The General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the Plan for Deepening the Reform of the Collective Forest Tenure System

　　Beijing, 25 Sep (Xinhua) -- Recently, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Plan for Deepening the Reform of the Collective Forest Tenure System" and issued a circular urging all localities and departments to conscientiously implement it in light of actual conditions.

　　The full text of the Plan for Deepening the Reform of the Collective Forest Tenure System is as follows.

　　Collective forests are an important carrier for improving carbon sink capacity, an important foundation for maintaining ecological security, and an important resource for rural revitalization. The reform of the collective forest tenure system is of great significance to consolidate and improve the basic rural management system, promote farmers' employment and income, build ecological civilization, and promote green development. This plan is formulated in order to deepen the reform of the collective forest tenure system and consolidate and expand the results of the reform.

　　1. General requirements

　　To deepen the reform of the collective forest tenure system, it is necessary to take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guide, deeply implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, fully implement Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, firmly establish and practice the concept that green waters and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains, actively and steadily promote the innovation of the collective forest rights system, protect the collective forest rights and interests of farmers and forestry operators in accordance with the law, enhance the endogenous driving force of ecological protection and forestry development, continuously improve the mechanism for realizing the value of ecological products and the ecological compensation system, and give full play to the multiple functions of forests. Promote the high-quality development of forestry, promote the common prosperity of farmers and rural areas, promote harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and strive to achieve the organic unity of ecological beauty and people's prosperity.

　　– Persisting in the direction of reform and steadily deepening exploration. Ensure the long-term stability of the collective forest land contracting relationship, revitalize the management right of forest land, and protect the ownership of forest trees. Respect the initiative of the masses, timely summarize and refine experience and practices, classify policies by region, highlight problem-oriented, adhere to bottom-line thinking, do not engage in one-size-fits-all and forced orders, and ensure that reform always advances in the right direction.

　　– Adhere to ecological priority and green development. Put ecological protection in the first place, promote the conservation and intensive recycling of forest resources, coordinate protection and development, scientifically carry out forest management, improve forest quality, increase the supply of ecological products, and enhance forest ecological, economic and social benefits.

　　-- Persistently respecting the wishes of farmers and protecting their rights and interests. Give full play to the decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources, give better play to the role of the government, and implement a number of reform measures needed for development, desired by the grassroots and desired by the people, so that the people can have more sense of gain, happiness and security.

　　By 2025, a collective forest tenure system with clear ownership, unified responsibilities and rights, strict protection, orderly circulation and effective supervision will be basically formed. On this basis, by continuing to deepen reform, further develop the appropriate scale management of forestry, promote more scientific and efficient forest management, improve the support and protection system, and diversify the value-added ways of forest rights, and continuously promote the sustainable growth of forest resources, the continuous improvement of forest ecological quality, the continuous improvement of forest area development conditions, and the continuous increase of farmers' income.

　　Second, the main tasks

　　(1) Accelerate the promotion of the "separation of powers." Implement the "separation of three rights" of ownership, contracting rights and management rights of collective forest land. Implement ownership, insist that the ownership of collective forest land remains unchanged, and safeguard the power of farmers' collectives to contract, adjust, and supervise contracted forest land. Stabilize the contracting right, keep the collective forest land contracting relationship stable and unchanged for a long time, adhere to the principle of extension of contract when the contract period expires, and must not disrupt and redivide the contracted forest land, so as to ensure that the vast majority of peasant households' original contracted forest land continues to remain stable. Safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of farmers settling in urban areas, and encourage voluntary and paid transfer in accordance with law. Where the remaining term of household forest land contracting is less than 10 years, the contracting party may confirm the extension contract in advance in accordance with law, and reasonably determine the extension period from the expiration of the forest land contract. The right to operate the forest land may be recirculated according to law or financed by financial institutions in accordance with the law. When the contract for the management right of forest land is terminated, the rights and interests of the owner of the right to operate the forest land shall be protected, and the transferee of the forest land shall be encouraged to transfer the ownership of the forest at a fair price, so as to maintain the normal production and operation activities of forestry. The right to operate forest land with a circulation period of more than 5 years may apply to the real estate registration agency for registration and issuance of a certificate, which may be used as a certificate for mortgage loans for forest rights, declaration of forestry projects, application for forest harvesting and other relevant administrative matters.

