Something that is owned by everybody is actually possessed by no one. The pending reform of the collective ownership of forest land is meant to let forest farmers have their own forest land, be responsible for and benefit from their own trees.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council jointly published a document yesterday on the reform of forest land ownership, explicitly stating that collectively-owned forest land shall be contracted to individual rural families, which will own the contracted forest for 70 years and renew the contract when it expires.

The country's 168 million hectares of forest land are scattered on mountainous areas, which accounts for 69 percent of the total territory and raises 56 percent of the 1.3 billion people. These tracts of forest land have been owned by such collectives as villages or State-owned farms for decades.

Such ownership has proved to be unable to tap the best potential of villagers in taking care of the trees. Nor could it help villagers get the maximum economic benefit from cultivating the trees.

The success of rural reform 30 years ago that has made it possible for China to basically feed its 1.3 billion people on its own agriculture has set an example for where the reform of forest ownership should go.

Forest farmers taking responsibility for their contracted forest land has been carried out on trial basis in some provinces in the past couple of years. And the practice has proved to have both increased income of farmers and improved local ecological conditions when trees are better taken care of than before.

Most of the country's mountainous areas are underdeveloped. How to better preserve or develop forestry in these areas while improving the living standards of rural villagers there has remained a hard challenge to overcome.

The fact that no one really owns most of the mountain forests has become the root cause of illegal logging of trees in many forest lands. This has not only damaged local ecological environment, but also infringed upon the interest of local rural villagers as their share of benefits from collectively-owned forestry are often grabbed by those engaged in illegal tree-logging and wood-selling business.

Contracting forest to individual villagers will kill two birds with one stone. Once villagers have their own trees and rely on them for a living, they will have the incentive to take good care of trees for long-term benefits. As a result, not only villagers will benefit, but forests also will be better protected.

The success of this reform depends on well-designed plans and support by local governments at all levels.

(China Daily July 16, 2008)