In China, with its long history, large population, and recurrent natural disasters, forests are of special importance in terms of economic development and environmental services. But due to utilisation, most of China's forests have been converted into low quality forests, which include secondary forests, open forests, forest plantations, young forests, shrubs, agricultural land areas, and over-degraded wasteland areas. Over utilisation is manifested in serious biodiversity loss, soil erosion, frequent flooding, decrease of natural forest area, and shortage of forest products.

China's timber imports are rising rapidly, with China now consuming over 130 million cubic metres of timber annually. Work done by WWF and partners shows that by 2003 there will be a deficit of 75 million m3 annually in the wood China uses to meet its domestic needs and export industry demand. This deficit will have to be met by wood sourced from elsewhere, for example from the Russian Far East.

Forest Certification offers a means to establish a sustainable forest industry. It is a process that leads to the issue of a certificate by an independent party, which verifies that an area of forest is managed to a defined standard. Though forest Certification is still at an early stage in China, there is increasing interest by the private sector and government.

WWF's Programme Office in Beijing is facilitating the formation of a national working group on FSC certification to develop certification standards in China. So far, two forest management units, one in the Northeast and one in the South, have applied to FSC accredited certification bodies for forest management certification. In addition, there are nearly 30 wood processing companies that are FSC chain-of-custody certified. The government is very supportive of the process of forest certification in China, and is now actively promoting it. The National Working Group has received official support from State Forestry Administration and held its first meeting in May 2001 as well as two workshops in November and December 2001.

China presently supplies 10% of IKEA's solid wood. IKEA sources wood primarily from Forest Bureaus in the Xing An and Cang Bai Mountain regions of Northeast China and Inner Mongolia.

Objective

To foster the supply of certified wood products in China by identifying high conservation value forests in key wood producing regions; educating and training relevant actors; and promoting legal compliance at all points within domestic and international supply chains.

Current Status

The following project activities are currently being implemented:

1. Forest mapping and identification of High Conservation Value Forests (HCVFs*), in selected prefectures:

   The first phase involves rapid, coarse-scale (1:1 million) mapping of forest distribution (cover and forest types), protected areas and potential HCVF areas in the Greater and Lesser Xing An Mountains and the Chang Bai Mountains. The second phase consists of landscape level investigations covering selected prefectures where potential HCVFs are identified in the first phase.

   * HCVFs are defined by the FSC as forests with environmental, biodiversity, landscape or socio-economic values of critical importance.

2. Promoting legal compliance:

   Illegal logging activities cause significant damage to forests and distort the market for legitimate operators. As we have seen, China's imports of tropical and temperate timber are increasing at a rapid pace and some of these are from countries where illegal logging is rampant. The project will therefore work with other responsible companies, international organisations and NGOs to promote improved compliance with legislation and tracing of wood in producing countries that supply timber to China, particularly across the North Eastern border.

   The project will draw on internationally available systems and experience and build on the following WWF activities (funded externally to the project):

   • a comparative review of systems and technologies available to the private sector and governments for tracing wood flow from stump to mill to final product and for verifying legal compliance
   • a study of the net “ecological footprint”, both within and outside China, of China’s demand for wood. This will examine the impact and efficacy of China’s recent domestic policy reforms in the forest sector (including the logging ban) and changes in trade policies (mainly those led by WTO and APEC) as well as analysing the current and future wood market in China. In countries supplying wood to China, it will review impacts such as acceleration of destructive and/or illegal logging. The report will conclude with recommendations to government and private sector actors.

3. Communication and Education/training, outreach to potential suppliers:

   In Northeast China and Chinese Inner Mongolia most people involved in forestry have little knowledge of forest certification and do not have access to information and expertise on the subject. This project will ensure availability of reliable information to all parties potentially interested in certification in China; e.g., forest owners, processors, traders of wood products, government representatives and civil society.

Chinese Academy of Forestry, Jilin Forestry Department, Heilongjiang Forestry Department, Inner Mongolia Department of Forestry, State Forestry Administration, and forest education and research institutions.

Donor

IKEA