Gender-Dimensions of Collective Forest Tenure Reform in China
The reform of China's collectively owned forest land, began in 2008, is arguably the largest land-reform undertaking in modern times in terms of area and people affected. Under the reform, forest lands have been contracted to rural households,...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/05/26437519/gender-dimensions-collective-forest-tenure-reform-china http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24725 |
| Summary: | The reform of China's collectively
owned forest land, began in 2008, is arguably the largest
land-reform undertaking in modern times in terms of area and
people affected. Under the reform, forest lands have been
contracted to rural households, allowing them more
independence in exercising their rights and interests in the
forest lands, giving them more opportunities to improve
family incomes, and creating incentives for them to
cultivate, conserve, and manage forests. These lands are
home to some 610 million people, many of them poor. With
urbanization, vast numbers of Chinese men have migrated to
cities to work, leaving women as the predominant labor force
in rural areas. Indeed, some 70 percent of China’s
agriculture labor force is now female. The immense scope of
this change calls for a systematic examination of how
China's rural women gain access to and exploit forest
land and associated resources and services. The reform was
designed to unfold in two broad stages. In the first,
collectively owned forest lands suitable for contracting
were allocated on equal terms to each household in affected
villages. The ongoing second stage represents a deepening of
the reform. It deals with subsidies and ecological
compensation, financial services (including use of forest
tenure as collateral and transfers of forest land), forest
insurance, technical services and training, farmers’
associations and cooperatives, and market services. However,
the monitoring had not covered the gender dimension of the
reform, meaning that the gender data required to accurately
reflect the full effects of the reform have been lacking.
Building on the annual monitoring conducted by the FEDRC,
the study reported here added gender-related investigation
and analysis to obtain gender data about the current reform
situation, its problems, and their causes. It also included
structured interviews with rural women and group meetings
with local government agencies, women’s federations, and
village committees.The ultimate objective of the study is to
achieve better gender-responsiveness in China’s collective
forest tenure reform. Specifically, this includes: (i)
equality in access to and control of forest lands, as well
as access to associated resources and services; (ii) women’s
participation and equality in decision-making concerning the
conservation and utilization of forest resources; and (iii)
impacts of the first two aspects on the status and
well-being of women. The World Bank has had over 30 years
of successful cooperation with China in the forestry sector.
Women’s access to the services and resources that are the
focus of the second stage of the reform will be a critical
element of the World Bank’s continuing reform dialogue with
its Chinese partners. |
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