Yaoqi Zhang

Multiple-use forestry vs. forestland-use specialization revisited

Abstract Based on the comparative advantages of forestland in providing a variety of products and services, it is not arguable that different kinds of forestland should produce different compositions of outputs. To investigate the issue regarding forestland-use specialization or the pursuit of multiple uses on same piece of land, this paper starts by revisiting Vincent and Binkleys paper ‘Efficient Multiple-Use Forestry May Require Land-Use Specialization’ (see Land Economics 69 (3):370–376. I would like to argue that their reasoning may not be entirely correct, but their conclusions may be right for the following reasons: (1) the constraints of input factors (including time), (2) cross-spatial interaction, (3) changes in technology and relative prices and (4) ecological and economic thresholds of production and management. Some evidence related to and trends in forestland-use specialization from New Zealand, the USA, Canada and China are presented. It is suggested that to promote forestland-use specialization, it is necessary to re-allocate research funding, to implement various sustainable forest management criteria and forest ownership reforms, to zone land for priority use, and to promote market development.

Policy shifts influence the functional changes of the CNH systems on the Mongolian plateau

By applying the concept of the coupled natural and human system (CNH), we compared spatiotemporal changes in livestock (LSK), land cover, and ecosystem production to understand the relative roles that natural and social driving forces have on CNH dynamics on the Mongolia plateau. We used socioeconomic and physical data at prefecture level for Inner Mongolia and Mongolia from 1981 through 2010 to represent changes in net primary productivity (NPP), enhanced vegetation index (EVI), precipitation, annual average temperature, LSK, livestock density (LSKD), land cover change (LCC), gross domestic production (GDP), and population (POP). The ratios such as LSK:NPP, LSKD: EVI, LSKD:albedo, LSK:POP, and LSK:GDP were examined and compared between Inner Mongolia and Mongolia, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to quantify the complex interactions. Substantial differences in LSK, POP, and economic development were found among the biomes and between Inner Mongolia and Mongolia. When various indicators for policy shifts—such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) for China, the Third Campaign to Reclaim Abandoned Agriculture Lands (ATAR-3), and the Grain for Green Program for China (GFG)—were added into our SEM, the results showed significant change in the strength of the above relationships. After China joined the WTO, the relationships in Inner Mongolia between LSKD:LCC and LSKD:NPP were immensely strengthened, whereas relationships in NPP:LCC were weakened. In Mongolia, the ATAR-3 program first appeared to be an insignificant policy, but the Collapse of the Soviet Union enhanced the correlation between LSKD:LCC, weakened the connection of LCC:NPP, and did not affect LSKD:NPP. We conclude that human influences on the Mongolian CNH system exceeded those of the biophysical changes, but that the significance varies in time and per biome, as well as between Inner Mongolia and Mongolia.

The forest sector in China: towards a market economy.

China covers an area of 9.6 mill, km2, accounting for 7% of the total land area of the globe. The landmass consists of mountainous areas (33%), high plateau (26%), basins (19%), hills (10%) and flat lowlands (12%). The climate ranges from humid in the east to arid deserts in the west, and from boreal in the north to tropical in the south. China had more than 1.2 bill. people in 1995, with about 30% of the population living in urban areas. The natural growth rate of the population was 1.06% in 1995. The “One child couple” policy is still used to ensure that the country’s population is held below 1.3 bill. by the end of this century.

Impacts of economic reforms on rural forestry in China

Abstract This paper addresses the effects of economic transition policies on forestry in China. The effects of de-collectivization and market liberalization on the forest land area and timber harvest are studied using panel data from four provinces covering the period 1978–1995. Fixed effects ordinary least squares models for forest land cover and annual harvests per hectare are estimated, allowing for differences across provinces and prefectures in northern and southern China. The results show that land tenure reform in general has had a positive effect on forest land expansion, but the absolute size of the effects varies from province to province. The positive impact of the reform on timber harvesting has not taken place at the cost of forest land cover. The claim that market liberalization leads to over-harvesting of forest resources in developing countries is not supported by our results.

The increasing importance of small-scale forestry: evidence from family forest ownership patterns in the United States.

