How religious beliefs affect farmers’ participation in community environmental governance: evidence from typical pilot areas in China

The governance system in China’s rural areas has historically been characterized by a top-down, government-led structure. In recent years, with the prevalence of “religious fever” in rural China, developing religions in the Chinese context are playing an increasingly important role as extra-governmental organizations in the environmental governance of rural communities. Taking 1152 farmers in 64 villages, 16 townships, and 4 counties in Shaanxi Province, China as examples, this paper quantitatively examines the impact of religious beliefs on farmers’ participation in waste separation and management (WSM) from the micro perspective. The results showed that (1) farmers with religious beliefs had a higher probability of participating in WSM than those without religious beliefs. These religions mainly include Buddhism/Taoism, Protestantism/Catholicism, and Islam. On this basis, the robustness of the regression results is tested by two instrumental variables estimation: “the distance between the community and the old revolutionary base areas” and “whether parents have religious beliefs”. (2) Religions in the Chinese context can enhance farmers’ participation in WSM by increasing the social and human capital of individuals. By differentiating these religions, it can be revealed that the influence of Buddhism/Taoism on farmers’ participation in WSM only depends on the increase of human capital, while Protestantism/Catholicism and Islam focus more on the increase of believers’ social capital, in addition to the cultivation of human capital. (3) Rural public culture in China had no crowding-out effect on religious beliefs and also positively moderated the effect of religions on farmers’ participation in WSM. Religion in the context of China can shape individual behavioral decisions by changing beliefs and preferences, and promoting beneficial ideas and activities in religion is an important means of filling the gaps in formal institutions.