Processes Driving the Forest Transition in China Perspectives from a livelihood-centred approach with empirical focus on Daxi village, Anji county Lucas Gutiérrez Rodríguez Director: Manuel Ruiz Pérez Department of Ecology - Autonomous University of Madrid JUNE 2013 Processes Driving the Forest Transition in China Perspectives from a livelihood-centred approach with empirical focus on Daxi village, Anji county June 2013 Lucas Gutiérrez Rodríguez Director: Manuel Ruiz Pérez Department of Ecology Autonomous University of Madrid A mis Padres Carmen y José Luis A mi hermano Jorge Acknowledgement This PhD thesis has received key contributions and research inputs from the long and close cooperation between the Research Institute of Subtropical Forestry - Chinese Academy of Forestry (中国林业科学研究院亚热带林业研究所) - and the Department of Ecology at Autonomous University of Madrid. Here, the author would like to deeply thank Professor Manuel Ruiz Pérez (director of this work) for his unconditional professional and emotional support, research guidance and insightful comments which have been all determinant for the completion of this thesis. Once Manuel gave me the opportunity to embark on this professional and life adventure and so I decided to join his cooperation project on Forestry in rural China, for which I wish have responded with the corresponding effort and commitment. It was in this country where Manuel introduced me to the Chinese research team based at Fuyang city (Zhejiang province) - the Research Institute of Subtropical Forestry. This Chinese research team and Professor Manuel have given me the opportunity to know China and its forests – especially bamboo forests, and to establish a deep friendship with Chinese people. I feel very grateful for their original idea to bring a postgraduate student into researching forest conservation and livelihoods in rural China. Here, I would like to give very special thanks to Professor Fu Maoyi 傅懋毅, Researchers Geriletu 格日乐图 and Wu Dandan 吴丹丹, Professor Li Zhengcai 李正才, Professor Xie Jinzhong 谢锦忠, Professor Yang Xiaosheng 杨校生, Professor Zhou Benzhi 周本智, all based at the Research Institute of Subtropical Forestry, and Professor Brian Belcher - Centre of Livelihoods and Ecology, Royal Roads University (Canada). The author would also like to thank Professor Taciana Fisac Badell - Center for East Asian Studies, Autonomous University of Madrid - for her trust and support given to this cooperation project. This work has been thoroughly reviewed by Professor Xie Jinzhong 谢锦忠 and Professor Brian Belcher, whose comments, views and suggestions have been incorporated to make some corrections to the PhD. I honestly believe their critical assessments have effectively contributed to improve this PhD and so feel grateful for having chosen them as international reviewers for this thesis. Last but not least, I would like to thank Daxi inhabitants and local authorities in Anji for their key support throughout the whole research process. Working and living with them was an unforgettable experience from which the author remembers very good moments. I would also like to thank my friends from kindergarten, school, high-school and university, whose emotional support has been essential to carry out this project. Thank you very much! Funding This PhD thesis has been funded by the Spanish Cooperation Agency AECID, the Autonomous University of Madrid and the Foundation Mutua Madrileña de Seguros. Contents Summary 1 概述 (Summary in Chinese) 9 Resumen (Summary in Spanish) 17 FIRST SECTION 1. Introduction 29 1.1The Forest Transition Theory and its applicability in China 29 1.2 Forestry and Rural Development – Exploring poverty issues 37 1.3 Forestry and Rural Development – A Way-out of Poverty? 40 1.4 Research goal and objectives 43 2. Structure 45 3. Methods 47 3.1 Our Approach 47 3.2 Study Area - Daxi village of Anji county (Zhejiang province) 49 3.3 Socioeconomic, Forest-ecology and Eco-tourism Surveys 54 SECOND SECTION 4.1 The Forest Transition in the People’s Republic of China 64 4.2 La Transición Forestal en China (in Spanish) 80 5. From basic raw material goods to environmental services: The Chinese bamboo sophistication path. 110 6. Ecological functionality of Phyllostachys edulis (Moso Bamboo) within a Subtropical forest community in Eastern China 128 7. Changing contribution of forests to livelihoods: evidence from Daxi Village, Zhejiang Province, China 144 8. Maintaining the contract responsibility system of forest land distribution in China: Evidence from a novel financial compensation scheme in Daxi Village of Anji County, Zhejiang 158 9. From Farm to Rural Hostel: New Opportunities and Challenges Associated with Tourism Expansion in Daxi, a Village in Anji County , Zhejiang, China 170 THIRD SECTION 10. Discussion 189 10.1 The Chinese Forest Transition 189 10.2. Change in forest uses in Daxi 191 10.3. The drivers of change 192 10.4. The new opportunities create new differences 196 10.5. A new Nature paradigm 198 10.6. Some suggestions 199 11. Conclusion 201 11. 