The State Forestry Administration (SFA) yesterday halted Indonesia's Asia Pulp & Paper Co (APP) from buying 58 percent shares of a State-owned timber company in Hainan Province and pulled up some local governments for being involved in timber rackets.

Such actions, 10 of which are major, are depleting the country's forest cover, damaging the environment, the SFA said.

The APP merger and acquisition plan in the South China island province involved the transfer of 67,000 hectares of State-owned forest. So the SFA asked the provincial government to carry out a thorough investigation before making a final and prudent decision.

"Pursuing immediate interests, some local governments have backed or have been directly involved in selling of forest land at very low prices," SFA spokesperson Cao Qingyao said at a news conference after results of SFA's 2006 national survey on forest resources were released.

Among the 10 cases, the most severe took place in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. To build an expressway in Naimai Banner, the provincial communications department grabbed over 350 hectares of forest illegally, and fell more than 6,000 cubic meters of timber since 2005.

Other destructive actions included the construction of a hydro-power plant in Muli County of Sichuan Province, 20 mines in Fengcheng, Liaoning Province, and the railway improvement project between Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces.

Infrastructure construction projects such as railways, highways, hydro-power plants and power grids have felled a lot of trees without the approval of the forestry department, the SFA said. Illegal mining, too, has caused a lot of damage to forests.

Cao told the country's 14 regional forest resource management offices, which are directly under the SFA, to crack down on those felling trees illegally.

For better management of the country's forest and wetland resources, the SFA will soon start work on a new national forestry development and afforestation plan.

"The existing plan was worked out in 1980s and cannot address the problems of today," Cao said. The new plan will have detailed guidelines on plantation and protection.

It will be completed this year and include development schemes for forestry, and public interest, commercial and non-timber forests.

(China Daily February 8, 2007)