Clear Cutting Consequences in China

The Yang Tse river's source comes from the Tibetan plateau. According to the Chinese water conserving ministry more half of the flood waters in 1988 would have been by the primary forests, if they hadn't been cut down. The human impact on the forest has been great.

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Transcript

Clear Cutting Consequences in China Correspondent: Any understanding of China’s water issues begins here 3,000 meters up on the Tibetan Plateau. This is where several small tributary rivers begin eventually joining up to become the great Yangtze River. The Tibetan Plateau is also the source of the Indus, Brahmaputra, Mekong and Yellow Rivers. For much of Asia this is where the source of life begins. Tourism in the small settlements of Tibetan’s who have lived here in the same way for centuries are the only evidence of human impact here. The ancient forests and the Tibetan plateau have been here for millions of years and is the forest such as those in this nature reserve we provide the answers to many of the water related problems faced by China especially the flooding. According to the Chinese Water Conservancy Ministry more than half of the flood waters of 1998 would have been absorbed by the primary forests if they haven’t been cut down. Over the last century and more the Chinese timber industry marched relentlessly further and higher into the Tibetan Plateau reducing the forest cover in Sichuan province for more than 50% to at one stage just 13%. Professor Liu Shi Jian: (Chinese Institute for Mountain Disaster and Environment)- Historically, human impact took the head waters has been great especially in the last 100 years. Clear the cutting the forests forced agriculture on steep slopes and annual heavy rains has combined to create a dangerous level of erosion that threatened lower reaches. Correspondent: As soon as you leave the protected the headwaters you find the impact of the century of clear cutting has had on the environment, trees, brush, plant diversity and rich top soil have all been lost to the timber industry and once the protection of the soil is gone erosion sets in and the run off from the rain carries the sediments to the river silting up the river beds on the way down the stream. The Chinese authorities are taking radical steps to deal with the issue in one of the most far reaching environmental actions ever from September 1998 it became illegal to cut down any naturally occurring tree in China effectively protecting all of China’s remaining primary forests. In addition no plantation tree younger than 60 years old is allowed to be cut down and clear cutting will give way to selective timber harvesting. Professor Liu Su Qing: (Chinese Institute for Mountain Disaster and Environment)- here you can see where is being clear cut. It returns very slowly the young trees are not sheltered and soil is less fertile and scarce. But you see where there was a selective cutting the young trees easily and naturally develop and the forest can recover. Correspondent: To ensure that everyone gets the message new signs proclaiming the forestry law are appearing everywhere. It’s a huge environmental statement but in the short term it means social and economic hardship for man in the timber industry. The Sichuan province alone 100,000 forestry workers are out of a job and nationwide the figure is set at a million. The logging camps are empty for those left in work their roles are now reversed. Li Guan Xiao spends 30 years cutting down trees with his forestry unit. He used to have a thousand workmates now he has just 22. Li Guan Xiao: (Forestry Worker)-Next year we will have more than 100 people who will come plant and take care of trees of the waste mountains. We have measured -- of land which many trees will be planted include some grassland and some of the low lying land. Correspondent: At the end of the year China’s Forestry Bureau also announced new long term plans to reforest along large stretches of the main river banks. China’s aim is now to rehabilitate and expand it’s forest cover but it will take generations for the effect to be felt.