The World
Bank yesterday approved a US$100 million loan to help China
develop and protect its forest resources. The loan is supplemented
by a US$5.25 million grant from the Global Environment Facilities
(GEF) for biodiversity conservation.
China has long been a forest-poor country. The government has
done a remarkable job in increasing forest cover, mainly through an
extensive plantations program, from 13 percent in 1980s to 18.2
percent today. However, the hectare per capita of 0.13 is
significantly below the world average of 0.6. The increasing gap
between timber supply and demand is a key constraint to sustainable
forestry development. The annual timber consumption outpaces supply
by about 80 million cubic meters. The reduction in natural forests
has, in turn, led to a threat to biodiversity.?
The Guangxi Integrated Forestry Development and Conservation
Project aims to assist China in improving the effectiveness of its
forest management and institutional arrangements in timber
production, watershed protection and nature reserves management and
to enhance the conservation of globally significant biodiversity in
selected areas of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.?
"The project would introduce a sector-wide, integrative and
comprehensive approach to sustainable forest management and
biodiversity conservation by supporting improvement of all three
forest categories of timber production, ecological environment
protection and biodiversity conservation in the context of
sustainable forest management in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,"
said Liu Jin, World Bank Agriculture Specialist and Task Manager
for the Guangxi Forestry Project.
?
The World Bank loan will finance the establishment of high-yield
timber plantations and the introduction of superior genetic
materials and forest management technologies.? The GEF Grant
will finance the formulation and implementation of management plans
for five globally significant nature reserves for demonstration
purposes, the conduct of targeted biodiversity surveys and research
to better integrate biodiversity conservation into the broader
landscape and the strengthening of collaboration between nature
reserves and local communities.
The World Bank has been the largest external funder for China's
forestry programs, supporting six forestry projects since 1985 with
a total of more than US$900 million in loans and credits. GEF has
provided two grants of a total of US$33 million for China’s
forestry projects.
The IBRD loan has a payment period of 20 years, including a
five-year grace period.
(China.org.cn December 15, 2006)