Trees Vs. People? - PRC Natural Forest Protection

An August 2000 report from U.S. Embassy Beijing

Summary: After the 1998 Yangtze River floods, China redoubled its efforts to protect its forests in order to reduce upstream riverbank erosion. In crowded, mountainous Yunnan Province, banning logging and returning farm land to forests collides with the interests of local governments and poor farmers. Rural poverty is worst in just those areas where the ecology is at its most fragile. U.S. Embassy Beijing assistant visited Zhaotong and Lijiang Prefectures in Yunnan Province to examine the progress and prospects for China's new ten-year "Tianbao" natural forest protection project to protect its natural forests and with them biodiversity and wildlife. These two case studies are profitably read in conjunction with the overview presented in the "PRC Forest Products Annual Report 2000" recently issued by the Embassy Beijing Foreign Agricultural Service Office. Sharply higher Chinese wood imports are one sign of an increasingly effective logging ban. End summary.

Comment: Human Consequences of Logging Ban Are Daunting

Protecting natural forests (and with them biodiversity and wildlife) in densely populated, ecologically fragile regions such as Yunnan Province run into many human as well as natural obstacles. The major obstacle to stopping commercial logging may be the financial interests of local officials. Reducing private wood cutting for home cooking or construction is especially difficult. These activities account for about half of all timber consumption and are not captured by official statistics. The logging ban means changing the practices and affecting the livelihood of many poor farmers. Many belong to Yunnan's ethnic minorities. In some areas as many as one-third of them are illiterate and may not speak Chinese well. The central government had previously ordered local government to restrict logging so the post 1998 Yangtze flood diktat from Beijing in many areas came down to stop the already illegal logging. Local governments sometimes ignore central government orders and send false reports to the center. Yet in this case sharp increases in Chinese wood imports show that the logging ban is taking hold albeit at the cost of up to one million jobs in some of China's poorest areas. Ecotourism can bring in money in the wake of the logging ban but unbridled developed can damage the environment and bring in sex tourism. End comment.

Logging Ban Covers Upstream Areas in Many Provinces

In September 1999, the PRC State Forest Administration (SFA) announced the "Tianbao" Natural Forest Protection Project that broadens forest conservation from natural forest areas alone to the big river valleys. Project areas were defined in thirteen provinces, cities and regions along the middle and upper reaches of some of China's greatest rivers. These include the Yangtze River to the Three Gorges reservoir region, the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River by Xiaoliangdi reservoir region. The region includes parts of Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Hubei, Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan. In February 2000, the State Forestry Administration also announced that it would invest some 100 billion RMB [USD 12 billion] in the next 10 years in ecological construction and environment protection.

Embassy Beijing EST Assistant traveled to Yunnan during February and March 2000 to learn about progress in natural forest protection in local counties and efforts to protect nature reserves. Visits included sites in Zhaotong Prefecture in northeast Yunnan, Lijiang Prefecture and Diqing Prefecture in northwest and with officials of the Natural Forest Protection offices and reserves. Local governments are planning or already implementing their own plans for natural forest protection. The Beijing Foreign Agricultural Service Office report "PRC Forest Products Annual Report 2000" soon to be available on the FAS website at http://www.fas.usda.gov provides a good overview of China's sustainable forestry strategy.

Background: Yunnan Geography, Forests and People

Yunnan Province ("south of the clouds") is a mountainous province. Its name may well come from the seas of clouds one can see nestled in mountain valley after mountain valley when approaching the province from the air. Ninety-four percent of Yunnan is plateau and high mountain. Six big rivers flow through the province. Water and soil erosion affect one-third of the province (146,000 sq.km). Yunnan is a key province in natural forest protection and biodiversity conservation. Yunnan also has rich human cultural diversity: members of 28 of China's 56 recognized national minorities live in Yunnan. Yunnan has the fourth highest forest area in China. Forest coverage is about 40 percent (including grassland), with a total forest area of 12.87 million hectares. Nearly nine million hectares are virgin forest or natural secondary forest.

Read Chinese Forestry Statistics with Caution

Caution is required when reading PRC statistical data on forests. Changes in definitions such as the recent Forest Law revision that qualified much more land as forest, can make comparisons difficult. As the USDA FAS "PRC Forest Products Annual Report 2000", Chinese standing timber reserve estimates jumped in 1999 largely as a result of a less restrictive definition of forest land. Private illegal cutting by individuals, as much as half of all tree cutting in China, does not show up in statistics. According to the report, statistical inaccuracies "may increase in the future as local officials are under pressure to increase forest area while at the same time maintaining farm incomes." In the late 1950s a Chinese official said "Never forget the principal of partisanship in the statistical services!" This idea has not yet completely faded away. Nonetheless the statistics can give a rough idea of trends and magnitudes.

