Announcement of the Standing Committee of the Tenth People’s Congress of Jiangsu Province
No.123
Regulations of Jiangsu Province on Public Ecological Forests, adopted at the Twenty-Seventh Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Tenth People’s Congress of Jiangsu Province on November 30, 2006, are hereby promulgated and shall enter into effect as of February 1, 2007.
November 30, 2006
(Adopted at the Twenty-Seventh Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Tenth People’s Congress of Jiangsu Province on November 30, 2006)
Chapter IGeneral Provisions
Article 1These Regulations are enacted in accordance with Forestry Law of the People’s Republic of China and other relevant laws and administrative regulations, in light of the specific situation of this Province, and for the purposes of strengthening construction and protection of public ecological forests, improving ecological conditions, maintaining ecological security, protecting lawful rights and interests of the owners and the operators of public ecological forests.
Article 2 “Public ecological forests” as used in these Regulations refer to forests, forest trees and forest land, including shelter forests and special-purpose forests, which are intended as their main function for ecological and social benefits and utilized mainly for the provision of public-welfare and social products or services, and which are defined according to the State regulations and relevant standards.
Public ecological forests are classified into state, provincial, city and county levels.
Article 3These Regulations are applicable to activities of planning, construction, protection and management of public ecological forests within the administrative region of this Province. Where there are provisions otherwise prescribed in laws and regulations, those provisions shall prevail.
Article 4 Construction and protection of public ecological forests shall follow the principles of government leadership, social participation, unified planning, step-by-step implementation, strict protection, and level-to-level responsibility, and improve the ecological benefits of public ecological forests and be included as public welfare undertaking into national economy and social development planning and annual plans and be managed under the objective responsibility assessment system.
Article 5The competent forestry department of local peoples government at or above the county level takes charge of the work on public ecological forests within the administrative region.
The relevant departments such as departments of development and reform, finance, land and resources, construction (gardening), environment protection, water resources, transportation, tourism, and public security shall accomplish their work concerning public ecological forests according to their respective responsibilities.
Article 6Local people’s governments at all levels and their relevant departments and news media including radio, television, and newspapers shall strengthen publicity of the protection of public ecological forests and relevant laws and regulations.
Article 7 All units and individuals have the obligation to protect public ecological forests and have the right to report and stop acts of damaging public ecological forests.
Units and individuals that have made remarkable achievements in constructing, protecting and managing public ecological forests shall be commended and rewarded by local people’s governments at various levels.
Chapter IIPlanning and Construction
Article 8The provincial plan for public ecological forest shall be formulated by the provincial competent forestry department jointly with other relevant departments and be implemented after it is promulgated and approved by the Provincial People’s Government.
Public Plans for ecological forests at the city and county levels shall be formulated respectively by the competent departments of forestry at the city and county (city, district) levels jointly with other relevant departments and be implemented after they are approved by the people’s governments at the corresponding levels, and shall be submitted to the provincial competent forestry department for record.
The plan for public ecological forests shall be coordinated with the general plan for land use, the long-term forestry plan, the plan for water and soil conservation, the city comprehensive plan, the village or town plan, the plan for scenic area, and other relevant plans.
Priority shall be given to forest land and unexploited land along the sides of expressways, state highways, provincial highways, the
Article 9The approved plan for public ecological forest shall not be altered without authorization. Alteration, when necessary, shall be approved by the original approval department. Approved alterations to plans for public ecological forests at the city and county levels shall be submitted to the provincial competent forestry department for record.
Article 10 The Provincial People’s Government applies target control over the acreage of the state and provincial public ecological forests within the administrative region of this Province. The acreage target of the state and provincial public ecological forests is determined by the Provincial People’s Government and is further divided and allocated by levels to cities and counties (cities and districts), and the people’s governments at the city (divided into districts) and county (city, district) levels shall, according to the state and provincial technical standards and procedures on demarcation of public ecological forests, specify the land for these public ecological forests at the state and provincial levels. The information of public ecological forests at the provincial level shall be submitted to the Provincial People’s Government for review and approval and be made public uniformly. Public ecological forests at the state level shall be handled according to the relevant state regulations.
The acreage target of public ecological forests at the level of city or county shall be determined by the people’s governments at the level of city divided into districts or county (city, district) and be submitted to the provincial competent forestry department for record.
Article 11 Local people’s governments at all levels shall encourage and support social forces to participate in the construction of public ecological forests. Construction of public ecological forests shall be prioritized in the annual plan for voluntary tree planting and afforestation by the citizens.
The units in charge of the area on both sides of railways, highways, and rivers and around lakes and reservoirs within the scope of the planned public ecological forests, shall be the responsible units for afforestation; For industrial or mining areas, land used by organs or schools, troop camps as well as operation areas for farms and cultivation, the units concerned shall be the responsible units for afforestation. Construction of public ecological forests in other areas shall be organized by the relevant competent forestry departments.
