Chinese Premier Stresses Forest Protection
9/13/99
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Title: Chinese Premier Stresses Forest Protection
Source: Xinhua
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: September 13, 1999
CHENGDU (Sept. 13) XINHUA - China will try to initially rehabilitate
the forest areas on the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze and
Yellow rivers and restore the ecological system in the areas in five
to ten years, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji stressed recently.
During an inspection tour of southwest China's Sichuan Province from
September 6 to 12, Zhu Rongji traveled more than 1,200 kilometers and
investigated the forest protection project in the province.
Sichuan took the lead to ban the felling of natural forest beginning
last September, and those engaged in timber industry are engaged in
tree planting.
Zhu said that forest and ecological protection is an pressing issue
in China. The natural forests on the upper and middle reaches of the
Yangtze and Yellow rivers are forbidden to cut, and the timber
markets in the areas must be shut down.
In view of the difficulties brought by the forest cutting ban, China
will offer preferential policies to the affected areas, said Zhu.
The regions with less financial revenue as a result of the ban will
enjoy compensation from the central and provincial governments. The
reform of the timber enterprises will continue and employees of the
enterprises will be assigned new jobs. China will compensate and
support the farmers who return their farmlands to forests.
The burning of firewood as fuel will be replaced by use of coal or
electricity, and more research is needed to develop substitutes of
wood, said Zhu.
He added that economic structure in the forest areas must be changed
to developing tourism, forestry and animal husbandry.
The Chinese premier also showed great concern about the development
of the areas of the ethnic groups, saying that speeding the economic
development in these areas has a vital bearing on the common
development and prosperity of all the nationalities in China and the
country's modernization drive as a whole. Now the central authorities
have made the development of the western region a priority, he added.