| Due to the production function and ecological function of forestland,more and more people pay attention to forest resources.In China,collective forest occupies more than sixty percent of the forest land area.How to maximize the use of collective forest resources and exert the best production function directly affect farmers' livelihoods and rural economic development.But for a long time,since the collective forest property right and responsibility are unclear,the problem of collective forest quality is poor and low,as well as the efficiency of production has not been well resolved.Therefore,with the farmland household contract responsibility system and direction of"Three-Fixes" forestry reform,Chinese government began the new round of collective forest tenure reform,the subject of which is "clear the property rights,liberalize the management,the realization of the right to dispose of the forestry resource,and insure the income rights" in 2003.The new round of forest tenure reform significantly promote the production input and afforestation investment,increase the price of forestland circulation,and enhance the farmers' income in short term.But at the same time,the reform has also brought some problems which need to address urgently,e.g.forest land decentralized management,standardize the circulation of forestland or forest,and how to motivate farmers to sustainable use of forest resource and get sustainable forestry income under the condition of market economy after the reform.These problems need to be solved by the government and focused on by the scholars after the reform.There are some implications after reviewing the domestic and foreign related studies which are about the performance of the new round of collective forest tenure reform from the micro level.On the one hand,they are focusing on the analysis of the impacts of the household's subjective evaluation of the reform policy or the implementation of the policy(cognition)on household's behaviors or forestry income,and few pay attention to the effect of property rights,especially the perceived property rights.According to the views of institution economics,the institution,especially the property right institution system is an important factor of economic development.Institution affect the economic development through the basic rules established by the institution,which directly control all public or private's behavior and affect the distribution of income,efficiency of resource allocation and the development of labor resources.Therefore,new collective forest property right system established during the new round of collective forest tenure reform will affect farmers' behavior of forestry production and income.The cognitions of the property rights are the basis of household's decision-making and action.Only taking it as the central factor to analysis household's behaviour that we could better understand the behaviors of farmers after the reform.Therefore,study from the perspective of property rights,especially the perspective of perceived property rights will be necessary for scientifically and comprehensively evaluating the performance of the new round of forest tenure reform.On the other hand,the existing researches pay much more attention to the short-term effects of the reform,but neglect the analysis of the long-term operating performance.As the long cycle of forestry production and the lag of policy implementation may exist,the performance of forestry production usually needs a long time.So analysis of the long-term performance is much more important.So taking the example of Suichuan County and Fengcheng City in Jiangxi,which joined the new round of forest tenure reform earlier,we constructed the research framework of "collective forest property right reform(change of forestland property rights)--households' behaviors--the economic performance of the reform".First,we give the theoretical analysis of the changes of household's forestland property rights and its impacts on household behaviours(forestland investment and forestland transfer)and income after the reform,and then use the related analysis methods to carry on the empirical test in order to provide useful policy implications for further improving the collective forestland property right,promoting the utilization efficiency of forestland and increasing farmers' long-term income.Before the analysis of the effects of the new round of collective forest tenure reform on household's behaviours and income,it is necessary to know the changes of forest property rights brought by the reform.So,firstly,the research looks back the process of China's collective forest tenure reform since Chinese reform and opening up,the core of which is"forestry management responsibility system" and analysis the characteristics of forestland property rights,especially the change of integrity and security of farmers' forestland property rights during different stages.The results show that China's collective forest property rights reform since the reform and opening up gradually strengthens the farmers'collective forest property rights at the policy level,improves the integrity and security of farmers' forestland property rights.But because China has a vast territory and the implementation of law in different regions may different,the de facto and perceived property rights may be inconsistent with the law or policy level.As farmers' perception of property rights is the basis of their decision-making,and the major reform measure of the new collective forest tenure is to give farmers more integrity forestland property rights,this study focus on the impacts of integrity of property rights on farmers' perceived property rights security through constructing an econometric model and using Mmultinomial Probit and Ordered Probit.The results show that:(1)household's perceived forestland property right integrity is an important factor of affecting households' forestland property rights security perception and the indicators that affect tenure security perception with different sources may be different.Households' forestland reallocation risk expectation is mainly influenced by the integrity degree cognition of the right to cut down trees,rights to abandon forestland and transfer rights;households' forestland expropriation risk expectation is mainly affected by their integrity degree cognition of mortgage rights,the right to cut down trees and rights to abandon forestland.(2)We also find that an increase in the integrity degree cognition of rights may not always promote households' tenure security perception,such as the significant negative impact of improvement in the integrity degree cognition of rights to cut down trees on households' expectation about future land non-reallocation and non-expropriation,and the impact of the increased integrity cognition of rights to abandon land on households' expectation about future land non-expropriation.Those results may be related to the "Three-Fixes" reform of the forestry and the experience of withdrawing the idle or barren farmland.