Forestland protection and management calls for long-term mechanism

On January 9, the State Forestry Administration reported the results of the 2014 national inspection of forest land management, which showed that various illegal forest land occupation projects increased by 7.1% over 2013. Liu Dongsheng, deputy director of the State Forestry Administration, said that woodland protection and management should not be piecemeal, but should establish a long-term mechanism to fundamentally reduce the occurrence of illegal occupation.

Liu Dongsheng said: during the national inspection of woodland management last year, the State Forestry Administration selected 1620 of the 12839 plots suspected of occupying forest land interpreted by remote sensing images, and found that there were 1256.3 hectares of forest land occupied in violation of laws and regulations; 9489 pieces of forest land were handed over to local governments for self-examination, and 653 items of forest land were found to be occupied in violation of laws and regulations, covering an area of 2209.1 hectares.

"according to the analysis of the inspection results, the projects of illegal occupation of forest land are mainly concentrated in four aspects: the area of forest land destroyed by land consolidation; some places" give the green light "to industrial parks and illegally occupy forest land; the encroachment and occupation of forest land by quarrying, mining and all kinds of commercial construction have been banned repeatedly; and the planning for the protection and utilization of forest land has been adjusted at will to affect the normal order of forest land management." Said Hao Yanxiang, director of the Forest Resources Management Department of the State Forestry Administration.

In addition, the inspection also found that the supervision of law enforcement in some places is weak. For example, some local forestry authorities have weak supervision and weak law enforcement, substitute punishment for approval and punishment, and do not have enough accountability and crackdown. some local forestry authorities have gone through the formalities of re-examination in violation of regulations without investigating and dealing with projects occupying forest land in violation of laws and regulations, which has encouraged the behavior of preemption without approval, and there is a phenomenon of false self-examination and report in some places.

Liu Dongsheng said that the State Forestry Administration has decided to list and supervise key cases, and the problem is mainly dealt with in two aspects: one is the treatment of people, and the other is the recovery of lost forest land. "if the government violates the law and the enterprise as a legal person violates the law, it is necessary to investigate the party discipline, political discipline, and legal responsibility of the local responsible persons, and to investigate the legal responsibility of those directly responsible in accordance with the law. For cases of serious illegal occupation of woodland, measures such as on-site supervision, news exposure, interviews and administrative regulation and control will be taken. For counties with serious problems in woodland management, before rectification and reform is in place, the qualification for the use of national reserve quota for the occupation and expropriation of woodland in the province shall be cancelled, and the examination and approval of the project of occupation and expropriation of woodland in the city shall be suspended. "

In recent years, the illegal occupation of woodland is not only endless, but also has an increasing trend. Liu Dongsheng believes: "in addition to striking hard, it is also necessary to study the establishment of a long-term mechanism for woodland protection and management. First of all, the authority of forest land protection and utilization planning should be serious, and the red line of forest land and forest protection should be resolutely implemented and abided by; secondly, forestry departments should work with relevant departments such as organization and personnel, discipline inspection and supervision, to explore and establish the assessment and evaluation system and accountability system of the government; thirdly, it is necessary to strengthen the capacity-building of woodland law enforcement teams in forestry departments. Finally, it is necessary to open up information channels for forest land cases and forest land protection and management, and establish a supervision that combines functional supervision with social supervision, especially media exposure and network platform. in the future, it can become an important source for strengthening woodland management and opening up information channels. "