Market-oriented forestry in China promotes forestland productivity

As the world’s largest importer of timber, China’s challenge in forestry is to find a way to increase forest productivity and carbon sequestration. We argue that China’s state-owned forestry sector has low land productivities mainly because there are hidden barriers in the governmentally controlled forestry system. We suggest that a market-oriented forestry system should be applied to China’s commercial forests, and timber harvesting from commercial forests should not be restricted by a maximum allowable harvest quota or minimum rotation lengths imposed by the national government. The market-oriented forestry system will help increase forestland productivity and revert forest carbon sources into sinks for many degraded forest areas in China.