TITLE:
Rural Housing Land Consolidation and Transformation of Rural Villages under the “Coordinating Urban and Rural Construction Land” Policy: A Case of Chengdu City, China
AUTHORS:
Chun Huang, Liangji Deng, Xuesong Gao, Yi Luo, Shirong Zhang, Li Liu
KEYWORDS:
Rural Housing Land Consolidation; Rural Village; Resettled Farmers; China
JOURNAL NAME:
Low Carbon Economy,
Vol.4 No.3,
August
2,
2013
ABSTRACT: The rapid
urbanization and industrialization of China have led to a substantial reduction
in farmland and the rapid expansion of urban-rural construction land, with the
introduction of economic liberalization reforms in 1978. At present, scarcity
of construction land for development has become the lead limiting factor in
constraining economic growth. Rural housing land consolidation under the “coordinating
urban and rural construction land” policy (CURCL) is an effective means of
providing urban construction land for economic development, as well as
controlling the amount of rural construction land. To better understand rural
housing land consolidation in China, this paper, which takes Chengdu as a case
study, has examined the implementation status. From this we conclude that
although the rural housing land consolidation of Chengdu ostensibly changes
only farmers’ place of residence, it actually involves changes in rural society,
economy and organizational function. Through extensive interviews, this study
indicates that although local governments are still the main body responsible
for implementing rural housing land consolidation, external investment also
plays an important role by improving the resettled farmers’ economic condition
and promoting the transformation of their production modes and lifestyles to
some extent.