Broadening the scope of forest transition inquiry: What does China's experience suggest?

Abstract

Previous studies of forest transition (FT) have taken a narrow perspective. This paper aims to illustrate the crucial need for expanding the analytic scope of FT using China's experience during the past five decades. Afforestation and reforestation efforts have increased the country's forest cover remarkably, but the condition of China's forests remains disappointing if we look at changes in the stocking level, growth rate, age structure, species composition, and other indicators, even though progress has been made in certain aspects. It is thus premature to declare that China has completed its FT. There remains a long way for the country to go in boosting its forest quality, diversity, and productivity. Further, examining China's FT should also capture other relevant trends of forestry, including the rapid growths in the economies of non-timber forest products and forest-based tourism and recreation, as well as a large part of the timber resource consumed being imported from overseas destinations.