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Forestry development to reduce poverty and improve the environment

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Abstract

Poverty reduction is a world-wide concern. At the end of 2017, according to the rural poverty standard in China, there were 30.46 million poor in China. However, complete poverty alleviation by the end of 2020 had been achieved. This is significant and complicated, especially as poverty-stricken areas and ecologically fragile areas overlap. During the process of poverty alleviation, the development of forestry projects was not only conducive to improving the environment but also an important way to reduce poverty. Therefore, based on an analysis of the causes of poverty-stricken areas, this study examined successful cases in different regions and proposed ways to promote economic growth: providing state subsidies for tree planting and forest maintenance; developing undergrowth economy; and/or initiating an industrial chain. It also introduces principles to promote forestry progress, according to local conditions, keeping a balance between economic development and the environment. This study provides effective ways to promote forestry development and rural poverty alleviation.

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Author notes

  1. Rongjia Wang, Tonggui Wu and Deshun Zhang have equally contributed to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Subtropical Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Hangzhou, 311400, China

    Rongjia Wang, Jianfeng Zhang, Tonggui Wu & Shiyong Sun

  2. Forestry Academy of Shandong Province, Jinan, 250014, China

    Zongtai Li

  3. College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Deshun Zhang

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  1. Rongjia Wang
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  2. Jianfeng Zhang
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  4. Shiyong Sun
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Correspondence to Jianfeng Zhang.

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Project funding: This research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Institutes (CAFYBB2019SY014) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31770747).

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Corresponding editor: Yanbo Hu.

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Wang, R., Zhang, J., Wu, T. et al. Forestry development to reduce poverty and improve the environment. J. For. Res. 33, 1715–1724 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-021-01450-5

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