I am a professional expert on forest inventory and monitoring, working in Academy of Forest and Grassland Inventory and Planning, National Forest and Grassland Administration (NFGA) of China, not in agrifood system. Because there are no experts in agrifood system from China participating in this consultation, I would like to contribute some information for reference.
1. Analysis of the complexities and practical problems associated with science-policy interfaces
Government departments are responsible for policy-making. Generally, there are science and technology consultation institutions under national and provincial government departments. For example, the Science and Technology Advisory Committee under the NFGA, which consists of famous experts from multiple disciplines, is responsible for consulting on policy-making. While they try to hold consultations, some of committee members are invited to participate in the consultation meeting. Generally, these are rarely sufficiently broad and inclusive. They tend to invite the friendly experts supporting the discussion issues, with the same ideas for the addressing topics. Thus, it is rare for a discussion issue to be rejected in China. Other experts have few opportunities to inform decision-making. In addition, there is also bureaucracy, which has impacts to efficient, inclusive, and scientific policy-making.
2. Knowledge production for policy
I have been engaged in national forest inventory and monitoring for more 30 years, the outputs of which have provided information support for scientific policy-making at macro levels. All my research to problems and challenges faced by forest inventory and monitoring system are needs-driven and/or problems-orientated. Maybe, it is a common situation that there are gaps between scientific research area and application area (or theory and practice). For example, many scientists and research staffs in universities and institutes have little understanding of policy-making and less interests beyond their sphere of work. Consequently, many papers published by scientists in their respective disciplines are used mostly by subsequent researchers just as review material not as an input for policy making. Thus, it is very encouragement for combination of production, education and research, or cooperation among institutes, universities and enterprises in China. However, the real situation is not as good as expected. As the body for policy-making, government departments should make efforts to combine the human resources or knowledge of these three areas, fill up the gaps between them, and make the whole benefits maximum. It is said unity is strength, and the people are the real heroes. Therefore, it is important for policy-making to draw on expertise from academic and non-academic actors including Indigenous Peoples and small-scale producers.
3. Knowledge translation for policy-making
My knowledge products mainly include scientific papers published in journals and technical standards issued by NFGA. The papers are used mostly by subsequent researchers just as review material and the technical standards are applied in practice, such as forest inventory and monitoring. In forestry, several Standardization Technical Committees were developed which are responsible for reviewing and releasing technical standards. In addition, one kind of reward, named as Liangxi Forestry Science and Technology Reward, was established to encourage the scientists and research staffs having made great contributions to scientific & technical progress, invention, and extension. The government departments, such as the NFGA, often conduct relevant investigations and invite some experts of our academy and other organizations engaging in to collate evidence for policy-making, development planning, and guideline drafting. Specially, our academy is responsible for developing a forest resources management platform, which is digital decision-support system for forest resources management, forestry development planning, and macro policy-making.
Prof. Weisheng Zeng