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China's impressive forest regrowth
By Lykke Andersen*,
La Paz,
26 de april
2010.
China
is the fifth most forest rich country on the planet with more
than 200 million hectares of forest. This is about 4 times more
than Bolivia, which is the 15th country in the World in terms of
forest extension (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Forest
extension for the World’s top 20 forest countries, 2007
Source:
Author’s elaboration based on the now free World Development
Indicators from the World Bank (1).
Still,
considering the size of the Chinese population (1.3 billion),
forest is very scarce in China, with an average of only 0.16
hectares per person (Bolivia has 40 times more forest per person
than China). Therefore China has embarked on a massive
reforestation project, with the consequence that the forest area
in China has been growing by about 4 million hectares per year
during the period 2004-2007 (see Figure 2).
While
forests are also growing in United States, India and Sweden, the
scale is nothing like China. Indeed, China is reforesting faster
than all the countries in South America together are deforesting.
Figure 2: Annual change in forest area 2004-2007 for the
World’s top 20 forest countries
Source: Author’s
elaboration based on the now free World Development Indicators
from the World Bank.
Given the rapid economic
growth in China, how has it been possible for them to reverse
the pressure on their forests? Easy: They decided to import wood
from abroad rather than further run down their own wood stocks.
A large part of deforestation in nearby Indonesia is due to wood
demand from China, and China is even importing massive amounts
of wood from Bolivia, located about as far away from China as
possible on this Earth. Wood exports from Bolivia to China have
increased by a factor of 200 during the last 10 years, and China
now accounts for more than 30% of Bolivian wood exports (see
Figure 3).
Figure 3: Annual wood exports from
Bolivia to China, 1999-2009
Source: Author’s
elaboration based on the excellent trade database freely
available at the website of the National Statistical Institute
in Bolivia (www.ine.gov.bo).
Selling wood to China is not a bad idea - it is
certainly better than just burning the forest to make room for
agriculture. There is considerable potential for growth in that
market, so Bolivia ought to support and regulate the forestry
sector with well-designed policies. A lot of jobs and incomes
can be generated in this sector, especially if we export
processed wood products instead of raw timber, and if we secure
that the wood is harvested in a sustainably fashion and that
regrowth is supported by adequate forestry techniques.
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