　　(2) Develop forestry operations on an appropriate scale. All localities are encouraged to take measures to guide farmers to transfer forest land management rights through leasing, shareholding, cooperation, etc. Support smallholder farmers to jointly carry out production through various forms, and promote the model of joint household operation, cooperative operation between rural collective economic organizations and farmers' shares, and entrusted operation by farmers. Give play to the role of various socialized service organizations in driving small farmers, improve the mechanism for linking the interests of small farmers, and promote the organic connection between small farmers and modern forestry development. For forest lands that are still under the unified operation and management of rural collective economic organizations, the income rights of collective forest lands shall be quantified to households, and income rights certificates shall be issued to households. Support the establishment of forest rights collection and storage institutions in all localities, and adopt market-oriented methods to collect and store decentralized forest rights. Encourage the exploration of the forest voucher operation mechanism of quantifying the conversion of forest right assets, and enhance the attractiveness of forest resource assets to social capital. All localities should rely on existing platforms to build a forest rights circulation and trading system, and establish channels for social capital to invest in forest rights. Encourage all kinds of enterprises to participate in forestry investment and operation, strengthen the supervision of the whole process of social capital investment in forestry, and establish and improve the mechanism of joint farming with agriculture. Encourage all localities to adopt measures such as improving forestry production and operation conditions, purchasing socialized services, and subsidizing forest rights collection and storage guarantee fees to cultivate forestry scale management entities. Support regional classification to explore incentive mechanisms for the distribution of operating income from state-owned forest farms, guide joint management between state-owned forest farms and rural collective economic organizations and farmers, and promote the improvement of collective forest management levels. Improve the mediation mechanism for disputes over the transfer of forest rights, and include the mediation of disputes over collective forest land contracting and operation into the evaluation system for Ping An China's construction.

　　(3) Effectively strengthen forest management. Proceeding from the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of farmers, the scope of public welfare forests and natural forests shall be scientifically demarcated in accordance with laws and regulations, and the scope shall not be arbitrarily expanded. Reasonably optimize the proportion of collective forests in public welfare forests, give due consideration to transferring collective forest lands where the ecological location of forests is not important or the ecological status is not fragile from the scope of public welfare forests in accordance with law, and obtain the consent of the State Council and provincial (autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government) governments, and publish them. The competent departments of forestry and grassland at the county level should explore the establishment of a management system based on forest management plans, support and guide large-scale management entities to independently prepare forest management plans, and use forest management plans as an important basis for approving forest felling, arranging forestry projects and other administrative management matters. Implement projects to improve forest quality accurately, promote efficient forest management models, and adopt measures such as stand transformation, forest tending and optimization of forest species and species structure to improve ecosystem diversity, stability and sustainability. Encourage all localities to explore differentiated forest management subsidy policies in light of actual conditions, and focus on supporting the tending of young and medium-sized forests. Implement full-cycle forest management, and accelerate the transformation and renewal of low-yield, low-yield and inefficient forests and overmature forests through measures such as harvesting and renewal, tending and rejuvenation, selective felling and restoration.

　　(4) Ensuring the ownership and power of forests. Implement a five-year total control policy for forest harvesting quotas for forestry operators, abolish the age limit for main felling of artificial commercial forests, clarify the conditions for the renewal of artificial public welfare forests, implement the approval of forest harvesting notification and commitment methods, and include the allocation of forest harvesting quota indicators, the application and approval of forest felling permits, and the felling supervision into the list of government public matters. Strengthen the supervision of forest management plans and the implementation of informed commitments, local governments should make good use of sufficient forest harvesting quotas, and include timber harvested in accordance with the law in the responsibility system of local governments for forest resources protection and development goals, so as to meet the reasonable forest harvesting needs in forest management. Lawful felling shall not be prohibited or restricted in any name, and where it is truly necessary to prohibit or restrict, the right holder shall be given economic compensation in accordance with law.

