Final Report - Asian Development Bank

40
TA 4721-PRC: Preparing the Shaanxi-Qinling Mountains Integrated Ecosystem Management Project
Final Report Appendix 5
program supported under the project incorporates lessons learned from several on-going pilot
activities in China managed by NGOs and the government, particularly (a) the importance of
integrating local villagers into the assessment of community needs through participatory rural
appraisal techniques; and (b) the need to establish clear, mutually agreed contracts that identify the
respective rights and responsibilities of reserve staff and local communities in resource use within
reserves. The Enterprise Restructuring Component (34 percent of total costs) would introduce a pilot
program for resolving biodiversity land-use conflicts adjacent to the Qinling Reserve Group. Two stateowned
forest farms under the Changqing Forestry Bureau have aggressively harvested timber outside
the reserve boundaries over the past two decades, significantly reducing the forest cover and
degrading a small but important corridor for the movement of Giant Pandas. The component would
introduce more sustainable management by reducing harvesting and transferring workers to more
environmentally sustainable employment. This program -- the first of its kind in China -- is expected to
establish a model for sustainable land-use management and enterprise restructuring that would be
disseminated to other protected areas in China.
d. World Bank China Sustainable Forestry Development Project
162. The Sustainable Forest Development Project (SFDP) was implemented from 2002 through
2009 (Table 13). It was implemented in three components: (i) Plantation Establishment (PE); (ii)
Natural Forests Management (NFM); and (iii) Protected Area Management (PAM). Project funding
totaled $242.34 million. The PAM and NFM components were co-financed by grants from GEF and
Europe Aid, respectively. The PE component was financed by a World Bank loan.
163. The SFDP was conceived based on lessons learned from the two previous World Bank
projects 42 . Key issues for effective natural forest management were listed as follows:
(i) Forestry must be fully integrated into land use planning;
(ii) Successful management is only possible with a defined and enforced permanent
forest area;
(iii) Accurate inventory of multiple forest resources is needed to guide forest planning;
(iv) Management objectives need to be tailored to specific sites and the needs of local
communities;
(v) Linkages between conservation and development should be explicit;
(vi) The interests of all stakeholders must be taken into account in decisions on forest
management;
(vii) All management options for forests -- even total protection -- incur financial and
economic costs; the options selected must have long-term financial and economic
sustainability;
(viii) Commercial timber plantations and trees in farmlands must help secure sustainable
management of natural forests and need to be planned and monitored to appropriate
standards; and
(ix) Institutions and agencies charged with forest management must raise technical
standards and provide structures that are conducive to the outputs sought.
42 World Bank. 2001. China-Sustainable Forestry Development Project. Project Information Document, Report
No. PID8659, East Asia and Pacific Region, Forestry Sector, Natural Resources Management, Project ID
CNGE60029, 21 April 2001.