The National Forestry and Grassland Administration replied to the proposal on accelerating the paid use of forest resource assets in state-owned forest areas

The reply of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration to the "Proposal on Accelerating the Paid Use of Forest Resource Assets in State-owned Forest Areas".

"Suggestions on Accelerating the Paid Use of Forest Resource Assets in State-owned Forest Areas" reply

(Issue 7669, 2020)

　　1. On the issue of "the paid use of state-owned forest resources is conducive to stimulating the development potential of forest areas and promoting the green and high-quality development of state-owned forest areas in deepening reform".

　　Our bureau agrees with your view that the paid use of state-owned forest resources is conducive to stimulating the development potential of forest areas and promoting the green and high-quality development of state-owned forest areas in deepening reform. For a long time, the forest resources of state-owned forest areas undertake the dual task of providing timber products and providing ecological security for the country, the management and utilization of forest resources are strictly controlled, the asset value of resources is not reflected, the decisive role of market resource allocation is difficult to play, and the mode of operation and utilization is single, which does restrict the economic and social development and industrial transformation of forest areas to a certain extent. In accordance with the spirit of the top-level design of the State Council on the reform of the system of paid use of state-owned natural resources, the implementation of the paid use of state-owned forest resources under the premise of ensuring that the ownership of forest resources remains unchanged can stimulate the vitality of state-owned forest areas, help better protect and develop forest resources, and promote the increase of income of workers in forest areas.

　　Second, on the progress of the formulation of the reform plan for the paid use of state-owned forest resources

　　At the end of December 2017, on the basis of extensive research and multi-party demonstration, our bureau formed the "Implementation Plan for the Reform of the System for the Paid Use of State-owned Forest Resources Assets" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), and completed the issuance of documents with the Ministry of Finance, the Development and Reform Commission, the former Ministry of Land and Resources and other departments in March 2018, and planned to report to the State Council for issuance. Due to the adjustment of responsibilities for the reform of party and state institutions in 2018, the responsibility for the paid use of natural resources owned by the whole people is assumed by the newly established Ministry of Natural Resources. After communicating with the Ministry of Natural Resources, in May 2019, the Ministry of Natural Resources made it clear that our bureau would still take the lead in promulgating the Plan. In August 2019, our bureau and the Ministry of Natural Resources jointly went to the state-owned forest area of Inner Mongolia to investigate the management responsibilities of the owners of state-owned forest resource assets, and then further revised and improved the "Plan" in accordance with the latest documents issued by the central government on the reform of the property rights system of natural resource assets. Article 16 of the amendment to the Forest Law, which was approved by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on December 28, 2019, stipulates that "state-owned forest land and forests and trees on forest land may be designated for use by forestry operators in accordance with the law." The right to use state-owned forest land and forests and trees on forest land obtained by forestry operators in accordance with the law may be transferred, leased, or made capital contributions upon approval, and the specific measures shall be formulated by the State Council. Accordingly, our bureau has further improved the "program" in accordance with the relevant provisions of the "Forest Law". At present, our bureau has once again solicited the opinions of relevant departments on the "plan", and intends to issue it in the form of a joint document issued by the department as soon as possible after communicating with the feedback and revisions.

　　Third, on the main content of the "reform plan for the paid use of state-owned forest resources".

　　The reform plan for the paid use of state-owned forest resource assets is divided into three parts, with a total of 16 articles. The first part sets out the overall requirements for the reform, including the guiding ideology, basic principles and main objectives. The second part puts forward the specific content of the reform, defines the concept of paid use of state-owned forest resource assets, clarifies the matter, scope and method of paid use, strengthens the management responsibilities of the owner, improves the assessment system, strengthens the management of paid use of income, standardizes the internal use of state-owned forest resource assets by forestry workers, and strengthens the supervision of paid use. The third part proposes to strengthen overall coordination and organization and implementation, including strengthening coordination with relevant reforms, doing a good job in overall planning, accelerating the clarification of property rights of state-owned forest resources, deploying reform pilots, promoting the construction of relevant systems, properly dealing with historical problems, and strengthening organization and implementation. The main contents are as follows:

　　(A) the subject and scope of the paid use of State-owned forest resource assets

　　State-owned forest resource assets are different from other natural resource assets such as land and minerals that have not been set up for use by the state, and the state-owned forest resource assets to be included in the paid use have been determined in accordance with the law. The State shall establish a State-owned Forestry Bureau and a State-owned forest farm through the allocation of State-owned forest resources, and authorize them to occupy, use, benefit and dispose of State-owned forest resource assets in accordance with the law. Circular No. 82 has made it clear that "the right to use state-owned forest land of state-owned forest management units shall be managed in accordance with the method of allocating land in principle". Therefore, the main body of the paid use of state-owned forest resources assets should include three parties: that is, the state as the owner (or on behalf of, acting on behalf of the owner to perform the duties of the owner), as the user of the state-owned forestry business units, and the units and individuals (paid users) who intend to obtain the right to develop and utilize forest resources through paid use. In addition to state-owned forestry management units, state-owned farms, railways, water conservancy, prisons and other units and local forestry authorities also operate and manage some state-owned forest resource assets in accordance with the law. In view of the fact that the paid use of state-owned forest resource assets is still in the initial stage of the system, in order to facilitate management, the scope of paid use is currently limited to the forest resource assets under the jurisdiction of the state-owned forestry management units with clear property rights within the scope of the reform of state-owned forest areas and state-owned forest farms, including forests, woods, woodlands with social, economic and environmental benefits, as well as natural landscapes formed by forests, woods and woodlands.

