0937-C1
Zhu Jinzhao[1]
Following a summary of the major ecological and environmental problems facing China today, the current progress of the Chinese forestry sector toward ecological protection and environmental rehabilitation was briefly presented in terms of initiatives, policies and techniques. Major ecological and environmental problems include:
1) Severe soil erosion and water losses manifested by 38.2% of country’s territory;
2) The enlargement of the land area suffering desertification by wind erosion at the rate of 1.56 thousand km2 per year in the 1960s and 1970s, to 2.1 thousand km2 in the 1980s, and 2.46 thousand km2 each year in the 1990s;
3) Coexistence of droughts and floods along with severe water body contaminations;
4) Overgrazing and low maintenance inputs that have resulted in grassland degradation at the speed of 20 thousand km2 each year. It was estimated that the total degraded grassland was up to 1.3 million km2;
5) Ecological and environmental degradation, specifically forest environmental degradation that caused accelerated loss of biodiversity.
All these problems are closely related with the low coverage and uneven distribution of forest resources. The latest forest survey result shows that forest coverage of the country is 16.55% on the basis of forest canopy coverage equal or greater than 0.2. To tackle the ecological and environmental problems, the Chinese government recently re-integrated 17 former forestry programs into six, which include: 1) Natural Forests Protection Program, 2) Protection Forest Planting in the "Three North" and Lower Reaches of Changjiang River, 3) Agricultural Used Slope-land Conversion to Forest Use, 4) Wind Erosion Caused Desertification Control Around Beijing, 5) Wildlife Animal and Plant Protection and Nature Protection Reserve Construction, and 6) Commercial Forestry Bases Construction.
Major forestry policies that aim to promote ecological protection in China can be summarized as: 1) The Government is the major investment body for ecological forestry and social investment is complementary; 2) Marketing mechanisms regulate the development of commercial forestry while the Government supports selected very important industries and projects; 3) Lower forestry taxation system is widely adopted to create a favorable environment for forestry development, 4) Non-state owned forestry development is encouraged; 5) effective legal or institutional measures are being adopted to fulfil the development of ecological forestry. In the last part of the paper some major ecological forest planting techniques currently adopted in China were summarized in terms of design, planting, management and regulation under nine categories.
The total area of China's territory amounts to 9.6 million km2, making up about 1/15 of the land area in the world. Interactions of geographical, climatic and anthropogenic agents made China one of the countries in the world that suffers most seriously from natural disasters. Sever soil erosion and water losses, enlargement of desertificated land area, frequently occurred droughts and floods, grassland degradation, and biodiversity lost are all closely related with the low coverage and uneven distribution of forest resources of the country. The latest forest survey result shows that forest coverage of the country is 16.55% on the basis of forest canopy coverage equal or greater than 0.2. To achieve the sustainable development of the country’ economy, forestry ecological engineering as a recently emerged terms with reference to the forestry development toward ecological protection in China. Following the generalization of major ecological and environmental problems facing China today and brief introduction of some research results in the country concerning the forest impacts on stream flow, soil erosion and water quality, this paper briefly presents the current Chinese forestry development toward ecological protection and environmental rehabilitation in terms of initiatives, polices and techniques.
The large area of mountains making up the 2/3 of the total area of the country provides the topographical potential agent for the occurrence of soil erosion, torrents, landslides, and debris flows while desert landscape in the northern part of the country provides sand dust sources for wind erosion and sandstorm. On the other hand, the extensive human activities such as overgrazing, reclamation, deforestation, slash and burn accelerated the rate of ecological degradation and environmental destruction. Major ecological and environmental problems in China could be identified as follows:
According to the national survey of soil erosion in 1989, the total eroded land area was up to 3.67 million km2 amounting to 38.2% of the total area of the nation’s territory of which 1.79million km2 belongs to water erosion and 1.88 million km2 wind erosion. About 5 billion ton of surface soil each year is eroded causing huge amount of organic material, C, N, P, and K transported to national water bodies like rivers, lakes and reservoirs. Each year over 2.667 hm2 of arable land was damaged and lost by soil erosion and water losses. Recent national monitoring of soil and water losses shows that the total area of soil erosion is tied with that of ten years ago.
In accordance with the definition of UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the total area of desertificated land area of China is up to 2.62 million km2 amounting to 27.2% of nation’s territory. Desertificated land area by water erosion and wind erosion are overlapped with that of the same type of desertification in dry-land region. A large number of farm lands, grazing lands, forested lands, and many highways, railways and city establishments are harmed from desertification. It was estimated that direct economic toll by desertification each year is as high as 54 billion RMB Yuan(approximately 6.5 billion US$) and over one-third of overall population of the country are threaten by the disaster of desertification. Desertificated land area is distributed mainly in Northern part, Northwest parts of China covering 18 provinces. Desertification rate by wind erosion has been increased from 1.56 thousand km2 per year in 60’s and 70’s to 2.1 thousand km2 in 80’s, however, the increase rate of wind erosion reached up to 2.46 thousand Km2 each year in 90’s. One of the most influential phenomena related closely with the desertification is the sand dust storms frequently occurred in recent years in China.
