A scheme to convert huge tracts of land into eucalyptus forest in Yunnan Province has come under scrutiny by nature conservationists and organizations advocating naure and environment protection.

The government of Southwest China's Yunnan Province in 2002 signed an agreement with Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), the largest pulp and paper group in Asia outside Japan, to convert 1.8 million hectares of land in the regions of Wenshan, Lincang and Simao into fast-growing eucalyptus forests.

The wood will then be used for materials for APP's pulp and paper manufacturing.

In a Greenpeace report, released on November 16, the project was accused of causing illegal logging and environmental degradation by planting eucalyptus trees on such a large scale. Local farmers' interests are also being violated as the local economy is expected to suffer in the long run, the report said.

The paper and pulp project could devastate the province's natural forests and pose a threat to local biodiversity, the report claims.

It calls for the project to be stopped and reassessed. Illegal logging in Simao should be stopped and those who destroy natural forests, punished.

APP is urged to stop transforming natural forests into planted ones and end illegal logging.

Greenpeace China said it had forwarded its report to the department for forest management under the State Forestry Administration and other related Chinese authorities. It is expecting a response within 60 days.

Sources with the forestry administration have agreed to look at the issue. If illegal logging of natural forests is happening in Yunnan, local forestry authorities will be ordered to look into it and punish those responsible.

Denying Greenpeace's allegations, APP China made an announcement on Wednesday.

They said the company's business in Yunnan fully respected the will of local farmers and was undergoing strict procedures according to Chinese laws.

But it also promised to check the qualifications of its suppliers and the source of timber supplied to ensure its timber meets environment requirements and abides by rules in source countries.

Chinese conservations are now sending emails, calling for the environment-conscious people and the general public to boycott APP products.

Fate of natural forests

Under the Yunnan project, 1.8 million hectares will be converted into APP's base of materials for its pulp and paper production.

But an investigation found that more than 733,000 hectares of the planned areas under the project, or 42 per cent, is forest, said Liu Bing, Greenpeace China's forestry project deputy director, contradicting APP's claim that all eucalyptus planting will be carried out in deserted mountainous regions.

There are currently only 186,600 hectares of non-forest areas in Simao, which is far less than the planned area of 800,000 hectares in Simao, the report says.

Existing forests would have to be cut down to expand the area that could be used.

Greenpeace's report claims that at the eucalyptus base of APP's local company in Lancang, in Simao, they found many chopped down stumps and trunks that had not been cleared away, indicating illegal logging had happened in the area.

APP says the company only started to plant forests in Yunnan, and is not buying timber or logging in economic or natural forests.

It says the original idea to plant trees was precisely to prevent the logging of natural forests.

It also says the scale of its project in Yunnan will be smaller than that claimed by some media reports. The total land area APP can get its hands on has yet to be decided. It will depend on local natural conditions. Current figures are merely intent between the company and local governments.

Dispute over tree type

Xie Yan with the Chinese Academy of Sciences argues that the eucalyptus trees APP plans to plant in Yunnan consume large quantities of water and nourishment and are harmful to local biodiversity.

These trees should not be planted in such large numbers, Xie said.

Yang Mingyu, a professor with the Yunnan Academy for Forestry, said large areas of eucalyptus planting would lead to a degradation of land.

He suggested that eucalyptus trees be substituted by southern plants such as bamboo.

But Xu Daping, with the Chinese Academy of Forestry, said a survey on eucalyptus trees in the Leizhou Peninsula in South China's Guangdong Province shows eucalyptus trees do not consume as much water and nourishment as some experts claim.

They need more over a shorter period of time, but because it takes less time to reach maturity the overall amount is not so great, Xu said. Some experts also say forests with just one kind of tree are vulnerable to disease, which could again harm the local environment.

But others argue that it is in non-forested areas where Yunnan plans to plant forests and that there is no other choice but to grow one kind of tree only there.

The ecological function of artificial forests is of course far weaker than natural forests, they say.

