Contribution of Forestry to Poverty Alleviation - APFNet

people (million)
Pilot subsidies for forest management
In 2009, the subsidy for forest management was taken as part of the central budget. An amount of US$
73.86 million was invested to subsidize the tending of middle and young-aged stands. This subsidy was
increased to US$ 295.44 million in 2010. During the year, the central government allocated US$ 29.54
million to the forest seed pilot and US$ 44.32 million to the afforestation pilot. However, the current
afforestation subsidy is limited to key forest ecological projects.
Effects of Poverty Reduction Policies
After 30 years of continuous efforts, China’s rural poverty reduction has made remarkable achievements
and progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Some goals and sub-goals as halving
extreme poverty, rolling back child mortality, providing universal primary education and safe drinking
water have already been achieved, alleviating rural poverty significantly.
Through the first three stages of rural poverty reduction in China, the population in absolute poverty in
the countryside decreased from 250 million in 1978 to 30 million in 2000, and poverty incidence from
30.7% in 1978 to 3% in 2000. During the fourth stage, the poor population rose to 35.97 million because
the poverty standard rose from US$ 116 in 2007 to US$ 158 in 2009.
In recent years, the implementation of a series of important forestry policies such as NKFP and forestry
reform has not only improved China’s environment, but has also helped poverty reduction. The CCFP,
for instance, not only effectively curbs soil erosion of the ecologically fragile areas but also benefits
nearly 20% of the farmers with a grant budget of over US$ 26.59 billion. The CCFP plays an important
role in rural poverty reduction.
Meanwhile, the forestry construction program funded through a WB loan is another channel for poverty
reduction and is led by government with participation from concerned program entities (i.e. stateowned
forest farms, collective forest farms, farmers, and forestry companies) and research institutes.
Successfully completed in 2006, the “forestry development program in poverty areas” through a loan
from the WB covered 216 counties in 12 provinces, and benefited 3.83 million poor. Income per capita
increased to an average of US$ 84.60 and doubled after the program (Zhang Jianlong 2008).
Figure III.2. China’s rural poverty population and changes of poverty incidence
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
1978 1985 1993 2000 2009
rural poverty population rural poverty incidence
Source: China Rural Poverty Monitoring Report 2009 and other public information.
Despite the progress in poverty reduction in the past 30 years, there have been many problems and
challenges in rural poverty reduction in recent years. First, education, health and other basic public
services lag behind, and the self-development capacity of farmers in poverty areas is weak. Second,
limitations persist in the existing poverty reduction policies, such as the unsound evaluation system
on poverty reduction and unregulated use and management of the poverty reduction fund. Third, the
harsh natural environment seriously affects people’s productivity and living conditions in some poor
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