“山水林田湖草沙”生态保护修复对农户经济福利的影响--以浙江省钱江源头为例

The impact of the“mountains,water,forests,fields,lakes,grasses and sands”ecological protection and restoration on farmers′economic welfare:a case study of the Qianjiang river source in Zhejiang Province

十八大以来,“山水林田湖草沙”一体化保护和系统治理已成为生态治理的核心思想,其要义在于生态治理由传统单一部门治理转化为多部门协同治理。大量研究证明,传统单一部门生态治理模式下的源头地区生态保护修复会让当地农户的短期经济福利受到损失。为评估“山水”工程对农户经济福利的影响,基于浙江省“山水林田湖草沙”生态保护修复工程4个县(市)480个农户调查数据,运用双重差分倾向得分匹配法进行了验证。结果表明:“山水”工程可以提升农户经济福利,总体提高4.7个百分点,PSM-DID估计结果与上述结论无明显差异。机制验证发现,“山水”工程可以通过就地提供生态保护修复项目参与机会,缩短农户非农就业距离,改善农户经济福利。异质性分析显示,在“山水”工程模式下,人力资本和社会资本较高的农户,经济福利改善效果也相对更好。基于以上分析,从注重“山水”工程顶层设计,建立“山水林田湖草沙”区域生态保护修复的社区生态补偿机制、扩展农户就地就近就业空间、加大脆弱群体生态补偿力度等方面提出政策建议。

Since the 18th National Congress,the integrated protection and systematic management of“mountains,water,forests,fields,lakes,grasslands,and sands”has emerged as the cornerstone of ecological governance in China.The core idea of“mountains,water,forests,fields,lakes,grasslands,and sands”shifted ecological governance from traditional single-department management to a more intricate,multi-department collaborative governance.Many studies found that ecological protection and restoration under single-department management in source area made short-term economic welfare losses to local households.Thus,it is necessary to explore whether this integrated,multi-department collaborative ecological governance,rooted in the concept of“mountains,water,forests,fields,lakes,grasslands,and sands”,can truly enhance the economic welfare of these farmers.To thoroughly evaluate the impact of the“mountains and rivers”project on the economic welfare of farmers,an extensive and detailed study was conducted using field survey data from 480 households across four counties including Kaihua,Changshan,Chun′an and Jiande in Zhejiang Province,involved in the“mountains and rivers”projects.Employing the Propensity Score Matching-Difference in Differences(PSM-DID)method for rigorous verification,the findings reveal that the“mountains and rivers”project significantly boosts the economic welfare of farmers who participated with project with an overall increase of 4.7%compared with farmers who did not participated with project.The robustness of this conclusion is further confirmed by the PSM-DID estimation results,which show no significant deviations from the original findings.Mechanism analysis used by the intermediation effect model indicates that the“mountains and rivers”project enhances farmers′economic welfare by creating local employment opportunities for participation in“mountains and rivers”projects,thereby reducing the distance for local households out-migrated to non-farm employment.Heterogeneity analysis for household samples with different human capital and social capital group reveals that,under the“mountains and rivers”project,farmers with higher levels of human and social capital experience relatively got greater improvement in economic welfare.Based on these insightful findings,several policy recommendations to strengthen the overall effectiveness of multi-department collaborative governance and improve the economic welfare of farmers in source areas,are proposed in this paper as follows:firstly,optimizing the top-level organization design of the“mountains and rivers”project;secondly,establishing an integrated ecological compensation mechanism at community level for ecological protection and restoration,especially for“mountains and rivers”projects;thirdly,providing more nearby employment opportunities for farmers in local communties,and finally increasing ecological compensation standard for local vulnerable households′groups.