ITTO PPD 28/01 Rev.2 (F)
Formulating a Proposal on Demonstration of
Integrated Models for Sustainable Tropical Forestry Development
Status Report of Forestry Development
Chinese Academy of Forestry
July, 2004 Beijing
Contents
1 Location of China's tropical region ...... 3
2 Natural conditions in tropical region ...... 5
2.1 Physiognomy ...... 5
2.2 Climate ...... 5
2.3 Soil ...... 6
3 Tropical vegetation ...... 8
3.1 Distributing characteristics of tropical vegetation ...... 8
3.2 Main forest types and species in the region ...... 8
4 Tropical forest resources ...... 10
4.1 General situation ...... 10
4.2 Structure of tropical forest resources ...... 10
5 The natural, social and economic conditions in tropical area ...... 13
5.1 The natural resources in the tropical area ...... 13
5.2 Distribution of industry in tropical region ...... 13
5.3 Characteristics of Social Economy Development ...... 14
5.4 General situation of social and economic development in typical tropical
region ...... 15
6 The current situation forestry development in tropical region ...... 19
6.1 Forestry development strategy ...... 19
6.2 Forestry policy ...... 20
6.3 Protection of biological diversity ...... 21
6.4 Industry of forestry ...... 24
6.5 Problems of forestry development in tropical region ...... 26
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Status Report of Forestry Development in Tropical Region of China
1 Location of China's tropical region
China's tropical region, located at the north edge of Tropical Asia, is a zonal region of the southmost part of China, in the south of Nanling Mountains. It has been a joint effort of the scientific community since 1950s to reach a common agreement on the determination of China's topical region, but there are still several different viewpoints.
Ren Mei'e and Yang Rengzhang pointed out that, except high mountains, the whole area of South China belongs to the tropical zone, including Guangdong, Guangxi, south part of Fujian, Taiwan Island, Hainan Island and Nanhai Islands. The scientific base for this viewpoint is the natural vegetation with references of the Growth of tropical crops. This determination is close to the characteristics of tropical area described by Zhu Kezhen, i.e. there is no winter all year around, or "summer in all four seasons and autumn only after rain."
Hou Xueyu indicated that China's tropical region is in the south of Nanling Mountains. It includes Yunnan, Guangxi, Guangdong, south part of Fujian, Taiwan, Hainan and Nanhai Islands, and southeast edge of Xizang. The base for this viewpoint is there continuous 360-365 days a year with a mean temperature up to 25℃, typical tropical vegetation can be found, and artificial vegetation have normal flowering and fruiting.
Prof. Wu Zhonglun thought that the area between Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn is the tropics. This is also used for deteminating the tropical land area and tropical forest area in international community. However, China's north edge of tropical region is not identical to the Tropic of Cancer as of the influence of topography, relief, and cold currents.
According to Flora of China, China 's tropical rainforests and seasonal rainforests occur in a region between Jingpu of Taiwan(123°E) at the east and Yadong and Yelamu of the southeast Xizang(86°E) at the west. Its north boundary lines among latitudes from 21°-24°N, and even reaches 28°-29°N at some deep valleys in the southeast Xizang.
After the different viewpoints above, with further support of natural vegetation, agricultural vegetation, soils and other factors, China's tropical region covers Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, south Yunnan, Taiwan Island, Hainan Island and Nanhai Islands, lower reach of Brahmaputra River (Cha'ou, Motuo, and Dawang), as well as Yadong and Yelamu in southeast Xizang. China's tropical region is located in south of the Tropic of Cancer. Its north boundary moves southward because of influence of cold current at middle to east parts of Guangdong Province. While at the south of
3 Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, it moves northward to 24°N because the southeast monsoon can reach at northward area. Under the influence of the ocean, the north boundary moves further up to about 26°N in Fujian Province. While with the influence of southwest monsoon from the Indian Ocean and warm current from Bangladesh Bay, it reaches 25°N at Dehong in southwest Yunnan, i.e. from 23°30 ˊ-23°N° in southeastern and southern Yunnan(below 800 m above sea level in basins), to 25°N in southwestern Yunnan. In the southeast part of Xizang, southwest monsoons bring in warm and humid currents from the Indian Ocean under effect of the special topographic feature of the Himalayas, resulting in warm and humid climate, that makes the north boundary of China's tropical region reaches up to 28°-29°N. Above described boundary of China's tropical region keeps consistent with what given in Division of Forestry in China and Flora Map of China. Map 1 shows China's tropical region.
Map 1 Location of tropical region in China
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2 Natural conditions in tropical region
2.1 Physiognomy
The physiognomy types in China’s tropical region are of multiplicity and complexity, with which there are high mountains and gorges, typical karst physiognomy, Delta of Pearl River, as well as Leizhou Peninsula, mesa of north bay, zigzag coastline and many harbor, peninsula, islands and islets, Shiwandashan in Guangxi and Himalayas in Tibet.
The hills and basins to the north of Yunnan are located in the south and southwest verge of Yunnan tableland with normal altitude of less than 1000 m. The rivers here flow through this area towards the south into the sea outside China from Yunnan tableland and Qingzang tableland, of which Lanchangjiang River is the longest.
The physiognomy of Hainan Island is formed by mountains, hills, mesa and plain. It is plain mesa in the north with an altitude of about 200 m. It is hills and mountainous land towards the south of the middle part. The mountainous land concentrated in the south of the middle part with the altitude of over 800 m including Wuzhishan Mountain, Toulieling Mountain, Limuling Mountain, Mihouling Mountain, Yajiadaling Mountain and Jianfengling Mountain. The topography of Hainan Island is high in the central and low around the Island, and the water system is of radiate shape. The total area of mountainous land in the Island occupies about 20%, hills about 15%, mesa and plain about 65%. The total length of coastline is 1617.8 km.
The islands of the South Sea are revealed from the deep sea as a group of coral islands of the South Sea including over 100 islands, continent, reef, beach and sand and there are over 10 bigger islands.
The mountainous region of Taiwan is not only with high mountain, deep valley, steep slope and dangerous cliff, but also because it is plait structure with strong active movement in the east of the Island with active geologic structure and frequent volcano earthquake. The Island is abundant in terrestrial heat resource with many volcanoes and thermal springs. In the east of the Island, there are mainly schist and in the west, there more argillite, conglomerate and shale, however, landslide and landslide will easily occur because of rainstorm when typhoon comes.
