Impacts of nature reserves on local residents' income in China

Coordinated economic and environmental development is a current goal in China. Many nature reserves have been established across China for the purpose of ecological civilization and protection of species diversity. In this study, the response of local resident income to nature reserve establishment is investigated qualitatively and quantitatively at the county scale in combination with socioeconomic datasets and the features of nature reserves during 2000–2017 based on the multi-period difference-in-difference model. In general, establishing nature reserves increased the income of local residents by approximately 1.3%. However, significant spatial heterogeneities are captured in China. Positive effects of nature reserves on local resident income were found in western and northeastern China, with enhancements of 3% and 3.8%, respectively. Negative effects were observed in other regions, with decrements of 3.3% and 1.1% across central and eastern China, respectively. Moreover, this study divided nature reserves into national and local nature reserves. Upgrading local nature reserves to national nature reserves increased the income of local residents by 4.0%, and establishing local-level nature reserves increased the income of local residents by approximately 1.1%. This paper provides evidence of the impacts of nature reserves on local poverty alleviation in developing countries.