Unravelling “Policy” : The Impact of State Forest Policies on Deforestation in Southern Provinces of China

The curbed deforestation in China is a salient, but underexplored, phenomenon in the context of global deforestation. This study zooms in on the southern provinces of China and analyses what impacted deforestation from 2001 to 2016, with a special focus on the role of state forest policies. In so doing, this study incorporates a set of state forest policies to account for deforestation, controls for other potential drivers of deforestation, and conducts regression analysis. Our results reveal that state forest policies were not equally supportive of deforestation mitigation. The Slope Land Conversion Program, and the Collective Forest Tenure Reform were found to have significant impacts on reducing deforestation. The level of the Timber Logging Quotas was found to be inversely associated with deforestation levels. Other policies were not so conclusive. Regarding the controlled variables, economic development and demographics were found to be insignificant, while among the variables of biophysical conditions, natural forest density had significantly positive impacts on curbing deforestation. Our results provide implications for future research on deforestation and the consideration of complex arrangements of state forest policies and their varied impacts on deforestation