Yunnan Returns Hillside Farmland to Forest

Yunnan Province started its key natural forest planning in 1996. Because of the big flood in summer of 1998, commercial logging was banned in 48 counties along Jinsha River valley and Xishuangbanna on October 1, 1998. The work to return the hillside farmland (above an incline of 25 degrees) to forestry began in 23 pilot counties. Out of its total 128 counties and cities, 66 of them belong to "Tianbao" Natural Forest Protection Project.

Timber Companies, Workers Hit By Logging Ban

Seventeen of Yunnan Province's 100 forest enterprises are located in natural forest protection areas. The 1997 commercial timber output there of 2.9 million cubic meters was reduced to 2 million in 1998. Last year, output fell again to 1.05 million cubic meters. Annual central and provincial government "Tianbao Project" investment over the last two years in Yunnan was around 350 million RMB [USD 44 million]. The main methods for "Tianbao" are closing hills for afforestation and using aerial seeding to keep seeding costs down.

Farmers Get Small Grain Subsidy for Planting Trees

Foresty officials explained to EST Assistant Chinese policy for returning hillside farmland to forestry. If a farmer returns 1 mu of farmland (a mu equals one-fifteenth of a hectare), 3 mu must be planted in trees. The government will provide the farmer with 100 kg grain and 50 RMB (8 RMB equals one U.S. dollar) for purchasing young trees per mu per year. For instance in some counties in Zhaotong, per capita farmland is only 1 mu. But compensation is too low to meet people's basic needs.

Afforestation Programs in Yunnan

In Yunnan, 40 counties are included in State Development Planning Commission’s "Key Counties for Ecological Construction" program. Counties participating in this program means that they are excluded from basic PRC construction funding for forestry. The first stage of the German Afforestation Project in Yunnan in 1993 lasted for 5 years with gratis aid of USD 6 million. The second stage of project started in 1998 with another USD 6 million. A 5-year Netherlands afforestation project in 1998 cost USD 12 million. Some Yunnan counties also got loans from the World Bank for afforestation.

[Note: Information on World Bank loans in China can be found on the World Bank Beijing office web page at http://www.worldbank.org.cn/English/Project/home.asp End note.]

Case Study I: "Tian Bao" Project in Zhaotong Prefecture

Located in northeast Yunnan on the middle and upper reaches of Yangtse River (Jinshajiang), Zhaotong Prefecture occupies an area of 2.3 million hectares and home to 4.7 million people. Three great rivers -- the Jinshajiang, the Niulanjiang and the Baishuijiang -- and other 390 smaller rivers and branches have cut deep valleys in the Wumeng Range and at Wulianfeng. Just four percent of the land is flat. Zhaotong Prefecture's diverse geography ranges from Shuifu County at 267 meters in elevation to the tallest Yaoshan Mountain in Qiaojia County at 4041 meters. Trees found there include virgin dove trees (Davidia involucrata) in Xiaocaoba in Yiliang County and also the lacebark pine in Xindian, Qiaojia County.

Soil Erosion Threatens Zhaotong Prefecture's Future

Water and soil conservancy are crucial to Zhaotong Prefecture's future. Each year mountain floods, landslides and mud-rock flows, cause serious damage. Soil erosion affects sixty percent of the

Photo: Shelterbelt on the Upper Yangtze (Jinshajiang) in Qinggangling, Zhaotong Prefecture

land in Zhaotong Prefecture. Nearly one hundred million tons of sediment are lost to the Jinshajiang River every year. One fifth of total farmland (870,000 hectares) is hillsides with an incline of over 25 degrees. Erosion increased silting in rivers and reduced flows. Silt in the Jiuyu [STC:6794 3342] River from 2 kg. per cubic meter in the 1950s to 3 kg. per cubic meter in the 1980s. The flow rate of the Dalong Dongliu river at Zhaotong City fell from 2300 cubic meters per second in the 1950s to 1100 cubic meters per second in the 1980s.

