The Natural Forest Protection Program (NFPP) and the Sloping Land
Conversion Program (SLCP) instituted by the Chinese government have
contributed significantly to ecological restoration of western
China. However, additional measures are needed fine-tune the
programs to reduce the unintended adverse impact on the local
economy and households and achieve conservation with development,
according to a report presented at the meeting of the China Council
for International Cooperation on Environment and Development
(CCICED) on November 24, 2002.
Several recent events in China have focused attention on the
important role played by forests in the conservation of ecosystems.
In 1997, the Yellow River stopped flowing for a total of 267 days,
a historical high, causing great economic losses to industry and
agriculture in the Shandong Province downstream. In 1998, major
floods in the Yangtze River caused great loss of life and resulted
in tremendous economic damage. In the aftermath of that event,
people began to focus on the seriously damaged natural forest
resources in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River.
In
response, the Chinese government instituted a logging ban and
launched the Natural Forest Protection Program and the Sloping Land
Conversion Program. The Chinese government has committed US$20
billion over 13 years in food and fiscal subsidies for these
programs, most of it with domestic funds. This is by far the
world's largest experiment in forest conservation covering to and
affecting 1.2 million forest workers and many millions more
farmers.
The current programs and financial commitment of the government are
a reflection of the government's strong commitment to the
ecological restoration of western China, while at the same time
addressing the complex social income and employment implications
for forest-dependent households.
The China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and
Development (CCICED) sponsored a group of international and
national experts to look at this giant "experiment" drawing on
worldwide experiences and involving local surveys of 1400
households in 10 provinces as well as forest enterprises to obtain
reactions of the potential beneficiaries of these programs. The
Western China Forest and Grasslands Taskforce, co-chaired by
Professor Shen Guofang, vice president of the Chinese Academy of
Engineering and Dr. Uma Lele, senior advisor of the World Bank,
released the findings of its work yesterday in Beijing.
"CCICED is a unique forum to bring Chinese and international
experience to bear on key policy issues, and the World Bank is
pleased to be a partner," said Ian Johnson, the World Bank Vice
President for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable
Development.
The Taskforce work was carried out by a number of Chinese
institutions and involved many international and national experts.
The report - Implementing the Natural Forest Protection Program and
the Sloping Land Conversion Program: Lessons and Policy
Recommendations - found that the blanket application of the current
logging ban is not the best way to achieve conservation with
development. It needs a more fine-tuned location-specific approach.
Although there has been significant reduction of exploitation in
vast areas of natural forests and hundreds of thousands of hectares
of sloping land have been planted with trees and grasses, there
have been huge unintended, adverse socioeconomic impacts on both
local households and forest enterprises.
In
the case of the NFPP in particular, the impacts on local
livelihoods are extensive and, in many cases, severe. Even the
state-owned forestry enterprises and their staff, which have
received the bulk of the compensation provided by the Government,
are experiencing crisis-level impacts in many areas. Perhaps most
importantly, the logging ban was arbitrarily extended in many areas
of the country to collective forests, which had undergone the
tenure reforms since the early 1980s introducing tenure
insecurity.
The SLCP which requires conversion of sloping agriculture land back
to forest and grasslands is leading to distortion of local markets
and put downward pressure on prices, The SLCP which requires
conversion of sloping agriculture land back to forest and
grasslands is leading to distortion of local markets and put
downward pressure on prices therefore decreasing incomes for
farmers who are not involved in SLCP and still rely on crop
production. In the short term, some local economies might suffer
setbacks due to the downsizing of agriculture and its induced
decline of agricultural input supply and agricultural product
processing industries.
"There are no 'silver bullets' to achieving forest conservation. It
is hard work, requires considerable political will, substantial
resources, smart institutions, pilot approaches and willingness to
learn from experience. China is at the forefront of tackling this
challenge," said Dr. Uma Lele.
Given these lessons, the report recommended the following actions
to fine tune the policy so as to improve the contributions of the
NFPP and the SLCP to government goals of restoring forests and
grasslands and improving rural livelihoods:
NFPP
Remove the ban on logging from collectively-owned forests where
appropriate ensuring clarity and predictability in tenure
security;
Develop an exit strategy to move from the logging ban on
state-owned forests to sustainable management of the forests;
Develop a detailed forest land use plan which ensures protection of
old growth natural forests; and
In
the interim, compensate collective forest holders for losses caused
by the ban and increase the level of compensation to those impacted
by the logging ban on state-owned forests.
SLCP
Develop a strategy to engage other sector agencies in reducing
sedimentation from engineering works;
With the active participation of local officials and
representatives of stakeholders, improve the targeting and
implementation of the program by adopting specific environmental
targeting criteria and more market-based mechanisms such as
bidding;
Develop a "sustainability" strategy to continue the positive
benefits of the program following the end of the subsidies. This
'sustainability' strategy would include an aggressive piloting and
advancement of alternative funding sources for these payments for
ecosystem services, including a redesigned Ecosystem Compensation
Fund and promotion of new markets and payment schemes for carbon
sequestration and
Build capacity at all levels for more decentralized flexible,
multi-sectoral approaches to policy, planning, implementation,
monitoring and evaluation in the affected provinces.
The full report will be available on the website of the World Bank
Office Beijing at: http://www.worldbank.org.cn/English/home.asp
(china.org.cn November 25, 2002)