Tian, N.; Poudyal, N.; Lu, F. Assessments of Landowners’ Willingness to Accept Compensation for Participating in Forest Certification in Shandong, China. Sustainability2021, 13, 903.
Tian, N.; Poudyal, N.; Lu, F. Assessments of Landowners’ Willingness to Accept Compensation for Participating in Forest Certification in Shandong, China. Sustainability 2021, 13, 903.
Tian, N.; Poudyal, N.; Lu, F. Assessments of Landowners’ Willingness to Accept Compensation for Participating in Forest Certification in Shandong, China. Sustainability2021, 13, 903.
Tian, N.; Poudyal, N.; Lu, F. Assessments of Landowners’ Willingness to Accept Compensation for Participating in Forest Certification in Shandong, China. Sustainability 2021, 13, 903.
Abstract
Achieving sustainable management of forests in China is becoming increasingly important with more awareness and realization of the importance of forests in environmental protection. Forest certification, a market-based instrument to promote sustainable forest management, has been recognized by many countries including China. While landowners’ perception and perspective regarding this voluntary program have been well-documented in literature, how to motivate and incentivize landowners to participate in forest certification remained under-studied questions. With the face-to-face survey of landowners in Shandong, China, this study analyzed landowners’ willingness to accept compensation for participating in forest certification. Results indicated that landowners average accepted compensation, in terms of increased timber price, was about RMB120 (~$17.2)/m3 to have their forests certified. Results from multiple regression showed that the level of such compensation required for certification adoption was influenced by ownership size, owners’ demographics, certification program requirements, as well as importance placed on timber sale. These findings would inform policy-makers in designing compensation-related polices and establish incentive-based mechanisms to motivate landowners participate in forest certification programs in China.
Keywords
forest certification; willingness to accept; compensation; landowners; timber price increase
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Forestry
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
