Contribution of Forestry to Poverty Alleviation - APFNet

of US$ 14.77 thousand of forest assets. The proportion of the farmers’ annual forestry income to their
total annual income increased from 12.96% in 2009 to 20% or more in 2010 in 2,550 counties which
had CFTR. In key forestry regions, the proportion of farmers’ forestry incomes increased astonishingly
from 12.96% to more than 60% more.
Farmers Depend on the Forest to Improve Their Livelihoods
Rural forest processing industry supplies employment for local farmers. Township enterprises engaged
in forest product processing and circulation are growing rapidly, creating employment opportunities,
increasing household income for the farmers, and playing key roles in reducing rural poverty. According
to the monitoring results on collective forest tenure reform by Forestry Economics and Development
Research Center (FEDRC) in 2010, 118 wood/bamboo processing enterprises were established in 216
sample villages that employed 2,528 local farmers, as well as 554 other forest product processing
enterprises that employed 1,883 local farmers.
Forest ecotourism is becoming a new employment chance for farmers. In China’s rural areas, forest
ecotourism stimulates new careers and creates employment for farmers. In 2009, farmers started
different kinds of social tourism activities and employed 618,900 people based in forest parks. In Fujian
Province, local farmers set up “forest homes” 6 and developed forest tourism. In 2008, the number of
“forest homes” in Fujian province grew to 358. They received 1.67 million visitors, and created 3,100
job opportunities with a social production value of US$ 12.85 million. “Forest homes” have become
new channels to increase income for local farmers in Fujian.
Non-wood forest products (NWFPs) have become a new “hot-point” to improve farmer’s livelihoods.
At present, a number of new forest industries are emerging as new opportunities for local farmers, such
as under-forest cultivation, wildlife propagation and domestication, and forest bio-energy development
in the forest region. For example, farmers in Qiupi village of Jilin province obtained a net forestry
income of US$ 917 per capita (about 86% of total net income per capital) from planting ginseng and
breeding bees and wood-frogs in the forests, significantly improving their living standards. According
to China National Tea-Oil (Camellia oleifera) Industry Development Program (2009-2020), tea-oil
management alone is estimated to provide a potential two million jobs for farmers in the long-term. It
is also estimated that if one farmer possesses a tea-oil farm of at least 0.67 ha, income can be as high as
US$ 2,954 each year when the tea-oil trees reach the stable production period.
Table III.4. Output of main non-wood forest products in 2004-2009 (in million tonnes)
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Fruit 69.59 82.52 88.63 97.21 98.15 111.82
Dried fruit - 3.50 4.51 4.80 5.34 6.73
Forest beverage
products (dry weight)
Forest seasoning
products (dry weight)
0.74 0.94 0.92 1.07 1.33 1.43
0.29 0.36 0.36 0.40 0.43 0.47
Forest food (dry weight) 4.52 4.23 5.83 2.30 2.82 2.63
Woody herbs 0.58 0.75 0.96 1.06 0.95 1.53
Woody oil - - - 0.97 1.05 1.22
Source: “Forestry Statistical Yearbook of China” 2004-2009.
Note: All kinds of economic forest products are listed in Table III.5.
6 “Forest homes” are new business entities of farmers’ households taking advantage of good forest resources
and the landscape to create eco-friendly tourism such as recreation, eating, housing, hiking, shopping for
local specialty products, making full use of forest animal and plant resources for visitors outside the rural
areas.
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