Dear Nyasha Tirivayi:
I'd like to address the issue of relationship between social protection and forestry policy via China's experience.
Similar with other developing countries, in China's main forestry area or main forest restoration area, people's livelihood is directly linked with forestry sustainable management. So, in many forestry policy, improving people's livelhood has always been altermate of the China's forestry policy. Taking the Conversion of Cropland to Forests Program(CCFP) as an example. In the first phase of the CCFP, grain and cash subsidy had been provided to farmers who agreed to convert their cropland to forests. Since considerable of CCFP farmers were poor at the time, the subsidy really served as important income souces of them. As CCFP last 16 years and some 32 million rural households around 25 provinces involved in, so the program not only increased forest coverage, but also be a largest poverty alliveation program In its second phase, in addition to subsidy, CCFP add ecological migration, rural energy, irrigation, training, etc. with the aims of strenthen long term rural development capacity. All those efforts have help rural poors/forestry dependent people to reduce pressure on forests and input more efforts on forest restoration and management, i.e. win-win of SFM and rural livelihood. In the last 12 years, I'm keeping monitoring socio-economic impacts of CCFP on 1165 households of 100 counties of 21 provinces and could provide some evidence for this topics.
I've going to attend WFC and will present those observations. If you need any more information, let me know.
Best regards
Xie Chen(谢晨)
China National Forestry Economics and Development Research Center
State Forestry Administration
Hepingli Dongjie 18#
Beijing 100714
Tel: 010-84239024
Fax: 010-84239024
Email:[email protected]
Xie Chen