Publication: China Forest Policy : Deepening the Transition, Broadening the Relationship
Loading...
Published
2010-05-01
ISSN
Date
2012-03-19
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
A pattern of forest area loss followed by a period of reforestation is representative of the forest transition process. Forest transition has been observed in many countries and is a feature of the development process. China reached its inflection point earlier and faster than most other countries that have gone through the transition. The report describes the success of reforms to forest resource tenure in collective forest areas. These reforms, which collectively amount to the largest transfer of forest assets in history, have effectively extended forest ownership to a million, mostly poor, rural households. These reforms have increased forest-based incomes, have increased timber harvests, and have done so sustainably by virtue of increasing planting and forest management and resource protection effort. The World Bank work in China's forestry sector has been successful. However, the developments discussed in this report raise new opportunities and challenges. It is no longer clear, for example, that World Bank loans are especially important in relation to the financing of commercial plantations. While the Bank has begun to move its plantation financing to public goods, or ecological plantings, these are other opportunities. This report brings together findings from Bank-supported studies with experience gleaned from Bank support of over $1 billion in forestry projects. Chapter one introduces the contents and approach of the report. Chapter two summarizes key data and information of China's forest sector and resources. Chapter three presents findings on collective forest tenure reform and chapter four, potential forest supply. Chapter five concludes with findings to clarify choices and options available to the World Bank and China for moving ahead in forestry.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2010. China Forest Policy : Deepening the Transition, Broadening the Relationship. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2993 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Andean Countries : A Strategy for Forestry, Volume 3. Ecuador(FAO, Rome, 2006-08-31)The World Bank's revised forest policy came into being in 2002 and covers all types of forests. It has the following key objectives: (i) harnessing the potential of forests to reduce poverty in a sustainable manner; (ii) integrating forests effectively into sustainable development; and (iii) protecting vital local and global environmental services and values. The policy enables the bank to fully engage in forestry throughout the developing world, while ensuring that it complies with such safe guard policies such as OP 4.01 (Environmental Assessment), OP 4.04 (Natural Habitats) and OD 4.20 (Indigenous Peoples). On the other hand, the policy provides only a general framework for its lending operations in forestry and cannot take account of the individual socio-economic and environmental needs of regions and sub regions. To carry out the work, experienced local consultants were recruited to prepare country level reports following guidelines provided by the FAO Investment Centre, the aim being to gain a strong local perspective on the main issues and potential for sustainable and equitable growth in the sector. These reports were complimented by reference to an extensive literature base to produce individual country reports and the summary which follows. Given the complexity of forestry in the region, the need to involve large numbers of stakeholders, and the need to accommodate change, the findings of this report should not be regarded as definitive, but rather as a first step to shaping the Bank's interventions in the sector in individual countries over the medium term. It should also be noted that data have been obtained from a variety of sources, and that inconsistencies and gaps were common; they should consequently be regarded as orders of magnitude.Publication Republic of Moldova Forest Policy Note(Washington, DC, 2014-12-19)This forest policy note (FPN) offers an outside view of the Moldovan forestry sector, provides some strategic guidance to help define sector goals, and identifies opportunities for consideration in the continued development of the sector and for the implementation of the Moldova and World Bank (WB) country partnership strategy (CPS). This study is based on a number of short visits to Moldova and on a number of background studies undertaken during the implementation of both phases of the European neighborhood and partnership instrument (ENPI) east countries, forest law enforcement and governance (FLEG) program. The WB CPS for Moldova recognizes that the forestry sector plays an important role for competitiveness and climate change but has not received the attention it deserves. This FPN builds on previous work within the forestry sector. It aims to inform the WB project formulation process and the forestry sector by reviewing the sector and highlighting the main policy issues and identifying possible actions.Publication Romania : Forest Sector Rapid Assessment(Washington, DC, 2014-01)Romania relies on the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) to achieve its commitments to the European Union (EU) 2020 targets. The use of the European Agriculture and Rural Development Fund (EARDF) requires that at least 30 percent of the budget allocated for rural development as part of the National Rural Development Plan (NRDP) be spent on the environment and addressing climate change. The forest sector rapid assessment reviews key issues in the forest sector to determine how the sector can contribute to mitigating and adapting to climate change. The assessment reviews the sector ministries measures for the 2014-2020 structural operational programs (SOPs) and NRDP to determine whether they are climate positive. The latter is an important condition for using EU structural cohesion funds (SCF) for 2014-2020. The assessment identifies operational programs and sector plans that can support the climate change objectives and fulfill the EU ex ante conditionalities for the SCF (2014-2020). The