　　(5) Actively support industrial development. Strengthen the capacity building of the supply of important primary forest products such as woody grain and oil, timber, bamboo and forest medicinal materials, and encourage major forestry provinces, cities and counties to cultivate forestry pillar industries. To implement the action of rejuvenating forests and enriching the people, policies such as agricultural and rural industry development, regional revitalization, green economy and circular economy development should form a joint force, support the development of forestry industry in large collective forestry counties, implement a number of cash-for-work projects, upgrade a number of modern industrial parks, and support a number of specialized and special new forestry enterprises. Under the premise of protecting forest resources and ecology, under-forest resources, forest clearings, forest edge forest lands, etc. of public welfare forests may be used in accordance with the law, and green and people-enriching industries such as under-forest economy, eco-tourism, forest health care, and nature education may be appropriately developed, and illegal acts such as villas and golf courses in disguise are strictly prohibited, and the protection of historical and cultural heritage in forest areas shall be strengthened. Through government procurement, actively promote the application of wood and bamboo structure buildings and wood and bamboo building materials. Establish a forest ecological product label management and product traceability system, and create regional forestry characteristic brands. Encourage all localities to hold forest ecological product promotion activities and provide marketing services. Combined with the construction of rural public welfare infrastructure and the implementation of relevant industry development plans, support the construction of collective forest infrastructure such as forestry industry roads, tourism roads, and resource roads. Promote the inclusion of a number of advanced applicable machinery for forestry production in the scope of subsidized machinery for the purchase and application of agricultural machinery in accordance with procedures.

　　(6) Explore and improve mechanisms for realizing the value of ecological products. Establish and improve the forestry carbon sink measurement and monitoring system, and form the forestry carbon sink accounting baseline and methodology. Support qualified forestry carbon sink projects to develop into voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction projects and participate in market transactions, and establish and improve ecological protection compensation mechanisms that can reflect the value of carbon sinks. Explore the implementation of the forestry carbon voucher system, formulate forestry carbon sink management measures, and encourage carbon emitting enterprises, large-scale event organizers, and the public to fulfill their social responsibilities through the purchase of forestry carbon sinks. Improve the compensation mechanism for forest ecological benefits, and unify the management and protection of natural forests and the compensation policy for national public welfare forests。 Encourage all localities to explore the implementation of differentiated compensation based on factors such as ecological protection contributions, the importance of ecological location, and the difficulty of forest management and protection. Implement categorical operation and management of public welfare forests and commercial forests, clarify hierarchical protection and differentiated utilization measures, protect the rights and interests of right holders, and promote the value appreciation of forest rights. Encourage local governments to properly dispose of collective forests in important ecological locations through leasing, redemption, cooperation, etc., to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of right holders.

　　(7) Increase financial support. Give full play to the leading role of green finance, study the inclusion of qualified forest rights trading services and intensive processing of forest products into the scope of green finance support, and increase financial support. Improve green loan statistics. Encourage and guide financial institutions to increase support for forestry loans in combination with their functional positioning and business scope. Mortgage loans for forest rights and loans for forestry business entities will be included in the assessment and assessment of rural revitalization services served by financial institutions, and incentives and constraints will be strengthened. If the non-performing rate of forest right mortgage loans of commercial banks is less than 3 percentage points (inclusive) higher than the non-performing rate of its own loans, it may not be used as a deduction factor for the regulatory rating of the regulatory department and the bank's internal assessment and evaluation. Improve the mechanism for the rapid disposal of mortgaged forest rights, guide financial institutions to increase support for mortgage loans for forest rights in accordance with the principle of marketization, and increase the mortgage rate of forest rights. Strengthen the supervision of forest rights collection and storage guarantee business, give play to the professional advantages of forest rights collection and storage institutions in operating forest right assets, and encourage social capital to carry out forest rights collection and storage guarantee services. Explore green credit products based on carbon sink rights, which can be included in the scope of carbon emission reduction support tools if qualified, and support eligible issuers to issue rural revitalization notes or bond issuance with forest rights as security. Support insurance institutions to innovate and develop various types of forestry insurance products, and encourage local governments to include forestry insurance products in the scope of local advantageous and characteristic agricultural product insurance incentive policies. Encourage all localities to improve the market competition mechanism of insurance institutions and improve service quality and efficiency.

