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Scientia Silvae Sinicae ›› 2023, Vol. 59 ›› Issue (1): 74-89.doi: 10.11707/j.1001-7488.LYKX20220730

• Frontier & focus: theory and practice of forestry promoting common prosperity • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Influence of Forest Resource Development Project on the Urban-Rural Income Gap in Old Revolutionary Regions

Dan Pan1,Luyi Luo1,Yi Yu1,Fanbin Kong2,3,*   

  1. 1. School of Economics, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics Nanchang 330013
    2. Institute of Ecological Civilization/School of Economics and Management, Zhejiang A&F University Hangzhou 311300
    3. School of Economic Management, Nanjing Forestry University Nanjing 210037
  • Received:2022-11-10 Online:2023-01-25 Published:2023-02-24
  • Contact: Fanbin Kong

Abstract:

Objective: In the context of promoting common prosperity to achieve the ambitious goal of Chinese-style modernization, we investigate the effect of the implementation of forest resource development project on county's urban-rural income gap in the less-developed regions and the underlying mechanism, thus to provide a basis to support common prosperity and Chinese-style modernization in the less developed regions in the new era. Method: Based on county-level panel data of 650 less-developed regions in 28 provinces in China from 2008 to 2019, we analyze the effect of forest resource development on their urban-rural income gap using the spatial Durbin model, and analyze its impact mechanism from income effect and employment effect. Result: 1) The forest resource development project enlarged the effect on the urban-rural income gap in the less-developed regions, adjacent regions and all regions as a whole, specifically, a 1% increase in afforestation area leading to an expansion of the gap by 0.035, 0.200, and 0.236 in the three types of regions, respectively.2) Forest resource development project widens the overall urban-rural income gap mainly by reducing the income of rural residents and increasing the income of urban residents in the less-developed regions.3) Mechanism analysis shows that due to the constraints of ecological protection, human capital, and geographical location in the less-developed regions, the effects of forest resource development project on income and employment are not significant, which makes the less-developed regions fall into the "forest resource curse" phenomenon characterized by "abundant forest resources but slow economic growth", thus increasing their urban-rural income gap.Specifically, the forest resource development project has no significant effect on tourism income in the less-developed regions; meanwhile, the implementation of the forest resource development project can only promote the employment of farmers in the primary industry, which has a lower marginal labor remuneration, but fails to improve or even squeeze out the labor forces from the secondary and tertiary industries, which have higher marginal labor remunerations, thus the employment effect is not obvious. Conclusion: We should combine forest protection and regional industrial development, promote the joint development of forest resources among regions, and strengthen the coordinated development of forestry and other industries, to effectively transform the "clear waters and green mountains" resource advantage of forest resources in the less-developed regions into the economic advantage of "invaluable assets", aiming to utilize the abundant forest resources in the less-developed regions to reduce the urban-rural income gap.

Key words: forest resource development, common prosperity, urban-rural income gap, old revolutionary regions

CLC Number: