Highlighted in the latest International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) Tropical Timber Market Report (TTM), the Government of China has announced a three stage plan to phase out all commercial logging in natural forests in an effort to protect remaining natural forest areas.
28 February 2015: As highlighted in the latest International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) Tropical Timber Market Report (TTM), the Government of China has announced a three-stage plan to phase out all commercial logging in natural forests in an effort to protect remaining natural forest areas.
The first phase involves halting logging in natural forests located in Inner Mongolia and Northeast China as well as state-owned forest farms, collectives and select individual natural forest areas. The second and third phases will expand the geographic coverage of the ban and include additional categories of natural forests. The objective is to achieve a full ban on commercial logging in natural forests by 2020.
The ban is expected to result in the short-term loss of about 50 million cubic meters of domestic timber production with increased reliance on imports. It is expected, however, that plantations will eventually be able to offset this loss. [Publication: Tropical Timber Market Report – Volume 19 No. 4]