Impact Mechanism of Heterogeneous Environmental Regulation on the Growth of Forest Carbon Sequestration in China

Based on panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2003 to 2019, five types of environmental regulation tools are introduced as moderating variables, and three types of forest management are used as mediating variables to explore the path and mechanism of forest carbon sequestration growth under the current multiple environmental regulation policies. The results show that: ① Forestry financial support is the main factor promoting the continuous growth of forest carbon sequestration, and forest management plays a complete mediating effect in the positive relationship between financial support and forest carbon sequestration capacity. ② In the path of carbon sequestration growth aiming at increasing forest coverage, formal environmental regulations have a significantly positive moderating effect, while informal environmental regulations such as public participation have a negative moderating effect. ③ In the path of carbon sequestration growth aiming at enhancing forest carbon sequestration capacity, market-motivated environmental regulation for pollution control, command-controlled environmental regulation for ecological protection and environmental regulation with public participation have achieved good performance. Therefore, we should actively explore the value realization mechanism of carbon sequestration products based on market incentives, attach importance to the role of command-controlled environmental regulation in ecological protection, encourage the public to participate in ecological and environmental supervision, and then stimulate the forest carbon sequestration potential to ensure their steady growth.