Toward a responsibility system in China’s community carbon forestry management: A practice based on ordered polycentric governance

Balancing carbon reduction and local livelihoods has remained a persistent challenge in community carbon forestry management (CCFM). Current literature is increasingly acknowledging the need to reconcile individual and collective objectives in CCFM based on Ostromian polycentricity, yet it has not identified an optimal solution. We develop a “agency relationship-motivation strategy-property rights structure-outcomes” framework to unpack the responsibility system in China’s CCFM. Within this analytical framework, we first classify three forms of principal-agent relationships alongside their matching incentive strategies. Second, we unpack the interconnections among principal-agent relationships, motivation strategies, and property rights allocation. Finally, we argue that CCFM exhibits an ordered polycentric governance structure. Further, we apply the analytical framework to the CCFM case in Shunchang, Fujian, China, and find that: (i) three types of agency relationships in CCFM, i.e., delegation, administrative commission, and civil commission, match the intensity of the three motivation strategies (political incentives, economic incentives, and intrinsic incentives). (ii) agency relationships and motivation strategies jointly shape the property rights structure, e.g., principals under delegation possess authoritative rights; agents under delegation and principals under administrative commission exercise control rights; agents under administrative and civil commission exercise use rights. (iii) the effective integration of multiple principal-agent relationships shapes the ordered polycentric governance in China’s CCFM. The delegation addresses spatial integration challenges, and responds to political promotion demands; the administrative commission tackles institutional innovation dilemmas; the civil commission copes with social network extension issues. The analysis of CCFM within the Chinese context contributes to debates on the role of rural carbon forestry management in and beyond China.