Final Report - Asian Development Bank

2
TA 4721-PRC: Preparing the Shaanxi-Qinling Mountains Integrated Ecosystem Management Project
Final Report Appendix 9
(v) Propose a plan for action including a timetable to SFD.
10. Cost of the study will be $30,000 over a period of 2 months. The study should start at the
beginning of project implementation.
B. Reform on Government and Community Partnership on Community Natural Forests
Management in Shaanxi
11. Logging and forest thinning are banned in Natural Forests Protection Area including
community forests. Non timber products utilization has been restricted in many ways.
12. A logging ban has been in place since the national Natural Forests Protection Program
(NFPP) started in year 1999. After enforcement of the logging ban commenced, state owned forestry
farms received support from the government financially and they can still run tourism business. In
contrast the communities whose forests are in the NFPP project area have received no additional
support except plantation subsidies, but they lost the income opportunity from the forest. The project
En situ and Ex situ forests are both inside NFPP area so logging and grazing are banned.
13. The project PPTA team thinks there is great potential to develop sustainable forest utility
models such as ANALOG forests, and to restore natural habitant in the en situ area. The project has
proposed to include forestry management models in project en situ area as project activities.
Therefore, SFA will need to provide an exemption to allow the project to test the models in the project
area. If the project has successful experience in sustainable management of natural forests with the
community, it will be a good model of partnership between government and community in forest
management. It will be essential to expand the experience to the broader Qinling area such as inside
the Qinling National Ecological Function Zone.
14. Very few non timber forest products (NTFP) from the collective forests are able to be taken
out of the mountains according to the project social assessment report. Louguantai Forestry Farm
Checking Points stop farmers from taking medicine herbs and other NTFP out of the mountains. Use
of NTFP is a very important option for sustainable forests management. The PPTA team and GEF
team recommend to further explore NTFP development under the project. NTFP development will be
a very important part of the en situ strategy. If project NTFP development activities are successful, the
experience can be replicated in other part of the Qinling Mountain.
15. NTFP development and forestry model testing will be included in a village forests
management plan. The plan will be agreed with forestry authority designated by SFD, to be
implemented during the project life. A solution is needed to remove the restrictions on taking NTFP
out of the PA mountain area for smooth project implementation. A further study is desirable to explore
the approach to develop community-government partnership in managing collective natural forests.
1. Recommendations for resolving the issue
(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. The monitoring and
studying group will focus on :
(a) Learning the lessons from the project forests model tested.
(b) 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