Article 12Construction of public ecological forests shall make use of the original terrain, landforms, water system and vegetation and conform to the relevant technical standards of the State; forest sections within the scope of planned public ecological forests which do not conform to the relevant technical standards of the State, shall be renovated within a prescribed time limit.
Article 13Public bidding system shall be implemented for the construction project of public ecological forests that have been included in the infrastructural construction programs of the State and the local governments, and the units of planning and design, construction, supervision which tender for the project shall achieve relevant qualifications.
Article 14 Local people’s governments at or above the county level may, according to the needs of ecological construction, acquire the right of using non-state-owned forests, forest trees and forest land in the regions of important ecological location or fragile ecological environment, through ways of transfer or lease according to law, to construct and develop public ecological forests and specify the corresponding units responsible for the management and protection.
Chapter IIIProtection and Management
Article 15Local people’s governments at or above the county level shall register public ecological forests, examine and issue certificates of forest rights which specify the category of public ecological forests and confirm the ownership and the right to use; category registration shall be promptly fulfilled for the certificates of forest rights which have already been issued but do not specify the categories of public ecological forests.
The competent forestry departments of the local people’s governments at or above the county level shall erect signs at conspicuous places round the boundary of public ecological forests for publicity. The category of public ecological forests, acreage and responsible person shall be publicized.
No unit or individual may destroy or remove without authorization signs of public ecological forests.
Article 16Units and individuals are encouraged to participate in construction and protection of public ecological forests through voluntary tree planting and tree adoption. Units or individuals who want to plant or adopt trees voluntarily shall sign the agreements on voluntary planting or adoption with the forest management and protection units.
Article 17The competent forestry department or the town-level people’s government entrusted by the competent forestry department at the county level shall sign contracts of management and protection of public ecological forests with the operators of public ecological forests, which specify the rights and obligations of both parties and serve the basis for compensation for the benefit of forest ecology. Public ecological forest operators shall, according to the requirements of the foresaid contracts, appoint forest guards, delimit responsibility areas for forest management and protection, and fulfill their forest protection duties according to law.
The format of management and protection contracts and the acreage standard for forest guard appointment for public ecological forests at the state and the provincial levels shall be formulated by the provincial competent forestry department according to relevant state regulations.
Article 18The following activities are prohibited in public ecological forests:
(1) cutting firewood, collecting resin, or hunting;
(2) excavating sand, fetching or quarrying earth;
(3) using fire in the open air;
(4) tomb building;
(5) discharging pollutants or piling up solid waste;
(6) other acts of damaging public ecological forest resources.
Mountainous areas and hills where public ecological forests are located and which have not been listed in the quarrying-forbidden areas shall be so included by the people’s governments at the level of the Province and city divided into districts. Tombs existing in public ecological forests, except those under the protection of the State, shall be moved out within a prescribed time limit or be buried deep at the original spots.
Article 19 Strict control shall be exercised over occupation of the land of state-level and provincial-level public ecological forest. Where such occupation is necessitated for key infrastructural construction projects at or above the provincial level, the provincial competent forestry department shall organize experts to conduct feasibility studies when examining the applications for forest land occupation according to law.
Article 20Where the area of public ecological forest at the state and provincial levels is reduced due to land occupation, the local competent forestry department at the county level shall, according to the principle of “occupy one, make up one”, restore the reduced acreage at other places of its administrative regions; if it is difficult to implement restoration within its administrative regions, the local competent forestry department shall submit an application to the competent forestry department at the next higher level and the latter shall organize the restoration at other places within its administrative region, and the cost thus incurred shall be borne by the local people’s government at the county (city, district) level which submits the application.
Article 21 Felling or excavating are prohibited in the following categories of public ecological forests:
(1) forests and forest trees in places famous for their scenery or historic relics and places for memorial;
(2) forests and forest trees in natural reserves where endangered species or ecological systems are protected;
(3) forests and forest trees in drinking water source protection areas;
(4) forests and forest trees in other areas with adverse land conditions or fragile ecological environment.
Article
(1) public ecological forests which have a slope of 25 degrees or above;
(2) naturally formed public ecological forests which have a slope of less than 25 degrees;
(3) artificially formed public ecological forests which have a slope of less than 25 degrees and do not reach the age of maturity in terms of quantity.
Article 23It is prohibited to transplant forest trees of more than ten years old from public ecological forests at the state-level or provincial-level, or to fell precious trees in such forests. Felling of precious trees that is necessitated out of special needs such as scientific research shall be approved by the provincial competent forestry department.
Transplanting other trees shall conform to the regulations on felling and excavating for cultivation.
Article 24 The tree felling license shall be obtained according to the law for renewal felling, cultivation felling or excavating, and felling for transformation of low-benefit forests in public ecological forests. If the forests are state-level or provincial-level public ecological forests, applications of such felling shall be submitted according to the law to the provincial competent forestry department for examination and approval.
