CHINA S FOREST TENURE REGIME

Transcription

1 China s Forest Tenure Regime CHINA S FOREST TENURE REGIME Margaret Han Margaret Han PhD Candidate University of Toronto

2 OUTLINE 1 Overview of China 2 China s forest 3 Governance and Tenure reform

3 Satellite view of china 19% 22% 26% 33% 10%

4

5 Which countries match the GDP of Chinese provinces? Source: The economist; Economist Intelligence Unit; CEIC;WTO, 2011.

6 Population: 1.34 billion 55 minor ethnic groups

7 CHINA S FOREST RESOURCES STATUS Forest stock Per capita Forest coverage: 21.63% Forest area: 208 million hectares Forest stock volume: billion m3 Natural forest area: 120 million hectares Plantation forest area: 62 million hectares China World

8 DISTRIBUTION OF CHINA S FOREST Semi/desert dominate 1st largest natural forest 2rd largest natural forest Source: Atlas of Forest Resources of China, Plantation forest

9 CHINA S FOREST BIODIVERSITY Diversity of forest types: coniferous, broadleaved, and mixed coniferous-broadleaved forests 32,000 species of higher plants 7,000 species of woody plants, including 2,800-odd tree species 6,347 species of vertebrates

10 CHINA S FOREST INDUSTRY BOOMS Total output : US dollar 0.77 trillion and million m³ in 2013; Largest exporter of wood products; 2nd largest importer of wood products Largest importer of softwood and hardwood logs Creates jobs for more than 45 million farmers

11 CHINA S FOREST TENURE REGIME Property rights and tenure arrangements play a central role in national resource economics and sustainable management.

12 FOREST REGIME BEFORE PRC In the Imperial and colonized era before PRC, state, communal and private forest regimes were co-existent under various management patterns to fulfill different purposes. Primary forest 1st massive deforestation period 2nd massive deforestation period 3rd massive deforestation period Forest depletion

13 FOREST REGIME IN COMMUNIST CHINA ( Two reform trends: Nationalization Collectivization Two ownership types: State-owned enterprises (41% forest area and 68% volume) Collectively-own cooperative and commune (59% area and 32% volume)

14 FOREST REGIME IN LIBERALIZATION PHASE Devolve the use rights of forestland in southern collective forest areas.

15 FOREST REGIME IN UNCLE XI S CONTEMPORARY PHASE (2000-CURRENT) Comprehensively promoting collective forest tenure reform

16 WHAT S NEW? Longer term contracts (30-70 years) More democratic: farmers get involved in the forestland redistribution decision Issuing uniformed forest usufruct certificates and clarifying disputed boundary New rights: transfer, inheritance and collateral mortgage Other major policy measures, such as relaxing the logging control and reducing taxes and fees imposed on timber sales are adopted as well

17 ACHIEVEMENT OF THE TENURE REFORM 6th National Forestry Resource Inventory State-owned forest 7th National Forestry Resource Inventory Collective forest Individual house forest Data source: National Report of China s Sustainable Forest Management

18 TENURE REFORM S IMPACT ON FOREST Source: 8th China forest inventory (SFA,2014)

19 TENURE REFORM S IMPACT ON INVESTMENT Source: China s forestry statistics yearbook(sfa,2014)

20 TENURE REFORM S IMPACT ON WELFARE Devolution of forest responsibility has not succeeded in lifting poorer households out of poverty and minimize the inequity, Increased area of plantation forests, represents an in improvement in the wealth of local communities and households. Along with the tax and fees reform, revenues from timber are increased, but vary significantly from village to village Farmers could use collective forest as collateral to finance production and infrastructure construction.

21 TENURE REFORM S IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICE The impact of devolution on the environmental services of forests is ambiguous. - New plantation environmental services - Decline of the natural forest and single-species plantations environmental services

22 CONCLUSIONS AND FURTHER THOUGHTS Focus on long-term goals/outcomes rather than short-term targets/achievements China still does not have an independent judicial system and that system has seldom gotten involved in enforcing the new laws, settling land disputes Forest ecosystems as well as the rural society of China must also be appropriately incorporated into the design and implementation of tenure reform and development policies Keep a dynamic view of forestry.

23 Thanks for your attention! Any questions? See more: A Land of Bamboo Groves : Collective-Owned Forest Tenure Reform in Southern China and Its Environmental Impacts