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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

China Says It Will Not Depend on Increased Timber Imports

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

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4/11/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

China has stated it has no intention to "substantially"increase

timber imports in order to meet shortfalls caused by its own recent

forest protection efforts. China must be rigorously held to this

pledge, or the World's forests--particularly in the region--will be

gravely impacted. I am particularly worried about Siberian and

Papua New Guinean forests.

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title: China Not to Depend on Increased Timber Imports

Source: Xinhua

Status: Copyright, contact source for permission to reprint

Date: April 7, 1999

BEIJING (April 8) XINHUA - Although China faces timber shortages this

year because of its massive forest protection campaign, the government

says it has no plans to increase timber imports substantially and will

restrict imports to rare species and large diameter logs.

It will satisfy domestic demand mainly by planting more fast- growing,

high-yield species of trees and by developing substitutes, according

to Kou Wenzheng, the director of the State Forestry Administration's

Forest Resources Department.

The central government began its ambitious forest protection project

soon after last year's heavy flooding in the Yangtze, Nenjiang, and

Songhua rivers by stopping or limiting logging of forested parts of

the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, and in

northeastern China and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which

account for 80 percent of the country's forests and produce half of

the country's commercial timber.

The administration also plans to reduce timber cutting by 12 million

cu.m. this year and by 22 million cu.m., or about 20 percent of its

timber consumption, by 2003.

Kou says that China can solve the problem on its own, because a

seventh of China's more than 46 million hectares of man-made forests

will reach maturity over the next 5 years, which will add 210 million

cu.m. commercial timber.

The 4 million additional hectares of fast-growing, high-yield trees,

together with the addition of 1.3 million hectares of young forests

annually are expected to add another 20 million cu.m. of commercial

lumber by 2000.

Things at the Beijing National Timber Trade Market, where everything

appears quiet except for the clattering of keyboards and occasional

phone calls, confirm what Kou says. Timber prices for the last quarter

of 1998 rose 30 percent in some areas but returned more or less to

normal in the first quarter this year, with an increase of only about

5 percent. There's unlikely to be either a sharp rise in prices or a

serious lack of timber in the future, according to the Market's Deputy

Manager Zhang Shiwei.

China has also made an effort to develop substitutes. Zhang Jiurong,

the vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Forestry Science, says

that methods to manufacture fiber boards out of bamboo and sugarcane

are being used in southern China and the quality of some timber

products has been improved.

Kou says that the central government plans to encourage timber

processing factory improvements by offering preferential tax treatment

to help save over 2 million cu.m. of commercial timber annually. This

will help stabilize the international timber market, and protect

forest resources outside China, Kou says.

Annual timber imports meet a third of China's total domestic needs. In

the past, China has been the world's second largest timber importer,

after Japan, accounting for a third of the world's total trade.

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