Understanding the history of land use change is a significant part of achieving global environmental sustainability. China is the third largest and most populated country in the world and has had a history of land cultivation since 1700 (Hyde, Belcher, & Xu, 2003). Between 1700 and 1950, China had an increasing trend in cropland areas because of the need for increasing agricultural produce (Hyde, Belcher, & Xu, 2003). Over the past 300 years, China as a country has experienced significant environmental changes. Land use in China has been shaped by factors such as climate change, national policy, population, agricultural intensification, and globalization. Currently, 14% of the Chinese land is covered by forests and the majority is in the Southern, mountainous central parts, and the northern part of the country (Lamb, 2011). There are a few tropical rainforests in Yunnan Province and other provinces along Southern Coast. Illegal logging and cutting trees for agriculture have been the leading factors that have caused deforestation in China. These activities have consumed over 5,000 square kilometers of forest land annually. Between the 1990s and 2000s, China was the leading country exporting plywood, flooring, and furniture (Megevand, Mosnier, & Bank., 2013). For this reason, China has suffered serious deforestation consequences over the years. The last remaining natural forest standing is in Northeast Manchuria which is at risk of deforestation because of the increasing demand for chopsticks, Ping-Pong paddles, and toothpicks. The sustainability of the remaining natural rainforest is threatened because of the increasing demand for land and wood products. For instance, China’s furniture industry depends on large amounts of Chinese timber that is being illegally harvested from Indonesia which has a tropical rainforest. According to the records of the environmental ministry in China, chopsticks consume 1.3 million cubic meters annually (Shi, Zhao, Tang, & Fang, 2011). This growing demand for wood has made China import wood from Cong and Cameroon in Africa, the Islands of Indonesia, and the Amazon basin. The furniture industry in China has been growing both locally and internationally and needs more wood supply to be sustained in the coming years. Another research linked China’s deforestation to the pollution that has been coming from Beijing every year. Air pollution has equally contributed to the distinguishing forest cover in various areas in China. When the environment is not stable, it affects the natural growth of trees hence they dry up and fall. It leaves the areas open and prone to erosion activities. When it rains large mass of soil is carried away to the nearby seabed which causes flooding in the surrounding areas. China has been placing steps towards mitigating deforestation by putting a ban on illegal logging operations and cutting trees for energy production. Through these efforts, approximately 61,000 square miles of forest cover have been recovered. However, it is still in danger if people continue harvesting trees illegally. The sustainability of the Chinese forested areas was threatened, and the forestry authorities in China banned commercial logging in any forested regions in the country. This was done with the aim of stopping the intensive deforestation that has eradicated forest cover of about 600 million cubic meters for timber (Lamb, 2011). The reason for banning commercial logging was to protect the soil from erosion and to maintain water quality in China. The loss of forest in the mountainous region was affecting the water quality and causing erosion. The soil erosion was causing significant flooding at the lower levels of the mountain after a heavy downpour. It was equally destroying life, infrastructures, and properties. The Hinggan Mountains are a significant climatic element in China that attracts rainfall, guarantees soil condition, acts as a windbreaker and takes precipitation from southeasterly winds, and provides rainfall to China’s arable land (Palo & Vanhanen, 2001). The forestry authorities saw the significance of protecting the mountainous forest because deforestation was affecting the environmental conditions. Large-scale commercial logging in China began in the 1950s, and the business was booming because there were highly receptive markets for wood and it was an advantage to the economy of the country (Megevand, Mosnier, & Bank., 2013). During the 1980s, the landscape and the environment in China had drastically changed because of the consistent loss of large areas of tree coverage. Between 2000 and 2013, the country lost more than half a million hectares due to deforestation (Hyde, Belcher, & Xu, 2003). Intensive deforestation was happening in the northern periphery of the forested regions. Forests are important when it comes to conserving and ensuring the sustainability of healthy watersheds. They attract rainfall and provide moisture to the surrounding through respiration. The trees also hold soil in position and prevent soil erosion and flooding from occurring. The absence of trees means drought, flooding, and soil erosion will become inevitable. When rain falls on bare land, it causes sporadic flooding and eroding of land which fills the rivers and streams. The riverbeds become destroyed, and people living near the rivers and streams will start to experience flooding challenges. The downstream habitat and life will be destroyed, and the survival of fish species will be limited. The absence of tree cover in the Hinggan Mountains has made winds become stronger, and the remaining trees would no longer hold the soil together or even change the direction of the winds (Shi, Zhao, Tang, & Fang, 2011). The first awakening call for China to start protecting the tree cover was from adverse climatic and environmental changes. In addition to floods and droughts experience, the size of the wetlands was drastically reduced and forest fire incidences started occurring more often. For example, in 1987, a fire outbreak burned a forest cover of approximately 10,000 square kilometers. By 2013, the country has