According to the Greenpeace report, eucalyptus trees, native to Australia, were introduced to China in 1890 and have gradually been planted in 17 southern provinces and autonomous regions.

China has now become the second largest eucalyptus-planting country in the world, only after Brazil.

Local economic factor

While APP denies all Greenpeace's allegations, the Yunnan provincial government seems to be ready to defend the project, which, in their eyes, could lead to the rise of another pillar industry in the province and help to shake off the poverty striking many of its residents.

In fact, sources with the local administration say they will continue to develop the project, while emphasizing that laws will be strictly observed and logging of natural forests be banned.

Che Zhimin, at the government's centre for development research, says it is a scientific choice for Yunnan to develop wood industries, especially the paper industry.

He said 94 per cent of the area in Yunnan is mountainous and conditions in the province are good for forests to grow.

At the same time, there are still more than 2.8 million poor people in the province, most of whom live in mountainous regions, said Che, who is also vice-general secretary of Yunnan provincial government.

So the hope for Yunnan lies in mountains and the way out for Yunnan lies in forests, he said.

Zhou Jun, a researcher with the Kunming research institution for botany under the China Academy of Sciences, said Yunnan should speed up the development of these industries, rather than debating whether to.

Zhou said that China, a large consumer of timber and timber products in the world, needs to import 120 million cubic metres of timber each year and the amount is increasing by 15 per cent annually.

As a major forest base in China, Yunnan should contribute to China's forest and paper industry, Zhou said.

He added that natural forests and shelter belts should not be touched during the development of the forest and paper industry.

Yunnan should learn from foreign experiences and plant forests especially for paper making.

Chen Yunchang, vice- chief of Lancang County, an autonomous county of the Lagu ethnic group in Simao, says the per capita income of the county last year was only 790 yuan (US$96), which is only one third of the province's average.

Among the county's 470,000 residents, 340,000 are poverty stricken.

Chen said local people's methods of cultivation had resulted in large tracts of land being left as desert.

Local farmers burn land, farm it then simply move on the following year, Chen said.

The land left, "rotational land," can only be farmed again after years of recovery.

Methods like these lead to under-developed economies. The local government has designed a plan to develop forest-related industry, Chen said.

Last January, the county agreed to plant 200,000 hectares of eucalyptus trees.

By September, 28,600 hectares of eucalyptus trees had been planted in the county.

Li Zhirong, head of the Donggang Village of the county's Donghui township, said that 2,300 hectares of eucalyptus trees had been planted.

Land requisition, labour supply and forest management have brought an income of 2.7 million yuan (US$326,000) a year to the six villages of the township.

The per capita income of local farmers has risen from 600 yuan (US$72.5) a year in 2002 to 800 yuan (US$96.7) now. Li said local farmers are quite satisfied.

Located in a subtropical rain forest area, the land of Lancang is good for fast-growing forests to develop, the vice-chief said.

Statistics from the Yunnan institution for forestry investigation, plan and design indicate there are 523,000 hectares of land in the county that can be used for the forestry industry, among which 387,000 hectares are woodland, according to Chen.

The other 133,000 hectares are shrubbery, woods or deserted land areas that can be used to plant fast-growing trees.

In addition, there are about 100,000 hectares of "rotational land" that can be used in the industry. Chen said this had been ignored by people who claimed there was not enough land.

Short sight

The Greenpeace report says planting eucalyptus trees may benefit local farmers only in the short term, but in the long run, it is likely that farmers will again feel the pinch of poverty. When current fast-growing forests fail to meet the huge demands of the pulp and paper industry, the report claims, wild forests will inevitably be chopped down to make way for planting faster-growing trees.

Greenpeace also says public participation has not been included.

Another problem is the likelihood that local Simao pine trees will be cut down as the project expands.

About 5,500 local farmers in Simao collect turpentine from the trees, which can make about 7,000 yuan (US$846) a year each for them.

(China Daily 11/26/2004 page5)