森林保险对生物多样性的影响分析OA

Biodiversity maintenance is an important foundation for ecological civilization construction and forestry high quality development.To examine the ecological conservation effects of forest insurance,by using panel data from 31 provincial-level regions in China from 2016 to 2023,taking the area covered by forest insurance as the core explanatory variable and bird species richness as a proxy for biodiversity,this paper empirically investigated the impact of forest insurance on biodiversity and its underlying mechanism.The results showed that:(1)Expanding the area covered by forest insurance could significantly increase bird species richness.This conclusion remained robust after the total amount of fiscal subsidies was used as an instrumental variable to address potential endogeneity,indicating that forest insurance had a stable biodiversity conservation effect.(2)Mechanism analysis demonstrated that forest insurance improved bird habitats and thereby increased bird species richness by strengthening risk protection for forest farmers,encouraging investment in forest pest and disease control,and reducing the area affected by forest pests.(3)Population density and forest area positively moderated the ecological effects of forest insurance.Specifically,the positive effect of forest insurance on biodiversity became stronger as population density and forest area increased.(4)The ecological effects of forest insurance exhibited significant heterogeneity.These effects were stronger in eastern China than in central and western China,in regions with a high incidence of forest fires than in those with a low incidence,and in non-plain regions than in plain regions.The contribution of this study lay in moving beyond the focus of existing research on the economic compensation and forestry production effects of forest insurance.It identified the ecological externalities of forest insurance from a biodiversity perspective and revealed forest pest and disease control as an underlying transmission mechanism.Policy implications:the coverage of forest insurance should be continuously expanded and its functions in post-disaster recovery and ecological restoration should be strengthened.Investment in forest pest monitoring,early warning and environmentally friendly prevention and control should be linked to premium pricing and claim settlement conditions.Meanwhile,differentiated and targeted insurance and subsidy policies should be implemented according to regional economic development,forest resource endowments and forest management difficulties,so as to simultaneously improve biodiversity conservation and policy efficiency.