Dear leaders, experts,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
On the Eve of the new century, the 4th Session of the Second International Cooperative Committee on China's Environment and Development is opened here. The c onference devotes itself to environment protection and Development of Western Ch ina and shall probe into these two issues deeply. Let me have the honor make a pr esentation on the pilot project of the Conversion Program being implemented in S ichuan Province, which aims at enhancing ecological environment protection, in the process of Western China Development.
1. Debriefing on Sichuan Province
With a land territory of 485, 000 square kilometers and a population of 85 millio n, Sichuan is a large province in Western China. It holds rich natural resources a nd enormous market potentials. In the respect of ecological environment protectio n and construction, Sichuan's strategic location leads to its significant positio n and roles to play in the coming years.
(1) Watershed area in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River Located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Sichuan claims 27% of the tota l drainage of the Yangtze, and 96. 5% of its total territory belongs to the Yangt ze Catchment. The Jinsha River, upper length of the Yangtze, together with the Min River, Yalong River, Dadu River and Jialing River, primary tributaries of the Yangt ze, claiming an annual flow of 3, 182 million cubic meters, which is one third of the total Yangtze flow into the sea. A total of 176 million mu(15 Chinese mu=1 he ctare) of forest is one of the most important watershed areas for the Yangtze.
(2) Region of rich biodiversity
Sichuan shelters over 10, 000 species of higher plants and about 1, 180 vertebrate species. Holding the key Giant Panda habitat and population, it is a vital area f or biodiversity conservation. So far, 52 forest, wildlife and wetland nature reserv es were created, preserving an area of 50 million mu, 6. 9% of the total land. Of wh ich ten are national nature reserves, one joined the UNESCO "Man & Biosphere" r eserve network(Wolong), and one as World Nature Heritage Site(Jiuzhaigou/Huanglon gsi).
(3)A typical ecologically fragile area
As a result of natural, historic and human impact, the local ecology is rather fra gile. Today, Erosion areas claim 222, 700 square kilometers, 45. 92% of the total la nd, with an annual erosion of 950 million tons of soil. Around 600 million tons of soils are transported into the Yangtze. Over 40 million mu of barren land needs to be reforested, 10. 5 million mu of land under desertification and large size o f steep farmland need actions taken. Degradation of ecological environment leads to frequent natural disasters:Drought occurrence frequency hits 95%, of which 61. 49 are serious ones;major flood occurrence frequency hits 46%. The economic loss caused by natural disaster claims 10 billion yuan a year. Therefore, it is our urg ent and strategic issue to step up ecological environment protection.
With the support from the National Government, Sichuan Province took the lead to issue a logging ban on natural forest, effective on September 1st, 1998. Logg ing enterprises, shipping companies were transformed into afforestation and fores t management companies, loggers were transferred as tree planters and forest ranc hers. Thus natural forest is being effectively protected . Since October 1999, agai n Sichuan took the initiative to implement the Conversion Program (Converting Sl ope arable Land back to Forest and Grass), with an initial target of 3 million mu , pushing forward the ecological protection and construction in full swing.
2. Introduction of the Conversion Program in Sichuan
(1)Orientations and Principles
In line with the guideline of "Converting to forest and grass, greening by stopp ing access to mountains and hills, subsidizing with grains and individual contrac ting", formulated by the National Government, in order to secure the effectivenes s of the Conversion Program and the hormonal progress of ecological protection a nd social economic development, Sichuan Province has been sticking to the orienta tion of "Three Assurances and Three Integration"
Three Assurances
Assurance of ecological goals, which is to allocate over 70% of the pil ot target areas to the Min, Yalong, Jinsha, Dadu and Jialing River, covering 65 ecol ogically fragile counties under 6 municipalities and prefectures.
Assurance of people's livelihood through integration of long, middle and short term interests, and effectively solve their concerns of food, fuel demand a nd income generating.
Assurance of project quality, where the key lies in the quality of seeds & seedlings, strict supervision and checking, to improve plantations' survival ra te and preserving rate.
Three Integration
Integration with agriculture restructuring through cross plantation of forest/grass, forest/bamboo, forest/fruit trees and forest/medicinal herbs;or plan t grass first before arbor trees. Efforts to promote agri-industrialization are m ade to contribute to the strategic restructuring of agriculture.
Integration with poverty alleviation by taking 63 poor counties into th e Program to create new income generating sources and means.
Integration with tourism development by converting all steep farm land in national and provincial scenic areas.
(2)Major management measures
Enhance organizing and implementation. The Provincial Steering Team of N atural Forest Protection and Conversion Program was formed with its office based in the Provincial Forestry Department. Team leaders are Provincial leaders, and P rovincial Planning Commission, Finance Department, Forestry Department, Cereals Adm inistration, Supervision & Inspection Department, etc. as member institutions. Same institutions were established at different government levels all over the Provi nce. Target-oriented responsibility mechanism is in place to sign letter of respo nsibility across different government levels, setting a strong organizational gua rantee for the Conversion Program.
Target clarification and specification. Government at all levels launch ed a series of mobilization and education schemes to publicize the rationale, pol icy of the Conversion Program through mass media, such as broadcasting, television and newspapers, as well as meetings. It was a request that all stakeholders in th e village will be made informed clearly. Pilot counties fully respect farmers' wil l and sign contract with rural households, keep each contract independently. Local forest administrations provide free operational design assistance that specifie s the target on individual families and their specific pieces of land.