Erosion Creates Poverty and Poverty Creates Erosion

Zhaotong Prefecture's high population density of 211 people per square kilometer means that per capita farmland is just is 3 mu (a mu is a Chinese measure equal to one-fifteenth of a hectare so this is less than 0.2 ha). Average annual personal income is 252 kg of grain and about 578 RMB. Zhaotong Prefecture has jurisdiction over 10 counties and a city with total 173 townships, 63 of them key poverty alleviation areas, where one million of local people do not have enough food and clothing.

Zhaotong Government Responds to the Logging Ban

On August 27, 1998, an order from the Yunnan Provincial government that banned logging in Jinsha River Valley and Xishuangbanna arrived. Zhaotong Prefecture set up its own office for virgin forest protection and branch offices in lower levels. The Prefecture stopped issuing the logging licenses and cancelled all the issued licenses. Another office responsible for "returning hillside farmland to forestry and grassland" was set up in the prefecture’s Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau. The office inventoried timber storage and reported to the provincal government. The Prefectural government strengthened law enforcement and checks on licenses for timber harvesting, transport and processing. The prefecture also sent three working teams to Zhaotong City and Yiliang County to make pilot projects for "returning crop land for forestry". Since Zhaotong is a densely populated region, "returning crop land for forestry" will surely be a tough job.

Logging Ban Hurt Workers and Local Government Finance

The economic impacts and problems after the logging ban in Zhaotong Prefecture are:

Regulations Vague, Lack Forest Care and Management Guidance

Now the third stage of the virgin forest protection plan is under way. On July 1, 1999, the provincial Forestry Bureau circulated a Notice "1999 Virgin Forest Project Construction Operation Plan". The prefecture forest survey team went to eleven counties and cities to work out for each county's operation plan. The ecological welfare forest construction will be managed by contracts. But local officials say that the ‘Tianbao’ plan lacks specific operating guidelines and regulations. They do not have any regulations for forest care and management to follow, and nor have they received related policies such as how to make contracts and how to share interests.

Over Three Decades Forest Cover Dropped by Two-Thirds

During the 1950s, the forest coverage in Zhaotong was 25 percent and dominated by natural broad-leaved forest. In 1980s, the percentage had dropped to 8 percent with considerable amounts
of planted coniferous forest. Now Zhaotong’s forest coverage has recovered to 16.8 percent. Nearly all of this is planted coniferous forest and logged remaining secondary forest. Virgin broad-leaved forest areas are only found in small areas of Yanjin, Daguan, Shuifu and Weixin Counties with a total area of less than 27,000 hectares.

Foreign Assistance and Zhaotong Reforestation

In 1990s, several projects such as Yangtze River Watershed Protection Forest Project, Jinsha Agricultural Comprehensive Development Project, German Aid Project were started along with an afforestation project supported by World Bank Loan, desert control project and Green Poverty Relief. Four ecological construction counties: Zhaotong City, Yiliang, Yongshan and Shuifu Counties were designated. Today forestland in Zhaotong Prefecture totals one half million hectares and scrub forest covers 340,000 hectares.

Afforestation Brought Back Water

Under the Yangtze River Watershed Protection Forest Project, during the past decade a quarter million hectares of trees have been planted by four million farmers at a cost of 118.44 million RMB. In early March EST Assistant rode to the Baisha Afforestation site in a a suburb of Zhaotong. About 6600 hectares of Huashan pine trees had been planted. The Ford Foundation gave some support to this project. Before afforestation, this area lived up to its name: "white sandy field". The villagers had to fetch drinking water from some 4 km away. For the last five years, the villages Baisha and Degu began to have underground water. Now you can see small streams and ponds in the forest.

The Most Difficult Areas For Afforestation

Abundant Sun and Flowing Waters Promise Future Energy

There are few coal mines in Zhaotong so local farmers rely largely on firewood and peat for fuel. Many people harvest firewood on their own for heating and cooking. Alternative fuels such as methane could be used here however. Annual sunshine in Zhaotong varies between 960 hours to 2300 hours, annual temperatures between 6.2 degrees C to 20.9 degrees centigrade. Annual precipitation varies from 660 to 1200 mm. Zhaotong has rich hydropower resources. There are plans to build small hydro power stations (100kv/hour), but the machines stop in winter when the rivers freeze. In 1998, Wu Fengtian, deputy director of the prefectural Forest Bureau, invited a professor from Qinghua University to introduce a solar/wind energy application. The professor went to Zhaotong and did a feasibility study. The project was suspended for lack of approval from the provincial office and failure to obtain funding.