assessment also provides a basis for refining the measures in order to respond to the climate change requirement. The reimbursable advisory service phase will involve more in-depth work on the sector, offering more specific recommendations.Publication A Legal and Institutional Framework for Sustainable Management of Forest Resources in Southern Sudan : Policy note(World Bank, 2010-02-01)This policy note was prepared in response to a request from the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) for World Bank assistance in developing legislative and institutional policies and strategies that will take advantage of the potential of the region's forest resources to contribute to poverty alleviation, food security, sustainable agriculture, economic growth, and to protection of forest-related environmental services such as climate, biodiversity, water, and wildlife resources. The note is intended to: (a) take stock of the current situation on the ground, including identifying the legislative, institutional, governance, and policy reforms needed to create an enabling environment for both public and private-sector investment. This should help in contributing to improved understanding of the currently underutilized potential of Southern Sudan's forest resources; (b) analyze what has worked and what has not worked prior to and since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA); and (c) suggest priority solutions and actions towards revitalizing the forestry sector. Key policy issues addressed in this note include: 1) strengthening forest resource information and knowledge base; 2) developing a coherent legislative and policy framework, organizational structure, and capacity for the sector; 3) promoting participatory forest and woodland management; 4) enabling forest-based industries to thrive; 5) creating an enabling environment for attracting private-sector investment; 6) protecting and enhancing forest-related environmental services; 7) using technical approaches to conservation and sustainable management of forest resources; and 8) introducing predictable and sustainable long-term financing mechanisms.Publication India : Alleviating Poverty through Forest Development(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2000-01)This case study, one of six evaluations in a series of country case studies, aims to understand the implementation of the 1991 Forest Strategy in World Bank operations and to obtain the views of the various stakeholders in the country about the involvement of the Bank. Each country study examines the overall development of the country's forest sector. This naturally includes the environmental impacts on forests, such as degradation, bio-diversity loss, and deforestation as well as encompassing the economic uses of forests, particularly the management of forest resources for production, the role of forest development in poverty alleviation, and the impacts of forest research and development. The report takes a multi-disciplinary approach that discusses economic, social, political, institutional, and financial issues, and is based on evidence from the literature; review of project documents and files; extensive interviews with Bank and other donor agency staff, specialists, forest officials, beneficiaries; and field visits. The report analyzes the interactions among the Bank's country assistance strategy, economic and sector work, policy dialogue, and their lending portfolio. The review is divided into two parts. Part 1 surveys the changing state of the forests in India. It explores causes of change in the extent and the quality of the forest cover. Part 2 explores the World Bank's lending and non-lending activities before and after the Bank's 1991 Forest Strategy.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication The State of Economic Inclusion Report 2024: Pathways to Scale(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-11-20)The State of Economic Inclusion Report (SEI) 2024 explores efforts to scale up economic inclusion programs - bundles of coordinated, multidimensional interventions that support individuals, households, and communities to sustainably increase their incomes and assets - in the context of overlapping crisis. These programs transform the economic lives of the poorest and most vulnerable people, building their resilience and creating job opportunities. The report features data from 405 programs across 88 countries, benefiting over 70 million individuals either directly or indirectly. This marks almost doubling in the number of programs and nearly a 50 percent increase in coverage since the SEI 2021 report. Governments continue to lead in scaling up these economic inclusion programs, covering nearly three-fourths of program participants. However, non-governmental programs have also significantly contributed to the increase in coverage in recent years, in addition to serving as both service providers and capacity building providers for governments. The report offers five important contributions: 1) Positioning economic inclusion programs as crucial for building resilience and providing job opportunities for the poor and vulnerable in the face of overlapping crises. 2) Analyzing the global landscape over the past three years, highlighting the extent to which economic inclusion programs are being customized for diverse contexts and groups, including a cross-cutting focus on gender. 3) Reviewing progress and challenges in the design and implementation of government-led programs, including the interplay with communities, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. 4) Examining the emerging agenda of designing economic inclusion programs to enhance the long-term climate resilience of poor and vulnerable individuals and communities. 