中国国务院公布减少森林采伐计划

China will reduce logging on planted forests and eventually end logging on natural forests, under a plan published this week by the State Council, China’s cabinet.

中国的内阁机构国务院在本周公布了一项计划，将减少人工林的采伐量，并最终停止天然林采伐。

Under the guidelines, China will reduce commercial harvesting of planted forests by 20 percent and eliminate logging on state-owned natural forests by 2020.

根据该指导意见，中国将在2020年前将人工林的商业性采伐减少20%，停止国有天然林场的采伐。

Amid the many environmental concerns facing China, the country’s forest cover has seen notable progress over the past several decades. China began aggressive efforts to expand its depleted forests in the 1980s, and that campaign took on a new intensity after 1998, when flooding of the Yangtze River was attributed to rampant logging. As a result “more of the country is forested than at any time since the early Qing” dynasty, the University of Washington scholars Alicia S.T. Robbins and Stevan Harrell wrote last year. The Qing dynasty spanned from 1644 to 1911.

中国面临很多环境问题，该国的森林覆盖面积在过去几十年中有了显著增加。中国在20世纪80年代开始大力扩种砍伐殆尽的森林，而这一行动的力度1998年以后愈发增强，因为当时长江洪水泛滥被归因于猖獗的采伐行为。华盛顿大学(University of Washington)学者艾丽西亚·S·T·罗宾斯(Alicia S.T. Robbins)和斯特万·哈勒尔(Stevan Harrell)在去年写道，结果“中国的森林覆盖面积达到了清朝初期以来的最高水平”。清朝的起止时间为1644至1911年。

But experts say that such reforestation efforts also have many weaknesses. Large numbers of trees of a single species are often planted together, leaving them vulnerable to disease and vast die-offs. Sometimes the trees are not appropriate for the arid climates where they are planted, increasing the strain on limited water resources. An effort to expand forest cover across north China to slow desertification, known colloquially as the Green Great Wall, has suffered from a poor survival rate of the trees planted.

但专家表示，这种重新造林的举措也存在很多问题。大量同一品种的树木通常会被种在一起，导致它们容易患病，出现树木大批死亡的情况。有时，树木会被种在并不适合的干旱气候之中，从而增加了有限的水资源所面临的压力。为了延缓荒漠化进程，中国北部采取了扩大森林覆盖面的措施，即人们所谓的“绿色长城”，但是种在那里的树木成活率很低。

Efforts to curb logging have also had unintended consequences. Following the 1998 flooding, a logging ban was enacted in 13 provinces to better protect the Yangtze and Yellow rivers. But that drove up imports, triggering fears of damage to vulnerable forests in Southeast Asia. Subsequent agreements between China and timber-exporting nations in Southeast Asia have helped alleviate some of those concerns.

遏制伐木的工作也会带来一些意想不到的后果。1998年的洪水之后，为了更好地保护长江与黄河，中国在13个省颁布了禁伐令。但是，木材进口由此增加，引发了人们对东南亚脆弱的森林会受到损害的担忧。中国和东南亚的木材出口国随后签订的一系列协议，在减轻这些担忧方面发挥了作用。

The plan to restrict logging in natural forests will largely be felt in northeast China. Last year China banned commercial logging in natural forests in Heilongjiang Province, the state news agency Xinhua reported. The government has budgeted 2.35 billion renminbi a year, about $380 million, to help cover the living costs of laid-off forestry workers and to promote other forest-related industries, according to chinadialogue, an independent website that reports on environmental issues.

很大程度上，限制采伐天然林的计划将在中国东北实施。据中国官方通讯社新华社报道，去年，中国已禁止对黑龙江省的天然林进行商业性采伐。报道环境议题的独立网站“中外对话”表示，政府每年将安排23.5亿元人民币的财政预算，用于保障失业林业工作者的生活开支，并促进其他森林相关的行业的发展。