Case Study II: Tianbao Project in Lijiang Prefecture

Covering two million hectares in northwest Yunnan, Lijaing Prefecture governs 2 counties and 2 

Photo: Jinshajiang River Valley dividing Lijiang and Diqing Prefectures.

autonomous counties. Sixty percent of the 1997 population of 1.1 million are ethnic minority people. Lijiang has diverse plant and animal life: so many that one-third of the ingredients in traditional Chinese medicines can be found in the Prefecture. Per capita annual farm income in 1997 was 665 RMB (USD 81). The Jinsha River flows 615 km through four counties where 92 percent of its land is mountainous. Soil erosion affects one-third of Lijiang Prefecture.

Nearly Half of Lijiang Farms are On Steep Hillsides

Nine-tenths of Lijiang's people are farmers. Fifty-seven percent of the people belong to the ethnic minorities of Naxi, Yi, Lisu, Bai and Miao. Lijiang Prefecture still has 39 impoverished townships with 278,000 people (28 percent). The people till 104,000 ha of farmland. Thirty percent of the land is irrigated and 40 percent is on hillsides having an incline of over 25 degrees. Forest coverage is 40 percent -- 837,000 ha -- and is mostly natural forest.

Logging Ban Cut Local Government Income by 70 Percent

Since 1950s, Lijiang Prefecture provided over 10 million cubic meters timber (The Nature Conservancy’s report uses a much higher figure -- 24 million cubic meters) to factories in China’s remote regions (‘sanxian gongchang’). Before the Tianbao Project, 70 percent of the Lijiang Prefecture budget came from timber harvesting. During 1996 and 1997, the annual financial income was 300 million each year, including 47 million RMB forest management fund, which was 15 percent of the timber sales set aside for forest construction. So the government of Lijiang Prefecture saw its annual financial income fall by 120 million-RMB. In 1998 and 1999, the annual financial subsidies from higher levels of government totalled 87 million RMB.

The logging ban began in July 1998. Lijiang Prefecture set up by a Leading Group for Natural Forest Protection headed by one of the vice-governors and including officers from relevant government agencies. Since 1998, they have been doing forest planning, designing and research. Each county set up its own Natural Forest Protection office, and created an action plan for natural forest protection. In order to reduce losses from the logging ban that arrived with the Tianbao Project, interest payments were eliminated and loans were canceled after verification.

Natural Forest Project in Lijiang: A Three Part Plan

The Natural Forest Protection Project includes:

Some Loggers Became Tree Planters and Caretakers

At the same time, five provincial forest farms with 4000 workers were transferred to the prefecture. They shifted from logging to forest care. Schools and hospitals belonging to forest farm work units were handed over to the local governments. Of all 7500 forest workers, 2500 lost their jobs and 800 retired. In late 1980s and early 1990s, several timber-related factories were built using bank loans of about 500 million RMB. Now one paper mill has gone bankrupt and the other one switched from wood to straw as its raw material. Other timber processing factories such as four factories that make wooden floor tiles and fiberboard are now switching to making other products.

The Future of Lijiang Prefecture

Following the February 1996 earthquake, many people invested in Lijiang. Now you can see many new buildings, tourist facilities and new roads in Lijiang City. Tourist resources are rich both in ethnic minority culture and biodiversity, as well as natural scenic spots. Tourism is booming with an annual income of 100 million RMB. Many new hotels were built and family hostels are very popular in the city downtown. Lijiang relies mainly on hydropower and has developed some industries such as pharmaceutical, leather processing and even digitally controlled lathes.

Post Logging Ban Ecotourism Can Hurt as Well as Help

Some Chinese scholars have begun to warn about the downside of ecotourism. Sometimes unplanned development harms wilderness area. Financial deals involving park management have sometimes enabled some unscrupulous businesspeople to leave parks in worse financial shape than before. Premier Zhu Rongji in 1999 brought together a group of scholars and park regulators to look into this problem. Stricter regulation of park management business deals was the result. The very rapid development of tourism in some parts of Yunnan are bringing with it problems such as a burgeoning sex trade that spreads sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. Yunnan Province is now number two in China after the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in the number of new HIV cases. According to the Yunnan Province epidemiological station, most new HIV cases there are due to heterosexual transmission.

Local Official On Best Economic Direction For Lijiang

Further Reading