China is a "rich country in water resources" from the viewpoint of total amount, but on the other hand, unfortunately, a "poor country in water" in terms of per capita amount. The annual amount of river runoff in China is 2 711.5 billion m3£¬ranking sixth in the world, but the amount of annual per capita water resources is only 2 474m3£¬1/4 of the world annual per capita water resources amount(9360m3), ranking 88th in the world.ª¥
Water resources are unevenly distributed all over the country in terms of area and season. In the south, the rainy season is longer, and the rainfall from March to June or from April to July accounts for about 50% to 60% of the annual rainfall; while in the north, the rainy season is shorter, and the rainfall from June to September accounts for about 60% to 70% of the annual rainfall, often occurring in the form of rainstorm. As a result of over concentration of rainfall, flood and waterlogging occur frequently, drought is liable to occur in the season short of rain. Water quality and environment degradation is another serious problem in China. Pollution of water quality further aggravates the shortage of water resources. Waters from about 1/2 nation’s river systems have been polluted. For the Yellow River, about 71% of the whole distance was polluted and 105 rivers of the 136 rivers flowing through the city areas has been severely polluted and can not be used for drinking. According to statistics, 80% of unprocessed wastewater is drained directly into rivers, lakes, streams and reservoirs, polluting more than 1/3 of river courses (river sections) and water resources of water supply in some cities and towns, impairing the people's health and normal life.ª¥
Drought disasters are also very frequently occurred in China that put the great pressure for nation’s agricultural development.
Overgrazing and low maintenances input has been resulted in grassland degradation at the speed of 20 thousand km2 each year. It was estimated that the total degraded grassland was up to 1.3 million km2.
Ecological and environmental degradation, specifically forest environmental degradation ensured the accelerated biodiversity lost. It was estimated that about 15% to 20% of Chinese species are endangered to extinction.
All these problems are closely related with the low coverage and uneven distribution of forest resources. The latest forest survey result shows that forest coverage of the country is 16.55% on the basis of forest canopy coverage equal or greater than 0.2. Forest functions for ecological restoration and rehabilitation are verified by variety research results worldwide. In the following part of the paper some Chinese research results are outlined briefly in terms of forest impacts on soil erosion, runoff regulation, and water quality etc.
Shortage of forest resources and fragile environment makes China a country susceptible to serous natural disasters such as soil erosion, water loss, wind and sandstorm, floods, and drought. To solve the environmental problems above, China has been taking afforestation program as national policy and one of the major components of ecological conservation and environmental restoration along with the economic development since the adoption of reform and open up to the outside world policy. Large scale forestry ecological engineering construction has made worldwide-known progress along with greening activities of the whole China since then in order to reverse the continuous degradation of Chinese environment, ease the forest resources crisis, maintain the ecological balance, and improve the ecological services function of forests. On the bases of classified forest management policy, two types of forest management could be identified as ecological forestry and commercial forestry. Forestry development toward ecological protection has been referenced to a new ecological engineering branch in China, Forestry Ecological Engineering, in the last five years period demonstrated by a university student textbook publication in 1999 and practical handbook in 2000. Furthermore, the Forestry Ecological Engineering Management Center was established in 2000 in the State Forestry Administration of China. This new integrated disciplinary branch of eco-engineering, could be termed as the artificial complex system buildup dominated by wooden vegetation through the ecological sound layout of different populations of plants, animals, microbial on the basis of ecology, forest science, system sciences, biological cybernetics principles, and eco-engineering processes and in accordance with the natural resources, environments, and social economic development of the region. It consists of several steps including design, planting, management, and regulation. Commercial forestry is referred to the wood or paper pulp production under extensive management.
Ten national forestry eco-engineering projects oriented to soil and water conservation, environmental protection and forest resources expanding have been carried on since 1978. They are 1) "Three North" (Northwest, Northern China, West of the Northeast) Protection Forests Construction, 2) Protection Forests Construction Project in the Upper and Middle Reach of Changjiang River, 3) Protection Forests Construction Project of Seashore, 4) Greening the Flat Area of China, 5) Greening Taihang Mountain Project, 6) Desertification Combating Project, 7) Protection Forests Construction for the Integrated Watershed Management of Hui River and Taihu Lake, 8)Protection Forests Construction in the Middle Reach of Huanghe River, 9) Protection Forests Construction for the Integrated Watershed Management of Liaohe River, and 10) Protection Forests Construction for the Integrated Watershed Management of Zhujiang River. Planned area of these ten projects formulating general framework of Chinese forestry eco-engineering activities is 7.06 million amounting to 73.5% of national total territory and planned afforestation area 1.17 million km2 covering most ecological fragile regions of China suffered from soil and water loss, desertification, cyclone, and salinity.
Chinese government has adopted since 1999 West Development Strategy of which ecological restoration and environmental rehabilitation is one of the major components in the process of the social economic development. Therefore, another two projects entitled with "Demonstration Project of Agricultural Used Slope-land Conversion to Forest Use in the Upper and Middle Reaches of Changjiang and Huanghe Rivers" and "Natural Forests Protection Program" were started to implement.