Where the felling for transformation of the low-benefit forest or the renewal felling covers more than four hectares in state-level or provincial-level public ecological forests, the provincial competent forestry department shall organize experts to conduct feasibility studies when examining the applications according to law.
Article 25Anyone who carries out business activities within the scope of public ecological forests shall follow the principle of protection priority and shall not change the purpose of forest land use or damage the ecological environment.
For projects of development, exploitation, and construction of non-wooden resources such as forest tourism and recreation in the state and provincial-level public ecological forests, the relevant departments shall seek the advice of the provincial competent forestry department before approving them. The provincial competent forestry department shall organize experts to assess possible impacts of these development and exploitation activities on the ecological functions of forests and present its advice on the basis of the expert assessment. The relevant departments shall not approve the projects which are considered by the assessment to have destructive impacts on ecological functions of forests.
If entities other than public ecological forest operators carry out development and exploitation in public ecological forests, developers shall sign development and exploitation contracts with public ecological forest operators and pay the latter a certain amount of economic compensation, and the standard for compensation shall be agreed upon in the contracts.
Article 26The competent forestry departments of the local people’s governments at or above the county level shall establish monitoring and information systems for public ecological forests and set up sample monitoring spots to monitor the conditions of public ecological forest resources and ecological benefits within their administrative regions.
Chapter IVFunding
Article 27 Funds for planning, construction, protection, and management of public ecological forests shall be included in the financial budgets of the people’s governments at or above the county level according to the principles of hierarchical financial management and unification of administrative and financial powers and shall be increased gradually along with the local economic growth.
Article 28Local people’s governments at or above the county level shall establish the forest ecological benefit compensation fund and set up and improve the system of forest ecological benefit compensation.
Article 29The forest ecological benefit compensation fund shall be mainly used by the personnel in charge of management and protection of public ecological forests as costs and expenses in their operations of planting, cultivation, protection, and management and as benefit compensation for such operations.
The standard of the forest ecological benefit compensation shall be formulated by the financial department of the local people’s government jointly with the competent forestry departments and shall be submitted to the people’s government at the corresponding level for approval.
Chapter VLegal Liability
Article 30Anyone who, in violation of the provisions in the third paragraph of Article 15 of these Regulations, destroys or remove without authorization signs of public ecological forests, shall be ordered by the competent forestry departments to restore the signs to their original state within a prescribed time limit; if the foresaid person fails to carry out the restoration within the prescribed time limit, the competent forestry department shall restore the sign on behalf of the offender, who shall bear all the expenses thus required.
Article 31Anyone who, in violation of the provisions in the first paragraph of Article 23 of these Regulations, transplants trees that are more than 10 years old or fells precious trees without authorization, shall be ordered by the local competent forestry department to plant ten times the number of the transplanted trees, the transplanted trees or the gains from the transplantation shall be confiscated, and a fine of not less than three times but not more than ten times the value of the transplanted trees shall be concurrently imposed; if the foresaid person refuses to plant trees or fails to conform to the relevant state provisions in planting trees, the competent forestry department shall plant the trees on behalf of the offender, who shall bear all the expenses thus required.
Article 32Anyone who, in violation of the provisions in Article 25 of these Regulations, destroys public ecological forests in the operation activities of development and exploitation, shall be ordered by the competent forestry department to stop the illegal acts, plant not less than one time but not more than three times the number of the destroyed trees, and a fine of not less than three times but not more than five times the value of the destroyed trees shall be concurrently imposed; if the foresaid person refuses to plant trees or fails to conform to the relevant state provisions in planting trees, the competent forestry department shall plant the trees on behalf of the offender, who shall bear all the expenses thus required.
Article 33Where the relevant competent departments of local people’s governments at or above the county level or their staff members commit any of the following acts, they shall be given administrative sanctions by the organ at a higher level or by the unit to which the offender belongs to; where a crime is constituted, criminal liability shall be investigated in accordance with law:
(1) in violation of the provisions in Article 19, the second paragraph of Article 24, the second paragraph of Article 25 of these Regulations, failing to organize experts to carry out feasibility studies or assessment, and thus causing losses and damages to the public ecological forests;
(2) in violation of the second paragraph of Article 25 of these Regulations, approving the projects that damage the ecological functions of the forests;
(3) misappropriating, encroaching on, intercepting, or embezzling the ecological benefit compensation fund);
(4) other acts of abuse of power, negligence of duties, or malpractice for personal gains that cause damages to public ecological forests.
Article 34Anyone who commits any other act that violates these Regulations shall be punished in accordance with the relevant state laws and regulations.
Chapter VISupplementary Provisions
Article 35 These Regulations shall enter into force as of February 1, 2007.
