Final Report - Asian Development Bank

TA 4721-PRC: Preparing the Shaanxi-Qinling Mountains Integrated Ecosystem Management Project
Final Report Appendix 9
PROPOSED LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL REFORM AGENDA
1. The GEF team has reviewed the components and activities of the project. The following
problems have been identified as significant obstacles for project implementation from the legal and
institutional system. Recommendations have been made to resolve the issues. The recommended
solutions have been discussed with SPDRC and agreement has been reached on the reform agenda
proposed in the report.
A. Reform on Collective Land Tenure Management in Shaanxi
2. Currently there are no legal certificate and boundaries to define the legal right and area of
community collective forests.
3. The project is promoting integrated management at landscape level. It requires all parties
who own or manage the land to reach common understanding about sustainable management and
practice in the same approach. The community collectively owned forests occupy a big proportion of
the forests in the project area, and elsewhere in the Qinling Mountain. The project views it as a very
important issue that the community can manage and use their natural recourse in sustainable manner.
For effective management, legal rights to forest resources are required for the long term vision and
benefit.
4. According to Zhouzi County Forestry Bureau, Zhouzi county did not complete community
forests land definition work in year 1978. There is no clear boundary and accurate forest area defined
for the village and they have never issued the forestry certificate to the administrative village or to
individual farmer except on Land Conversion land.
5. Currently the communities know approximately their forest area, but they have no idea who
is managing it. They do not have any use of the forests except on firewood forests after Natural
Forests Protection Program. They know that it is forbidden to log and graze in the forests. In most of
the villages, every household has been contracted to use a small area (around 5-10 mu) of forest to
collect fire wood. They also collect some wild vegetables for household consumption.
6. Most communities have a large area of forests, but very limited management and benefit
from it. The communities are poor. They have no incentive to look after and utilize the forest. Illegal
logging still happens from time to time.
7. The outstanding land tenure issue will discourage the community from practicing effective
forest management and obtaining benefit in sustainable way from it. The project is proposing to
conduct forestry management activities with the community. If the forest boundary is not clear, it will
be unable to operate. The forest ownership or user right is not clear, therefore certainty of future
benefits from management will not be obvious and will deter farmers from trying to improve the quality
of the forests.
8. To resolve this issue, the Shaanxi Forestry Department (SFD) needs to initiate a process for
defining the administrative village or natural village forest area, issue a forest certificate to the
administrative village or natural village to confirm the legal right of the collective. SFD should also
explore the possibility to encourage collective forests to be contracted to households. That will give the
households scope to manage and use the forests in a legal and sustainable manner. The projects will
have the chance to work with the households groups to practice eco-system management.
1. Recommendations on setting up a framework on collective forestry land tenure:
9. It is suggested that the project sub-contract a study working together with SFD to explore:
(i) Approach to define the collective forests boundary and area
(ii) The appropriate collective (administrative or natural village) the forestry certificate
should be issued to
(iii) Analysis of the possibility, advantage and disadvantage of contracting collective
forests to individual households
(iv) Suggestion solutions
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