2.2 Climate
Although China’s tropical region is located in the north verge of tropical zone, but with quantity of heat, high temperature and multiple rainfall. The mean annual temperature is 20-25℃ and higher(25-26℃)in the south. The mean temperature in January is normally above 10-15℃. The mean temperature in July is 25-28℃. The
5 annual accumulated temperature is 500-9000℃ when≥10℃. The absolute lowest temperature is over 5℃ in average. Basically, there is no frost in the whole year.
The tropical vegetation region is the biggest annual rainfall area with over 1500 mm in China. However, the rainfall is somewhat certain differences due to different monsoon types, different sea and land position and the different action of topography. It is rich in topographic rain in the western half part towards southeast of Tibet and the annual rainfall is above 5000 mm; Taiwan, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi located in the eastern half part around the sea and Hainan Island are the most frequent areas for typhoon activities in summer and autumn in China with high intensity of rainfall, of which the annual rainfall in the southeast part of Hainan Island is about 3000 mm, and that of southern part of Taiwan is 3000-5000 mm. However, to the west of Hainan Island and Nanning of Guangxi, the annual rainfall is only about 900-1200 mm.
Owing to the different sea and land position and the different factors of atmospheric circumfluence, the eastern part of China’s tropical region belongs to the southeast monsoon climatic type, the western part belongs to the southwest monsoon climatic type. The climatic characteristics in the east and west are shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Climatic Characteristics in the East and West of China’s Tropical Region
Absolute Highest and Temperature Rainfall Wind Mean Highest Temperature Temperature is higher, the yearly In July or It is rich in rainfall There is convection swing is bigger August, during and the dry season between sea and and the daily the raining is shorter with cold land wind every swing is small. season, the wave rain. Certain day, and affected East temperature is rainfall is available more by the Pacific higher. in winter, and with current and higher humidity Typhoon and and wet because it typhoon rain is also is close to the sea. the important rain sources of the east.
Mean Temperature is With moderate The mean wind Temperature is lower in April or rainfall and speed is small and lower and the May before concentrates in with less gale days. West yearly swing is raining season raining season. small but with come. higher daily swing.
2.3 Soil
6 The soil in China’s tropical region is formed under tropical monsoon conditions and functioned by long-term biological factors. The characteristics of the soil is that the brick red soil character is evident in the process of becoming soil with acidity and with less electropositive matter. The red brick soil is mainly characterized for the terrain soil, and gradually transfer to mountainous red soil, yellow soil and mountainous meadow soil with the rise of the altitude.
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3 Tropical vegetation
3.1 Distributing characteristics of tropical vegetation
China’s tropical region borders upon the broad tropical vegetation region of the Southeast and South Asia and has connections with the flora of the Philippines, Malaysia etc. and has connections with Burma and India. China’s tropical region not only have the same characteristics with the above-mentioned areas, but also since China’s tropical region is more in the north, it has transitional and regional characteristics.
The tropical vegetation in this region is gradually transitional towards subtropical character and temperate character with the rise of the altitude. In the subtropical vegetation in mountainous land with low altitude, there is somewhat some certain composing component of tropical vegetation and structure characters. Owing to the different landform and monsoon type in the east and west in this region, the vertical distribution belt is different.
Since the topography in the east is lower, the vertical distribution of vegetation is normally under 500-600 m with the types of semi-evergreen, seasonal rainforests, partly wet rain forests and defoliate seasonal rain forests. With the rise of altitude, it is the vertical distribution belt of mountainous land rain forests, of which in the cave and ridge, some moss-type peak coppice occurs. Starting with 1500 m, the species and quantity of gymnosperm vegetation's increased gradually, and transitional towards the of conifer and broad-leaved mixed forests of mountainous land.
The topography in the west is higher, and it is basically the original landform with many deep river valleys and complicated terrain. It is very common in various types of intervein and inlay on vertical belt of vegetation. In the river valleys, basin or windward slope (Tibet) under 800-1000 m, there are some types of such tropical vegetation as seasonal rain forests, semi-evergreen seasonal forests and various types of bush and grass clusters.
3.2 Main forest types and species in the region
Since the integrate, natural environment, vegetation types and compositions are different in China’s tropical region, the forest vegetation in the tropical region can be classified into tropical seasonal rain forests, tropical rain forests and coral island vegetation in the South Sea.
3.2.1 Tropical seasonal rain forests
China’s tropical seasonal rain forests is mainly distributed in the verge of tropical
8 forests which is developed as zonal vegetation under China’s evident dry and wet seasons and tropical monsoon conditions.
There are many types of plant for the composition of seasonal rain forests, of which over 80% belongs to the tropical flora composition. The main kinds of tree include soapberry, mulberry, cherimoya, meliaceae, burseraecae, gamboges, ceiba, phoenix, spurge and cinnarnomum.
In accordance with the characteristics of geographical environment and composition, China’s tropical monsoon rain forests are classified into 3 kinds: semi-evergreen seasonal forests, defoliate seasonal rain forests and lime rock seasonal rain forests.
3.2.2 Tropical rain forests
China’s rain forests are developed under tropical monsoon, which is different from equator rainforests. The distributing range of tropical rainforests in China is not so wide, dispersing southeast Guangdong, Southeast Hainan Island, Southwest Guangxi, South Yunnan and river valley area of southeast Tibet as well as South of Taiwan. In addition, some small parts of rain forests are distributed on some islands and islets. The plane distribution of China’s rain forests tends towards gradual increase from east to west latitude. The main types are tropical wet rain forests, seasonal rainforests and mountainous terrain forests.
3.2.3 Coral Island Vegetation in the South Sea
Coral island Vegetation is located in China’s tropical sea with big area including the four big coral islands in the south sea. The typical zonal vegetation type is the evergreen forest of tropical coral island and the composition is quite simple. The main plant species are nyctaginaceae, madder, pittosporum，borage, fiddle-wood, brake, gamboges and gramineae
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4 Tropical forest resources
4.1 General situation
According to the survey result by remote sensing and China’s 4th Forest Resource Statistics, the tropical forested area in China’s tropical region is 11.873 million ha, area of tropical forest stand is 9.5256 million ha, of which the areas of natural forests and man-made forests are 6.0768 million ha and 3.4488 million ha respectively. The general accumulated volume of tropical forest stand is 452.6281 million ha, of which the young forest is 82.1750 million m3, occupying 18.16%; Middle-aged forest is 177.4461 million m3, occupying 39.20%；Near-mature forest is 95.5284 million m3, occupying 21.10%; Mature forest is 87.1088 ha, occupying 19.24% and Over-mature forest is 10.3698 million m3, occupying 2.30%. Owing to the different classification category for forest stand and forestland adopted by Taiwan Province from that of the mainland, the statistic figures of Taiwan Province are not included. Due to lack of survey data for Tibet tropical forests, the paper for tropical forest resource accumulation only include Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Hainan Provinces and Autonomous Region.
