Chinese Government will Invest 96.2 Billion RMB on Natural Forest Protection ProjectZHOU Shengxian, Head of SFA announced on the 6 Dec. 2000, that the National Natural Forest Protection Project has been activated after two years of trial. Chinese government will fund the project 96.2 billion Yuan during the next 10 years.ZHOU Shengxian said, in the Natural Forest and Resource Protection Project Meeting held on the 6th, that the central government will invest 78.4 billion Yuan, matched by l7.8 billion Yuan from the local government on the project to protect natural forest in the Upper Yangtze River, Middle and Upper Yellow River, and the state-own forest in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia. The project covers seventeen provinces, autonomy regions and municipals directly under the jurisdiction of central government which include Yunnan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Jilin, and Inner Mongolia. Chinese government will prohibit logging in natural forest area in the Upper Yangtze River, Middle and Upper Yellow River, according to the plan of protection project. At the same time, logging in state-own forest areas will be largely reduced in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia. As the result, the timber production will reduce 7.5 million m3.Chinese government hopes that through ten years of effort, 61.18 million ha. of existing natural forest in Upper Yangtze River and Yellow River would be protected, said ZHOU Shengxian, and this will result in reduction in consumption of forest resources by 61.5 million m3. It was estimated that till the year 2010, the area of forest and prairie will increase about 14.60 million ha.，the prairie coverage rate will reach 32.2 percent from 25.8 percent at present; more than 8.60 million ha. of forest will be added, the forest coverage rate will be 21.2 percent, up from 17.5 percent.He said, reducing timber production and prohibiting logging will probably lead to unemployment for some forestry workers and reduce the income for local people. The government will provide them with subsidy to maintain their daily basic needs, and help them find other jobs.China has been taking actions on trial project of natural forest and resource since 1998. Recently the government has invested 10.1 billion Yuan on the project. The timber production are reduced to 2.3 million m3 last year from 8.6 million m3 in 1997; The production from the main state-owned forest reduced to 15.40 million m3 last year from 18.50 million m3 in 1997.Huashen Newspaper (2000-12-07)Translated by CHEN Ying