　　(8) Properly resolve problems left over from history. Based on the unified base map of the third national land survey, accelerate the integration and transfer of forest rights registration stock data, incorporate it into the management of the real estate registration information platform, and properly solve the problems of overlapping and overlapping ownership of collective forest land. Where collective forest rights are registered for the first time, the relevant funds shall be included in the local financial budget. Give play to the role of village groups and carry out cadastral surveys before contracts are signed. Where an entire registered forest land applies for change, transfer or mortgage registration, the applicant must not be required to resubmit the results of the cadastral survey of forest rights. Where it is really necessary to carry out supplementary investigation due to the lack of drawings of the original forest rights registration results and the unclear boundary address, the government shall organize and carry out a cadastral survey. Promote the effective docking of the real estate registration information platform with the comprehensive forest rights supervision platform, and realize real-time mutual communication and sharing of forest rights approval, transaction and registration information. Reform the system of using self-reserved mountains, give farmers fuller property rights, explore the division of their long-term forest land use rights into use rights and management rights, give management rights the circulation and financing security rights of management rights, and improve their inheritance and voluntary paid withdrawal policies.

　　3. Safeguard measures

　　(9) Strengthen organizational leadership. Local party committees and governments at all levels should attach great importance to deepening the reform of the collective forest tenure system, include it in the scope of work of the forest chief system, implement the main leadership responsibility system, promptly resolve the contradictions and problems encountered, and summarize and popularize typical experiences and practices. All provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) should speed up the formulation of implementation plans in light of actual conditions, clarify responsibilities, refine tasks, and pursue responsibility for those who fail to do their work in accordance with laws and disciplines, so as to ensure that the reform is implemented and effective. In principle, supporting documents are not formulated at the city and county levels. The State Forestry and Grassland Administration is responsible for coordinating and promoting the tasks and measures proposed in this plan, and relevant departments should strengthen communication and close cooperation to form a joint force. Where adjustments to existing laws or administrative regulations are involved, they shall be implemented in accordance with relevant procedures after authorization by the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee or the State Council.

　　(10) Support advanced exploration. Support Fujian, Jiangxi and Chongqing in building pilot zones for deepening the reform of the collective forest tenure system, give full play to their leading role, and provide replicable and replicable experiences and models for deepening the reform of the collective forest tenure system nationwide. All localities are encouraged to actively deepen the reform of the collective forest rights system in light of their own actual conditions, and explore a number of effective experiences and practices in such areas as the income guarantee mechanism for tree planting farmers, the compensation mechanism for the interests of large collective forestry counties, the development of large-scale forestry operations, the way to increase the value of forest rights, the investment and financing mechanism for forest rights, the system for protecting the rights and interests of forestry property, the development of forestry industry, the collective forest management system and socialized services. Strengthen tracking guidance, and promptly stop and correct deviations and improper development in various names.

　　(11) Strengthen contingent building. Local party committees and governments at all levels should clarify the responsibilities of the competent departments for forestry and grassland in accordance with the law, make overall plans for the use of preparation resources, and appropriately increase professional and technical posts. Strengthen the administrative law enforcement duties of the competent departments for forestry and grassland, and promote the tilt of personnel establishment towards the front line of law enforcement. Large collective forestry counties should earnestly strengthen the strength of grassroots forestry work, and township and town governments should clarify that relevant institutions undertake forestry work. Forest public security is directly led and managed by public security organs, its functions remain unchanged, and the framework and force distribution of grassroots forest public security teams remain basically stable. Implement actions to improve the capacity of ecological rangers and enhance the ability of ecological rangers to support services.

　　(12) Strengthen assessment and evaluation. The State Forestry and Grassland Administration and the provincial-level forestry and grassland authorities shall establish an evaluation index system that objectively reflects the effectiveness of deepening the reform of the collective forest tenure system, and include the evaluation results in the scope of supervision and assessment of the forest chief system, and promptly request instructions and reports to the Party Central Committee and the State Council on major matters.