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China's forestry sector is shifting from being a profit-seeking
business to being more environment-friendly and this is considered
a major part of the shaping "modern forestry industry,"
said Zhou Shengxian, director of the State Forestry Administration.
Zhou told a meeting Thursday that the sector will prioritize environmental
protection rather than timber production, which has been the priority
in the past several decades.
The country plans to afforestate 4.32 million hectares of land in
2001, a rise of 9.2 percent over the acreage of trees that have
already been planted. And 6 million hectares more of forests will
be prevented from being logged this year.
In the coming 10 years, more effort will be made to protect natural
forests on the upper reach of the Yangtze River and the upper and
middle reaches of the Yellow River. The country plans to plant 22.6
million hectares of trees in 28 provinces and municipalities, in
a bid to prevent desertification.
The government will further promote the project to turn farmland
into forests and grassland and it hopes that, with this project,
the volume of soil and sand, which are injected into the Yangtze
and Yellow Rivers due to soil erosion, will be reduced by 260 million
tons annually by 2010.
However, the forestry sector can still be a profitable business
as the demand for environment-friendly and natural products has
soared recently, Zhou said, adding that "the key point is to
keep the balance between the two sides."
The turnover of the forestry sector stood at 340 billion yuan last
year, doubling that of 1995, an annual average growth of 16 percent,
and the turnover is expected to reach 364 billion yuan this year.
One of the key measures taken by the government was to develop different
kinds of forests for different purposes, Zhou added. For example,
forests in North, Northwest and Northeast China are to form the
anti-desert "green Great Wall" and trees in South and
Southeast regions are planted mostly for commercial purpose.
Zhou said that in the next 10 years China will develop a number
of forest bases for commercial use that are expected to produce
130 million cubic meters of timber annually, equal to 40 percent
of domestic demand.
Several forest-related businesses, such as growing flowers, bamboo
products, food, medicinal herbs and tourism, have also brought new
outlets to developing the sector.
The boom of tourism in forest areas balanced the protection of forests
with the desire for local economic growth, Zhou said, "the
government intends to provide preferential policies and create more
forest parks."
The country now has 1,050 forest parks with a total area of 10 million
hectares.
"Forest-related businesses still have great potential for us
to explore," he said, "we could use new perspectives and
marketing methods."
Forests now cover 158 million hectares in China, accounting for
16.55 percent of the country's total territory.
(Xinhua 02/16/01)
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