Module 5 - China: Commercial Plantations to help Conserve Forests

The appropriate selection of trees species, taking soil, water, and slope conditions into account, is important for growth and market potential. To avoid flooding the market with a single species, the project monitors market prices and forecasts trends for lumber and fruit trees. This information is made available to plantation owners to improve outreach to the private sector and influence investment decisions.

Benefits and Impacts

Under this project, which started to be implemented only recently, some 115,090 hectares of commercial tree plantations for fiber and pulp, plywood, and construction timber will be established in nine provinces to overcome projected national and local shortages of wood. The main beneficiaries are individual households, shareholding cooperative forest farms, village/township collective forest farms, and state forest farms.

The project will also establish some 57,940 hectares of economic forest crops, including fruit, nut, and medicinal trees, in 11 provinces. The tree crops include chestnut, walnut, ginkgo, eucommia, apricot, jujube, apple, pear, prickly ash, pomegranate, and Chinese yew. Those participating in this subcomponent include individual households, shareholding cooperative forest farms, village/township forest farms, and state forest farms.

Lessons Learned and Issues for Wider Applicability

Experience during planning and project development helped identify key factors associated with plantation management:

• Forests and biodiversity can be conserved by establishing protected areas, improving management of community forests, and developing alternative sources of forest products. By establishing plantations on nonforested land, local and regional demand for wood products can be met more easily, without threatening natural forests. As government legislation prohibits the acquisition of wood products from natural forests, private plantations are the favored investment choice.
  
  
• The establishment of large-scale commercial plantations requires the cooperation of government agencies and the private sector, and this requirement should be considered early in the project development cycle.
  
  
• Finally, establishing plantations requires credible empowerment mechanisms so that owners are able to invest in land improvements with the assurance that they will receive the benefits from their investment.