A new opinion article in the Wall Street Journal highlights bold policyand institutional forest sector reforms in China and laggingimplementation of JFM in India.

China has recently grantedlong-term user rights to households of collective forest lands in apilot program in the Fujian and Jiangxi provinces. These forest tenurereforms are giving households authority in forest management” makingtrees collateral and ensuring the transferability of land. Individualworkers and managers of forest enterprises have been granted userrights and management responsibility for some of China's largest andrichest forests. The preliminary results from a survey of tenure reformin the provinces is showing positive results” including increasedplanting” improved management” and increased harvests.

Theauthors draw contrasting parallels between these bold advances in Chinaand forest tenure reforms in India that are “timid and halting.” Indiawas at the leading edge of bold forest reform in 1988 when itintroduced Joint Forest Management” involving communities in forestmanagement in return for a greater share of forest products. JFM nowcovers 17.3 million hectares of forest land in 27 Indian states” butimplementation has been slow.

Outcome indicators in the twocountries differ sharply” note the authors. China's forest cover hasincreased while India's has not changed significantly; likewise China'sproductivity per unit of forest land has increased more rapidly than inIndia.

“With vastly increasing income choices available to ruralhouseholds” China has developed a thriving domestic market for timberand other forest products. By enhancing” clarifying and securing landrights” the proposed tenure reform of forest lands is meant toencourage intensifying forest production.”

Read the article here.