The state-level distribution of the size of family forest holdings in the contiguous United States was examined using data collected by the USDA Forest Service in 1993 and 2003. Regressions models were used to analyze the factors influencing the mean size and structural variation among states and between the two periods. Population density, percent of the population at least 65 years of age, percent of the population residing in urban areas, per capita income, income inequality, and per capita private forestland were found to be significantly correlated with the structure of landholding size. This paper suggests that the number and proportion of small-scale family forest owners in the United States are both increasing due to the increasing importance of non-timber amenities to forest landowners.

Rehabilitating China's Largest Inland River

Wetlands are particularly important for conserving Chinas biodiversity but riparian wetlands in the Tarim River basin in western China have been reduced by 46% during the last 3 decades. The worlds largest habitat for Populus euphratica, which is in the Tarim River basin, significantly shrank. To protect and restore the deteriorated ecosystems along the Tarim River and its associated wetlands, Chinas government initiated a multimillion dollar river restoration project to release water from upper dams to the dried-up lower reaches of the Tarim River starting in 2000. We monitored the responses of groundwater and vegetation to water recharge in the lower reaches of the river from 2000 to 2006 by establishing nine 1000-m-long transects perpendicular to the river at intervals of 20-45 km along the 320-km river course below the Daxihaizi Reservoir, the source of water conveyance, to Lake Taitema, the terminus of the Tarim River. Water recharges from the Daxihaizi Reservoir to the lower reaches of the Tarim River significantly increased groundwater levels and vegetation coverage at all monitoring sites along the river. The mean canopy size of the endangered plant species P. euphratica doubled after 6 years of water recharge. Some rare migrating birds returned to rest on the restored wetlands in summer along the lower reaches of the Tarim River. The biggest challenge facing decision makers, however, is to balance water allocation and water rights between agricultural and natural ecosystems in a sustainable way. A large number of inhabitants in the Tarim Basin depend on these limited water resources for a living. At the same time, the endangered ecosystems need to be protected. Given the ecological, socioeconomic, and sociopolitical realities in the Tarim Basin, adaptive water policies and strategies are needed for water allocation in these areas of limited water resources.

Fertilizer industry subsidies in China: who are the beneficiaries?

Purpose - – Since 2004, subsidies increased by 670 percent in the Chinese fertilizer industry to reduce the farmers burden. The purpose of this paper is to assess whether subsidies benefit the target groups, the fertilizer subsidy distribution pattern and benefit allocation pattern among fertilizer producers and other sectors were investigated. Design/methodology/approach - – The Muth model is extended to evaluate the impacts of a subsidy on multi-stage markets. Findings - – It is found that the total benefits from the policy are about RMB 7.7 billion yuans. The fertilizer suppliers gain about RMB 51 billion yuans from the favorable policy with mean subsidy incidence 0.8 and capturing about 70 percent of total surplus. Social implications - – The results suggest that transferring parts of subsidies to the non-fertilizer sectors could be considered an efficient way to redistribute welfare indifferent sectors. Originality/value - – This study first use the equilibrium displacement model to quantity the distribution of fertilizer subsidy in a vertical market in China.

Demand for Urban Forests and Economic Welfare: Evidence from the Southeastern U.S. Cities

This study examines the relationship between urban forests and household income and population density in the 149 cities with populations over 40,000 in nine southeastern states. Our empirical results show that urban forest percentage across the cities has characteristics of the environmental Kuznets curve. We find that household income around

Institutions in forest management: special reference to China.

39,000 is a threshold that changes the relationship between income and urban forest coverage from negative to positive, whereas the impact of population density on urban forests is just the opposite, from positive to negative when population density is around 180 persons per square kilometer.

Globalization of Lifestyle: Golfing in China

Institutions, the fourth factor of production in the economy, matter becauseof transaction costs. Unlike other primary industries, silviculture is not “self-contained”,which means that transaction costs are significant and institutions play aspecial role. Forestry in the less developed countries (LDCs) often suffers from apoor supply of institutions and so not only becomes less competitive than that of developed countries (DCs), but also less well managed than other sectors in thesame countries. China’s experience can explain to some extent the special role of institutions in forest management. The poor state of forests prior to the 1950s resultedfrom continuous wars and disorders of society, while the unimprovement andeven deterioration of forests during the last half-century are mainly due to the malfunctioning economic and political institutions. The economic reforms since the 1980s,which are intended to restructure the institutions, have had some positive effects on forestry. However, the effects are still very limited because the development of institutions cannot be timeless and costless.