4.2 Structure of tropical forest resources
4.2.1 Structure of forest kinds
According to the natural and social conditions and the needs of the national economy as well as the aim of forest management and function, China’s tropical forests are classified into three kinds: commercial forest, ecological forest and mixed-function forest. General situation of each kind of forest is shown Table 2.
Table 2 Classification of Tropical Forests in Five Provinces and Autonomous Region Unit: 10 000 ha Commercial Forest Ecological Forest Mixed
Pro-vi -func-t Total Forest nce Sub- Tim-b Eco-no Bam-b Sub- Rotec- ion for total er mic oo Total tion Forest Spe-ci Forest Forest Forest Forest al Uses Fujian 159.89 91.61 50.18 30.43 11.00 19.38 18.33 1.05 48.90 Guang 355.83 256.78 207.54 42.60 6.64 99.05 80.49 18.56 -dong Guang 220.11 192.98 167.90 21.48 3.60 21.93 19.92 2.01 5.20 -xi Yun-na 242.99 105.85 69.97 22.98 12.90 117.44 68.82 48.62 19.70 n Hainan 145.37 75.55 35.94 47.75 0.43 69.82 76.86 10 .35
10 Total 1124.19 722.77 531.53 165.24 34.57 327.62 264.42 80.59 73.80
Of which the commercial forests refer to the forests taking wood production, woody economic plants and additional products for the main management aims. For instance, short-cycle and middle-cycle oriented breeding forests and normal forests for wood for special uses, economic forest and bamboo forest. The ecological forests refer to the forests taking restraint watershed, water and soil preservation, wind protection and sand fixation, purifying air, beautifying environment, landscape tour, scientific experiments as well as protection of biological diversities as the main management aims, including protection forest (such as watershed forest, water and soil preservation forest wind protection and sand fixation, protection forests for farmland and rangeland, road and bank protection forest and mangrove forest) and forest for special uses ( such as national defense forest, experimental forest, mother tree forest, environment protection forest, forest parks, nature preserves and landscape and key spots). Mixed-function forests refer to exert the benefits of commercial forests and commonweal forests at the same time.
4.2.2 Forest Age Structure
In the accumulative volumes for each forest age group, the area of young-aged forest area is 6.3217 million ha occupying 66.37% of the tropical forest stand area; Middle-aged forest area is 1.6854 million ha occupying 17.69% of the tropical forest stand area; Near-mature forest area is 1.7428 million ha occupying 18.30% of the tropical forest stand area; Mature forest area is 966,600 ha occupying 10.15% of the tropical forest stand area; the over-mature forest area is 416100 ha occupying 4.4% of the tropical forest stand area. For details, see Table 3.
Table 3 Statistics of Forest Age, Species and Area of Five Provinces and Autonomous Region Unit: 10 000 ha
Middle-ag Near-matu Over-matu Species Young-age Mature Total ed re re d Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest
Chinese Fir 61.42 16.85 15.64 4.58 1.84 100.33
Casuarina 13.19 2.91 4.49 1.98 0.95 23.52
Broad-leaved 178.25 77.26 47.69 15.61 10.55 329.36 Forest
Eucalyptus 58.70 19.49 17.87 10.56 5.78 112.4
Acacia 3.89 1.14 0.78 0.70 0.66 7.17
11 Pine 305.33 42.55 85.91 62.33 21.720 517.84
Batai 0.76 0.13 0.48 0.14 0 1.51
Oak 10.54 8.16 1.40 0.76 0.11 20.97
Cinnamomum 0.09 0.05 0.02 0 0 0.16
Total 632.17 168.54 174.28 96.66 41.61 1113.26
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5 The natural, social and economic conditions in tropical area
5.1 The natural resources in the tropical area
Hainan Province is the biggest tropical area in China. The natural resource condition in the tropical area is very clear from Hainan Province. Taking Hainan as an example to explain the diversity of the natural resources in the tropical area in China. The total area of Hainan is 3.397 million ha which occupies 42.5% of the tropical land areas of China. The total soil area is 2.842 million ha of which the area of brick red soil is 1.815 ha. Out of the total soil area, soil for agriculture use is 990000ha, suitable for agricultural land is 1.016 million ha, suitable for tropical plant land is 811000 ha, suitable for mucus planting land is 680000 ha, suitable for forest land is 925000 ha, suitable for animal husbandry land is 311000 ha, surface area of fresh water is 137000 ha and for others 191000 ha.
The run off capacity of the river in Hainan Island is 29.7 billion m3, person in average is 5380 m3 which is about two folds of the national person in average (2700 m3). The fall of the river is big with good development conditions for water conservancy. The total capacity of water resource is 37.5 billion m3. Waterpower resource, i.e. theoretic store volume is 995000 kilowatt and 772000 kilowatt can be developed and used, and the yearly-generated electricity can be 2.6 billion kilowatt hour. The gulf tide resource is 377000 kilowatt.
Hainan is rich in biological resources. There are over 4600 species, over 1350 genera and 262 sections of vascular bundle plants, of which over 630 kinds are special to Hainan; 2500 kinds of plants can be used as medicine. There are 561 kinds of terricolous vertebrate, of which 102 kinds of rare and valuable wildlife are specially protected by the Nation.
5.2 Distribution of industry in tropical region
The distribution of industry in the tropical region has evidently regionalized characteristics. The distribution of industry in different provinces and regions and the industries have big differences in contribution to national economy.
Table 4 the General Situation of Three Industries In Part of Provinces and Regions In 2003
Unit: billion yuan; % GDP First Industry Second Industry Third Industry GDP Propor- Propor Propor- pe Quantity Increment Quantity Increment Quantity Increment Quantity Increment Tion -tion tion (yu ion 11669.4 9.1 1724.7 2.5 14.8 6177.8 12.5 52.9 3766.9 6.7 20.7 90 nan 69.83 10.5 25.71 9.0 32.5 17.17 18.9 37.0 26.95 7.7 30.5 86
13 ng- 1344.99 13.6 105.16 1.2 7.8 704.81 18.0 52.4 53.503 10.8 39.8 ng ngxi 273.32 10.2 62.82 4.0 23.0 100.59 14.5 36.8 10.991 10.0 40.2 58 ian 524.17 11.5 70.55 3.3 13.5 249.56 16.1 47.6 204.06 9.2 38.9 150
5.3 Characteristics of Social Economy Development
Imbalance of economic development among regions. From Table 4, it shows the imbalance of social economy development among regions. The economy is more developed in the areas along the sea in southeast and that of the west is relatively backward.