5) Featuring three spotlights that unpack emerging evidence from government-led programs, customization strategies targeting youth, and the increasing role of digital tools and technologies in program delivery. Data from the report are available on the PEI Data Portal (www.peiglobal.org).Publication Out-of-School Youth in Sub-Saharan Africa : A Policy Perspective(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2015-02-27)The economic and social prospects are daunting for the 89 million out-of-school youth who comprise nearly half of all youth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Within the next decade, when this cohort becomes the core of the labor market, an estimated 40 million more youth will drop out, and will face an uncertain future with limited work and life skills. Furthermore, out-of-school youth often are policy orphans, positioned between sectors with little data, low implementation capacity, lack of interest in long-term sustainability of programs, insufficient funds, and little coordination across the different government agencies. This report provides a diagnostic analysis of the state of out-of-school youth in Sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the 12- to 24-year-old cohort. This report also examines the decision path youth take as they progress through the education system and the factors that explain youth's school and work choices. It finds that individual and household characteristics, social norms, and characteristics of the school system all matter in understanding why youth drop out and remain out of school. In particular, six key factors characterize out-of-school youth: (i) most out-of-school youth drop out before secondary school; (ii) early marriage for female youth and (iii) rural residence increase the likelihood of being out of school; (iv) parental education level and (v) the number of working adults are important household factors; and (vi) lack of school access and low educational quality are binding supply-side constraints. Policy discussions on out-of-school youth are framed by these six key factors along with three entry points for intervention: retention, remediation, and integration. This report also reviews policies and programs in place for out-of-school youth across the continent. Ultimately, this report aims to inform public discussion, policy formulation, and development practitioners' actions working with youth in Sub-Saharan Africa.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022)Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022: Correcting Course provides the first comprehensive analysis of the pandemic’s toll on poverty in developing countries. It identifies how governments can optimize fiscal policy to help correct course. Fiscal policies offset the impact of COVID-19 on poverty in many high-income countries, but those policies offset barely one quarter of the pandemic’s impact in low-income countries and lower-middle-income countries. Improving support to households as crises continue will require reorienting protective spending away from generally regressive and inefficient subsidies and toward a direct transfer support system—a first key priority. Reorienting fiscal spending toward supporting growth is a second key priority identified by the report. Some of the highest-value public spending often pays out decades later. Amid crises, it is difficult to protect such investments, but it is essential to do so. Finally, it is not enough just to spend wisely - when additional revenue does need to be mobilized, it must be done in a way that minimizes reductions in poor people’s incomes. The report highlights how exploring underused forms of progressive taxation and increasing the efficiency of tax collection can help in this regard. Poverty and Shared Prosperity is a biennial series that reports on global trends in poverty and shared prosperity. Each report also explores a central challenge to poverty reduction and boosting shared prosperity, assessing what works well and what does not in different settings. By bringing together the latest evidence, this corporate flagship report provides a foundation for informed advocacy around ending extreme poverty and improving the lives of the poorest in every country in the world. For more information, please visit worldbank.org/poverty-and-shared-prosperity.Publication The Container Port Performance Index 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-07-18)The Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) measures the time container ships spend in port, making it an important point of reference for stakeholders in the global economy. These stakeholders include port authorities and operators, national governments, supranational organizations, development agencies, and other public and private players in trade and logistics. The index highlights where vessel time in container ports could be improved. Streamlining these processes would benefit all parties involved, including shipping lines, national governments, and consumers. This fourth edition of the CPPI relies on data from 405 container ports with at least 24 container ship port calls in the calendar year 2023. As in earlier editions of the CPPI, the ranking employs two different methodological approaches: an administrative (technical) approach and a statistical approach (using matrix factorization). Combining these two approaches ensures that the overall ranking of container ports reflects actual port performance as closely as possible while also being statistically robust. The CPPI methodology assesses the sequential steps of a container ship port call. ‘Total port hours’ refers to the total time elapsed from the moment a ship arrives at the port until the vessel leaves the berth after completing its cargo operations. The CPPI uses time as an indicator because time is very important to shipping lines, ports, and the entire logistics chain. However, time, as captured by the CPPI, is not the only way to measure port efficiency, so it does not tell the entire story of a port’s performance. Factors that can influence the time vessels spend in ports can be location-specific and under the port’s control (endogenous) or external and beyond the control of the port (exogenous). The CPPI measures time spent in container ports, strictly based on quantitative data only, which do not reveal the underlying factors or root causes of extended port times. A detailed port-specific diagnostic would be required to assess the contribution of underlying factors to the time a vessel spends in port. A very low ranking or a significant change in ranking may warrant special attention, for which the World Bank generally recommends a detailed diagnostic.