Forest Landscape Restoration in China

Abstract

During the past 20 years, China has increasingly invested in ecological restoration programs that addressed protection of its existing natural forests and restoration of its degraded lands. Since the late 1990s, China has launched several nationwide programs that aimed both at solving regional environmental problems and improving domestic ecological conditions and rural livelihoods. Remarkable progress has been made in achieving the program goals. Overall, those programs have profoundly and positively impacted China’s environment, economy and society. However, restoring China’s severely degraded forests remains a great challenge: resolving the conflicts among people’s basic livelihoods, economic growth, protection of natural forests, and restoration of degraded forests. Careful evaluation of the effectiveness and long-term impacts of these programs is needed, in light of pending policy and technical issues. In this chapter, we provide a synthesis of China’s recent forest restoration efforts and progress, including information on six major nationwide programs and we identify major ecological and social challenges and key scientific issues. We examine how China’s evolving forestry strategy and policy reform benefit both forest protection and restoration. To be sustainable in these endeavors, China must adopt a more balanced and comprehensive approach. Such an approach would include promoting sustainable forestry, adopting integrated management, increasing effectiveness through land ownership reform, more effective collaborations among central government, state and local people, expanding research to improve forestry understanding, and enhancing technical training and forest restoration education.