The area of relatively backward in social economy development has stronger trust to the resources and has bigger proportion of industry in the type of resource utilization. For instance, the agriculture production value in Hainan Province, which is the relatively backward in economy, occupies 32.5% in GDP, however, that of Guangdong Province with better economic condition is only 7.8%. This is because, on one hand, the backward area is very rich in resources which can be fully used for various kind of production activities, and on the other hand, they rely upon the resources and they have less capability in developing other industry development and lag behind for other industry.
Guangdong Province is developed in export-oriented economy and the other provinces are relatively backward. The main foreign trade is processing trade.
The tropical region of China belongs to the area along the sea and border where are the first areas opened to the foreign economy. These areas have the advantages for abroad and border trade and correspondingly the export-oriented economy is developed. E.G. China’s total amount of import and export was 851.2 billion US$ in 2003, of which the export amount was 438.4 billion US$ and the import amount was 412.8 billion US$. The total amount of import and export of Guangdong Province is 283.644 billion US$ which occupying 33.3% of the whole country, of which the total amount of export trade is 152.944 billion US$, the total amount of import is 130.700 billion US$ and processing trade is 118.24 billion US$ occupying 77.3% of the export amount. The total amount of import and export of Fujian Province in 2003 was 35.335 billion US$ occupying 4.15% of the whole country, of which the total amount of export was 21.140 billion US$, the total amount of import was 14.195 billion US$ and export for processing trade was 10.648 billion US$ occupying 50.4% of the export amount. The total import and export value of Hainan Province is 2.279 billion US$ occupying 0.27% of the whole country, of which the total value of export is 869 million US$.
There is great potential for developing tourism resources. There are multiple types of forest vegetation in China’s tropical region, the vertical distribution is evident with
14 multiple types and complex physiognomy. With the above, there is very good condition for developing tourism activities. In addition, it is the region where 30 minority nationalities inhabit there with rich and special characteristics of nationality resources and it has great potential for developing tourism resources.
5.4 General situation of social and economic development in typical tropical region
In 2003, the dominated income in average per person for people living in town in China was 8472 yuan and the pure income of people in village was 2622 yuan. With this view, the social and economic development status of China’s tropical region can be classified into the developed region, middle region and backward region and described separately as follows.
5.4.1 The seacoast being the developed level of China’s economy
In China’s tropical region, Guangdong is one of the earliest places for the reform of China’s economic system and one of the biggest beneficial places. There are four special economic regions in the first batch, of which three are in Guangdong, therefore, in the seacoast region with the developed level of China’s economy, Guangdong seacoast may be taken as the representative.
Guangdong is located in the extreme south of China’s continent at 20o13’- 25o31’N, 109o39’- 117o19’E. The continent area is 180000 km2, length of coastline is 3368 km, The topography is high in the north and low in the south and mountain, plain and hills are in crisscross inside the Province. Soil of delta in Zhujiang River is fertile, it is a famous land flowing with milk and honey. The climate is long in summer and warm in winter with abundant rainfall. The yearly mean rainfall is 1500 – 2000 mm. It belongs to humid region. The yearly mean temperature is over 19o – 23oC. The tropical forest in Guangdong includes north tropical area and part of typical south tropical area, which is basically undulated along tropic of cancer. The total area of the tropical region in Guangdong is 9.035 million ha occupying 50.7% of the total area of Guangdong Province of which forest land area is 4.168 million ha occupying 38.4% of the total land area of the Province. In 2003, the dominated income of the yearly average per person of people living in town of Guangdong Province was 1280.4 yuan and the average per person income in cash of the people in village is 4377 yuan.
5.4.2 The seacoast belongs to the middle level for economic development
Hainan Island is located in 3o58’- 20o10’N, 108o 37’- 117o50’E. Its land soil is brick red soil. From low to high in turn, it is brick red soil (Altitude below 350m), crimson soil (Altitude about 350 – 1100 m), yellow soil (Altitude about 800-1600 m) and mountainous land, shrub, meadow mountain (Altitude about 1200 – 1600 m and above part of the region). According to the result of the third inspection on forest resources of Hainan Province in 1999, the current area of the natural forest is 515600
15 ha and stock volume is 55.4115 million m3.
Agriculture is the support domain. The land area used for agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry occupies 78.13% of the total land area. The farming land of the whole province is 769200 ha which occupies 21.8% of the total area. Garden plot area is 509100 ha which occupies 14.4% of the total land area. Forestland area is 1.46 million ha which occupies 41.3% of the total land area. Herbage land area is 21000 ha which occupies 0.6% of the total land area. Water area is 287300 ha which occupied 8.1% of the total area. Unused land area is 263200 ha which occupies 7.4% of the total land area. The land area of the province per person in average is 0.53 ha and the farming land area of the province per person in average is 0.12 ha.
In 2003, The GDP of Hainan Province was 69.830 billion yuan, of which the increase value of the first industry was 25.712 billion yuan that of the second industry was 17.169 billion and that of the third industry was 26.949 billion yuan. GDP per person was 655 yuan. The staff wage of yearly average was 10408 yuan per person, the dominated income per person of the people in town was 7259 yuan and the pure income per person of the residents in the village was 2588 yuan.
5.4.3 The mountainous area where the level of economic development is quite low
In 2003, the GDP of Guangxi was 273.321 billion yuan, of which the increase value of the first industry was 62.818 billion yuan. The increase value of the second industry was 100.592 billion yuan; the increase value of the third industry was 109.911 billion yuan. The GDP per person was 5964 yuan, an increase of 9.4%. In 2003, the dominated income of the people in town of Guangxi was 7785 yuan, an increase of 6.4% and the pure income of farmers in the Region was 2095 yuan, an increase of 4.1%.