结论 (Conclusion in Chinese) 205 11. Conclusión (Conclusion in Spanish) 209 FOURTH SECTION REFERENCES. 217 ANNEX 1. Tianhuangping Forest Station Statistics – Forest Structure in Daxi. 231 ANNEX 2. Land-use Transition Probability 1988-2005. 233 ANNEX 3. Farmers’ Questionnaire, delivered in 2005 (summer). 235 ANNEX 4. The Inter-household Forest Compensation Scheme (IFCS) 241 ANNEX 5. List of Herb, Shrub and Tree species (2006 Forest-Ecology survey). 249 ANNEX 6. Eco-tourism Farmers’ questionnaire, delivered in 2007 (summer) 259 ANNEX 7. Eco-tourism Visitor Survey, delivered in 2007 (summer) 263 ANNEX 8. Educational attainment by Sex and Generation (1990-2007) 267 ANNEX 9. Occupation by Sex and Generation in 1990. 269 LIST OF FIGURES CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Figure 1.1. Interactions among demo-techno-economic-environmental factors, broader political-economic factors, environmental consciousness and their influence on the forest transition. Page 33. CHAPTER 3: METHODS Figure 3.1. Discussion of the project’s organisation in October 2004 at RISF, Fuyang. Page 48. Figure 3.2. One of the interviewed peasants during the pre-testing field campaign in Daxi Village, October 2004. Page 49. Figure 3.3. Location of Zhejiang province in China (top-left); the administrative division of Zhejiang (top-right) where number ‘3’ refers to Huzhou city (within which Anji county is located); and Anji county (bottom). Page 50. Figure 3.4. Daxi village. Page 51. Figure 3.5. Evolution in the local population of Daxi (1956-2008). Page 52. Figure 3.6. Evolution of current forest and shrub areas at Daxi village, as reported by Tianhuangping Forest Station. Page 53. Figure 3.7. Evolution of tree densities at Daxi village, as reported by Tianhuangping Forest Station. Page 53. Figure 3.8. Land-use evolution in Daxi village, between 1988 and 2005 (from our analysis of SPOT images). Page 54. Figure 3.9. Field research in June 2005. Professors Fu Maoyi 傅懋毅 (centre-right), Manuel Ruiz Pérez (right) and Zhou Benzhi 周本智 (centre-left). Driver Pan (left). Page 55. Figure 3.10. Moso bamboo plot. June 2006. Page 57. Figure 3.11. Natural evergreen broadleaf secondary forest. June 2006. Page 57. Figure 3.12. Chinese hickory plot. June 2006. Page 58. Figure 3.13. Tea plot. June 2006. Page 58. Figure 3.14. Conifer plot. June 2006. Page 59. Figure 3.15. Revisiting forest plots in summer of 2007. Page 59. Figure 3.16. Interviewing two visitors at the entrance of the power station. July 2007. Page. 60. CHAPTER 4: The Forest Transition in the PRC Figure 4.1. Forest administrative regions in the People’s Republic of China. Modified from http://www.guoqing.china.com.cn. Page. 65. Figure 4.2. Forest ecosystem regions in the PRC. Modified from Olson Terrestrial Biomes and Chinamaps.org. Page 67. Figure 4.3. Evolution of population, forest and agricultural area. Page 70. CHAPTER 4: La Transición Forestal en China Figura 1. Distribución de las grandes regiones forestales desde un punto de vista administrativo en China. Modificado de: http://www.guoqing.china.com.cn. Page 83. Figura 2. Formaciones forestales y otros biomas presentes en China. Modificado de: Olson Terrestrial Biomes y Chinamaps.org. Page 84. Figura 3. Evolución de la superficie forestal y agrícola de China. Page 90. Figura 4. Evolución del valor total y por ha en yuanes constantes de 1990. Page 92. CHAPTER 5: From basic raw material goods to environmental services: the Chinese bamboo sophistication path. Figure 1.- Contribution to employment and GDP of primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy in 1978 and 2010. Page 111. Figure 2.- Evolution of bamboo total area and culm and shoot production. Page 114. Figure 3.- Ratio bamboo industry to average provincial industry wages in relation to county’s per capita income. Page 115. Figure 4.- Changes in income from agriculture, forestry and off-farm activities in Daxi village, Anji, Zhejiang, 1973 to 2006. Page 116. Figure 5.- Changes in relative contribution of bamboo to household income for the three income tertile groups. Page 117. CHAPTER 6: Ecological functionality of Phyllostachys edulis (Moso Bamboo) within a Subtropical forest community in Eastern China Figure 1. Forest Inventory sampling method. Page 132. Figure 2. Species richness across five forest uses, found from 32 plots. Page 135. Figure 3. Apha Shannon diversity. Page 136. Figure 4. Beta Whittaker diversity. Page 136. Figure 5. Total mean dry biomass stored within each of the five forest types (soil biomass is not included). Page 136. Figure 6. Tree DBH classes (in cm) and their frequencies (stems/ha) in logarithmic scale, evergreen broadleaf in blue colour. Page 137. Figure 7. Multivariate analysis (based on Sorensen (Bray-Curtis) similarity index) applied to the tree abundance-species matrix across the 30 plots with a tree layer. Page 139. CHAPTER 7: Changing contribution of forests to livelihoods: evidence from Daxi Village, Zhejiang Province, China Figure 1. Change in the relative contribution of the main sources of income, 1973-2006.