Data: Ecological Civilization and China's Forestry Policy
Description
This includes all data, the criteria for data collection and data lists.
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This Appendix includes all the process for data collection. We collected two types of data during the period between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2025. The choice of 2012 as the starting point is strategically aligned with the transformative elevation of Ecological Civilization to a national strategy during the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. This event has incorporated Ecological Civilization into the comprehensive framework of “Five-in-One”, alongside economic, political, cultural, and social development. The elevation to an important strategic position reflected the government’s commitment to building a “Beautiful China”. Subsequently, the central government increased its focus on combating environmental challenges, leading to the evolution of policies with greater numbers and intensity. This shift also marked the new beginning of a developmental period for the forestry policy in pursuit of the Beautiful China goal. Thus, the starting point of 2012 is informed by the significant policy developments and heightened attention to ecological concerns. Below is specific criteria and lists of data collection regarding to those three types. 1. National policies Policy documents were selected from the PKU Law Treasure database (www.pkulaw.com), the policy repositories of the State Council, and the website of National Forestry and Grassland Administration. First, a full-text search was performed using the keyword “ecological civilization” and “forestry” on the PKU Law Treasure platform and the policy repositories of the State Council, and the website of National Forestry and Grassland Administration. After comparing the results, the PKU Law Treasure platform yielded more comprehensive policy search results than the State Council website. As a result, PKU Law Treasure was chosen as the primary tool for collecting policy texts, with the State Council and National Forestry and Grassland Administration’ websites used for verification. 2. Academic articles Academic articles were collected from two primary databases: the Chinese academic database - China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) (www.cnki.net) and Google Scholar. We conducted searches using keywords such as “China” (zhong guo), “forestry governance” (lin ye zhi li/lin ye guan li), “farmer” (nong hu/nong min), and “social capital” (she hui zi ben). Following a brief review, we selected articles that specifically addressed forestry policies, governance, and stakeholders for our study. These articles provide a comprehensive overview of Chinese forestry studies, ranging from national to local perspectives, as you can see below in Table 2. Please see the selected academic articles in Table 3.
Institutions
- Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamNoord-Holland, Amsterdam