Sustainable forest management is the eternal theme of high-quality development of forests and grasslands and an important means to achieve the goal of“Double carbon”, it is also an important guarantee for improving forest ecosystem services and maintaining national ecological security and timber security.
Since the 1990 s, our country has carried out the work of sustainable forest management. Through continuous learning, continuous exploration and continuous practice, we have accumulated rich experience, and the policy system has been gradually improved, the technical model is becoming more and more mature. In particular, the three-year pilot has initially formed a management system and decision-making mechanism with forest management plans as the core, and summarized and refined forest management models that can be replicated and popularized in various forms, breakthroughs and innovations have been made in forest harvesting management, technical standards, basic facilities, financial support, and incentive measures, laying a good foundation for the comprehensive promotion of sustainable forest management in the future.
Defining the connotation and extension of sustainable forest management, reviewing the development process of policy and practice, and clarifying the main line and direction of future development can unify understanding and cohesion, it can provide guidance and kinetic energy for further deepening the work of sustainable forest management.
What is sustainable forest management
Sustainable forest management in its broad sense refers to a mode of productive activities that enables forests to meet the growing material and environmental needs of human beings for a long time through planned human intervention, it includes administrative, economic, legal, social, technological and scientific means.
Sustainable forest management is based on the three pillars of sustainable development: Economic Development, social progress and environmental protection. It needs to meet the economic feasibility, ecological health and social inclusiveness.
In a narrow sense, sustainable forest management refers to improving forest quality and building a stable, healthy, high-quality and efficient forest ecosystem, aiming to enhance its multiple service functions such as supply, regulation, culture and support, and throughout the forest growth cycle of a series of scientific protection, precise cultivation, rational use of activities. It is committed to expanding the total amount of forest resources, optimizing forest structure and improving the comprehensive functions of forests. Specific measures include tending thinning, replanting and replanting, artificial promotion of natural regeneration, and transformation of low-quality and low-efficiency forests.
Policy and practice of sustainable forest management in China
Our country has always attached great importance to the work of sustainable forest management, as the main content of ecological civilization construction, an important means to promote the modernization of forest and grassland. According to the timeline and policy characteristics, sustainable forest management in our country can be roughly divided into three stages: planning, consolidation and promotion, and innovation and development. The period from 1992 to 2014 is the stage of planning and layout.
Since the convening of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, our country has actively participated in relevant issues based on Agenda 21 and the Declaration of Principles on forests, and promoted the formulation of the United Nations Forest Instrument. In 2002, the state forestry administration of the People's Republic of China issued criteria and indicators for forest conservation and sustainable management. In 2006, it issued the guidelines for sustainable forest management in China and the outline for the preparation and implementation of forest management plans (trial) . Since 2010, the central government has launched pilot policies such as forest tending subsidies and expanded them year by year. In 2013, the state forestry administration of the People's Republic of China published a National Report on sustainable forest management. Through the preliminary exploration of the layout stage, the rock foundation of sustainable forest management has been established, which has laid a solid foundation for future work.
From 2023 to now, it is the stage of innovation and development. In 2023, the state forestry and grassland administration issued the“National Sustainable Forest Management Pilot Implementation Plan (2023-2025)”, which started a new round of pilot innovation on the basis of integrating all kinds of forest management pilots. The 3-year pilot has achieved a variety of results: the concept of forest management has been fundamentally changed, the scientific management situation has been initially formed, the forest management plan system has been continuously strengthened, the management and decision-making mechanism has been gradually improved, and the security system has been continuously consolidated, the comprehensive benefits are becoming more and more obvious. Through the practical deepening of the innovative development stage, a new situation of sustainable forest management has been created, which provides a model guarantee for the comprehensive promotion.
The main line and direction of future sustainable forest management
Sustainable forest management is the focus of forest and grass work, but also to enhance the ability of forest and grass management difficulties, but also the future development of forest and grass highlights. Sustainable forest management should adhere to the management concept of“Multi-function, close to nature, full cycle, whole region and all elements”, we should grasp the two main lines of“Promoting ecosystem optimization through land space optimization, developing under-forest economy and strengthening forestry industry”, and implement policies in different areas, manage by different types and use by different levels.
Zoning Policy: under the framework of major function oriented zoning strategy, ecological protection red line management and land spatial planning, and according to the different ecological locations and dominant functions of the forest, implement differentiated management and precise improvement. In the process of implementation, the main limiting factors of tree growth, such as water, light, temperature, altitude, latitude and site type, should be fully considered, combined with the natural distribution pattern of climate zone and iso-precipitation line in our country, overall planning of spatial optimization management policy, scientific layout and zoning policy.
Classification management: according to the different dominant functions of the forest, commercial forest and public welfare forest to take different management measures. For non-commercial forests, the scope of non-commercial forests should be reasonably optimized according to laws and regulations, and non-commercial forests in key areas should be strictly protected to maintain the authenticity and integrity of the ecosystem. For non-commercial forests in general areas, management, cutting and regeneration can be carried out according to regulations to optimize forest structure and promote positive succession. For commercial forests, through deepening the reform of collective forest tenure system and the reform of state-owned forest areas and forest farms, we should optimize the cutting management system, establish and improve the management incentive mechanism and the mechanism of connecting farmers with farmers, promote moderate scale management, and improve the utilization efficiency and sustainable management level of forest resources.
Layered utilization: according to the law of natural growth and succession of forests, optimize the spatial structure of forests through specific management measures, open up vertical space, open up horizontal space, release understory space, three-dimensional development and layered management. With the cultivation of high-value forest trees as the main goal, we should make full use of the potential of forest canopy and understory space to increase added value, deeply integrate forest management with forestry industry, and help increase the employment and income of forest farmers, promote the transformation of forestry from planar use to three-dimensional value-added, so that each forest can maximize the benefits.
During the 15th five-year plan period, sustainable forest management should change the traditional thinking that protection is“Strict adherence” and management is“Letting go”, and correctly handle the relationship between high-quality development and high-level protection, we will pay more attention to improving quality, developing businesses and benefiting the people, and integrate the concept of“Scientific protection, systematic governance and rational utilization” into all aspects of sustainable forest management. In practice, we should pay equal attention to expanding the area and improving the quality. While steadily increasing the forest area, we should focus on improving the quality of the forest. We should adhere to the bottom line of ecological security and promote quality improvement, and put an end to destructive behaviors such as indiscriminate logging. By deepening the implementation of sustainable forest management, we can truly achieve ecological benefits for the people, ecological benefits for the people and Ecology for the people, provide the most inclusive livelihood benefits for the people, and make greater contributions to the construction of ecological civilization and beautiful China, ultimately achieve ecological prosperity, industrial excellence, people rich, beautiful life.
Source: China Green Times
By Liu Min and Zhao Hailan
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