Landowners’ Participation Behavior on the Payment for Environmental Service (PES)

Abstract

Since private landowners have their rights to determine whether to go afforestation, the government intends to achieve the purposes on ecological conservation of land, soil and water conservation, as well as environmental greening. Because it takes a long time to harvest the forests, such long-term investments make private landowners difficult to raise funds. Therefore, it is common to see that each country in the world agrees on the loan and subsidy schemes for afforestation, and related incentive policies include the free supply of seeds, preferential loans on afforestation, preferential taxes, afforestation subsidies, and so on1. Taiwan has introduced many afforestation incentive policies to raise people’s intention to go afforestation from 1951 to 2002. Since 1951, in order to reward the afforestation in the ecological conservation land that falls into disuse, the Taiwan Provincial Government has announced the “Detailed Rules and Regulations of Rewarding Afforestation of Ecological Conservation Land in Taiwan Province” to reward the people to invest in the afforestation in ecological conservation land, with the offerings of no payment for rents and the adoption of major/side products without price. At that time, in order to promote local people to go afforestation, the government agreed on “Regulations of Private Forests”, “Rules and Regulations of Rewarding Afforestation in Private Forest Land”, and so on. In 1974, the government agreed on “Regulations of Revenue and Expenditure, Safekeeping and Manipulation of Afforestation Loan Funds of Taiwan Province”. In 1983, in order to foster forest resources and enhance the guidance and assistance of private afforestation, the government agreed on “Regulations of Rewarding Private Afforestation in Taiwan Province”, in which the subsidy for afforestation was NT$ 1,200 per hectare.