Laborers tie a rope to pile logs at a timber market in Huaibei, Anhui Province. (Photo : Reuters)
The State Council has recently released guidelines on state-owned forest zones, calling for the gradual stop to commercial logging and the expansion of forest in key zones to promote ecological development.
The Global Times reported that the country plans to stop commercial logging by 2020 and increase forest coverage by 5.5 million mu (366,000 hectares) based on the released guidelines.
According to Xinhua, the country cuts 49.94 million cubic meters of natural forests each year.
In April 2014, the government had implemented a landmark pilot program which prohibited all commercial logging of natural forests in key forest zones in Northeastern China's Heilongjiang Province.
The guidelines also ordered that a similar pilot program be implemented in other key forest zones, including areas in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Jilin Province.
Based on the plan for national forest farms, state plantations are also required to reduce logging from man-made forests for business purposes by 20 percent by 2020.
The plan also required that forested areas be increased by 100 million mu, by adding state forest farms to more than 600 million cubic meters of forest growing stock.
Zhao Shucong, director of the State Forestry Administration, said that the government should urgently implement reforms of national forest farms and zones, and called on the government to adhere to the principles of preserving the forest resources and keeping state property during the reforms.
"Northern China now faces a shortage of mature, usable forests. The release of the plan and the guidance marked a new phase wherein China protects natural forests instead of developing forestry resources," said Zhang Mingxiang, a professor at Beijing Forestry University, was quoted as saying.
The plan also urged national forest farms and zones to separate government functions from enterprise management, and called for more fiscal, financial and infrastructure support to facilitate sustainable development and improve employees' livelihoods.
Zhang further said that the plan will help solve the perennial problems in state-owned forest farms and areas, including low wages of employees and poor management of resources.
