Cases / Tree planting · China · 1998–2014
China's natural forest logging ban and the shift of timber imports
Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.
Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
Not on record
- The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
China limited natural-forest logging from 1998 and banned it fully from 2014, while timber imports rose above domestic commercial output. A 2010 study cited in the sources says 74% of China's forest gain over the last five years was offset by displacement abroad.
What?
China limited natural-forest logging from 1998 and banned it fully from 2014, while timber imports grew to exceed domestic commercial output. Forest Trends
Where?
Natural forests in China's upper Yangtze and Yellow River basins and the northeast (Heilongjiang); timber supply from abroad Forest Trends
When?
1998 (basin and quota measures) to 2014 (full ban in Heilongjiang) Forest Trends
Who?
Gained
- Chinese timber importers and processing industry — imported 88 million cubic metres of logs and sawn timber in 2014 (log equivalent) Forest Trends
- Plantation sector — plantation area reached 69.3 million hectares by 2013
Lost
- Forests in supplier countries — the sources name the Russian Far East, Myanmar, Mozambique and Madagascar as suppliers; a 2010 study says 74% of China's forest gain over five years was offset by displacement abroad
Harmed
None on recordWhy?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
How?
Logging quotas and basin bans, then a full natural-forest logging ban, with imports and plantations supplying the timber Forest Trends
6 of 6 questions answered from the record
What happened
The record, in order.
After the 1998 Yangtze floods the state banned natural-forest logging in the upper Yangtze and upper and middle Yellow River basins, and cut quotas in the northeast (Forest Trends, 2016).
Heilongjiang's annual output had already fallen from 4.1 to 0.89 million cubic metres before a full ban began there in 2014 (Forest Trends, 2016).
In 2014 China's imports of logs and sawn timber reached 88 million cubic metres in log equivalent, above domestic commercial output of 82 million (Forest Trends, 2016).
Quoted in the same report, the chairman of the Greater Hingan Mountains Forest Group said the group would expand overseas logging, including in Russia and Guyana, and build a new Greater Hingan abroad (Forest Trends, 2016).
In court and with insurers
Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.
Lawsuits and rulings
No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.
Insurers
No insurer decision on record.
What we don't know
Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
Nature
- Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
Record
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: a nationwide extension of the full logging ban in 2017; the cited 2016 Forest Trends report cannot support that date, and the text also says it called the ban 'symbolic'.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: upper Yangtze and upper Yellow River basin timber output fell from 13.5 million cubic metres in 1997 to 1.1 million in 2000.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: Russia's share of China's log imports rose from 21.3% in 1997 to 33% in 1998, and about 70% of China's raw wood imports came from Russia in 2005–2007.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: Myanmar's official log imports were about 740,000 cubic metres, with real volume estimated at twice that.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: China's 2021 timber self-sufficiency of 49% and its status as the world's largest importer of logs and sawn timber.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: Chatham House data showing China's illegal wood purchases roughly doubled in 2000–2013, and that China took 90% of Mozambique's timber exports.
- None on record Not stated: a combined figure for timber lost in supplier countries; the sources give country examples only.
- None on record Not stated: whether the overseas plans attributed to the Greater Hingan Mountains Forest Group were carried out.
Did the harm stop?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Who paid?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Sources
Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts— Press and investigations✓ Communities and civil society— Researchers
Communities and civil society
- China's Logging Ban in Natural ForestsForest Trends · 2016
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