Performances of collective forest regions in CHINA

Dr. Can LIUProfessor, Director

China National Forestry Economics and Development Research Center

contents

• Background and forest resources• The evolution of China’s collective forestland

tenure• Performances of China’s collective forestland

tenures• Conclusions and discussions

CHINA

• 9.60 million km2

• 1.3 billion people• 32 provinces and autonomous regions.• Tropical, subtropical, and temperate climate

zones

next

Soil erosion

Deforestation during the Commune era

Slide 8

Forest Resources

• Forest as a % of Land Area 20.36%• Forest land area 303.7819 million

hectares• Forested land area 181.3809 million

hectares• Forest per capital 0.145 hectare (World average 0.624)

Forest Resources(cont’d)

• Total Forest volume 14.913 billion cubic meters• Among which Forest standing volume 13.721 billion cubic meters• Forest standingvolume per capital 10.151 cubic meters (world average: 68.542 cubic meters)• Natural forest area: 119.6925 million hectares (65.99%)• Plantation forest area: 61.6884 million hectares (34.01%)

Forest Resource (cont’d)

• Young and mid-aged forests: 67.25%• Average standing volume: 85.88M3/ha• Uneven regional distribution: Heilongjiang,

Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, and Yunnan: 41.27% (area) and 52.44%(volume)

Forest distribution

Natural forest resource distribution in China

Forest plantation distribution in China

Forest Laws

• Forest law, enacted in 1984 and amended in 1998

• Forest action plan for the Agenda 21 (1995)

Forest Policy Changes• From a planning economy to a market economy (CAC--MBIs)• From economic to environmental orientation• From public (state and collective) ownership to multiple ownership,

encouraging private property rights– Forestland

• Collective 39.94%• State 60.06%

– Forests• Collective 28.54%• State 39.38% • Private 32.08%

Types of forestland tenures

• private• Open access• Common property

Evolution of collective forestland in CHINA

• The reform of land • The cooperative • Peoples’ commune • The post Peoples’ commune • The current forestland reform

Land reform (1949-1952)

• Characteristics– Distributing management and property rights to

farmers(Disintegration) • Impacts– High production enthusiasm– High production efficiency

• Strategy– The land reform law of P. R. China, 1950.

Slide 6

Landlord84%

PoorPeasant1%

Smalllandholder

3%

Rich10%

MiddlePeasant2%

Landlord2% Rich

25%

MiddlePeasant27%

PoorPeasant19%

Smalllandholder27%

Before Land Reform(Per household)

After Land Reform(Per household)

The forest property right changing in the land reform Slide 4

1952--1958

• Mix of private and community ownership• Cooperative management• Scale became larger• Resource conditions improved

1958s--1980s

• Collective ownership• Collective management • Income distribution based on workdays not

contribution• Low efficiency and forest depletion

1980s to the Early 1990s

• Land ownership is still collective• But forests were contracted out for

management• More collective forestland management

models• Increased harvesting• Unstable planting and thinning• Expanded forest cover• Lowered quality

Since 1990s-2002

• Shareholding and other cooperative models • Larger scale of operation• Higher economic efficiency• Better resource management

2002—the present

• NEW reform of forestland tenure

The weights of collective forestland

1984-1988 1989-1993 1994-1998 1999-2003 2004-20080.57

0.575

0.58

0.585

0.59

0.595

0.6

0.605

0.61

0.615

The reasons for the current reform (1)

• Government• New rural construction• The reform of taxation• Increasing farmers’ incomes• Timber demand– higher price• Expanding timber processing industry

The reasons for the current reform (2)

• Unclear forestland boundaries• Conflicts• Low productivity

Documents (1)

• the Decision of the State Council and the CPC Central Committee on Some

Promotional Policies to Increase Famers’ income(2004)

• the Decision of the State Council and the CPC Central Committee about Further

Strengthening the Work in Rural Areas and Raising the Integration of Agricultural

Production Capacity(2005)

• the Decision of the State Council and the CPC Central Committee about Promoting the

Building of a New Socialist Rural Areas(2006)and

• the Decision of the State Council and the CPC Central Committee about Actively

Promoting the Development of Modern Agriculture and Solidly Building a New

Socialist Rural Areas(2007)

Documents (2)

• The Decision of the State Council of the CPC Central

Committee about Accelerating Forestry Development” on

June 25, 2003.