In order to motivate farmers' enthusiasm, the National Government formul ated and implements a series of preferential policies, such as providing 150 kilo grams of cereals free a year per mu, 20 yuan cash subsidy a year per mu and 50 y uan subsidy per mu for seeds and seedlings. Furthermore, the policy of "who conve rts, who plants, who manages and who benefits" is being implemented. Soon the pilo t project was implemented, in an attempt to build up farmers' trust in the prefer ential policies, the Provincial People's Government delivered the first payment o f 20 yuan cash subsidy, 50 kilograms of cereals and 25 yuan subsidy for seeds and seedlings to all farmers and nursery owners involved, prior to March 15, 2000, dra matically raised up the zeal of farmers and local government employees.
Securing seeds and seedlings supply. To guarantee the effectiveness of t he Conversion Program, we always pay great concern on the supply of quality seeds and seedlings and several conferences were held to organize and coordinate. Last year, 23 central nurseries and 80 major nurseries were initiated, along with impr oving existing nurseries and building temporary ones, variety coordination and qu ality control, farmers' plantation needs were timely and quantitatively met.
Strengthening checking of the project. The Provincial Forestry Departme nt formulated a series of regulations to guide and modify the process, namely " Conversion Operational Designing Guidelines", "Rules on Checking and Acceptance ", "Pilot Project Management Regulations". The pilot counties will check first and prefectures organize the second check and the province is to check through s ampling, securing the project quality and progress.
(3)Accomplishments
Since the pilot project of converting farmland into forests and grasses was init iated in last autumn, the designed tasks of 3 million mu have been allocated to 1 20 mountainous counties involving 1. 27 households and 4. 4 million farmers. Those counties are mainly located in the river sources with serious soil and water ero sion. Up to now, this pilot project has been completely accomplished, 3. 19 million mu farmland were reserved, of which, 3. 004 million mu were converted into forest a nd grass. It shows that, the strategy named "Converting farmland into forest and grass while taking the ecological protection as the essential and start point f or The Western China Development Strategy" is perfectly correct. It has been wid ely welcomed and cordially appreciated by the mass cadres and people of pilot a reas.
3. The Basic Ideas regarding Strengthening Ecological a nd Environmental Protection and Construction in Sichuan Province
Sichuan province occupies the very important strategic position in the economic growth of China, especially the western regions. In order to grasp the opportunity in the western development, and to achieve the up-catching and overleaping devel opment, "Five Articles and Two Goals"is formulated according to the state plan and the situation in Sichuan:
to fasten the infrastructure construction, strengthen the ecological and environmental protection and construction, promote the strategic adjustment on e conomic structure, speed up the development of scientific technology, education an d personnel training, deepen the reform and extend the great opening to outsides;
In around ten years, to develop Sichuan into an economically robust prov ince in western region and an "ecological shelterbelt" on upper reaches of the Yangtze river.
For this reason, we will follow up the thoughts on the development of great ecolo gical zone, actively organize and implement the integrated ecological projects am ong cross-watersheds and regions, and protect the ecological environment.
(1) To continue the natural forest protection project.
The natural forest protection project is a great effort benefiting Chinese and t heir future generations. In order to enhance protection of natural forests, the me asures including banning all the logging activities and planting public forests are taken in the project. By 2010, 14 million mu new plantation and 20. 2 million m u aerial seeding will be completed.
(2) To implement project of converting farmland into forest and grass
To seriously carry out state policies on converting farmland into forest and gra ss;to convert slope farmland into forest and grass according to plans;to encoura ge farmers to plant trees and grass;to increase the vegetation coverage of the s tate land. In the available places, the base sites for commercial timber forests a nd economic forests will be established. By 2005, 10 million mu of farmland are de signed to convert into forest and grass.
(3) To strengthen the integrated ecological controls
We will firmly implement the Plan for National Ecological Environment, complete t he plan by periods, and prevent the worsening trends of ecological environment i n the key areas of the Yangtze watersheds. The integrated ecological control proj ect will be implemented. By 2005, the ecological and environmental control in 100 key counties will be initiated. By 2010, total 156 counties will be involved, and t he practical progress is expected.
(4) To upgrade the works of water and air pollution controls
To continue to implement the Plan for Water Pollution Control approved by the St ate Council;to emphasize this works in the areas of Tuo, Min and Jialing River, to fasten the implementation of the project for the control of industry pollution sources;to increase the treatment rate of sewage and garbage in cities;to improv e the water quality in watersheds, and to ensure that the river water flowing out of Sichuan will reach the standard of Ⅱ type.
Through the implementation of above activities, the goal namely "Initial Achieve ment in 5 Years and Great Achievement in 10 Years"is expected to be achieved. By the end of "Tenth Five Year Plan", i. e. the year of 2005, 30 million mu new for ests will be planted, the forest coverage will be increase to 28. 4%, and the ecol o gical environment will be treated initially. Compared with the period of "Nine-f ive Years", the annual plantation will be upgraded from nearly 4 million mu to 6 . 5 million mu, and the annual increment of forest coverage will be improved from 0. 3% to 0. 6%. By the year of 2010, the forest coverage will be raised to over 30%, and the target namely overall greening and effective control of worsening trends of ecological environment is expected to be achieved. By 2030, the forest coverag e will reach to 40%, and the improvement of environmental quality and the goal of beautiful landscape will be achieved.
Dear leaders and experts, ladies and gentlemen, the work on protecting natural for ests and converting farmland into forest are just initiated, and the tasks for en vironmental protection are still a far way to go . Under the leadership of the ce ntral government, with the strong supports of the state departments, we will dedic ate all the efforts on the implementation of the strategy for western developmen t, and firmly promote the works of ecological protection with bigger determinatio n and more powerful measures. Meanwhile, we would sincerely welcome all the friend s loving and caring the nature protection to visit Sichuan, and give your valuabl e suggestions and comments to our works.
Thanks!