ECONOMIC - FORESTRY, FIRE PREVENTION, AFFORESTATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700210201-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 10, 2002
• Sequence Number: 201
• Publication Date: March 17, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2002/08/06 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000700210201-0
CLASSIFICATION RESTRICTED
SECURITY INFORMATION
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS
COUNTRY China
SUBJECT Economic-Forestry, fire prevention,
afforestation
HOW
PUBLISHED Monthly periodical
WHERE
PUBLISHED Peiping
DATE
PUBLISHED 5 Oct 1952
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REPORT NO.
CD NO.
DATE OF
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DATE DIST. /7 Mar 1953
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
summary: This report presents information on forestry
operations from an article by Liang Hsi, Minister of Forestry,
in the Chung-kuo Lin-yeh.
When the Ministry of Forestry of the Central People's Gov-
ernment took over from the *IT, forests occupied 5 percent of
the total land area and there were 300 million barren hills.
The policy of the government is to conserve water for agricul-
ture and to provide a supply of lumber for industrial construction.
The Ministry of Forestry is concerned with forest preser-
vation, reforestation, and the lumbering industry. Forest pre-
servation data show a decrease in losses from Liras. Reforesta-
tion data show that nonsiderable progress has been made in the
establishment of windbreaks and protection against drifting
sand.
Progress in the lumbering industry includes unified govern-
ment control, operations on an estimated coct basin, the organi-
zation of a labor union, the rational felling of timber, and in-
creased mechanization.
The report by the minister follows-7
The Ministry of Forestry was created on the first clay that the People's
Republic of China secured nationa.1 sovereignty, and forestry became one part
of the whole sphere of na eional reconstruction. Between 1931 and 1946, under
the reactionary KhfP government, the number of students graduating from the
forestry courses in all the colleges of the land averaged only 51 each year.
When the Ministry of Forestry took over from the KMT, forests covered only
5 percent of the total area of the land. On thr other hand, there were
almost 300 million hectares of barren hills.
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In 1950, the Central People's Government settled on a nationwide policy
for forestry involving three main phases, namely, forest preservation, af-
forestation and reforestation, and fostering the lumbering industry.
A. Forest Preservation
1. Fires
Fire is the forests' greatest enemy. Of forest losses during the
past 3 years fire accounted for 97.69 percent of the total.
Forestry resources are greatest in the Northeast and in Inner Mon-
golia. Here, too, losses from fire have been very severe. For the 3 years
in question 91.54 percent of the nation's fire loss occurred in this section.
People are the cause of fire and for fire prevention, reliance must be
placed upon people. All levels of the party and of the government must
first take measures to arouse, organize, and inztruct the people. In the
spring of 1952 in Suugkiang Province, 150,000 people received instructions
regarding forest protection and fire prevention. In Heilungkiang Province
one week of propaganda was devoted to arousing an enthusiastic movement for
the patriotic preservation of the forests.
Especially worthy of mention is the fact that forest protection and
forest production are placed together. There is not merely a negative warning
against fire hazards when going to the mountains to get supplementary income
from cutting down trees, but rather active promotion among the workers of
an organization of forest guards who volunteer to prevent fires.
Airplanes hove helped in forestry conservation. Deep in the moun-
tains in places not easily reached by men, planes have been especially ac-
tive from April through June in patrolling the greater and lesser Hsing-an
Shan forests and the Mu-tan Chiang Forest. It is estimated that these
planes made 122 flights, spent 440 hours In the air, and patrolled daily an
area of 300,000-400,000 square kilometers. Not only were they able to spot
the :sources of fires and Jive the alarm but also to dii --et the fire fighters
and to drop food supplies to then.
Because of the increased fire protection or, land and the use of
the airplane this spring, inner Mongolia suffered no losses from fire and
in the whole Northeast the loin as noticeably lessened. If the timber
loss by fire in the Northeast in 1950 is considered as 100, timber loss in
1952 is only ahast one percent. In the matter of area burned the figure
has decreased to 4.46 percent. The number of fire-fightir; 'rganizations
to protect the forests of the whole nation has increased to 95.540 i.nd the
number of men engaged in this work increased to 1,140,830.
As to the total fire loss, if the loss of 1950 Is considered as
100, in 1951 it. dropped t.o 70 percent, ?ind in the spring of 1952 farther
decreased to 5.09 percent.
However. tvo periods of :.Ckiess 1:unberin3 have been experienced
in all large di.>rricts of Chinas proper. In 1950, re l:less lumbering was
the result of: (1) landlords cutting down forests to tiv.:nrt the scheme
of lane distribution and (2) official organizations, mistakenly considering
that production saves from disaster, let, hundreds and thousands of men go
to the forests in organized groups to cut trees. I.-ter, beds were promul-
gated forbidding such practises.