　　(B) the paid use of State-owned forest resources assets, scope and manner

　　Regarding the use of state-owned forest resources, the paid use of state-owned forest resources is limited to the use of forest resources and forest landscape resources to carry out forest tourism, forest health care, forest experience and forest science education. As for the use mode, in order to prevent the loss of state-owned forest land resources, the Plan can be used for compensation through leasing and franchising in accordance with the provisions of Document No. 82. With regard to the scope of use, adhere to the principle of giving priority to protection and rational utilization, and must not carry out paid use in the core areas of national parks and other nature reserves. In the first-class national public welfare forest area, it is only allowed to use forests, rivers, lakes and wetlands and other landscapes to carry out forest tourism based on sightseeing and ecological experience, build trails and viewing platforms, and shall not change the use of forest land, and shall not build large-scale permanent facilities. In areas other than the first-class national public welfare forest, paid use can be carried out, and permanent facilities such as forests, wetland science popularization facilities, camping areas and other supporting facilities required for forest experience and health care can be built, but the scale of construction should be controlled in strict accordance with the relevant plans approved by the state, and the implementation of conservation and intensive land use can be implemented. With regard to the term of use, the term of the lease is generally not more than 20 years in accordance with the provisions of the Contract Law, and the contract can be renewed upon the expiration of the term;

　　(C) the State-owned forest resources assets paid use of supporting land policy

　　The Central Document No. 6 actively promotes the industrial transformation of state-owned forest areas as required, selects areas with mature conditions to carry out economic transformation pilots, and supports the development of alternative industries in pilot areas. Encourage the development of green and low-carbon industries such as forest tourism in state-owned forest areas and state-owned forest farms, increase jobs, and increase the income of workers in forest areas. It is difficult to avoid the problem of supporting land for related projects to carry out the paid use of state-owned forest resource assets in state-owned forest farms (districts), especially the development of forest tourism and health care. Most of the land within the operation scope of state-owned forest areas and state-owned forest farms is allocated by the state, and there is a large amount of stock construction land, which can be used as supporting facilities for the development of forest tourism and forest health care, and carry out renovation, expansion or reconstruction suitable for the project. In particular, the remote forest sites that have been withdrawn and merged in the reform of forest farms in forest areas are mostly located in areas with beautiful scenery and rich landscape resources, so the appropriate use of these historical stock construction land, through reconstruction and expansion into forest ecological service public facilities, can meet the needs of the people to recreation in the forest area, and enhance the people's sense of gain and happiness. Drawing on the experience of the United States and Canada in the land concession policy and the rental of built facilities in the state-owned forest area to develop forest tourism, it is suggested that the introduction of this plan should be taken as an opportunity to relax the lease policy of the stock construction land of the state-owned forestry management units, and allocate construction land for the stock of state-owned forest farms (districts), and allow them to develop forest ecological service public facilities for their own use after approval in accordance with the law, provide public facilities such as forest recreation services for the public, or lease them to paid users in the market as the development of forest tourism. Necessary supporting infrastructure land for forest health care. In this way, it not only solves the difficulties of economic transformation and production in forest areas, but also provides necessary service facilities for the broad masses of people to travel in forest areas.

　　(D) to strengthen the management responsibilities of the owners of State-owned forest resource assets

　　Document No. 82 proposes to clarify powers and responsibilities, exercise them at different levels, and reasonably divide the authority of the central and local governments to dispose of natural resource assets owned by the whole people. In order to implement the rights and interests of the state as the owner of state-owned forest resource assets, it is necessary to strictly regulate the approval system for paid use. In terms of the hierarchical agency of the state to exercise ownership, the "plan" will set the right to approve the paid use of state-owned forest resources assets at two levels: the paid use of state-owned forest resources assets in key state-owned forest areas in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia must be approved by the competent forestry department of the State Council, and the paid use of other state-owned forest resources assets must be approved by the provincial forestry authorities. These two approvals belong to the examination and approval of changes in the property rights of state-owned forest resource assets, which are based on the decision of the State Council on canceling the examination and approval of non-administrative licenses, and the examination and approval items listed in the catalogue of other powers approved by the State Council Review and Reform Office, which were issued by the Announcement No. 11 of 2015 of our Bureau. In 2019, the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Notice on Matters Related to Improving the Management System of Forest Resources in Key State-owned Forest Areas", which once again clarified that our bureau is responsible for the examination and approval of changes in the property rights of forest resource assets in key state-owned forest areas.

　　(E) the issue of the paid use of State-owned forest resource assets

　　How to increase the income of state-owned forest farms (districts) under the premise of ensuring the right of income of state owners, how to deal with the interests of the state, state-owned forestry management units and paid users in the paid use of state-owned forest resource assets, and how to establish an incentive mechanism for state-owned forestry management units to participate in the paid use of state-owned forest resources assets are the key issues that need to be solved in the paid use of state-owned forest resource assets. The plan stipulates that "the Ministry of Finance, in conjunction with the Ministry of Natural Resources, the State Forestry and Grassland Administration and other relevant departments, shall accelerate the study and formulation of management measures for the paid use of state-owned forest resource assets".

　　Fourth, on the issue of continuing to promote the pilot of guidance reform, and summarizing experience for the full implementation of paid use

　　Our bureau will continue to guide the Arshan Forestry Bureau of the Daxinganling Forest Area of Inner Mongolia to explore the system of paid use of state-owned forest resource assets. After the release of the plan, our bureau will be in key state-owned forest areas, select 4 to 8 state-owned forestry bureaus to carry out the pilot of the paid use of state-owned forest resource assets, explore the assessment methods of forest and its landscape assets, the approval system and revenue management, and summarize practical experience for the comprehensive establishment of the paid use system of state-owned forest resource assets.

Source: National Forestry and Grassland Administration government website