The characteristics of economic resources of Guangxi are: (1) it is rich in total amount of resources, however, it is less in quantity of per person. The total land area of Guangxi is no.9 of the national area, but the farmland per person is no.20 of the nation; The reserves of manganese, tin, stibium, tungsten, aluminum as well as some of the nonmetal mineral resources stand head of the list in the nation, however, the mineral resources per person is only no.23 of that in the nation. The total amount of water resources is no.5 of the nation. It is about 4100 m3 per person, which is only 1/2 of that in the world. On the whole, it belongs to area where the water resources are basically satisfied. (2) The combination of resources in area is good. Rain and hot weather are in the same season, good combination of water and thermal, and water and soil conditions, which are favorable to the growth of farm and forest plants, which is good for the development of agriculture production. Close combination of water and electric resources and mineral resources in area, which are of good condition being richly endowed by nature for the development of the development for high energy consumed smelting of nonferrous metal. (3) The regional distribution for
16 economic resources is apparently different in east and west, and south and north. The region belongs to the subtropical region with abundant heat resources and it is a region for developing those economic plants as tropical fruits, such as banana, pineapple, litchi, Logan, sugarcane etc. (4) Low development of exploitation for resources. Of over 100 kinds of mineral resources, only 50 kinds have been exploited and used; In the 841 spots of mineral products which have been verified, only 229 spots are exploited and used, and their processing level is very low. For instance, 86% of manganese mine is exported in the form of raw material mine. Although the capability for nonferrous smelting is can be solved up to 60%, yet, their rolling and processing capability is less than 10%. In the field of land resources, over 1 million ha “four kinds” of wasteland are to be exploited and used. Guangxi is rich in water resources and water conservancy, however, only 15% has been exploited and used.
Shangsi County is located in southwest of Guangxi and north foot of Shiwandashan Mountain, 107o32’05’’ – 108o16’05’’ E, 21o44’ –22o22’N. The total land area is 2816.22 km2. The hill area inside the County is 249,900 ha occupying 88.7%, the area of middle and low mountain is 3.17 ha occupying 11.3%. In the County, the three sides (east, south and north) are surrounded by mountain and the topography is more or less forms a trough-shape basin. The highest altitude is 1462 m and the lowest is 45.5 m. The yearly mean temperature is 21.3oC, the non-frost period of yearly average is 341d. Rainfall per year in average is 1203.6 mm. The soil is mainly crimson soil occupying over 80%. Under the County, there are 11 xiang (town) and 83 village commissions, population is 204000, of which agricultural population is 166300 occupying 81.5%, the total area of farm land is 20816 ha of which paddy field is 12789.0 ha occupying 61.4%, dry land 8027.8 ha occupying 38.6% and the main crop is sugarcane etc. Forestry production is mainly managing Masson pine, fruits and aniseed etc. the income per person of the County is about 1500 yuan.
5.4.4 Comparatively backward in economic development in mountainous area
Simao is located in the southwest of Yunnan at 22o02’- 24o50’N, 99o09’- 102o19’E, which is 524 km from Kunming. The total area is 45385 km2 governing 9 counties and 1 municipality. The total land area of the County is 281841.0 ha, of which the land for forest use is 178395.2 ha occupying 63.3%, land for non-forest use is 97588.2 ha occupying 34.6%, water area6302.7 ha occupying2.2%. In the land area for forest use, the area of land with forest is 171423.4 ha (of which shrub forest is 56533.3 ha, scattered forest 1586.0 ha), occupying 96.1%. The land area feasible for forest (no forest) is 6969.9 ha, occupying 3.9%. Forest coverage rate is 60.28%. For forestry production, Masson pine, fruits and aniseeds are mainly managed. It is rich in this area in tourism resources such as special scenic spot of Cangyuan Washan Mountain of Wa Nationality with strong amorous feeling, ancient culture, beautiful natural environment and assembled valuable and rare biology; The scenic spots of Menglianda Heishan Mountain, the principal part of primitive evergreen broad-leaved forests and valuable and rare animals and plants; Scenic spots of Zhenyuan
17 Qianjiazhai with great mountain, beautiful water, quiet forests and strange things; Beautiful Tianbi Mountain, magic Taiyi eroded caves, primitive forest community, famous scenic Pu'er spots with culture and custom of Hani and Yi nationalities as well as Jinggu Weiyuan and Jiangfeng specialized for subtropical primitive vegetation sight, Kast sculpt physiognomy and the sights of valuable and rare animals and plants and biological diversity.
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6 The current situation forestry development in tropical region
Forestry is the important basis for sustainable development of economy and society and is the most fundamental and the longest-term measures. As the biggest area, the most extensive distribution, the most complicated constitution and the ecological system with the richest special resources on the earth of the nature, forestry plays the non-substitute function on improving ecological environment and maintaining ecological balance. Forest, as huge and replenishing pool of the natural resources, has the multi-channel connection with other ecological system and it is for holding together the harmonious and unified the link between man and the nature and even more the guarantee of the state land safety.
6.1 Forestry development strategy
The forestry development strategy is a kind of key link document for guiding forestry development. In the modern world, sustainable development is advocated, ecological civilization is sought and the important transition of China’s society, China put forward forestry development strategy with three "ecologies".
6.1.1 China's forestry development strategy
In the first half of the 21st century, the overall strategy thinking of China’s forestry development is to establish the forestry sustainable development road taking the ecological construction as the main body; establishment of the state land safety system taking forest vegetation as the main body; establishment of the ecological civilization society with beautiful mountains and rivers. Correspondingly, the guideline of China’s forestry strategy is to strict protection, active development, scientific management and sustainable utilization. The main contents are: (1) Protecting strictly such typical ecological system as natural forests, wildlife and wetland; (2) Actively developing man-made forests, profound processing of forest products and developing such green industry as tourism; (3) Combining the high and new technology with traditional technology, strengthening the forest management in a scientific way; (4) Realizing the sustainable uses of forest wood, non-wood resources and ecological resources. In accordance with the forestry strategy guideline, China has conducted the renewed deployment on the structure and composition of forestry productivity forming up the composition of forestry productivity taking the key engineering as the center with outstanding main line of ecological construction. The key forestry engineering has covered 97% of the national counties and the programming afforestation area is over 73 million ha.
6.1.2 Forestry development strategy in tropical region
As mentioned above, the tropical region is rich in abundant illumination, sufficient
19 rainfall and exuberant resources, which are not only suitable for the development of timber and non-wood products, but also the important protection area for biological diversity. Therefore, the development of forestry in the tropical region requires the protection and exploitation should be done at the same time and the relationship between protection and exploitation should be handle well. The forestry development strategy in tropical region is up to 2010, a perfect forestry ecological system and more developed forestry industry system will be basically established.
6.2 Forestry policy
The development of forestry requires such three guarantees as economy, society and policies of which the policy guarantee shows the increasing importance and the economy and society guarantees are realized through policy approach. The forestry policy, therefore, has the important function to the development of forestry.
6.2.1 China’s macroscopic forestry policies
China’s main current macroscopic policies are: Forestry management in a classified way; Forest power system is stressed as the nucleus of forestry policies and the forest power system will be further reformed in a deep way; For the management activities of forest resources, such as forest land management and administration, prevention and harnessing of desertification, afforesting and planting trees, protecting wildlife, quota of forest cutting, timber management and wood processing etc., the clear standards have been established; Practising the “Six Big Engineering” such as protection of the natural forest resources, returning the farm land to forestry use.; classified management of forestry in a deep way.
