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Forest reform: advancing in China, lagging in India
A new opinion article in the Wall Street Journal highlights bold policy and institutional forest sector reforms in China and lagging implementation of JFM in India.
China has recently granted
long-term user rights to households of collective forest lands in a
pilot program in the Fujian and Jiangxi provinces. These forest tenure
reforms are giving households authority in forest management, making
trees collateral and ensuring the transferability of land. Individual
workers and managers of forest enterprises have been granted user
rights and management responsibility for some of China's largest and
richest forests. The preliminary results from a survey of tenure reform
in the provinces is showing positive results, including increased
planting, improved management, and increased harvests.
The
authors draw contrasting parallels between these bold advances in China
and forest tenure reforms in India that are "timid and halting." India
was at the leading edge of bold forest reform in 1988 when it
introduced Joint Forest Management, involving communities in forest
management in return for a greater share of forest products. JFM now
covers 17.3 million hectares of forest land in 27 Indian states, but
implementation has been slow.
Outcome indicators in the two
countries differ sharply, note the authors. China's forest cover has
increased while India's has not changed significantly; likewise China's
productivity per unit of forest land has increased more rapidly than in
India.
"With vastly increasing income choices available to rural
households, China has developed a thriving domestic market for timber
and other forest products. By enhancing, clarifying and securing land
rights, the proposed tenure reform of forest lands is meant to
encourage intensifying forest production."
Read the article here.
Posted By Megan Liddle at 9:54am on July 06, 2007
Comments: 0
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