Rights of Access to Upland Forest Resources in Southwest China

Abstract

"This paper looks at the ways in which changes in forest policy in China over the last forty years have affected six villages in Songming County, Yunnan Province. It emphasizes the importance of village and household research in understanding how policies are implemented and their effects on patterns of development. Based on data gathered during an exercise in rural household surveys in Yunnan, we suggest that an emphasis on controlling access to the resource may be less effective than providing incentives for communities to manage their resources, and that where incentives do exist, there is real danger that bureaucratic procedures may stifle those incentives, amounting to another set of controls."