Journal of Forest Economics > Vol 29 > Issue 1

Spatiotemporal changes and fragmentation of forest land in Jiangxi Province, China

Hualin Xie, Institution of Ecological Civilization, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, China, Yafen He, Institution of Ecological Civilization, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, China, Ning Zhang, Department of Economics, Jinan University, China AND Institute of Resource, Environment and Sustainable Development, Jinan University, China, zn928@naver.com , Hua Lu, Institution of Ecological Civilization, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, China
 
Suggested Citation
Hualin Xie, Yafen He, Ning Zhang and Hua Lu (2017), "Spatiotemporal changes and fragmentation of forest land in Jiangxi Province, China", Journal of Forest Economics: Vol. 29: No. 1, pp 4-13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfe.2017.08.004

Publication Date: 0/12/2017
© 0 2017 Hualin Xie, Yafen He, Ning Zhang, Hua Lu
 
Subjects
 
Keywords
Forest land changeForest fragmentationForest policyBiodiversityJiangxi Province
 

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In this article:
Introduction 
Policy analysis 
Insights from forest land change and fragmentation 
Case study 
Results and discussion 
Conclusions and policy implications 
Policy implications and discussion 

Abstract

Habitat loss and fragmentation resulting mainly from increased human impacts related to land use represent considerable threats to biodiversity. When regional ecological security is threatened, governments attempt to regulate unreasonable behavior via policies and laws. China has a dominant forestry industry, and the country is attempting to implement the dual goals of economic development and ecological security; therefore, the Chinese government has formulated a series of policies and regulations to balance these goals. This study presents the main forest policies in China and implements a logistic regression model to analyze the changes in forest land in the study area (Jiangxi Province) and the primary influencing factors for these changes under the forest policies from 1990 to 2010. Subsequently, a forest fragmentation model (non-traditional forest landscape pattern index) was built to analyze the forest fragmentation patterns and interference modes. The results indicated that the total forest land area increased by more than 40,000ha during the study period; however, the logistic model showed that a large amount of high-quality forest land was replaced by poor-quality forest land because forest land areas that present rich soil organic matter (SOM) content are more easily converted to other land types, whereas areas with poor SOM are more easily converted to forest land. Between 1990 and 2010, forest fragmentation improved because the proportion of interior forests increased and the proportions of patch and perforated forests decreased. The paper concludes by proposing some policy recommendations for the conservation of biodiversity.

DOI:10.1016/j.jfe.2017.08.004