IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeeman/v121y2023ics0095069623000669.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic development and conservation impacts of China's nature reserves

Author

Listed:
  • Cheng, Audrey T.
  • Sims, Katharine R.E.
  • Yi, Yuanyuan

Abstract

Protected areas are a dominant but contentious instrument of conservation policy. Restrictions on resource extraction and land use constrain livelihoods but may also support alternate pathways to development through sustainable use, tourism, and landscape amenities. We investigate the economic development and environmental impacts of China's Nature Reserves using county-level panel data between 1980 and 2010. We find small positive impacts on an aggregate household development index and that Nature Reserves maintained natural land cover within their boundaries. We also find employment shifts from resource-extractive to service-based activity, but an overall negative impact on reported employment. Household development gains and shifts towards service-based employment were greater closer to locations that were already more developed and had higher baseline assets. These results indicate both the promise of protected areas as a sustainable development strategy and the need for institutional mechanisms to ensure that local benefits and employment opportunities are broadly distributed.

Suggested Citation

  • Cheng, Audrey T. & Sims, Katharine R.E. & Yi, Yuanyuan, 2023. "Economic development and conservation impacts of China's nature reserves," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:121:y:2023:i:c:s0095069623000669
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2023.102848
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095069623000669
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jeem.2023.102848?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yuanyuan Yi & Fredrik Carlsson & Gunnar Köhlin & Jintao Xu, 2023. "Allocative efficiency or misallocation of resources? The emergence of forestland rental markets and the forest devolution reform in China," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 50(2), pages 395-420.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Reynaert, Mathias & Souza-Rodrigues, Eduardo & van Benthem, Arthur A., 2024. "The environmental impacts of protected area policy," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    2. Shilei Liu & Jinlei Qi & Jintao Xu & Yuanyuan Yi & Peng Yin & Maigeng Zhou, 2024. "Forest Mitigates Short-Term Health Risk of Air Pollution: Evidence from China," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 87(8), pages 2163-2204, August.
    3. Li, Xiuqing & Xiao, Liming, 2024. "The impact of urban green business environment on FDI quality and its driving mechanism: Evidence from China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yi, Yuanyuan, 2023. "Devolution of tenure rights in forestland in China: Impact on investment and forest growth," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Protected areas; Economic development; Nature reserves; Sustainable development; China; Land conservation; Parks; Ecotourism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth
    • Q57 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Ecological Economics
    • Q24 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Land

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:121:y:2023:i:c:s0095069623000669. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622870 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.