US Dollar Exchange Rates of 15th October 2009
China Yuan 6.8264
Report from China
Coping with climate change
At a speech made at the UN submit on climates change
held in Septembe,r Mr. Jia Zhibang, Administrator of the
State Forest Administration of China, said that the Chinese
Government attaches importance to the role of forests in
mitigating climate change and has invested over US$70
billion in this field.
Five measures have been taken by the central government
to deal with the problems of deforestation and forest
degradation. These are :
• tree planting and returning farmland to forest,
• protecting natural forest,
• preventing forest fires,
• strengthening forest management
• controlling logging.
To date, China has established 53 million hectares of
plantations, accounting for about one third of the global
total.
To address climate change the Chinese Government has a
Forestry Action Plan to actively promote forestry
cooperation at both regional and global levels.
The Chinese Government intends to continue to enhance
tree planting and forest protection so as to realise the 2020
goal of a forest area increase to 40 million hectares.
Increasing plantation
Plans are being prepared to expand fast growing and high
yielding forest plantations for large-diameter timber so as
to meet the increasing timber demands.
Since the country¡¯s plantation programme was launched in
2002, the scale of tree planting continues to expand.
Currently, 6.55 million hectares of plantations have been
established to service a number of industrial zones.
These industrial zones include the southern timber forest
industrial zones in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and
Fujian; the central and eastern timber forest industrial
zones in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River
and Yellow River and the central and eastern timber forest
industrial zones in the northeast and Inner Mongolia.
Farmland converted to forest
It is reported that from 1999 to 2008, 403 million mu (27
million hectares) of farmland have been converted to
forest, an area equal to the total area of the state owned
forest areas of Northeastern and Inner Mongolian. Of the
total area planted, 139 million mu were on returned land,
237 million mu were on barren hills and 27 million mu
were cultivated on hillsides.
Energy forests
Mr. Zhang Jianlong, Vice Administrator of State Forest
Administration, reportedly said recently that 200 million
mu of fuel/energy forest will be established by 2020. This
area will possibly yield 6 million tons of bio fuel for a 1
500 kilo watt power output.
Electronic timber trade
The Manzhouli Timber Transaction Center, jointly run by
China¡¯s Electronic Timber Transaction Market (TEX) and
the Manzhouli Economic District, began operation in
August 2009. It has been reported that the volume of
Mongolia Scotch Pine lumber traded reached 30,000 cu.m
worth some RMB 43.6 million.
Located on the borders of China, Russia and Mongolia,
Manzhouli is the largest port for timber trade between
China and Russia. Of the traded products timber and oil
account for more than 50 percent.
According to a report issued jointly by China¡¯s Electronic
Timber Transaction Market and China¡¯s Timber
Distribution Association, around 30 million cu.m of logs
are imported annually and about 50-60 percent is from
Russia. Of this 30% come through Manzhouli Port.
The economy in Manzhouli has suffered seriously because
of the global financial and because of the increase in
export tariff applied by Russia. According to the data
issued by statistics bureau of the city, GDP in first quarter
of this year was only RMB1.54 billion, down 15% from
the same period of last year.
The volume of timber processed locally was only 540 000
cu.m, down 39% from the same period of last year.
According to professionals, it was both the increase in
export taxes and the sharp decline in domestic demand that
caused the slump. Among 71 larger industrial enterprises
in the city, 43 enterprises are engaged in wood processing
but 15 have stopped production.
Certification centre established
To promote development of the forest industry,
sustainable management of forest and to increase
competitiveness of forest products in international
markets, the State Forest Administration has set up the
Zhong Lin Tian He (Beijing) Forest Certification Center.
Largest charcoal line
It is reported that a new production plant for charcoal with
an annual output of 50,000 tons of wood charcoal has been
commissioned by the company Hong Sen Wood in
Fengning County, Hebei Province.
This charcoal will be used by the power plant which the
company is constructing. This power plant is the largest
one in China that uses forest biomass.
Hong Sen Wood is a private company. The main business
of this company is to produce wood products. The
company has established plantations and produces woodbased
panels and building materials. The company makes
full use of wood processing and logging residues and as
well as straw to produce charcoal.
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