Forest Law of the People's Republic of China

(Adopted at the 7th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Sixth National People's Congress on September 20, 1984; amended for the first time in accordance with the Decision on Amending the Forest Law of the People's Republic of China adopted at the 2nd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress on April 29, 1998; amended for the second time according to the Decision on Amending Certain Laws adopted at the 10th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eleventh National People's Congress on August 27, 2009; and revised at the 15th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress on December 28, 2019.)

Contents

Chapter I  General Provisions 

Chapter II  Forest Rights 

Chapter III  Development Plans 

Chapter IV  Forest Protection

Chapter V  Afforestation and Land Greening

Chapter VI  Management and Administration

Chapter VII  Supervision and Inspection

Chapter VIII  Legal Liability

Chapter IX Supplementary Provisions

Chapter I 

General Provisions

Article 1 This Law is enacted for the purposes of implementing the ideal that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, protecting, cultivating, and rationally utilizing forest resources, accelerating land greening, safeguarding forest ecological security, constructing ecological civilization, and achieving the harmonious coexistence of human and nature.

Article 2 This Law applies to the protection, cultivation, and utilization activities of forests, woods, and the management and administration activities of forests, woods and forest lands conducted in the territory of the People's Republic of China.

Article 3 The protection, cultivation and utilization of forest resources shall respect and conform with nature, in adherence to the principles of prioritizing the ecology and protection, combining protection with cultivation, and sustainable development. 

Article 4 The State shall adopt target-oriented responsibility and performance evaluation system for the protection and development of forest resources. People's governments at next higher level shall evaluate the performance of people's governments at next lower level in achieving the targets of the protection and development of forest resources, forest fire prevention, and major forest pest control, and disclose the evaluation results.

Local people's governments may establish forest director system based on needs for the protection and development of forest resources in their respective administrative areas.

Article 5 The State shall take fiscal, tax, financial, and other measures to support the protection and development of forest resources. The people's governments at all levels shall guarantee investments in the protection and restoration of the forest ecology, and promote forestry development.

Article 6 With the objective of fostering a stable, healthy, high-quality, and efficient forest ecosystem, the State shall implement categorized management and administration system of public welfare forests and commercial forests, highlight leading functions, exert multiple functions, and achieve the sustainable utilization of forest resources.

Article 7 The State shall establish a compensation system for ecological benefit of forests, increase the support for the protection of public welfare forests, improve the transfer payment policy for key ecological functional zones, and guide the people's governments in beneficiary areas and forest ecological protection areas in providing compensation for ecological benefits through consultation or other means.

Article 8 The State Council and the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government may, in accordance with the provisions on the rights to autonomy of national autonomous areas stipulated by the State, implement preferential policies for forest protection and forestry development in national autonomous areas.

Article 9 The competent authority of forestry of the State Council shall be in charge of the forestry work nationwide. The competent authorities of forestry of local people's governments at or above the county level shall be in charge of the forestry work in their respective administrative areas.

The people's governments at the village and township level may designate relevant institutions or appoint full-time and part-time personnel to undertake forestry-related work.

Article 10 Afforestation and forest protection is the obligation that citizens shall fulfill. People's governments at all levels shall organize and conduct tree-planting activities by all citizens.

Tree Planting Day is on March 12 every year.

Article 11 The State shall take measures to encourage and support scientific research on forestry, to popularize advanced and applicable forestry technologies, and to upgrade the scientific and technological level in forestry.

Article 12 The people's governments at all levels shall strengthen publicity, education, and dissemination of knowledge of the protection of forest resources, and encourage and support autonomous grassroot organizations, news media, forestry enterprises and institutions, and volunteers, among others, in conducting publicity campaigns on forest resources protection.

Competent authorities of education and schools shall educate students on the protection of forest resources.

Article 13 Any organization or individual that has made remarkable achievements in afforestation and land greening, forest protection, forest management and administration and forestry scientific research shall be commended and rewarded in accordance with the relevant provisions stipulated by the State.

Chapter II

Forest Rights

Article 14 Forest resources are owned by the State, except those that shall be collectively owned as prescribed by law.

The ownership of state-owned forest resources shall be exercised by the State Council on behalf of the state. The State Council may authorize the competent authority of natural resources of the State Council to uniformly perform the duties as the owner of state-owned forest resources.

Article 15 The ownership and usufructuary rights of forest lands and forests and woods thereon, shall be uniformly registered and compiled and granted with certificates by the real property registration institutions. The competent authority of natural resources of the State Council shall be in charge of registering forests, woods and forest lands of the key state forest regions designated by the State Council (hereinafter referred to as "key forest regions"). 

The lawful rights and interests of the owners and users of forests, woods and forest lands shall be protected by law, and shall not be infringed by any organization or individual.

The owners and users of forests, woods and forest lands shall protect and rationally utilize forests, woods and forest lands in accordance with law, and shall not illegally change the use of forest lands or destruct forests, woods and forest lands.

Article 16 State-owned forest lands and the forests and woods thereon may be designated in accordance with law to forest managers for uses. Usufructuary rights to state-owned forest lands and the forests and woods thereon acquired by forest managers in accordance with law may be transferred, leased, and contributed to capital at appraised value, among others, with approval. Specific measures shall be formulated by the State Council.

Forest managers shall perform their obligations to protect and cultivate forest resources, ensure the stable increase of state-owned forest resources, and improve the ecological functions of forests.

Article 17 Where collective-owned forest lands and state-owned forest lands used by collective farmers in accordance with law (hereinafter referred to as the "collective forest lands") are contracted out to individuals, the contractor shall be entitled to the rights of contractual management of forest lands and the ownership of the woods on the forest lands subject to the contractual management, unless otherwise provided by contract. The contractor may circulate in accordance with law his or her right to management of the forest lands and ownership and usufructuary rights of the woods by leasing (subcontracting), in payment for shares, transfer, and other means.

