Reply of the Forestry Bureau of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on the Proposal on the Trial Implementation of the Logging Record System for Timber Forests with a Short Rotation Period within the Scope of Commercial Forests
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Forestry Bureau's reply to the proposal of Deputy No. 2023083 of the First Session of the 14th People's Congress of the Autonomous Region
Guilin Letter [2023] No. 676
XXX Representative:
Your proposal on the trial implementation of the logging record system for timber forests with short rotation period within the scope of commercial forests shall be handed over to our unit by the General Office of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of the Autonomous Region.
First of all, thank you for your concern and support for forestry work. The trial implementation of timber forest felling in the short rotation period proposed by you is of great significance to promote the reform of forest felling management, and is conducive to fully guaranteeing the forest felling income of the majority of forest management entities.
1. On the issue of "planting trees is easy to plant and difficult to cut down trees".
In accordance with the relevant provisions of the "Forest Law" and the "Regulations for the Implementation of the Forest Law", the competent forestry authorities at all levels have scientifically compiled the annual forest felling quota during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period on the basis of the latest forest resource planning and design survey results and forest management plans, and in accordance with the principle that consumption is lower than growth and forest classification management, which shall be promulgated and implemented by the people's government of the autonomous region after soliciting the opinions of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration. The annual forest felling quota is the maximum annual forest felling consumption of each limited unit, and the strict implementation of the annual forest felling quota is conducive to the sustainable growth of forest resources. First, the management of felling quotas implements territorial management and "sunshine allocation". According to the relevant provisions of the Regulations for the Implementation of the Forest Law and the Administrative Measures for Forest Felling in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the forestry authorities at the county level shall examine and approve the felling of trees on collective land and issue a forest felling permit. According to the requirements of the Notice of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Deepening the Reform of "Decentralization, Management and Service" of Forest Felling (Lin Zi Gui [2019] No. 3), the forestry authorities at the county level should scientifically and reasonably allocate the felling quota, promote the "sunshine allocation" of the felling quota, and further optimize and improve the adjustment mechanism for the use of the quota, so as to provide a basis and guarantee for facilitating the application of forest farmers for felling and the implementation of the notification and commitment system. In February 2022, our bureau issued the Notice on Forwarding the National Forestry and Grassland Administration to Strengthen the Management of Forest Felling during the 14th Five-Year Plan Period (Guilin Zifa [2022] No. 5), requiring forestry authorities at all levels to give priority to ensuring the special needs of people lifted out of poverty, medical treatment, and individual small-amount commercial forest felling of forest farmers. The second is to promote the reform of commercial forest harvesting management in the whole region. In accordance with the requirements of the Notice of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Strengthening the Management of Forest Felling during the 14th Five-Year Plan Period (Lin Zifa [2021] No. 112), combined with the construction of the Guangxi Modern Forestry Industry Demonstration Zone, our bureau issued the "Reform Plan for Promoting the Management of Commercial Forest Felling in the Construction of Guangxi Modern Forestry Industry Demonstration Zone", and implemented the overall use of the main felling quota of artificial commercial forests carried over from the previous year by non-state-owned restricted units in the county, and the annual carry-over management mechanism of unpredictable felling quotas at the autonomous region level was piloted. Since 2022, the 2021 annual collective commercial forest main felling quota of 3,785,500 cubic meters has been carried forward, which has effectively solved the contradiction between the harvesting demand and the insufficient quota in some areas, and the unpredictable felling quota of 997,800 cubic meters at the autonomous region level in 2021 has been carried forward, ensuring the consolidation and expansion of the achievements of poverty alleviation in the whole region, and the implementation of the national reserve forest construction and the "double thousand" plan of Camellia oleifera. The third is to strengthen the supervision of forest logging. In July 2022, our bureau issued the "Ten Prohibitions on Forest Felling Management", urging forest felling permit issuing agencies at all levels to disclose forest felling indicators and standardize the approval of forest felling permits in accordance with the law. Since August 2022, our bureau has supervised individual counties (cities and districts) to comprehensively rectify problems such as "unauthorized addition of forest purchase and sales contracts as a requirement for forest felling applications", "monopoly operation of technical units in logging area investigation", and "allocation of felling quotas to local timber processing enterprises". Fourth, prolonging the forest felling cycle will not cause problems such as slow growth and development of forest trees. The "Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Forest Felling Management Measures" clearly states that "the main cutting age of industrial raw material forests in the short rotation period shall be determined by the forest owner". Some state-owned forest farms and large-scale afforestation enterprises in Guangxi have extended the harvesting cycle of eucalyptus trees through intensive management, which has improved the accumulation per unit area and economic benefits of eucalyptus. For example, the 7-year-old eucalyptus forest in Guangxi 60,000 Forest Farm has a volume of 192 cubic meters per hectare compared with 153 cubic meters per hectare of the 5-year-old eucalyptus forest, which is 39 cubic meters more per hectare. Therefore, eucalyptus cultivation does not have the problem of "forest trees cannot be harvested and utilized in time after entering mature forests, resulting in slow growth and development of forest trees, degradation or loss of system functions, fragile forest ecological functions, and low economic benefits".
In recent years, our bureau has continued to increase the protection of logging quotas in Baise City, helping to consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty alleviation and the resumption of work and production of timber processing enterprises. Among them, in 2022, 481,700 cubic meters of unforeseen logging quota will be added to Baise City and Autonomous Region, accounting for 30% of the additional quota in the whole region. In the next step, our bureau will guide the forestry authorities at all levels in Baise City to coordinate the use of the main felling quota of commercial forests carried over from the previous year by non-state-owned restricted units in accordance with the relevant regulations, and to add the unpredictable felling quota at the autonomous region level of Baise City in accordance with the law. Urge Baise City to continue to promote normalized forest supervision and strengthen the daily supervision of forest felling management.
