Effects of Rural-Urban Labour Migration on Household Forest Management in the Context of Rural Reform and Development in China

Impact and mechanism of rural labor migration on forest management income: Evidence from the Jiangxi Province, China

“…Cash investment plays a partial mediating role in the impact of the migration effect on forest management income, but it has a suppressing role in the impact of remittance effect. Duan et al (2021) found that labor migration had little influence on forest cash investment, and had significant negative influences on labor input and forest management income. However, we did not found any such evidence.…”

“…However, with the deepening of labor migration, a large outflow of high-quality labor leads to the overall aging and weakening of the rural labor force (Wang et al, 2020;Lee et al, 2021). Under the case of incomplete forest mechanization, new technologies and new machinery are difficult to be effectively popularized and used, and the benefits brought by the households' blind increase in cash investments must be limited (Duan et al, 2021). Therefore, with the deepening of labor migration, especially the out-migration of young family laborers, households will reduce cash spending, thereby inhibiting the growth of the family forest management income.…”

Does Rural Labor Transfer Impact Chinese Agricultural Carbon Emission Efficiency? A Substitution Perspective of Agricultural Machinery

“…Some scholars believe that the transfer of rural labor to non-agricultural areas will lead to the phenomenon of idle farmland and forest land in the countryside, while the loss of labor leads to a decrease in agricultural yields and an increase in the price of agricultural products, and a decrease in the gross domestic product of agriculture [36][37][38]. Other scholars have also argued that the substitution of agricultural machinery resulting from the transfer of rural labor will reduce the cost of agricultural production and improve the efficiency of land use, thereby increasing the gross agricultural product [39][40][41].…”

Trend of conflict between community livelihoods and nature reserves:Based on the intergenerational differences of rural households’ natural resource utilization behavior

“…出务工改善生计， 采伐木材的可能性较小 [23] ； 而老一 代农户恋土情结更强烈， 并拥有丰富的营林经验， 因此更愿意从事林业经营活动 [24] 。薪柴采集方面， 相比老一代， 年轻农户凭借其年龄优势以及较高的 文化认知程度和技能水平， 倾向于从事回报率较高 的非农生产经营活动以获取更高的收入， 从而有条 件使用成本较高的电力、 液化气等商品能源， 减少 对薪柴的需求 [25] 。野生植物采集方面， 随着生态旅 游业的兴起， 以野生资源利用为代表的旅游食品消 费占游客消费的比重不断上升 [26] [27] 。保护区周边农户的生计转型方式往往 以非农就业为主， 在城镇化进程明显加快以及自然 资源利用机会不断减少的双重作用下， 大量青壮年 劳动力外出转移， 非农就业比例持续攀升， 由此带 来的农户增收、 兼业化等正逐渐成为影响农户在农 林业生产领域配置资源的重要因素 [28,29] 。通常， 新 生代农户由于非农就业较多， 进而从事农林业生产 的机会成本较高， 导致从事农林业生产的可能性越 小 [8,30] 。 作为保护区周边社区最基本的生产决策主体 和最主要的经济活动单位， 农户采取的生计策略决 定了自然资源的利用方式和效率， 对生态环境有深 远影响 [31] 。以非农就业为主的生计转型有效降低了 农户的自然资源利用强度及对当地生态环境的影 响 [32] 。一方面， 农户的非农生计转型提高了自然资 源利用的机会成本， 进而减少了自然资源利用行 为 [33] ； 另一方面， 非农就业还会通过影响农户土地经 营规模和地块集中程度间接抑制其自然资源利用 行为， 劳动力非农转移导致农户林地流转日益增 多， 从而降低了其从事林业经营的强度 [34] 。 基于上述分析， 提出研究假设：…”