China's specialty economic forest area will exceed 40 million hectares in 2020

The State Forestry Administration recently issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Development of the Specialty Economic Forest Industry," proposing that by 2020, the newly added planting area of specialty economic forests reach 8.1 million hectares, and the total area of economic forests increase by 24% compared with 2010, reaching 41 million hectares.

The Opinions make clear that full use should be made of the multiple functions and unique advantages of economic forests in cultivating forests, protecting ecology, creating landscapes, and passing on culture, and that innovative efforts should be made to promote diversified development models centered on economic forest cultivation. Vigorously develop sightseeing and picking, farming experiences, leisure and recreation, and other activities closely integrated with economic forests, further broaden the development fields of the economic forest industry, and continuously improve the comprehensive benefits of developing economic forests.

Economic forests are forests whose main purpose is the production of fruit, edible oil, beverages, seasonings, industrial raw materials, and medicinal materials. China's economic forests are rich in tree species resources, have many product types, long industry chains, and wide applications. As of the end of 2013, the national economic forest planting area was 37.81 million hectares, with total output of 148 million tonnes, and the annual output value of economic forest planting and collection reached 924 billion yuan, accounting for more than half of the output value of the forestry primary industry; in nearly 1,000 key counties for specialty economic forests nationwide, income from economic forests accounted for more than 20% of the local farmers' per capita net income, becoming an important source of income for rural areas, especially for farmers in mountainous areas.