The direction of China’s forestry reform is on one hand to suit the socialist marketing economy system and to correspond to the management system with the characteristics of forestry itself and the running mechanism so that to make the owners of forest, timber and forest land and managers to enjoy by law the rights of owner, use, management, disposition and benefit and mobilizing fully the enthusiasm and creativity to establish the management system and operation system taking the classified management as the main content, reforming the management system of the nation-owned forest areas, establishing the forestry department in charge, the management organization, forestry enterprises mechanism, i.e. the mechanism of “ Three Powers Established Separately”, regrouping forestry management unit to form up the main body of forestry market activity and the mechanism of forestry economy circulation.
6.2.2 Forestry policy in tropical region
The main current forestry policies of China’s tropical region are: Since 1998, the complete stopping cutting of the tropical natural forest was realized; Forest
20 management was carried out in a classified way and establishing the compensation mechanism for forest ecological benefits; Resuming the destroyed commonweal forest land and bring its efficiency into play; Basically the forest protection system was established; The oriented culture of short-cycle forests for industrial raw material and economic forests for tropical fruits were realized; Establishing demonstration base with tropical biological resource characteristics tropical including fruits and flower base; Establishing ecological protection and recover demonstration base, trying hard to resume the biological community organized by protogene species, establishing germ plasm information net system and monitor system; Speeding up the construction of nature reserves, Strengthening the protection and culture of valuable and rare tree species, increasing efforts on the research and protection wildlife resources, establishing monitoring data bank of valuable and rare wildlife; Encouraging and supporting the construction and development of forest industry groups, More complete forestry ecological system and more developing forestry industry system. The main points of the development are: Protecting the existing tropical primitive forests, reducing the cutting of the tropical natural forests, the secondary natural forests are designated to commonweal forests, strengthening the nature reserves system of tropical forests, protecting the ecological system of tropical natural forests and valuable and rare wildlife; Expanding further the protection forest system in the tropical region, strengthening the protection and construction of seacoast protection forests and mangrove forests.
Since 1994, all the cutting of the natural forest in Hainan Province were stopped, Yunnan Province stopped the cutting of natural forests of 73 counties including Jinshajiang River and Xishuangbanna since October 1, 1998 and starting the natural forest protection engineering at the same time. For instance, In Xishuangbanna natural forest protection project, since September 10, 1998, ten cutting farms stopped cutting the natural forests. From 1998 to 2010, 222200 ha ecological commonweal forest was cultured and strict protection policy for 1.0487 ha natural forest. A group of key forest industry enterprises were set up. From 1999 to 2010, 133000 ha farm land has been returned to forest use. And set up a group irrigation project and tableland has been constructed. After practicing the natural protection engineering, the commonweal forest has occupied by 75%, the newly increasing forest land area is 302,100 ha, the forest coverage is increased from 63.68% to 74.99% and the tropical rain forest and forest biological diversity will be actively protected in Xishuangbanna following the natural forest resources are protected and resumed.
6.3 Protection of biological diversity
The biological diversity refers to that various kind and diversified organism connect together in certain scope of space, that is the general call including all plants, animals, microorganism as well as all the ecological systems and the ecological course of their formation.
21 6.3.1 Valuable and rare wildlife resources
Forest is the biggest in area distribution, most complicated in formation structure on the land with multi functional and a lot of valuable ecological system. China’s tropical forest has abundant biological diversity. In the tropical forest, a big quantity of plants, animals and microorganism as well as various kinds of rich types of ecological system, of which the number of plants is over 10000 kinds occupying over 1/3 of China’s total number of plants. Xishuangbanna and Hainan Island have the biggest two parts of tropical forests, which are concentrated and connected with a total area of 900000 ha, which concentrate almost various characteristics of China’s tropical forests. Most of China’s tropical plants, animals and microorganism are all distributed in it.
In Xishuangbanna, there are over 3500 kinds of higher plant occupying 12% of the national total plants. The section, genus, species of angiosperm occupying 88.3%, 68.5% and 44.2% respectively. There are 341 kinds of various kind of valuable and rare plants, 2 kinds of fern, 5 kinds of gymnosperm, 334 kinds of angiosperm belonging to 96 sections and 127 genera, of which 52 kinds are listed for the key protection of the nation; 102 kinds of mammal, 427 kinds of bird, 36 kinds of amphibian, 63 kinds of reptile, 100 kinds of fish, 1437 kinds of insect. There are 120 kinds of wild animals, which are issued to be protected by the nation, of which 46 kinds are in Yunnan and 36 kinds of which are in Xishuangbanna. It has also Asian elephant, Indian wild bull, whiter-cheek gibbon, tragulus and Indochina tiger etc.
In Hainan Province, there are 262 sections, over 1350 genera and over 4600 species of vascular bundle plants, which are about 1/7 of the national total, of which 630 kinds are especially in possession of Hainan Province. The tropical varieties occupy 83%, of which there are over 2500 kinds of arbor and shrub and over 800 kinds with higher economic value. There are 206 valuable tree species and 18 of which are listed in valuable, rare and endangered plants for the second-class national protection, 37 kinds of plants for the third-class national protection. Others are 2500 kinds of medicinal plants, 30 kinds of famous and rare south medicinal plants, 859 kinds of germ plasm resource of flower of which 406 species are wild species, 453 kinds for planting of which 47 kinds are special ones, especially, the richest resource is orchid with over 60 genera and 160 species; There are over 200 kinds of flowers and tree species for ornamental and beautifying garden, 142 kinds of fruit trees, 89 kinds of oil plants and about 200 kinds of other economic plants. In Hainan. There are 561 kinds of vertebrate of which 102 kinds of valuable and rare wild animals for national protection, 37 kinds of amphibian occupying 18.8% of the national total; There are 104 kinds of creepy occupying 33% of the national total; There are 344 kinds of bird occupying 29.5% of he national total; There are 76 kinds of animal occupying 18.6% of the national total, of which 32 kinds are specially in possession of Hainan. Those, which have listed in the national first-class protection mainly, are 14 kinds of Nanpuo Deer, black-caped gibbon, Yun leopard, and lizard; there are 11 sections and 554 species of butterfly. Owing to the unreasonable use for a long time, the tropical
22 natural forest in Hainan have been suffered serious destruction which caused at least 200 kinds of plants dying out, 2000 kinds of plants are endangered and many valuable and rare animals are in severe danger condition.
