Determinants of Out-migration in rural China: effects of payments for Ecosystem Services

Rural out-migration has been a hallmark of socioeconomic development in China, but rapid economic development including deforestation also resulted in environmental degradation, leading to disastrous floods and droughts. In response, the Chinese government implemented Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs for both environmental conservation and poverty alleviation, notably the Conversion of Cropland to Forest Program (CCFP) and the Ecological Welfare Forest Program (EWFP). In the context of a full model of the determinants of migration incorporating individual, household and community factors, we investigate the manner in which these programs influenced rural out-migration in a mountainous township in Anhui, China. Results show that the CCFP compensation for switching cropland to trees releases farm labor, leading to out-migration. Meanwhile, the EWFP compensation provides poor rural farmers with large areas of forest with sizable cash subsidies that reduces their motivation to migrate. Out-migration was also found to be affected by a number of individual, household and community characteristics.