Collective action in China's recent collective forestry property rights reform

China's recent collective forestry property rights reform (CFPRR) is regarded as the third Land Reform and 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 shift in 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 of insinuating collective action and the impact that this has had in creating a new cultural understanding and acceptance of collective forestry property rights. In contrast to the relative insecurity of tenure that can accompany many reforms of the governance of common pool resources, the paper suggests that the success of the 'Hongtian model' mainly lies in high levels of process engagement by local people and effective interaction between villagers and the government. While not addressing all the issues associated with the inefficiency of the previous collective approach to forestry, the paper suggests that there are many transferable lessons to be learnt from the CFPRR, both within and beyond China. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.