Empirical Evidence of Collective Forest Management in Nature Reserve in China: An Application of Ostrom’s SES Framework

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Date

2019

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Abstract

"Nature reserve (NR) are complex social and ecological system (SES) (Cumming & Allen, 2017). In China, many collective forests (CF) owned by villagers are contained in nature reserves, but this often occurs at the expense of villagers’ traditional right. The paper aims to carry out a dynamic diagnosis of three cases of NRs management based on Ostrom’s SES conceptual framework. The results indicate that the outcomes of CF Management are determined jointly by the interaction at all levels of governance based on the characteristics of CF resource system, CF resource units, actors in the context of specific local social, economic and political setting. Compared to the conflicted NR, the strongly harmonious NR is featured by less valued CF resources in the NR, fewer dependence of the villagers on the CF resources, stronger environmental awareness of the villagers and slower increase of new actors, capable governance dominated by the NR administration and self-organization of villagers and well economic compensation and regulation, beneficial outsider circumstance, and effective and diversified interaction. Different public policies, including the ecosystem service payment, are recommended for improving management of CF in nature reserves."

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collective action, forests, social-ecological systems

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