Impacts of natural forest logging ban policiy on forest carbon sink capacity and rural residents' income in major distribution areas of collective forests in China

The natural forest logging ban policy represents a crucial initiative for safeguarding national ecological security and advancing the "Two Mountains" theory. This study utilizes panel data from 2005 to 2022, covering major distribution areas of collective forests, and employs a staggered DID model to analyze the policy's effects on enhancing forest carbon sink capacity and increasing rural residents' income. The results indicate that: (1) The natural forest logging ban policy significantly enhances the forest carbon sink capacity and raises rural residents' income from a long time while it has a significant negative impact on rural residents' business income in the short term. (2) The main mechanism is to enhance the forest carbon sink capacity through investment in ecological construction and protection, and to increase the income of rural residents through non-farm transfer employment and the optimization of the forestry industry structure. (3) The effect of the policy on enhancing carbon sink capacity is more pronounced in regions with abundant resources and underdeveloped industries. In contrast, the income growth effect is more evident in the regions with poor resource endowments and weak industrial bases. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the natural forest logging ban policy, increase forestry ecological investment and industrial support, expand new forms of forestry industry, and open up channels for realizing the value of forestry ecological products, thus achieving the integrated goals of high-level natural forest protection and high-quality economic development.