IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nas/journl/v122y2025pe2421526122.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Poverty alleviation resettlement in China reduces deforestation

Author

Listed:
  • Feifei Chen

    (a School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing , Beijing 100083 , China)

  • Wei Chen

    (b School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Renmin University of China , Beijing 100872 , China)

  • Huanguang Qiu

    (c School of Economics, Liaoning University , Shenyang 110136 , China)

Abstract

Deforestation frequently accompanies poverty, yet various antipoverty programs in many countries have exhibited mixed results in addressing deforestation. Poverty Alleviation Resettlement (PAR) stands out as one of the few government-led resettlement programs designed to alleviate poverty, offering comprehensive follow-up support for quality of life and employment after relocation. Our study uncovered empirical evidence of the PAR program’s impact on forest quality. Through a multiperiod difference-in-differences analysis of remote sensing and household survey data, we found that the PAR program significantly curbed deforestation in the participating counties and reduced forest-clearing activities among the resettled households, even those relocating to rural villages. Mechanism analysis revealed that the program discouraged deforestation by enhancing market accessibility, fostering nonfarm employment opportunities, and elevating income levels. The study underscores that altering livelihood strategies and lifestyles is essential for resettlement programs to effectively mitigate ecological degradation.

Suggested Citation

  • Feifei Chen & Wei Chen & Huanguang Qiu, 2025. "Poverty alleviation resettlement in China reduces deforestation," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 122(11), pages 2421526122-, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:nas:journl:v:122:y:2025:p:e2421526122
    DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2421526122
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2421526122
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1073/pnas.2421526122?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nas:journl:v:122:y:2025:p:e2421526122. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: PNAS Product Team (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.pnas.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.