In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has reported three batches of issues related to “destroying forests and grasslands,” including problems with “deforestation and land clearance,” resulting in hundreds of individuals being held accountable. The frequent policy changes by the CCP regarding the relationship between forest land and arable land have not only caused significant losses to farmers but also left them feeling directionless.
According to Chinese media reports on September 25, the CCP’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration held a press conference on “Comprehensive Strengthening of Forest and Grassland Resource Protection.” Liu Keyong, the director of the Resources Department of the administration, reported on 10 typical cases of “destroying forests and grasslands,” with nearly half of them involving “deforestation and land clearance.”
The reported cases of deforestation and land clearance included: in Linwu County, Hunan Province, 110 mu (7.3 hectares) of forest land was cleared for a farming development project; in Shulan City, Jilin Province, Zhu illegally cleared 104 mu (6.9 hectares) of forest land for planting crops such as corn and red beans, causing extensive damage to the walnut forest; in Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, Ba cleared 73 mu (4.9 hectares) of forest land to grow watermelons, resulting in the destruction of all vegetation. Additionally, individuals in Heilongjiang Province, such as Song, spent nine years afforesting 277 mu (18.5 hectares) of land but later cleared 111 mu (7.4 hectares) for bean cultivation.
The cases mentioned were all reported to have occurred after the spring of 2022, with three of them holding individuals responsible.
This batch of issues related to forest and grassland destruction is the third batch reported by the CCP’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration this year. Liu Keyong stated that since May, two previous batches consisting of 20 typical cases had been publicly reported, including violations related to illegal occupation of forest and grasslands for commercial projects, deforestation, and illegal logging. The reports involved 17 provinces, covering more than half of China’s provincial-level administrative regions, indicating that this is not an isolated issue in specific areas.
As of now, a total of 22 individuals have faced criminal enforcement measures, fines totaling 22.03 million yuan (3.15 million USD) have been imposed, 2646 mu of forest and grassland have been reclaimed, and 146 individuals have been held accountable. There are still ongoing investigations into additional cases.
The question of whether land should be designated for “forest” or “arable” use has seen shifts in CCP policy over the past few years.
In 1999, the CCP made the decision to implement the “Conversion of Cropland to Forest and Grassland Program” to address issues like soil erosion and floods. Since Xi Jinping took office in 2012, the “Conversion of Cropland to Forest and Grassland Program” has been reiterated on various occasions. However, this policy began to change in 2020.
In September of the same year, the State Council issued the “Notice on Resolutely Stopping Non-agricultural Conversion of Arable Land,” which explicitly prohibited six types of “non-agricultural” acts, including illegal occupation of arable land for greening and afforestation.
The phrase “Conversion of Cropland to Forest and Grassland” disappeared completely from the CCP’s “Central Document No. 1” in 2022. The document instead emphasized the need to “severely crack down on illegal occupation of arable land for non-agricultural construction.”
According to Wang He, a current affairs commentator, once central policies are adjusted, various conflicts of interest arise among different levels of government. In theory, farmers should be the most innocent, as losses caused by government actions should not be borne by them. However, the farmers involved not only fail to receive compensation but often end up being scapegoated.
Since Xi Jinping secured a third term in 2023, the “Conversion of Forest Land to Arable Land” policy has been vigorously promoted. In April of the previous year, the CCP’s Ministry of Natural Resources issued a nationwide “Regulation of Forest Land Boundary Management” notice. Based on the results of the third national land survey (end of 2019), farmers who planted trees on contracted arable land were required to restore the land to its original arable state. Forestry authorities did not need to undertake approval procedures for woodland surveys, logging, and other formalities.
The CCP has repeatedly emphasized the need to maintain the “red line of 1.8 billion mu of arable land” (1.8 billion mu equals 120 million hectares). As a result, numerous agricultural law enforcement teams have been dispatched to villages to enforce the regulation through violent means. Instances of deforestation, destruction of orchards, and economic crops have been rampant, with trees of all species and ages being cut down indiscriminately.
In addition to “returning forest land to arable land,” various measures such as land reclamation, regulation of pigsties, and dismantling of illegal farmhouses have been implemented. These actions have led to strong dissatisfaction among farmers, with reports emerging of agricultural law enforcement units seizing livestock, trampling fruits, confiscating various goods, and even demolishing homes and buildings.
To achieve the goal of “returning to arable land,” the CCP is preparing to promote the cultivation of rice on hillsides, known as the “Rice up to the Mountains” project, in vast areas. Academician Zhu Youyong claimed that the project has been well-received by farmers, with Yunnan promoting it on 500,000 mu (33,000 hectares) of land in 2022.
However, this departure from agricultural norms has been met with widespread skepticism, as rice cultivation is typically limited to plains or low-altitude areas with sufficient water sources. Even if successful trials were conducted on a small scale in mountainous regions regardless of costs, the commercial value remains questionable.
An article on Netease highlighted the ease of destroying mountain forests and grasslands but underscored the complexity and difficulty of reforestation and ecological restoration, often requiring efforts spanning generations to rectify the damage.
The article posed three critical questions: When terraced fields turn into barren hillsides where the wind blows soil, leading to desertification, how can farmers continue cultivation? When the former vegetation is destroyed before the rainy season, causing flash floods to cascade downhill, who can withstand the impact? After floods and debris fill the riverbeds, inevitably causing flooding that sweeps away villages, homes, and agricultural facilities downstream, what options do farmers living at the base of the mountains have?
Amid widespread skepticism and immense public discontent, there has been a shift in official attitudes once again.
In June of the previous year, the Ministry of Natural Resources issued a notice on “Strictly Upholding the Bottom Line in Safeguarding Land Elements for Economic Development.” The notice strictly prohibited forced replanting and cultivation without considering the wishes of the farmers, aiming to prevent the blanket implementation of inappropriate measures like uprooting saplings, leveling land, etc.
The notice also prohibited the cultivation of arable land in severely desertified, heavily eroded, ecologically fragile, or severely polluted areas.
The three batches of issues related to “destroying forests and grasslands” reported this year, leading to the accountability of hundreds of individuals, have emerged against this backdrop.
Lai Jianping, a former Beijing lawyer and chairman of the Canadian Alliance for China Democracy, stated that although farmers have contracted land, they lack autonomy in deciding what to cultivate. Furthermore, China operates as a rule by men rather than a rule of law society, where the will of CCP officials supersedes everything else. Many policies by the CCP are developed on a whim and subject to change, making it unpredictable for the populace and leaving them directionless.