Evaluation of the coordinated development of China’s forest resources-economy-environment system

Forests provide enormous ecological, economic, and social benefits, as such forest development should be ori‐ented toward resource-economy-environment harmonization. This paper constructs a comprehensive evalua‐tion index system and uses the coupled coordination degree model to measure the coordinated development level of China’ s forest resources-economy-environment system. The results show that, across 2006‒2020, the level of coupled coordinated development of China’ s forest resources-economy-environment composite system fluctuates in an upward trend, thus gradually developing from an initial imbalance to a high degree of coordi‐nation;the level of coordinated development of each subsystem of the forest resources, economy, and environ‐ment also shows an upward trend. The factors influencing the coordinated development of the forest resource economy-environment system are, in order, the government’ s financial capacity, market environment, scien‐tific and technological innovation capacity, level of economic development, and strength of policy implemen‐tation. Therefore, this paper proposes some measures to improve the coordinated development.

Carbon emission efficiency of forest processing industries in China

This paper uses an input-output table of China's provinces(2007-2016) to measure carbon emissions of these industries.It employs a Malmquist-Luenberger(ML) index with expected and undesired outputs,and an absolute β convergence and a conditional β convergence model,to conduct an in-depth analysis of dynamic changes and spatial convergence.Carbon emission efficiency of forest processing industries in 25 regions,including Shanghai,Chongqing,Zhejiang,and Jiangsu are increasing,whereas those of Tianjin,Liaoning,Heilongjiang,and Tibet are decreasing.The main contributing factors of carbon emission efficiency in three major regions vary over time.Further,carbon emission efficiency in the eastern,central,and western regions all have absolute β convergence and conditional β convergence,indicating that different regions are developing toward their own goals and industry,yet regions with lower efficiency are catching up with those where with more efficient strategies in place.Finally,this paper proposes according recommendations.

The social welfare effect of forest certification under environmental spillovers

Forest certification has positive environmental spillovers.Considering environmental spillovers,this study ana‐lyzed the social welfare effects of forest certification using partial and general equilibrium methods.The re‐sults of the partial equilibrium analysis showed that social welfare in producing countries tended to increase under the market expansion of certified forest products.The general equilibrium analysis results indicated that,in autarky,or economic independence,the production amount of certified forest products could increase.If conventional forest products are imported and certified forest products are exported,then the level of utility in free trade condition is greater than that in autarky.If conventional forest products are exported and certi‐fied forest products are imported,then the price of imported products must be compared with the price of the autarky domestic market to determine the utility level of free trade and autarky.If the price of certified prod‐ucts is less than the price at the time of autarky,then the total utility level increases;otherwise,it decreases.The social welfare effect of forest certification can be increased through expanding the market demand of cer‐tified products and giving these products subsidies in production and price incentives in importing.