lost more than 4 million hectares of forest cover in the southeastern part of the country. The banning of commercial logging was in favor of many, although those people whose livelihoods depended on the logging business were affected. The timber workers lost a source of income. China’s government decided to release $378.6 million as annual aid for timber works to reduce dependency on the timber business until 2020 (Lynch, Marks, & Pickowicz, 2011). The government is willing to enhance the tourism industry so that it can provide employment opportunities for such people. Providing an alternative source of income for people who highly depended on the logging business was a strategy for reducing the pressure on the remaining forest cover. Illegal logging had become a serious problem in China that was threatening the survival of forest cover for the present generation and the future. The domestic and international demand for timber was growing at such a high rate that the forests could not be sustainably harvested. Even though commercial logging was positively benefiting China’s economy, it was affecting the environment in ways that were difficult to reverse. There was a need for the ministry of forests to rethink and come up with reforms that would protect the remaining cover and initiate afforestation efforts. After the Chinese government in collaboration with the ministry of forests banned commercial logging, some Chinese companies were still importing large amounts of illegally harvested timber. The growing economy of the country was mainly boosted by the selling of wood and timber products. After realizing that deforestation was costing the safety of the environment, the country started investing in green technologies like solar energy. The government initiated a national reforestation program whose main role was to reduce the illegal clearing of the forests. According to the UN, Food and Agricultural Organization forest cover in China increased from 157 million hectares in 1990 to 197 million hectares in 2005 (Megevand, Mosnier, & Bank., 2013). This was a result of reforestation efforts that the government endorsed through the national reforestation program. On the contrary, China was a leading exporter of wood in the world and ended up consuming 400 million cubic meters of timber. The rate of planting trees was lower than the rate of harvest. This meant that the efforts of recovering deforested areas were not sustainable with the increasing wood harvest. Between 2002 and 2007, the production of paper products increased drastically in China which doubled the wood harvest. Half of the timber products were being consumed in China as well as imported wood products from tropical nations nearby Siberia (Palo & Vanhanen, 2001). Since the tree supply in China was not enough to meet its needs, it became the world’s predator of other nations’ forests. China’s deforestation moved to other nations because it needed to sustain its furniture company that was supplying furniture products to other nations. China has become one of the largest global consumers of tropical timber. The country imports 40 to 45 million cubic meters annually. More than half of timber and wood being shipped across the world is destined for China. Most of the countries in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region export a big share of their timber to China. This demand for timber has attracted criticism from nations that are concerned about the biodiversity and sustainability of the world’s forests. China has aggressive middlemen who are out to discover and gain supplies from any country that has great forest cover. China has been promoting rail and road projects in remote areas that are forested in the Congo Basin, Amazon, and Asia-Pacific with the intention of exploitation (Miao, Zhu, Sun, Moore, & Cui, 2016). These projects have been highly destructive to the forests in these countries and other nations. This is because the roads and rails have contributed to illegal logging, land speculation, mining, and hunting. Consequently, China is a major consumer of wood pulp which has resulted in increased large-scale deforestation in Borneo and Sumatra among other areas. Sumatra is felling large expanses of natural rainforests and exporting them to China’s world's largest wood-pulp plant. China has been relentlessly pursuing raw logs across the globe, especially from developing nations that do not see the value of raw logs. This is because they have a limited workforce and industrial development. As a result, the developing countries make more profits by allowing foreigners to come and harvest the trees and pay. In return, China processes the logs and converts them to wood products like furniture and wood flooring that export at a higher price. Since the majority of the nations do not have sufficient manufacturing companies and are unable to meet the local demand for wood products. Through this, the country has been boosting its economy and providing job opportunities for young people. Illegal logging is not only a problem in China, but it has spilled over to developing countries. China’s aggressiveness has led to the invasion of developing countries’ virgin forests. More than half of the timber that is illegally harvested in the world its destination is from China. It has resulted in global economic losses because such timber evades tax of approximately $15 billion every year. The forest ecosystems have been suffering a serious negative impact in China as well as in other countries in the world. In addition to the increased demand for timber and pulp, there was also a high global demand for palm oil. Palm oil is mainly used in manufacturing cosmetics and vegetable oils that is a food products. China was the second leading importer of palm oil after India. India surpassed China in 2010 (Hyde, Belcher, & Xu, 2003). Forests were being cleared for palm oil extraction only to find out later that the rainforests were irreplaceable, even with the human efforts of reforestation. China was enjoying a great and growing economy and forgot about taking care of the precious