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Forests
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The Role of Public Policies in Incentivizing Forest, Mountain and...
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The Role of Public Policies in Incentivizing Forest, Mountain and Rural Economy

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Economics, Policy, and Social Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 14 October 2024 | Viewed by 781

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Valerio Di Stefano

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Rome, Italy
Interests: biosystems and environment; work safety; agricultural and forestry policies and law; urban forestry management; circular economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Alessandro Paletto

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), 38123 Trento, Italy
Interests: sustainable forest management; ecosystem services; stakeholder analysis; public participation in natural resources management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Raffaele Cortignani

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences (DAFNE), Tuscia University, Via San Camillo de Lellis, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Interests: agricultural economics; agri-environmental policies and strategies; adaptation and mitigation of climate change in the agricultural sector
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the last century, the depopulation of mountain and rural areas has increased considerably, causing a negative decline in the economy and further encouraging the phenomenon of abandonment of traditional activities and active management of the territory. However, these areas are essential for the provision of a multitude of ecosystem services and benefits, such as the maintenance and protection of biodiversity and traditional landscape, as well as the fight against climate change.

Mountain areas are an important carbon reserve and source of ecosystem services such as soil protection and water regulation, raw materials and energy provision. On the other hand, mountain areas through the agricultural sector provide unique and characteristic agrifood products and represent a source of income for rural populations. In addition, mountain rural areas play a fundamental role in the well-being and quality of life of the community through various environmental benefits typical of mountain areas. Therefore, their abandonment would generate negative consequences for current and future generations.

Global and European Union (EU) policies and strategies (e.g., the European Green Deal and new EU Forest Strategy for 2030) seek to incentivize the development and recovery of mountain and rural areas through the implementation of financial and economic measures. The Common Agricultural Policy 2023–2027 also provides support and funding for rural mountain areas and related agricultural activities. Nevertheless, it is also true that public policies are not always sufficient to guarantee the concrete development of these areas, and public participation and stakeholder engagement hold importance.

The objective of the Special Issue is to collect contributions (original research articles and review documents) that provide pivotal information on public policies and strategies regarding mountain and rural development in order to compare both the main results obtained and their implementation in European countries.

The main aim of the Special Issue is to improve knowledge of the main public policies regarding mountain and rural development, contributing to the state of the art of the main challenges of the European States and to the in-depth analysis of future prospects to further incentivize the sector.

Dr. Valerio Di Stefano
Dr. Alessandro Paletto
Dr. Raffaele Cortignani
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • forest, mountain and rural policy
  • governance of mountain forests
  • rural and mountain area management and governance
  • forestry and rural legislation
  • mountain and rural economics
  • natural resource policy and planning
  • Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
  • adaptation and mitigation of climate change in mountain and rural areas
  • stakeholder involvement and conflict management in mountain and rural areas
  • public participation as a tool of mountain and rural development

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

28 pages, 1557 KiB  
Article
The Impact of the Governance Fragmentation of Forestry Communities on the Economic Performance of State-Owned Forest Enterprises in Northeast China: An Empirical Analysis Based on the Transaction Cost Perspective
by Yuan Ji, Shenwei Wan and Shuifa Ke
Forests 2024, 15(6), 1035; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15061035 - 14 Jun 2024
Viewed by 407
Abstract
The 2015 reform of state-owned forest regions (SOFRs) in Northeast China required state-owned forest enterprises (SOFEs) to transfer their governmental and social roles to local authorities. This transition, however, created fragmented governance within forestry communities due to the absence of cooperative mechanisms between [...] Read more.
The 2015 reform of state-owned forest regions (SOFRs) in Northeast China required state-owned forest enterprises (SOFEs) to transfer their governmental and social roles to local authorities. This transition, however, created fragmented governance within forestry communities due to the absence of cooperative mechanisms between SOFEs and local governments. This study examines the economic effects of this governance fragmentation on SOFEs and explores the underlying mechanisms. The research combines new institutional economics and transaction cost theory to develop hypotheses and employs empirical analysis using fixed-effects models on data from 39 SOFEs, belonging to two forest industry groups from 2015 to 2022, collected through surveys and field investigations. The findings indicate that governance fragmentation has a significant negative impact on the economic performance of SOFEs. The high transaction costs incurred by SOFEs in achieving community co-governance with local governments are identified as a key mediating mechanism. These costs lead to resource dispersion and diminished trust between SOFEs and local governments. The economic impact of this governance fragmentation varies based on the economic conditions of the SOFEs, their operational scales, and the clarity of geographical management boundaries with local governments. To mitigate the adverse effects of governance fragmentation, the study suggests proactive institutional designs to reduce transaction costs. These findings offer new insights into the corporate social responsibilities of Chinese SOFEs and suggest improvements in the governance structures of forestry communities in SOFRs in Northeast China. Additionally, the study expands the application of transaction cost theory in public affairs governance and enhances quantitative research on the economic impact on enterprises. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Public Policies in Incentivizing Forest, Mountain and Rural Economy)
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