Comparative Study on Collective Forest Tenure Reform and Water Rights System Reform in China

Collective forest tenure reform and water rights system reform are two types of resource system reform initiated by the Chinese government since the implementation of the reform and opening policy of the 1980 s.Forest tenure reform has been completed and water rights system reform is ongoing.This study analyzes key points and problems with collective forest tenure reform and summarizes four typical successful reform measures and lessons that will have implications for the developing water rights system：the collective forest-cutting quota system,collective forest tenure compensation,collective forest tenure confirmation,and collective forest tenure trading center.A flexible water permission index,compensation measures in water rights trade,water rights approval,and various forms of water rights trading platforms are proposed as reform measures.This study fills a gap in comparative studies between two important resource system reforms in China and provides a reference for further reform and development of water rights systems locally and abroad.

Effect Evaluation of Collective Forestry Tenure Reform and Forest Farmers' Willingness to Participate in the Reform: A Case Study of Shaowu, Fujian Province

Since 2003, China has carried out the pilot of collective forest tenure reform (CFTR). Inrecent years, there have been lots of researches about evaluation of the CFTR, which are, however,mostly qualitative research with little focus on the quantitative research. This paper used the AnalyticHierarchy Process (AHP) and expert assignment method to define the comprehensive evaluation indexes and monitoring indexes of the CFTR. In this study, the authors did a quantitative evaluation of the CFTR in Shaowu, Fujian Province, which was scored as 0.844, indicating more significant effect. The authors investigated 100 farmer households there, and the data showed that the average household income has grown by 49.2% in the 6 years after the CFTR implementation, while the forestry incomehas grown by 108.3%, indicating that farmers’ income increased significantly after the CFTR. Factor analysis shows that CFTR has been the key factor to increase farmers’ income.

The Practice and Reconstruction of Village Communal Ownership: An Analytical Framework for Collective Forest Tenure Disputes in China

As shown in the many disputes occurring in reforms to collective forest tenure, reforms aimed at clarifying property rights that follow the contract responsibility system for arable land are not wholly compatible with the informal system of property rights followed in village communities up to the present. This highlights the fact that the existing theory of collective property rights no longer provides a sufficient or effective interpretation of the property rights game in the practice of collective forest tenure. Further, the existing institutional arrangements for collective property rights are conducive neither to the resolution of disputes over forest tenure nor to the sustainable management and utilization of forest land. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a more inclusive analytical framework for rural property rights： village communal ownership. This highlights the village community as the main force in the practice of property fights and integrates the communal ownership values accumulated and inherited in the course of village transition. The introduction of a rational mechanism developed through the practice of village communal ownership may be able to further improve and encourage the reform of rural property fights in China, leading to the construction of a modem system of rural property rights involving clear title to the land.