• “reform of the collective forestland tenure,” in its working

report of the 17th National People’s Congress of Communist

Party of China was held in October 2007

• New Government: push the reform of collective forestland

tenure in June 2008

Goals

• Forest resource– Quality – Quantity

• Rural households’ income and new rural construction

What

• Define the collective forestland tenures• Supporting policies– Insurance– Reduce tax and fee burden– Credit– Forestland transfer– Tree transfer

process

• Reviewing background of collective forestland tenure

• Democracy – 2/3 representatives or all of farmers– Scenarios– Governmental functions

• Certification– Signatures – Governmental improvement

Action

• 14 provinces and municipalities and • will be gradually extended to the whole

country.

Timber supply

SBT other4

plain-ps

SCRsSWNWNE

Afforestation area

Afforestation area of Southern collective regions weight

investment

weightInvestment of Southern Collective Forest Regions

National forest resource survey

China Collective forest region Four plain area

All statecollective All state

collective All state

collective

Early 1960 forest 98.87 n.a n.a 57.02 n.a n.a 16.74 n.a n.a

1977-1981 forest 89.67 n.a n.a 49.62 65.79 46.00 22.13 28.55 20.1

7

1984-1988

forest 75.84 103.78 46.18 43.69 70.34 40.10 29.59 45.14 25.9

4

plantation 28.27 38.91 23.88 31.17 49.87 26.19 25.43 34.76 22.7

8

1989-1993

forest 83.65 119.04 45.53 41.96 77.64 37.12 33.39 48.69 29.3

3

plantation 33.31 47.33 27.53 34.64 61.77 27.97 31.86 41.96 28.4

6

1994-1998

forest 78.06 114.89 44.07 40.14 75.29 35.81 31.32 51.43 27.1

3

plantation 34.76 49.13 29.60 33.90 60.78 28.70 31.47 46.58 27.5

8

1999-2003

forest 84.73 122.39 49.75 48.38 82.53 44.13 38.37 61.99 34.4

7

plantation 46.59 60.68 42.09 48.91 70.97 44.83 44.02 60.27 41.0

9

Forestland productivity

1973~76 1977~81 1984~88 1989~93 1994~981999~2003

all

All 47.31 43.15 45.86 50.05 59.7759.77

staten.a n.a

53.45 55.58 60.33 62.61

collectiven.a n.a

41.03 46.25 59.38 57.90

Collective forest region

All 52.34 54.35 49.69 56.99 72.33 76.06

staten.a n.a

62.57 68.15 79.81 82.23

collectiven.a n.a

48.50 55.88 71.59 75.45

4 plain provinces

All 44.79 34.63 41.02 49.45 58.75 58.98

state 　 n.a 　 n.a 58.04 66.42 70.10 67.69

collective 　 n.a 　 n.a 39.37 47.52 57.66 58.21

Forestland use ratio

Forest contribution to rural households’ income

Forest income(Yuan/PAForest income(Yuan/PA

Weight(%)

Ice storm

•But Ice Storm in late 2007 and early 2008 in the south of

China

• How ice storm affects

– Forest resource management?

– Farmers’ confidence s ?

– Reform of collective forestland tenure?

– Long term vs short term??

Progress(1)

• 10 provinces—completed the defined collective forestland tenure– Fujian, Jiangxi, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Yunnan, Hebei, Anhui,

Hubei, Chongqing and Guizhou• 13 provinces-Defining

– Hunan, Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Gansu, Hainan, Henan, Qinghai, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Jiangsu and Sichuan

• Pilot stage– Beijing, Tianjing, Shandong, Guangdong, Xinjiang, Tibet,

Ningxia

Progress(2)

• By the end of 2009– The defined area:• 1.77 billion Mu• 64.7% of 2.737 billion mu

– Certifications• 59.54 million copies• area: 1.4 billion Mu • 51.2%

Judgments of the current reform (1)

• Updating the reform of the early 1980s• Household management

Judgments of the current reform (2)

• Forestland tenure arrangement is not the key,• The key is the relevant forest management

institutional arrangements, such as tax and fee, market arrangement

• Government-dominated• NO large-scale deforestation• Incomplete reform

Conclusions and discussions (1)

• Push the reform step by step• Different stakeholders’ participation• From government dominated to local

farmers’ dominated• Privatization is NOT feasible alternative

Conclusions and discussions (2)

• Transfer of forestland and forest resources should be reasonable

• Cooperation and economy of scale • Compensation fee standard • Budget for the reform • Reduce the scale of governmental

agencies

Conclusions and discussions (3)

• The reform of forestland tenure is the necessary condition, NOT ALL for forest resource management• The effect of the current reform is not

clear• Next Steps--??

谢谢 !Thanks!