Remember the biggest controversy when the Forest Law was revised? Whether forest logging is released or killed is the focus of the third revision of the Forest Law in 2019.
Although the revised Forest Law has deleted timber production plans, timber transportation certificates and other contents with planned economic overtones, the forest harvesting permit system continues to be retained.
Nowadays, after three years of practice and the reform of "decentralization, management and service", the forest harvesting permit system and process have also been optimized, but there are still problems such as "difficult to obtain a certificate, complicated to obtain a certificate, slow to obtain a certificate", "running back and forth, running and breaking legs", and often hear the feeling that "it is easy to plant trees and difficult to cut down trees", and operators are looking forward to more in-depth reform of the logging permit system.
The forest harvesting permit system plays a huge role in the management of forest resources, but society is constantly developing and improving, and it is no longer appropriate to control commercial forests too strictly.
According to the principle of categorical management, forest lands with important forest ecological locations or fragile ecological conditions, and forests on forest lands with ecological benefits as the main purpose are designated as public welfare forests, and strictly protected them; For commercial forests, operators shall operate independently in accordance with law.
Since the law grants operators the right to be autonomous in production and operation, then, for commercial forests, operators can independently determine the direction and mode of operation according to law, and independently sell the products produced. First, as long as it does not violate the prohibitive provisions of the law, it can independently decide what tree species, when to plant, and when to cut down the forest land; Second, as long as it does not violate the prohibitive provisions of the law, they can choose business models such as independent operation, cooperative operation, entrusted operation, and leasing operation, and enjoy the autonomy of production and operation; Third, as a commodity, wood can independently decide whether to sell it, how to sell it, and to whom.
What we need to do should be: strictly manage public welfare forests, manage public welfare forests well, and give full play to their functions such as ecological protection, biodiversity protection, and homeland security; Under the premise of not destroying the ecology, intensive management measures can be adopted to rationally use forests, woods and forest lands to improve the economic benefits of commercial forests.
Of course, "managing well is not managing death, and letting go is not letting go."
For public welfare forests, operators can adopt measures such as stand transformation and forest tending for low-quality and inefficient forests with low ecological functions such as thinning forests and residual forests in public welfare forests to improve the quality and ecological protection functions of public welfare forests, and can also rationally use public welfare forest land resources and forest landscape resources, and appropriately carry out under-forest economy and forest tourism.
For commercial forests, encourage the development of forests with a variety of different uses, with market regulation as the main purpose and government guidance as the supplement, encourage the development of forests with the main purpose of producing wood, forests with the main purpose of producing fruits, oilseeds, beverages, seasonings, industrial raw materials and medicinal materials and other forest products, forests with the main purpose of producing fuel and other biomass energy, and other forests with the main purpose of exerting economic benefits.
Under the current legal framework, while strictly managing public welfare forests, gradually relax the control of commercial forests, further optimize the forest harvesting permit system, and gradually relax the renewal of commercial forests.
No reform will happen overnight, and the sudden liberalization of commercial forest harvesting permits is neither realistic nor desirable, requiring a gradual process.
The first step is to expand the scope of application of small-scale logging. At present, applications for felling of artificial commercial forests with a stock of not more than 15 cubic meters shall be examined and approved by means of notification and commitment. It is proposed to abolish the method of calculating the harvested stock and replace it with a more grounded acreage, and expand the scope of application to no more than 15 acres.
The second step is to relax the harvesting of timber forests for short rotation periods and implement approval by means of notification and commitment. The purpose of timber forests in the short rotation period is very clear, and the management level is generally high, and the forest cycle renewal speed is also relatively fast. As long as the supervision and inspection before, during and after the event is strengthened, it will not have a negative impact on forest resources.
The third step is to completely cancel the pre-felling survey design, strengthen the function of one map of forest resources, continue to improve the smart forestry system, use real-time satellite pictures, supplemented by big data, informatization and other means, manage and supervise forest resources, and gradually approve the harvesting of commercial forests by means of notification and commitment.
The fourth step is to pilot the project first, and implement it after obtaining mature experience. Nationwide, select one or two provinces for pilots, select three or five representative counties and cities among the pilot provinces to carry out the pilot first, and then expand the scope of the pilot, draw lessons, sum up experience, and then fully implement it.
Our reform of "decentralization, management and service" is a profound change that reshapes the relationship between the government and the market, streamlining administration and delegating power, breaking down the obstacles that restrict the vitality of market entities, combining decentralization and control, highlighting fair supervision, making efforts to facilitate the people and benefit enterprises, and doing a good job in the affairs around the people.
The purpose of harvesting management of commercial forests is to better cultivate, protect and utilize forest resources.
Whether it is "put" or "managed", we must protect the enthusiasm of afforestation, make tree planting a reality, and let the "green bank" spit out real money!