6.3.2 Construction of nature reserves
In order to protect’ resume and develop tropical natural forest, Hainan Province began to close mountain for culturing and protecting forests from 1984. 11 forest industry enterprises of the Province have reduced their cutting volume, i.e. from 200000 m3 in 1984 down to 60000 m3 in 1998 and passed “ Statute on Forest Protection and Management of Hainan Province” in 1993. Since January1, 1994, all the cutting of natural forest for commercial purpose was stopped completely; the nature reserves were established to effectively protect and resume the tropical natural forest in Hainan Island. Up to the end of 2003, there were 66 nature reserves in Hainan Province, of which 8 are at national level and 20 are at provincial level. The area of the nature reserve is 2.7365 million ha, of which 83600 ha is at the national level and 2.5547 million ha is at provincial level. 102 kinds of wild animals are listed in national first and second-class key protection, of which 15 kinds for first-class, 87 kinds for second-class. There are 48 kinds of plant, which are listed in national first and second class for key protection, of which 7 kinds for first class. The construction of the nature reserves has effectively protected and resumed some species resources and endangered animals. For instance, the number of Hainan Yun Leopard, the national first-class protection animal, has increased from 26 in 1976 to over 800 now and got success in propagation by introducing species of different site. Nanwan Macaque, the national second-class animal protection has increased from 60 heads of 4 flocks in 1960s to about 2000 heads of 20 flocks.
There were 160 nature reserves from 1976 to he end of 2003 in Yunnan Province and the area is 2994217 ha, of which 10 are at national level with the area of 1211716 ha, 54 are provincial level with the area of 1189342 ha, 43 are district and municipality level with the area of 281330 ha and 10 are county level with the area of 311829 ha. The area of the nature reserves occupy 7.16% of the total land area of the Province, which have effectively protected the local typical forest ecological system and the habitats of wild animals and the forest vegetation has well resumed as well as the wild animals can be multiplied. 7 national-level ecological demonstration areas with the area of 3149950 ha have established.
The waterhead forest of nature reserve with the area of 88382 ha, Shangsi Shwandashan, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, of which 87.3% land for forestry use and 12.7 % land for non-forestry land use. The county sticks to the development guide line of “Taking sylviculture as the basis and afforesting and closing mountain at the same time” and “ Constantly producing grain, attaching importance to sugarcane and flourishing forest and fruits”. Conducting afforestation and closing mountain for culturing forest activities in a big way and big effort is given
23 to the protection of forest resources. In 1993, the barren mountains were died out and in 1994, the planting target was realized.
There are 11 million ha of land suitable for afforestation and 10249000 ha of land with forest. Forests are densely covered in the whole province. 37 nature reserves and 33 forest parks have been established.
6.4 Industry of forestry
6.4.1 Forest cultivation
The total regeneration area of Fujian Province in 2003 was 50800 ha, of which afforestation in barren mountain is 16700 ha, land regeneration area is 34100 ha. In the area of forest regeneration, the proportion of fast growing and high yielding forest, and forest for timber production is increased by 19% and 2.3% respectively. The forest coverage of the Province is 60.5%. The production of the main forest products are: Tong oil seed 19200 t which increased by 4.6% more than last year, dry bamboo shoot 151000, increased by 13.2%; tea oil seed 64600 t, increased by 1.7%; turpentine 67700 t, increased by 9.5%; Production of commercial timber 5183400 m3, increased by 18.4%.
Forestry production value of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in 2003 was 4.182 billion yuan, increased by 3.4%. Forest production are consecutively developed and the ecological construction taking returning of farm land for forestry and grass growing use as the main content has been strengthened. Afforestation area in the whole year is 278000 ha, increased by 59.1%, of which the returning area of farm land for forestry use is 110700 ha, increased by 85.1%。
Forestry production of Hainan Province in 2003 increased quickly and the forestry-increased value was 4.098 billion yuan, an increase of 11.4% than last year. The man-made forest area was 75200 ha, increased by 251.0%; the forest coverage was 54.50%.
6.4.2 Culture and processing of non-wood products
The important use of the tropical forest by the local people is to have timber and fuelwood, however, they are developing and sue of non-wood resource at the same time: such as wild vegetables, wild fruits, herbal medicine, wild animals, fish. The wild vegetables and wild fruits are fig, fungus, banyan, pinang. There are 180 sections and over 2000 kinds of herbal medicine, the animal medicine is gallbladder of bear, and the industrial raw materials are rattan, fiber, resin, dye etc. At the end of 2003, the total area of tropical crops in Hainan Province was 500100 ha, increased by 3.9% more than last year. The total production of dry rubber was 307200 t, increased by 1.4%; The production of coconut is 230 million pieces, increased by 1.5%；The
24 production of pepper was 26800 t , increased by 6.8%; The production of pinang was 54000 t , increased by 8.4%; The production of coffee was 394 t, decreased by 6.2%; The production of sisal was 7026 t, increased by 3.5%; The production of cashew nut was 1275 t, increased by 23.1%.
6.4.3 Forest Product Industry
There are no statistical figures of tropical forest product industry in China. The only figures can be shown in Table 5 is the wood production before the prohibition of cutting of natural forests of Hainan Province and Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province. In general, China is a big wood importer. Each year, China import large quantity of tropical forest product, namely logs, plywood, sawn wood and veneer.
Table 5 Wood Production From 1996 To 1998 in Hainan and Xishuangbanna of Yunnan Unit：10 000 m3 1996 1997 1998
Log Production 26.42 37.26 25.98 Hainan Fuelwood 7.47 12.12 8.09 Production Total Wood Production 15.96 16.91 13.43 in Xishuangbanna of Yunnan
In recent years, Shangsi County of Guangxi has adjusted in a big way the structure of forest product industry and primarily formed the forestry industry system taking chemical processing of forest products and wood processing as the main body. At present, 7 enterprises for production of rosin and 50 wood processing mills have been built. The yearly production of resin is 20000 t and 11000 t processed rosin and turpentine. With the development of "high production, superior quality and high efficiency forestry", we shall plant in a big way the economic forest such as aniseed and cinnamon and fast growing and high yielding forests for industry use such as eucalyptus.
6.4.4 Forest tourism
In tropical region, there is special vegetation and it is very rich in ecological tourism resources with wide distribution and at the same time it has diversity and same-quality characteristics. These places are the inhabiting area of minority nationalities and it has close connection with their nationality culture, therefore, it is very beneficial to develop the ecological tourism market. The nature reserves and forest parks have high value for scientific research and scientific study with tourism. In view of the tourism market, most of the areas are located in temperate and subtropical region. When the tropical ecological tourism sight becomes the tourism hotspot in international market,
25 the disconnected and narrow tropical region in the extreme south China is even more precious.
