china | Forestry

Forest Tenure Reform in China: A Choice Experiment on Farmers’ Property Rights Preferences

Decentralization experiments are currently underway in the Chinese forestry sector. However, researchers and policy makers tend to ignore a key question: what do forest farmers really want from reform?

This paper addresses this question using a survey-based choice experiment to investigate farmers’ preferences for various property rights attributes of a forestland contract. We found that farmers are highly concerned with the types of rights provided by a contract. Reducing perceived risks of contract termination and introducing a priority right for the renewal of an existing contract significantly increases farmers’ marginal willingness to pay for a forest contract. (JEL Q51, Q58)

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  • china

Type of publication

  • COMMONS
  • Peer reviewed

Reference

Qin, P, F. Carlsson, and J. Xu. 2011. "Forestland reform in China: what do the farmers want? A choice experiment on farmers’ property rights preferences." Land Economics. 87 (3): 473-487.