rainforests until when the negative impacts started being felt in the country. This is why the country took the initiative to recover the lost trees. After realizing that China has become the topmost emitter of greenhouse gases and still engaged in tree-planting programs to cover back the land that was once forested, China had to change its former strategies. Reforestation efforts were combined with the growing of trees on the Russian farmland that was originally abandoned. This strategy helped in offsetting 81% of biomass on the deforested land that was left open since 2003. The massive tree-planting efforts came from the combination of economic and environmental factors in China. Forests are carbon sinks and help in regulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The absence of forested areas in China was highly contributing to climatic change conditions that caused flooding and drought, as well as increasing environmental temperatures due to global warming. When researchers analyzed the carbon absorbed by the planted vegetation between 2003 and 2012, they found that the amount has increased to 4 billion tons. Consequently, forest fires and pest invasions notably reduced within these years. The reforestation program was considered as “Green Great Wall” and was the largest ecological reforestation project in the world (Miao, Zhu, Sun, Moore, & Cui, 2016). The challenge with this project is that the planted trees required more water to survive as compared to the natural trees. China is still suffering the massive loss of the indigenous trees that naturally existed. Since 2011, China lost tree cover of approximately 523,248 hectares which is equivalent to 1.29 million acres (Lamb, 2011). Since 2008, the rate of losing trees reduced because of the measures that the country has placed to restore the deforested areas. As China continues to return the forest cover, areas like South America and Africa are facing continual illegal logging from Chinese investors which is threatening the sustainability of the natural rainforests. China should solve its deforestation problem without interfering with other rainforests in other countries. The increasing demand for furniture has been fueling the forest encroachment to potential forests in the world. However, other nations should protect their forest cover because the climatic changes will be felt in all parts of the world. Global warming is a transboundary negative environmental impact that is not limited to boundaries. If one country does not take care of its natural resource, it will affect the entire global both living and nonliving things. The increasing temperatures have been damaging trees, causing forest fires and increasing drought in China as well as in other areas of the world. According to research, dying trees release more carbon gas which is highly contributing to global warming. Human activities and illegal logging of forests in China and other areas of the world have highly contributed to climatic changes. China as a country was very aggressive in tapping into the rainforests of the developing countries and harvesting trees because the country has banned illegal logging. The increasing demand for wood products in the world could not be sustained by the trees available in the country because much damage had already been done. Vegetation cover plays a significant role in balancing the carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere, holding solid particles together, preventing floods, and attracting rainfall. Deforestation interferes with the ecosystem balance because it reduces the carbon sink area and leaves that land bare, vulnerable to adverse environmental conditions that negatively affect human survival.
Conclusion
There have been changes in the reasons for deforestation over time in China. Every two seconds, the country has been losing forest cover equivalent to a football pitch due to illegal logging and destructive practices such as forest fires. Human beings have been wiping up irreplaceable forest covers in China because of depending on the trees as the source of making furniture. This furniture was being sold internationally, and the business was sprouting excellently in China. As a result, the country has wiped out most of its indigenous forest cover that cannot be replaced by human planting trees activities. Despite the justification of the reasons behind deforestation in China, the destruction made is highly irreversible. However, it can be cured by planting trees which will take many years to mature and perform the roles of the trees in the environment. Also, the wild animals that have been depending on the forest cover for survival were lost in the process. Other than losing forest cover, the country has also lost indigenous animal species. The main reason was to manufacture wood products like furniture. The furniture industry was doing well, and the global demand for furniture was increasing annually. It boosted the economy of the country and China had become one of the largest producers of furniture in the world. When the ministry of the forest saw that the rate of clearing forests was alarming, it passed laws to ban illegal logging. China started outsourcing tree products to developing countries such as Congo in Africa. It used to give such countries a good deal of building infrastructure in remote areas that they used to continue with illegal logging. Deforestation in China shifted to other countries. More than half of the wood being transported across the world was destined for China. Another reason for deforestation in China was the need for palm oil. Palm oil was used to manufacture beauty products and cooking oil. The demand for this product was increasing annually because palm oil could only be extracted from trees. Also, the need for wood pulp to manufacture paper was a reason for deforestation in China. With the decreasing forest cover, the country decided to implement strategies to plant trees on abandoned land.
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References
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