Second, on the issue of cumbersome handling of certificates and increasing operating costs
According to Article 58 of the Forest Law and Article 31 of the Administrative Measures for Forest Felling in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, felling design materials are one of the requirements for applying for a forest felling permit. The felling design materials are mainly selected by the applicant and prepared by the technical service unit in accordance with the requirements of the technical regulations for the investigation of the felling area. Since 2019, in accordance with the requirements of the Notice of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Deepening the Reform of "Decentralization, Administration and Service" of Forest Felling (Lin Zi Gui [2019] No. 3), our bureau has fully implemented the "one-window acceptance" and "one-stop processing" in townships and towns, promoted various modes such as forest felling APP and online application, and fully implemented the notification and commitment method for the approval of individual forest farmers applying for felling artificial commercial forests with a volume of less than 15 cubic meters, simplifying the approval process for forest felling.
In the next step, our bureau will combine the actual situation of forest management in Guangxi, gradually increase the upper limit of the volume control of the approval of the individual notification and commitment system of forest farmers, urge the forestry authorities at the county level to strengthen personnel training, and implement the examination and approval personnel to sink the township certification points to carry out their work, so as to realize the "one-window acceptance", "one-stop processing" and "online handling" and "handheld handling" of forest felling permits.
3. Suggestions on "Trial implementation of the logging record system for timber forests with short rotation period within the scope of commercial forests".
Since 2019, our bureau has continued to promote the approval of the notification and commitment system for individual forest farmers to harvest artificial commercial forests below 15 cubic meters, which has improved the approval efficiency of individual forest farmers' applications for felling, but due to the constraints of the current forest resources management policy and the actual practice of forest felling management, it is difficult for our district to pilot the logging record system for timber forests with short rotation periods. Combined with the actual management of forest felling in our region, our bureau believes that there are the following management difficulties in the trial implementation of the timber forest felling record system for short rotation period: First, the technical requirements for forest felling survey and design are high. According to Article 58 of the Forest Law, "when applying for a felling permit, materials relating to the location, forest species, tree species, area, accumulation, method, renewal measures and forest ownership shall be submitted", and the applicant for forest felling shall, in accordance with the requirements of the forest felling survey and design regulations, carry out the investigation of the felling area by himself or by entrusting a technical unit, and the survey results shall meet the technical requirements. At the same time, according to the relevant provisions of the "Forest Felling Operation Regulations" (LY-T 1646-2005) and the "Technical Regulations for the Investigation and Design of Felling Areas in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region", the accuracy of the measurement of the felling area is required to reach more than 95%, and the accuracy of the investigation of felling volume is required to reach more than 90%. There may be inaccuracies and other problems in the proposed felling location, area and accumulation filled in by the forest felling applicant, which can easily lead to the problem of indiscriminate felling of forest felling applicants and increase the legal risk of "indiscriminate felling of trees" by forest felling applicants. Second, the starting point for the crime of indiscriminate deforestation is low. According to Article 5 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Law in the Trial of Criminal Cases of Destruction of Forest Resources, "in any of the following circumstances, in violation of the provisions of the Forest Law, and the quantity is relatively large, it shall be convicted and punished for the crime of indiscriminate felling of trees in accordance with the provisions of the second paragraph of Article 345 of the Criminal Law" and Article 6 of the "indiscriminate felling of trees in a 'relatively large quantity', starting from 10 to 20 cubic meters or 500 to 1,000 young trees", the applicant for forest felling may be investigated for criminal responsibility in accordance with the law if he has logged more than 10 cubic meters beyond the license. The third is to increase administrative costs. At present, the forest felling in our region is mainly based on "selling green mountains", the main body of forest felling is decoupled from the main body of forest land management, and after the trial implementation of the record system for timber forest felling in the short rotation period, the actual purchaser of forest trees may implement over-range felling and over-accumulation felling in order to maximize economic benefits, which will induce the frequent and frequent occurrence of indiscriminate felling cases, which will lead to the problem of over-limit felling in the county-level administrative area, which will increase the cost of forestry authorities, public security organs and judicial departments to investigate and deal with forest deforestation cases according to law. In addition, after the reform of forestry institutions, the grass-roots forestry management institutions have problems such as small establishment, aging and weak law enforcement team, and the trial implementation of the short-rotation timber forest felling record system will inevitably increase the intensity of supervision work of grass-roots forestry institutions during and after the event, which may induce the management situation of "being prepared and ignoring".
Limited by factors such as the high technical requirements for the investigation of felling areas, the low penalty standards for indiscriminate felling, and the lack of grass-roots management personnel, combined with the actual management of forest felling in Guangxi, our bureau believes that the trial implementation of the short-rotation timber forest felling record system will increase the risk of "indiscriminate felling" and administrative costs of forest felling applicants. In the next step, our bureau will continue to deepen the reform of the logging management of artificial commercial forests in the region in combination with the construction of Guangxi Modern Forestry Industry Demonstration Zone, and actively report to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration on the management status of timber forests in Guangxi in short rotation period, so as to strive for greater policy support for timber forest felling in short rotation period.
I would like to sincerely thank you for your concern and support for the work of the Forestry Bureau of the Autonomous Region.
May 16, 2023
Source: Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Forestry Bureau Government Network