Recently, Chinese government integrated all above-mentioned forestry programs into 6 key projects. 1) Natural Forests Protection Program. According this program, natural forest cutting in upper reach of Changjiang River (Yangzt River) and upper and middle reaches of Huanghe River (Yellow River) is totally prohibited. Large-scale decrease of wood production is in effect in major state-owned forest production areas such as Northeast and Inner Mongolia. Other natural forest protection is responsible by local governments. Over 19.91 million cubic meter of wood production will be reduced while over 740 thousands forest workers will be arranged in other fields. 2) Protection forest planting in the "Three North" and lower reaches of Changjiang River. About 2.27×106 Km2 protection forest will be planted and 7.19×106 Km2 forest protected. 3) Agricultural Used Slope-land Conversion to Forest Use Project. Over 2.27×106 Km2 land suffered from soil erosion and water loss and 4yimu from desertificated area will be controlled till 2010. 4) Desertification by wind erosion control project around Beijing. It was planned that forest and grass coverage will be increased from 6.7% to 21.4% in the projected area. 5) Wildlife animal and plant protection and nature protection reserve construction project. This project was aimed at species protection, natural protection, wetland protection. 6) Commercial forestry bases construction(mainly fast grow wood harvesting forest cultivation). This project will meet wood demand and make the natural forest protection program effective.
Major forestry policies toward ecological protection in China includes: 1) Government is the major investment body for ecological forestry and social investment as complementary, 2) Marketing mechanisms regulate the development of commercial forestry while government support for very important industries and projects, 3) Lower forestry taxation system is widely adopted to create favorable environment for forestry development, and 4) Encourage the development of non-state owned forestry development, and 5) effective legal or institutional measures adopted to fulfill the development of ecological forestry. For instance, the farmland on the slope over 25 degree must be converted into forest or grassland and the reclamation for the slope over 25 degree will be considered illegal.
Taking the project of slope farmland conversion to forest or grassland as an example, the major specific policies could be identified as flowing.
The households who would like to converse their slope farmland into forest or grassland will be supported by government in the ways of: the central government provides grain foods as subsidiary for 1 mu conversion of slope farmland(15mu =1hm2) of 150kg in upper reach of Changjiang River and 100kg in upper and middle reaches of Huanghe river, respectively. The determination for the time span to subside the farmers depends on the forestation type. The time span is 5 year for cash tree plantation and 8 years for ecological forest plantation. After this time span, farmers will get grain compensation on the basis of the evaluation of their income.
Governmental cash compensation for the households;
Governmental pays for the Seedlings,
The households who manage the converted land will be benefited from it. For the farmers not willing to manage the converted land, the local government can rent it to other farmer through auction system according to related national laws. Multiple ways to promote the conversion can be carried out by local expert households for afforestation, social communities, enterprises, are also encouraged to rent slope land for forestry development. Household to construct forest and grass farms are encouraged. The longest period for management of the land could be as long as 50 years.
In addition, other related policies for implementing the program include:
Expenditure for demonstrating and technical support activities to implementing the conversion project covered by central government;
Reductions of agricultural taxes for the households.
Fiscal transfer payment mechanisms adopted from the budget of central government.
The conversion projects will be carried out in accordance with the Poverty Alleviation campaign, Agricultural Integrated Development and Soil and Water Conservation Initiatives. Finance from different government channels will be organized as a whole. For instance, the finance for conversion project also can be used to construct infrastructures for agricultural development such as basic farmland and small water structures and for technical training of the farmers. All such activities can promote the conversion project.
The completion of the conversion planning will be based on the households. Only after the farmers have successful finished their works of conversion, the grain and cash compensation will be given to them.
Current techniques of forestry ecological engineering which are widely adopted in China could be identified as following 9 parts:
Rational Layout and Planning Methods of Protection Forests System at larger scale
Structure design, afforestation and regulation methods of Soil and Water Conservation Forest at small watershed and stand scales
Structure design, afforestation and regulation of water resources conservation forest at small watershed and stand scales
Sustainable and high efficiency management techniques of agro-forestry l Tree planting and restoration methods on adversary sites l Anti- adversity Species selection, breeding and propagation
Lower effect protective forest improvement and restoration
Forest disease and insect, mouse and forest fire control
Forestry ecological engineering evaluation and information management
To achieve the sustainable development of the whole world for our future generations, forest protection and green campaign is an indispensable responsibilities for the whole society today and tomorrow. We could not figure out what it will be without the protection from forests. Ecologically friend economic development will no matter how be the key challenges for every countries in the world. Therefore, the following aspects are particularly important from Chinese point of view regarding to the forestry development toward ecological protection.
National scale initiatives in accordance with 21st Agenda;
Governmental prefential policy to support forest environmental protection;
Technical development for ecological forestry development;
Economic benefits also considered for ecological forestry development to attract participation of farmers
Public awareness of forest environmental importance, public ecological education, ecological culture building-up
Promotion of international cooperation in forestry-related areas by various ways.
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| [1] School of Water and Soil
Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Qinghua East Road 35, Beijing
100083, P. R. China. Email: [email protected] |