China's forest expansion in the last three plus decades: Why and how?

China's forest area and inventory have expanded greatly in the last few decades. In this paper, I explain the reasons and mechanisms for this expansion. Specifically, high demand for timber and environmental services has led to an exponential increase of government spending in forest conservation, afforestation, and reforestation, which are an expansion of extensive margin of planted forests and forestry. Furthermore, market and policy reform have increased the security of forest tenure, and tax reduction and government subsidy have given added incentive for private sectors to invest in forestry. Finally, extra-sectoral factors such as increasing agricultural productivity allow the conversion of some marginal agricultural lands to forestry uses.