Poor farmers make poor supporters of China's effort to protest its forests
Gao Yu and Mike Lufkin call for adequate compensation for those whose livelihoods are affected
Amid all the coverage of the Communist Party's third plenum last November, one important statement seems to have been overlooked: the Central Committee's assertion on the need to improve compensation to farmers affected by the government's forest protection programme.
Improving compensation is not only good for farmers. It is good for the environment.
Ever since 1998, poor farmers who live in mountainous regions have been asked to help preserve and improve ecologically sensitive forests and watersheds as part of the Natural Forest Protection Programme.
With the help of farmers and other rural residents, more than one million hectares of forestlands have become off-limits to commercial logging and other harmful activities. In addition to this national effort, provinces and prefectures have established almost another 80 million hectares of protected forests.
The programme has been hailed as a great success.
However, research indicates that the forest protection programme has caused considerable harm to local economies and farmers, especially in the poorest areas where forestry was an important source of employment and income.