Non-Timber Forest Products in China: History, Key Challenges, and Ways Forward

A Presentation by Jinlong Liu

Part of the "Unlocking the Bioeconomy for Nontimber Forest Products" Webinar Series

January 13, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. EDT

This presentation will explore China’s story of evolving notion of Non-Timber Forest Products, experiences of policy supporting promotion of NTFPs in the rural economy, and try to capture policy implications. NTFPs are of great importance to peoples’ livelihood, rural economy, cultural heritage, biodiversity conservation, and community engagement, yet their roles in rural social-ecological systems varies greatly. Since 2004, collective forest reform has been implemented and most forests have been privatized to individual households. However, a large percentage of those forests have been poorly managed due to low economic returns and bureaucratic challenges to harvesting trees. To be discussed are the steps taken to motivate more investment in forest lands and support implementation of rural collective forest tenure reform, what policy reforms by different levels of government have worked or not, and the challenges faced by and recommendations for integrating NTFPs into the "green" economy.

Jinlong Liu is a Professor and the director of the Center of Forestry, Environmental, and Resources Policy Study at the Renmin University of China. He received his PhD in Rural Development Sociology from the Wageningen University in 2006. He is Honourable Adjunct Professor at Hongkong University, Adjunct Professor at Wageningen University, and Research, Seoul National University. His research fields include: rural development, forest governance and policy, nature resource management, and environmental governance. He is Deputy Coordinator of IUFRO Forest Policy and Economic Division (Division 9), and a member of Task Force of Indigenous and Local Knowledge of the International Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. He has published more than 100 journal articles and 4 academic books between 2010 and 2020.

This webinar series is hosted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, The Forest History Society, Renmin University of China, and the IUFRO Task Force.

This event is made possible in part through funding from the Lynn W. Day Endowment.

Jinlong Liu