Small-scale Forestry

, Volume 14, Issue 2, pp 155–169 | Cite as

Actor, Customary Regulation and Case Study of Collective Forest Tenure Reform Intervention in China

  • Yaofeng Luo
  • Jinlong Liu
  • Dahong Zhang
  • Jiayun Dong
Research Paper
First Online:
Accepted:

Abstract

The newly implemented collective forest tenure reform (CFTR) in China is a remarkable part of the global trend of forest management decentralization. This paper illustrates how local communities respond to the reform and how the various actors translate the policy principle into action under local social ecological condition in two case villages in Wuyuan County of Jiangxi Province in China. In the policy implementation of the CFTR, various actors, including local government, communities and villagers try to deconstruct the policy text, such as reform plan, forest distribution criterion and Forest Tenure Certificate system, with their own knowledge system. The cases of CFTR in the villages in Wuyuan County suggest there are major inconsistencies between national forest policy intervention and the local practice system. The traditional resource management system, which is based on the social customs in the local communities, is also effective to solve the collective action problem and contribute to efficient resource utilization. Thus the complexity and robustness of forest tenure combinations may ensure flexibility for sustainable forest management and accommodate the change of socioeconomic conditions.

Keywords

Community forestry Collective forest tenure reform Policy implementation Forest governance Traditional knowledge 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our sincere thanks to local villagers of the research sites for sharing their time and information. This research was supported by the projects Study on the Climate Change Response and Adaptation Mechanisms of Minority Community Social-ecological System (No. 71403209), Study on China’s Forest Transition on the Perspective of Economic Growth, Institutional Transformation and Cultural Heritage (No. 31370640) and Traditional Knowledge of Dong Ethnic Group and its Implication to Forest Policy (No. 71163006) funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China. Thanks also go Ms. Tonya Smith and editors for their excellence language proofing and editing work.

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Copyright information

© Steve Harrison, John Herbohn 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Yaofeng Luo
    • 1
  • Jinlong Liu
    • 2
  • Dahong Zhang
    • 3
  • Jiayun Dong
    • 2
  1. 1.School of Economics and ManagementNorthwest A&F UniversityYanglingChina
  2. 2.Centre of Forestry, Environmental and Resources Policy StudyRenmin University of ChinaBeijingChina
  3. 3.School of Economics and ManagementBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina

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