path", which greatly expands the current "three-system" forestry policy frameworks.