Excerpt from a feature on China Radio International (click for audio)

In order to acquire more land for farming” China once experienced severe deforestation. However” things have changed thanks to a reform that transfers responsibility to individual villagers.

Pingzhang Village is some 20 kilometers away from the town of Baoshan in southwestern Yunnan.

As we head for the village down a winding road” most of the hills are covered with verdant trees. The vegetation stretches to the villages” but there are almost no crops to be seen on the terraced fields near the village due to severe drought in Yunnan over the past few years.

Bi Guang” the head of Pingzhang village told us that the hills were almost barren and that trees were scarce before the forest reform.

“The hills surrounding our village used to be very barren. Cattle and sheep were herded and damaged many areas of vegetation. Since the forest land was collectively managed by the village council” villagers lacked incentives to maintain the forest because it was the council rather than villagers who distributed the resources.”

Bi Guang said that since the reform began in his village in 2006″ a total of 395 hectares of collective forest land were transferred to 410 households. They began to plant trees” either timber-producing or non-timber producing” of their own volition.

Professionals and technicians from the provincial forestry administration and research institutes came to offer technical support to the villagers. They guided them on tree species selection” nurturing seedlings and the use of fertilizer and pesticides.

Dr. Su Yufang” a senior researcher on forest land resources at Kunming Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences offered technical support to Pingzhang village.

“We encouraged farmers to grow a local tree species named alder. Alder can fix nitrogen and improve the fertility of the soil where it grows. And as a pioneer species” it helps provide additional nitrogen for the successive species that follow. Also” it takes shorter time for alders to grow” enabling the villagers to take advantage of the timber and profits.”

Interestingly” we find the alders are planted together with pines. Su Yufang explains that a mixture of these two species promotes biodiversity in this region.

“Pines used to be the only tree species here. But it was not what we needed. We need to promote biodiversity” so we introduced alders” a broadleaved tree” to grow among the pines. Mixing these two types of trees is an effective way to reduce the risks of pest and disease outbreaks.”

Su Yufang added that” according to the reform” only trees are allowed to be planted on the land that is transferred to the villagers. It is prohibited to grow crops or raise livestock. Any decisions regarding the land should be discussed by all of the villagers and at least two-thirds of them need to agree.

The population of a household will determine the area of forest that the family will be given.

In addition to timber-producing pines and alders” most farmers in Pingzhang village also plant walnut” which has high economic value.

Villager Lu Guan owned 1.3 hectares of land. Nearly half of it has been cultivated for walnuts. The walnut trees” planted five years ago” are scattered at the edge of his fields.

“It takes five or six years for a walnut tree to bear fruit. Currently” some fruits are already coming out from the branches. In the next couple of years” we can harvest from these trees and the nuts will sell at a good price. Life will improve then. We used to just grow corn” but now we have our own forest to grow trees of high economic value.”

42-year-old Qian Jinfa spent many years earning money in large cities outside his hometown Yunnan. After the forest reform was initiated” he returned home to plant trees on the land transferred to his family. He has a total of 7 hectares of forest land covered with alders and pines.

Qian Jinfa sold 300 alder timber trees last year” from which he earned around 80″000 yuan or 13″000 US dollars. He had his house renovated with the money. He nicknamed the forest transferred to him the 'green bank'.

“We can plant trees on our own land for wood or any other non-timber products. Unlike crops” we do not have to irrigate or use fertilizers for the trees. So” it has saved a lot of money. We wait until the trees grow to be timber-worthy and submit a logging application to the local forestry bureau. Once it is approved” we can deforest some grown-up trees and sell the timber by strictly following this year's logging quota. The forest on our land is just like a green bank.”

Village head Bi Guang says villagers are entitled to many rights on their own land thanks to the reform.

“Villagers have the right to decide which tree species will be planted on the land transferred to them. They also have the right to decide when to harvest from the land and how to use these harvests. The earnings from the harvests belong completely to the villagers” who do not have to pay a certain amount to the village council as they did before.”

The harvests from the forest” such as timber and walnuts” can be sold by villagers themselves or purchased by traders who help them sell the products in the cities.

Bi Guang said the average yearly income per capita in Pingzhang village has increased to 2″800 yuan in 2011″ up from 700 yuan when the reform was launched in 2006.

Apart from gaining profits for farmers” another goal of the forest reform was to increase local forest coverage and promote ecological protection.

Bi Guang tells us that deforestation has declined.

“Landslides and mudflows rarely hit our village now thanks to the tree coverage. Before the reform” around 40 to 50 such disasters destroyed houses and killed villagers every year. Soil erosion also washed away the fertile crop land.”

Bi Guang said the ecological conditions have improved” judging by the wildlife such as squirrels. Some villagers also claim they spotted a wild bear.

The success story in Pingzhang village is just one example of China's collective forest reform. Actually China began to shift its forest sector policy from a timber-producing focus to ecological protection in 1992 when the Rio World Summit on Environment and Development prompted the Chinese government to do so.

Dr. Su Yufang noted that the highlight of the reform is encouraging forestation by individual use of forest land.

“In the past” the collective ownership of forest land was not clear. It was not easy to tell whether the land was owned by the entire village” village council or village head. Since the land rights have been transferred to individual households” it is very clear that villagers can manage it on their own. It has raised farmers' initiatives of forestation. The reform has achieved an effect of killing two birds with one stone. Farmers' income has seen a steady growth” and the ecosystem has also gotten better.”

Su Yufang added that some households can jointly manage their forest land in order to share the risks and economic profits.

The Rights and Resources Initiative” a global organization that aims to increase the world's forest area under local ownership” has hailed the progress in China's forest reform. RRI's coordinator Andy White said China's successful experience can be shared by other developing countries at the forthcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro” Brazil.

“The world now is facing a global crisis in forest sectors because in most of the world there has not been tenure reform. In a majority of the forest area of the world” land ownership is still contested. Local people say it's theirs” and government says it's theirs. It is not an inconsequential matter that a majority of the strategic assets are contested. It is in every citizen's interest to advance tenure reform. China shows the world that it can be addressed and resolved. In China” when the collectives allocate to the households” it is almost private. That is what is remarkable about this tenure reform. They can use it as collateral for borrowing money. They can transfer its use rights to other people. I think China is now emerging to have more responsibility in spreading its own experience again” not telling other countries how to do it but showing countries that it can be done.”

Andy White suggested that the reform is an example of how zoning regulation can work with private property to ensure that land remains forest.

“There is the forest system compensation program. That program pays money but not too much to forest owners to keep trees. But it also divides all the forests into two categories” either public benefit forest or commercial forest. If it is public benefit forest” the owners can get a little bit of money. If it is commercial forest” they can use it for harvesting. But even it is a public benefit forest” they do not have the rights to clear it. So” that is an example of how zoning regulation can work with private property to ensure that land remains forest.”

In a newly-released report by the Rights and Resources Initiative” Andy White called on forested nations to strengthen community land rights in their forests. White hopes to see such rights become a reality elsewhere in the world to curb the unsustainable practices now threatening tropical forests worldwide.

For CRI” I am Wei Tong.

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