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A second period was experienced in 1951 when, under the expansion of
construction, the need for lumber was especially urgent and public and
private firms purchased large quantities of lumber. In this period, also,
some local organizations met their own financial needs by cutting down and
selling the trees. This led to many abuses that threatened to disturb mar-
ket conditions until, in August 1951, laws were made calling for economy in
the use of lumber and a uniform policy was established including tight con-
trol and the power to investigate any abuses. At the same time, newspapers
started a propaganda drive on a national scale so that reckless lumbering
and competitive buying up of lumber were stopped.
B. Afforestation and Reforestation
In western Shantung 42 percent of -ne 34,000 hectares of wasteland has
been afforested. In eastern Homan, by next year, 312,000 hectares of trees
will have been planted to he drifting sand. In 1953. four hsien in the
lower reaches of the 'Yung Ting Ho, will complete a belt of trees to protect
the banks and form a windbreak. It is possible in the great territory
south of the Yangtze River to uee the considerable experience and skill
of the farmers to develop a forest of economic value that will furnish tim-
ber essential for both mines and mills. The people have faith to plan for
a coastal halt of trees extending without; break. from the Northeast through
Eopeh, Shantung, and North Kiangsu.
In the Northeast, the people will plant a forest extending (including
the coastal belt) for a length of 1,700 kilometers and a western protective
forest belt with an area of 20 million hectares.
Each year, afforestation activity has completed or exceeded its goal
everywhere. In 1950, the afforested area was 119,000 hectares, in 1951,
404,000 hectares, and it is estimated that in 1952 it will reach 832,000
hectares. This does not include incidental afforestation. The national
total for the 3 years is 1,350,0(X' hectares afforested and 1,610,000 hec-
tares of forests protected.
In comparison with about 300 million hectares of barren hills this is
only a beginning; but there has already been disfovered a source of strength
in the organization of all the people as they realize that their own gain
is united with the national gain. Experience teaches us that the most ef-
fective way to make forest parks is not by official orders but by having
the masses of people realize how forests benefit the farmers' lands so that
they will actively undertake their preservation.
The lumber industry includes felLin~; the trees, sawing; them into boards,
or making plywood, and all kinds of chemieal industries concerned with wood
products. Only !1.rtheast China is d:_s:ussud here, with emphasis on lumbering
and transportation. With the help of 3cviet tx_eits, the. Northeast has re-
formed production as follows:
1. It hot pro p esc?ed from difft.sed control to -nilied governmental
control.
2. It has progressed from the old-style marta ement to one with an
estimated cost basis. Formerly, imperialists, milir.arists, officials, big
landlords and business monopolists felled trees is if ;,hey wore robbers.
Now lumbering is a ;,,overrunen',: enterprise with a long-rsnie estimate, with
machines added to the equipment and with improved labor organization.
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3. It has progressed from the contract system to that of the organized
labor union with social welfare features, such as dormitories for single
men and for families, barber shops, bathhouses, restaurants, cooperatives,
hospitals, schools, and sanitariums. In localities where the work is on a
large scale, old peoples homes, middle. schools, and theaters seating up
to 3,000 people are also provided.
4. It has progressed from the plundering method to a rational style
of lumbering. With the help of Soviet specialists a reasonable method of
felling the trees with less waste has been established. Formerly, lumber-
men cut only the parts of trees they wanted and left the rest to rot, with
no regard for the future. ,Now branches and waste mater:; al are removed,
leaving the forest clean and in good order.
5. It has progressed from all manual labor toward mechanization. The
first stage in lumbering involved the use of manual labor exclusively, the
next stage was to use animals, but the third stage is that of using machinery.
Tree felling is still done by manual labor, but the piling of the logs and
their transportation to the railway or river bank is done by tractors, der-
ricks, and other machines.
During the list 3 years, the expansion of the lumber industry in the
Northeast has truly been a model for the nation. But reforestation of cut-
over land is still a great problem. In the case of red pines it is unwise
to trust to the cones dropped from the parent trees. Furthermore, the tree
growth that springs up is apt to be of a kind not welcomed for use as lumber.
The economic and cultural construction in the new China has been very
rapid. How can the lumbering industry meet the high tide of this construc-
tion? Up to 1952, there has been merely an absorbing of experience in the
stage of preparation. After 1953 progress will really be made,
Many questions remain. How sr 1.1 important places be selected for de-
veloping forests to protect the water supply of the four great rivers and
the smaller rivers? How car. we afforest the vast area of barren hills?
How can we fight against the terrible sandstorms of the Northwest?
How can we in positive fashion secure an economically valuable forest
south of the Yangtze River Basin": How can we, on the one hand, with a ra-
tional felling of trees assure industry that its lumber needs will be met
and on the other hand guarantee an unceasing reforestation' How can we
manage to have more wood produc1r- lumbering, plywood construction, use of
wood preservatives, and chemical processing of woad?
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