Advantages of tropical tourism region: (1) The typical tropical natural ecological sight is charmed for people; (2) Culture of nationalities are rich and colorful; (3) The combination of tropical forests and Carst physiognomy, landscape river section and drift river section have formed a characteristic ecological tourism sight and it is easy to develop a ecological tourism region and special line for ecological tourism; (4) The area is located in China’s southeast border and is neighboring with Hongkong, Macao, Vietnam, Laos and India so that you may enjoy the different sight.
In general, tropical ecological tourism in tropical region, tropical ecological study and scientific dissemination tour, drift river section tour, forest sport, health care tour and holiday tour can be conducted.
6.5 Problems of forestry development in tropical region
6.5.1 Advantages for forestry development
The rich non-wood resources have created good conditions for the development and use of non-wood products. As stated in section 6.4.2, in tropical forest, there are very rich wildlife resources, of which many are special in possession of the tropical region and are valuable for ornament, edible and medicinal use. In these special resources, only a little part has been used, therefore, there is big potential for development and use. In addition, the tropical region possesses special climate, soil and water resource conditions, therefore, it is an important region for non-polluted agriculture production and to be the green food base.
Forest ecological tourism possesses the advantage of climate, favorable geographical position and support of people. The climate is the rise of hot ecological tour in 21st century; the favorable geographical position is to possess the advantage of good natural resource; Support of people is the rich nationality resource such as Simao area to the southwest of Yunnan Province and 524 km from Kungming .Its total area is 45385 km2. The famous spots are Wa nationality where valuable and rare biology is concentrated, famous Washan Mountain landscape, Menglianda Heishan Mountain etc.
The local people have rich knowledge and experiences for the development and protection of forest products. With the experience of 100 years for forest management, they can manage forest well and effectively if correct leading is given to them. They make ornamental plants or specimen of orchis and butterfly.
The local people have stronger participating, protecting and developing sense and gained certain experiences with the running of various projects by Chinese and
26 foreign experts. For instance, the Sino-German Cooperative project, Protection and Resumption of Tropical Rain Forest of Xishuangbanna, which lasted for 12 years. The local people’s participation of the project has been strengthened and step by step in an organization way and biological diversity system nixed with the local knowledge and data bank are established. The forest vegetation is resumed with the local tree species and the forest phase was changed. Establishing and carrying out some feasible forest management measures so as to gain better protection for the forest ecological system of Xishuangbanna.
6.5.2 Problems of forestry development in tropical region
In the tropical region, there are many advantages for developing forestry, however, in view of the reality, some problems are to be urgently solved. Taking Shangsi County in Guangxi as an example, in the structure of forest kinds: Ecological commonweal forest area is 44554.6 ha, of which protection forest 44509.2 ha, Forest for special use 45.4 ha, Timber forest 86453.1ha, of which Pines 65938.6 ha, Eucalyptus 889.1 ha, Fuelwood forest 34040.7 ha; Economic forest 4789.0 ha, of which oil plants 212.7ha, Special economic forest 2773.5 ha, Fruit tree forest 1768.7 ha, others34.1 ha; Structure of forest age: Young forest 78804.4 ha (46.4% of the total), Middle age forest 26566.6 ha (15.6%), Nearly mature forest 28765.1 ha (16.9%), Mature forest 31695.5 ha(18.7%). Over mature forest 4005.8 ha (2.4%). Problems are shown as follows:
Forest area is increased yearly, but forest quality is degraded, ecological function is weaker. Owing to the excessive forest cutting, insufficient land for agriculture, expansion of area for economic crops and over 90% forest stands are of natural forests formed by closing mountain for culturing forests in 1970s to 1980s as well as other reasons, the forest quality is quite low. For instance, the average stock volume of timber forest is only 41.0 m3, that of nearly mature forest is 70.9m3/ ha; The area of poor growing forest occupies 45.9%, Area of good growing forest occupies only 6.3%; Forest stand density is sparse and 92.3% of forest stand area belongs to sparse density class. The structure of forest kinds and species is short of rationality. In accordance with the statistic data from the second kind investigation in 1999, in the land area with forests of the County, area of coniferous forest was 81616.6 ha (Masson pine 98.8%, Chinese fir 1.2%) occupying 47.6% of the total area; Broad-leaved forest area 26788.9 ha occupying 15.6%; Mixed forests (conifer and broad-leaved forests) 4460.5 ha, occupying 2.6%; Bamboo forest 438.1 ha, occupying 0.3%; Sparse forest 1586.0 ha, occupying 0.9%; Shrub forest 56533.3 ha, occupying 33.0%. Timber forest occupies 56.0% with too big proportion, Economic forest occupies 2.9% and Bamboo forest occupies 0.3%. It shows that the proportion of timber forest is too big and that of the economic forest id too small. In timber forest, Masson pine occupies 76.3% with singularity of forest species. Forest product industry is backward with low general benefits. There is only one
27 plywood mill in the County with the annual capacity of 5000 m3; there are 50 processing mills owned by individuals. They can only process the moulding board for building construction with annual capacity of 15,000 m3. In the commercial wood of the County, over 80% of logs are sold outside; There are 7 rosin mill in the whole County, but the production is abnormal and the other forest products and byproducts have not been developed and used. According to the statistics, the forestry production value was 86.16 million yuan (in 1999) which occupied only 12.7% of the agricultural general production value and 4.9% of the general production value of industry and agriculture. The annual average production value of forestland is 577 yuan/ ha. It is not well handled for management with weak points. For a long time to come, the fund for forestry industrialization is short and the development is comparatively slow. With the acceleration of such economic activities as tourism, the resource protection is facing new challenge. The illegal persons and blind flow entered the forbidden zone and in border area they conduct slashing and denudating and stealing cutting forest and illegal transporting logs without certificate. In reality, the rain forests are brittle and they have limit power to take up the load. In case the green vegetation is destroyed, it may be possible that the rain forest will become the true desert.
Carl Jordan is of the opinion that if you want to resume the original state of species diversity and complicated food net, it will take longer time than what we expect, therefore, we must see clearly the importance and pressing for protection of tropical forests now and take powerful measures for developing the economy of forest area, improving the production and living conditions of the community people in order to achieve double aims of resource protection and improve the living level through developing economy for transferring people’s living fashion and the utilization fashion on forest resources.
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