Xuexiang Li

Afforestation projects are the main source of carbon sink. Measurement and impact analysis of carbon sink costs will help accelerate the marketization of forestry carbon sink. Considering the opportunity cost of land use and the carbon release cost of wood products, this study proposed a forestry carbon sink cost model under the Public–Private Partnership (PPP) and the direct (DI) investment mode based on the classic carbon sink model. Then, the proposed models were applied to a real-world afforestation project, the 20-year national afforestation project (NAP) in Laohekou City, Hubei Province, China. With the help of the input–output forestry carbon sink cost–benefit analysis framework, the dynamic analysis of factors such as rotation period, timber price, discount rate and yield rate for forestry is carried out. Results show that: (1) with the increasing of rotation period, wood market price, and wood yield rate, the carbon sink cost of Laohekou NAP gradually decreases, while the discount rate has the opposite trend; (2) the DI mode is more feasible than the PPP model at the present condition. The PPP mode is more feasible than the DI mode only when the wood price is lower than 73.18% of the current price, the yield rate is lower than 0.485, and the discount rate is higher than 6.77%. (3) When choosing tree species for NAP, the carbon sink capacity, wood market price, maturity time, and planting cost should be synthetically considered. The proposed model and the obtained results can not only support local governments and forestry carbon sink enterprises to make tradeoffs between PPP and DI mode, but also provide them with useful information for reducing carbon sink costs.

The rural wealth-leader is one of the 10 projects of targeted poverty alleviation in the period of poverty alleviation. As the “leading wild goose” in rural areas, the personal characteristics of the rural wealth-leader directly affect the effect of stabilizing poverty and increasing income of poor farmers. Based on the survey of the rural wealth-leader in 10 cities and 21 counties, this paper systematically analyzes the path of poverty reduction by the rural wealth-leader, combs out the key individual characteristics that affect farmers’ poverty reduction, and puts forward a research hypothesis. Through empirical analysis, the research hypothesis is tested and the influencing mechanism is analyzed. The model results show that: The rural wealth-leader has a significant effect on increasing farmers’ income and eliminating poverty. The rural wealth-leader with high education level and engaged in e-commerce has a significant effect on increasing farmers’ income. Party members and the skilled rural wealth-leaders have a significant impact on rural households’ poverty alleviation. The income increasing effect of culture and education is negatively affected by corporate loans, and the income increasing effect of e-commerce is negatively affected by corporate profits. Therefore, we should improve the profit distribution mode of e-commerce related enterprises to avoid farmers being marginalized in the process of e-commerce development. The skills, management and financial knowledge training of the rural wealth-leaders should be strengthened to improve their knowledge and skills. Meanwhile, supporting fiscal, financial and tax policies should be improved.