Final Report - Asian Development Bank

TA 4721-PRC: Preparing the Shaanxi-Qinling Mountains Integrated Ecosystem Management Project
Final Report Appendix 7
a. Legal Reforms
347. The project shall support a series of legal and institutional studies to assess option and
propose reforms for a set of specific legal issues. These are discussed in detail in Appendix K. The
reforms include:
I. Recommendations on setting up a framework on collective
forestry land tenure :
348. It is suggested that the project contract a study working together with SFD to explore:
� Approach to define the collective forests boundary and area
� The appropriate collective (administrative or natural village) the forestry certificate
should be issued to
� Analysis of the possibility, advantage and disadvantage of contracting collective
forests to individual households
� Suggestion solutions including draft legal and regulatory changes
� Propose a plan for action including a timetable to SFD.
349. The cost of the study will be CNY231,900 over a period of two months. The study should
start at the beginning of project implementation.
II. Recommendations for Government and Community Partnership
on Community Natural Forests Management in Shaanxi
(i) Shaanxi Forestry Department to issue an exemption to the project implementation
unit to allow the project to conduct analog forests and other forest models testing
in pilot villages inside the project area after asking necessary approval.
(ii) Shaanxi Forestry Department will find a solution with Louguantai Forestry Farm on
removing the restriction to taking of NTFP from collective forests out of the PA
mountains.
(iii) Shaanxi Forestry Department will lead a forest management partnership
monitoring and studying group to conduct monitoring and consultation with local
communities and the project implementation team. The study group should invite
the Economic and Policy Researching Institute of SFA to participate in the study.
(iv) The monitoring and studying group will focus on :
� Learning the lessons from the project forests model tested.
� Further explore the possibilities to develop the pilot models into a
replicable government–community forests management partnership
system. It must be based on respect of community ownership and use right
to the collective forests. It should carefully review the proposed village
forest management plan approach. It should carefully study the approach
of positive partnership interactive between state-owned forests farm and
the surrounding communities.
� Explore the possibility of developing a monitoring system to monitor the
quality of the forests including non timber resources in the forest. The
system will include principles and indicators and measures for monitoring.
It must be simple and easy to conduct together with the community.
� Develop a proposal to SFA on collective owned natural forest management
issues to allow the community to manage and use the forests in
sustainable manner in Qinling National Ecology Function Zone.
350. The forests management partnership monitoring and studying group will be contracted by
the project over four years with input of two months each year at a total cost of CNY618,400. The
application for exemptions should be organized before the project starts after the project is approved,
so that the exemptions will be in place when the project is ready for implementation. The study group
should be formed at the end of the first year of the project implementation after the pilot villages are
chosen.
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