Actor, Customary Regulation and Case Study of Collective Forest Tenure Reform Intervention in China

The newly implemented collective forest tenure reform (CFTR) in China is a remarkable part of the global trend of forest management decentralization. This paper illustrates how local communities respond to the reform and how the various actors translate the policy principle into action under local social ecological condition in two case villages in Wuyuan County of Jiangxi Province in China. In the policy implementation of the CFTR, various actors, including local government, communities and villagers try to deconstruct the policy text, such as reform plan, forest distribution criterion and Forest Tenure Certificate system, with their own knowledge system. The cases of CFTR in the villages in Wuyuan County suggest there are major inconsistencies between national forest policy intervention and the local practice system. The traditional resource management system, which is based on the social customs in the local communities, is also effective to solve the collective action problem and contribute to efficient resource utilization. Thus the complexity and robustness of forest tenure combinations may ensure flexibility for sustainable forest management and accommodate the change of socioeconomic conditions.