ABSTRACT
Rozelle et al. reminded us of the distinction between managed forest plantations and natural stands, a distinction that is important for the provision of environmental services and for understanding the forests’ response to market signals. However, they did not consider that distinction in their econometric analysis. We will emphasize that distinction as we conduct a similar search for the causal factors of forest development in China since the beginning of reforms in 1978. Our focus on the island province of Hainan, however, will be narrower than the allChina perspective of Chapter 6. The narrower geographic focus has its advantages. Because Hainan is an island, its market boundaries are clearer, and its smaller size means that there are fewer institutional variations in policy applications than some previous chapters have noted for the whole of China. Therefore,
This paper is one component of Yaoqi Zhang’s Ph.D. thesis at the University of Helsinki, Finland. A prior version appeared as Zhang et al. 2000. The Economy and Environment Programme for Southeast Asia provided financial assistance.
