The Impact of Collective Forest Tenure Reform on Forest Carbon Sequestration Capacity—An Analysis Based on the Social–Ecological System Framework

Abstract

Against the backdrop of industrialization, urbanization, and the increasingly urgent issue of climate change, the latest round of collective forest tenure reform in China demonstrates the characteristics of institutional change and capital-biased technological progress. Using provincial panel data from 1994 to 2015, which is related to the main task of the reform, this study combined the Social–Ecological System (SES) framework to explore the impact of the latest round of collective forest tenure reform on forest carbon sequestration capacity. The study found that (1) the collective forest tenure reform enhances forest carbon sequestration capacity, especially in areas with abundant collective forests and clear property rights. Regional differences in per capita forestry income do not affect the reform’s impact on this capacity; (2) the forest tenure reform affects carbon sequestration capacity by improving capital productivity, but labor productivity has no significant effect; (3) under the macro background, the interaction between forest tenure reform-supporting measures and factor productivity have a sustainable impact on carbon sequestration capacity. Therefore, deepening the collective forest tenure reform is an important measure for continuously improving the carbon sequestration capacity of collective forests.