| The ecological problems in semi-arid regions are prominent,and the role of forest resources and its sustainable development are even more important.After the reform of the collective forest rights system and the implementation of the project of converting farmland to forests,farmers have become the main managers of collective forest areas,so their forestry management behavior has an important direct impact on the growth & decline of forest resources.However,previous studies have mainly focused on the macro level,especially the southern collective forest areas.Therefore,based on the micro perspective,it has revealed the affecting mechanism of forestry management behavior of rural households on the growth& decline of forest resources in northern semi-arid region in this dissertation,aiming to provide a micro-level theoretical basis for the research on the growth & decline of forest resources,and provide a policy basis for the government to optimize farmers’ forestry management behavior in the semi-arid region and to promote the sustainable development in forest resources The research has the important values in both the theoretical and the practical.Firstly,some key concepts including the farmer household,the forestry management behavior of rural households,as well as the changes in forest resources were defined in this research.Based on the Theory of Farmer’s Economic Behavior and the Theory of Profit Maximization,and based on the reality in semi-arid collective forest regions,as well as the weakness and driving force of farmers’ forestry management behavior,the characteristics of north semi-arid area farmers’ forestry management behavior have been revealed,and the development line on management behavior of rural households during different periods has been reviewed.By analyzing the impacting mechanism of farmers’ management behavior on growth and decline of forest resources,a theoretical analysis framework was proposed.Taking the collective forest area of Chifeng City,Inner Mongolia,as an example,four representative banners/counties,namely Bahrain Right Banner,Ongniud Banner,Aohan Banner and Ningcheng County,were selected as the study area.Based on the first-hand materials and data obtained from the investigation area,the descriptive statistical analysis on present situations of forest resources and behavior characteristics of rural households in the sample banners/counties was conducted.On this basis,the key factors of farmers’ forestry management behavior in semi-arid area which affect the changes in forest resources based on the Faustmann model and Hartman model were derived and used as the core explanatory variables,including input behavior,afforestation behavior,forest tending behavior,forest management & protection behavior,as well as forestry management mode selection behavior for rural households,and taking family characteristics,resource endowment,and regional factors as the control variables,the empirical studies on impact of forestry management behavior of rural households on the quantity,quality and structure in forest resources were carried out by using the econometric models of Multiple Ordered Logistic,Multiple Linear Regression and Tobit.The main research conclusions are as follows:(1)After the collective forest tenure reform,the rural households have become the main body of forestry management,and the forest resources in Chifeng collective forest area have increased significantly,indicating that the management behaviors of rural households have a remarkable effect on the growth & decline of forest resources.The variation of government forestry policies is the cause for changing the forestry management behavior of rural households,and farmers in the northern semi-arid collective forest area have experienced the single-effect stages of forestry production and management since the founding of New China,until now the multi-use stage of forestry production and management.The forestry management behavior of rural households has also changed from the low enthusiasm due to no property right at the beginning,into gradually increasing their enthusiasm for forest management with the property right acquisition,income increase,ecological benefits;and there has been a change for rural households from only pursuing economic interests in the past to ecological awakening and giving consideration for ecological benefits.(2)The northern semi-arid collective forest area is mostly with ecological publicwelfare forests.Farmers and herdsmen have a low income and a long cycle in managing the public-welfare forests.However,relying on public-welfare forests to develop the underforest economy such as planting,breeding,and picking under forests is the main driving forces for farmers’ forestry management,thus an ecological-dominated compound management model of agriculture,forestry,and animal husbandry has been formed.The production contract responsibility system,the returning cultivated land into forests and the collective forest tenure reform are the main policies which affect farmers’ forestry management,resulted in the differences in farmers’ forest land area and forestrymanagement duration.(3)The growth and decline of forest resources were characterized from three aspects of quantity,quality and structure in this dissertation.The empirical study shows that the changes in the quantity of forest resources are mainly influenced by labor-technology input behavior,forest tending behavior,and forest management-protection behavior.Among them,the number of employees,collective information from villages,and the use of watering behavior have a positive impact on the growth of the quantity of forest resources,and the rural households which take the way of personal patrol for forest management and protection have a less probability of big forestry-management area.Rural households’ forest tending behavior,information acquisition & technology use,as well as management-model selection behavior have a significant effect on the quality of forest resources,specifically,the adoption of drought-resistant afforestation technology,collective information from village have a positive relationship with the improvement of quality in forest resources,while the management modes of ordinary farmers and large forestry households have a positive impact on the improvement of quality in forest resource.The labor-technology input behavior,afforestation behavior and tending behavior have a significant impact on the structure of forest resources,among which the number of employees,technical training or information from forestry technicians,self-purchase seedlings,and pesticide input can all promote the increase of the proportion of commercial forests in the farmers’ forest-management area,of course,the amount of pesticide input should not exceed their normal requirement.In addition,the characteristics of farmers’ households and the resource endowment also have an effect on both the quantity and quality in forest resources.For the collective forest area in Chifeng City,after the forest reform,the forest land has been contracted to households,but this has not resulted in the problem of forest land fragmentation,the degree of forest land fragmentation is moderate,and the total number of forest land blocks can promote the increase of forest area,which may be more conducive to taking measures and fine management according to local conditions,and also reflecting the land-broad characteristics in Inner Mongolia.(4)The policy recommendations proposed in this study include: in order to promote the sustainable development of forest resources in the northern semi-arid collective forest region,it is the key to build an institutional system as well as a social & economic environment which can drive farmers’ forestry management behavior,improve farmers’ enthusiasm for forest management,and optimize farmers’ forestry management behaviors.This can be achieved by building a policy system that drives farmers’ forestry management behavior,a guarantee system that service for farmers’ forestry management,and by guiding farmers to optimize their forestry management behaviors. |
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