Women’s forestland rights in the collective forestland reforms in China: fi eldwork fi ndings and policy recommendations

After nearly 30 years of forestland tenure reform in China, the Chinese government initiated a new round of reforms in 2008 to further clarify and secure farmers’ rights to collectively owned forestland. The reforms cover rights to the 182.47 million hectares of China’s forestland owned by administrative villages (also called village collectives), which constitutes 60.06% of China’s total forestland area (State Forestry Bureau, 2009). The reforms are expected to reduce poverty and directly improve the livelihoods of 400 million farmers (State Forestry Bureau, 2007).