China’s recent collective forestry property rights reform (CFPRR) is regarded as the third Land Reformand has been implemented to accelerate China’s rural restructuring. In departing from previous top-down policy changes, the CFPRR has focused on local collective practices and actions. It indicates a shiftin China’s rural governance, away from direct intervention towards support for local collective actions.Based on a case study of Hongtian Village, the origin of the CFPRR, this article analyses the process ofinsinuating collective action and the impact that this has had in creating a new cultural understandingand acceptance of collective forestry property rights. In contrast to the relative insecurity of tenure thatcan accompany many reforms of the governance of common pool resources, the paper suggests thatthe success of the ‘Hongtian model’ mainly lies in high levels of process engagement by local people andeffective interaction between villagers and the government. While not addressing all the issues associatedwith the inefficiency of the previous collective approach to forestry, the paper suggests that there aremany transferable lessons to be learnt from the CFPRR, both within and beyond China.
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