(3)The same right cognition indicator may have different impacts on the tenure security perception resulted from land reallocation and nation-level or village collective land expropriation.For instance,the improved integrity degree of rights to abandon land can significantly stimulate households to perceive that future land reallocation will not take place,but have a negative effect on households'expectation about land non-expropriation in the future.As the same right cognition indicator may affect tenure security perception emerging from different sources in the opposite direction and the positive and negative effects may be offset each other,the right cognition indicators may eventually have no obvious impact on households' overall perception of their tenure security indicators.Study on the impact of forest property rights on households' economic behaviors.Base on the research of the impacts of the new round of forest tenure reform on farmers'forest property rights,this paper further analyzes the impacts of forestland property rights on forestland investment and forestland transfer behaviors which are important for obtaining a higher forestry income.First,we analyze the impacts of forestland property right on household forestland investment behavior and transfer behavior at the theoretical level.Then we use Double Hurdle model to test the impacts of forestland property rights on households' forestland investment behavior(the possibility and level of inputs),as well as the Probit and Tobit models to test the impacts of forestland property rights on farmers'land transfer decision-making(the possibility and area of forestland transferring in for household).The results show that:(1)The theoretical analysis implies that forest property rights integrity and security affect forestland investment through "income effect","assurance effect","collateralizability effect","realizability effect",and affect forestland transfer through "property rights implement strengthening effect","property endowment strengthening effect","transaction cost reduction effect" and "land-demand signal effect"(various effects are defined in the "theoretical analysis" parts of Chapter 6 and Chapter7).However,the integrity and security of forestland property rights need a series of indicators that related to forestland property rights to measure(see the "variable selection and expected effects" part in Chapter 5).Although their impacts on farmers' forestland investment or transfer behavior can reflect the various effects in different degree,it is difficult for the empirical test to quantity the size of each effects resulted from a specific index.So we can only get the comprehensive effects of a specific index on household forestland transfer or investment behaviors.(2)The empirical results show that households'perception on tenure integrity and security are important factors for forestland investments.More specified,households are more likely to invest capital on the plots which are expected less likely to be expropriated or reallocated in the future and are more likely to use labor and use more labor on the plots which are expected less likely to be reallocated in the future.Furthermore,we find that households' perception on the integrity of land use rights has a positive effect on the intensity of capital investment and labor use,while households' perception on the integrity of land transfer rights has a negative effect on the use of capital investment and labor use on forestland as the forestland investment can not be fully taken back and it has a very significant sunk costs;The households who perceive more complete transfer rights and less probability of forestland redistribution or expropriation are more likely to transfer in forestland and transfer in more forestland.In the absence of well-functioning rural social security,households that perceive more complete forest use rights reduce the possibility and quantity of transferring in forestland because of strong "property endowment strengthening effect".The empirical results further indicate that households who perceive more complete abandon rights of forestland have less possibility and quantity of transferring in forestland as a result of potential increase in real option value of forestland transfer.Through affecting farmers' forestland investment behavior and forestland transfer behavior,the Forestland property rights may affect the forestry production factors allocation,and indirectly affect the efficiency of farmers' forestry management and forest management income,especially households' long-term management income which is closely related to the productivity.Therefore,this paper further uses Tobit model to examine the relationship between farmers perceived forestland property rights and their long-term forestry management income.The theoretical analysis shows that the forestland property rights can affect households' forestry management efficiency and then long-term forestry management income through "investment incentive effect" and "resources allocation effect",and the impacts of the forestland property rights on forestry management efficiency and forestry income are uncertain as the forestland property rights integrity and security may have opposite effects on forestland investment or forestland transfer(see"theoretical analysis" part in Chapter8).The empirical results show that:after the new round of collective forest tenure reform,households' long-term forestry management income is closely related to their perceived forestland property rights.For example,as time goes on,the mortgage right can increase forest investment or incentive the forestland transfer,and promote the households' long-term forestry management income;the abandoned rights increase households' right to dispose of forestland.It may reduce investment in forest management and reduce the possibility and area of forestland transferring in for household,and negatively affect farmers' long-term forestry management income;Use rights can incentive farmers to invest more on forestland,but negatively affect household to transfer in forestland,finally show a negative impacts on households' long-term forestry management income.Although transfer rights promote farmers to transfer in forestland,it has a negative impact on households'long-term forestry management income when controlling capital investment and labor use.It may be because at present the households' skills for large-scale forestland management are not good enough.Reduction of the expropriation risk of forestland is conducive to improve the households' long-term forestry operating income as it can promote the investment effect and distribution effect.Based on the above research results,we give some ideas for deepening the reform of collective forest right system,improving forestland property rights,promoting the forest resources sustainable and efficient use and improving farmers' long-term forestry operating income:(a)Strengthening household's forestland property rights through drawing up related law,controlling and reducing the forestland reallocation and expropriation to eliminate the effects the property rights insecurity on forestry production.(b)The arrangement of forestland property right should pay attention to the integrity of forestland property rights,e.g.lay down the punitive measures for abandoning forestland and provide households with more freely exercise forestland mortgage rights.(c)Strengthening the implementation mechanism of forest property rights system and improve households'cognition of integrity and security of forestland property rights.(d)Further forest property rights system reform also needs to improve the rural social security system and other related supporting system in rural to release the social security function of forestland resources,so as to encourage forestland transfer and forest land scale operation,improve the forestry income of the farmers,and increase the value of the ecological environment of the forest resource. |
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