Article 18 Collective forest lands not contracted out to individuals and the woods thereon, shall be managed in a unified manner by the rural collective economic organization. With consent of over two-thirds majority vote of the villagers' committee or over two-thirds of villagers' representatives and subsequent public notification, the right to management of the forest lands and ownership and usufructuary rights of the woods may be circulated in accordance with law by bidding, auction, public consultation, and other means.

Article 19 For the circulation of the right to management of the collective forest lands, a written contract shall be signed. The contract for the circulation of the right to management of the forest lands generally contains the rights and obligations of both parties to the circulation, period of circulation, price of circulation and methods of payment, disposition of woods and fixed production facilities on the forest lands upon the expiration of the period of the circulation, liability for breach of contract.

Where a transferee violates the laws or the contract, causing serious damage to the forests, woods, or forest lands, the contractee or contractor shall be entitled to withdraw the right to management of the forest lands.

Article 20 For the woods planted by state-owned enterprises, public institutions, government agencies, groups, and the military, the planting organizations shall conduct tending of woods, and dispose the benefits generated from the woods in accordance with the provisions issued by the State.

The woods planted by rural residents at house sides and on plots of cropland and hilly lands allotted for private use are owned by the individuals. The woods planted by urban residents in the courtyards of their own houses are owned by the individuals.

The woods planted in state-owned or collective-owned barren hills, lands, and beaches suitable for forests under a contract awarded to a collective or an individual, are owned by the collective or individual, unless otherwise provided by contract.

The woods planted by any other organization or individual are owned by the planter in accordance with law, and the planter shall be entitled for the benefits gained from the woods, unless otherwise provided by contract.

Article 21 Where the expropriation or requisition of forest lands and woods are compellingly entailed by the public interest such as ecological protection and infrastructure construction, approval procedures shall be completed in accordance with the laws and administrative regulations such as the Land Administration Law of the People's Republic of China, and equitable and reasonable compensation shall be made.

Article 22 Any dispute over ownership and usufructuary rights of forest lands and woods between organizations shall be settled by the people's government at or above the county level in accordance with law.

Any dispute over ownership of woods and usufructuary rights of forest lands between individuals or between individuals and organizations shall be settled by the people's government at village or township level or the people's government at or above the county level in accordance with law.

Any party dissatisfied with the settlement decisions of the relevant people's government may file a litigation before people's court within 30 days of receiving the notice of the settlement decision.

Before dispute over the rights to woods and forest lands is settled, neither party may fell the woods in dispute or change the status of the forest lands, except for the need of forest fire prevention, forest pest control, and major national infrastructure construction, among others.

Chapter III

Development Plans

Article 23 The people's governments at or above the county level shall integrate forest resources protection and forestry development into their national economic and social development plans.

Article 24 The people's governments at or above the county level shall implement the requirements for spatial development and protection, rationally plan the structure and pattern of the protection and utilization of forest resources, formulate objectives of the protection and development of forest resources, increase forest coverage and forest stock volume, and improve the quality and stability of forest ecosystem.

Article 25 The competent authorities of forestry of people's governments at or above the county level shall formulate forestry development plans in accordance with the objectives of the protection and development of forest resources. A forestry development plan at the lower level shall be prepared in accordance with a forestry development plan at the higher level.

Article 26 The competent authorities of forestry of people's governments at or above the county level may  , in light of local actual circumstances, formulate special plans in relation to the protection and utilization of forest lands, afforestation and land greening, forest management, protection of natural forests.

Article 27 The State shall establish a forest resources survey and monitoring system to survey, monitor, assess the current status and changes of forest resources nationwide, and publish the results regularly.

Chapter IV

Forest Protection

Article 28 The State shall strengthen the protection of forest resources and exert the various functions of forests such as water and soil conservation, climate regulation, environmental improvement, biodiversity conservation, and forest products supply.

Article 29 Central and local finance authorities shall respectively arrange funds for the planting, tending, protection, and management of public welfare forests and for the financial compensation payable to right holders of non-state owned public welfare forests, and the funds must be used exclusively for the specified purpose. The specific measures shall be formulated by the finance department of the State Council in conjunction with the competent authority of forestry.

Article 30 The State shall support the transformation and development of key forest regions and the protection and restoration of forest resources, improve production and living conditions, and promote the economic and social development of the regions where they are located. Key forest regions shall be entitled for policies such as transfer payments for key national ecological functional areas according to relevant provisions.

Article 31 The State shall establish natural reserve system with national parks as its main body in typical forest ecological regions, forest regions wherein rare and precious animals and plants grow and breed, natural tropical rain forest regions and other natural forest regions with special values of protection in different natural zones, so as to strengthen protection and management.

The State shall support the protection and restoration of forest resources in ecologically fragile areas.

People's governments at or above the county level shall take measures to protect wildlife resources with special values.

Article 32 The state shall implement comprehensive protection system for natural forests, strictly limit the felling of natural forests, strengthen the capability-building of managing and protecting natural forests, protect and restore natural forest resources, and gradually improve the ecological functions of natural forests. Specific measures shall be formulated by the State Council.

Article 33 Local people's governments at all levels shall arrange their relevant competent authorities to establish forest protection organizations responsible for forest protection; construct forest protection facilities based on actual needs and strengthen protection of forest resources; and supervise and urge relevant organizations to make a forest protection covenant, organize mass forest protection, designate forest protection responsibility areas and assign full-time or part-time forest rangers.

The people's governments at the county level or at the village or township level may employ forest rangers whose main responsibilities are to patrol and protect forests, and, upon detecting forest fires, forest pests or activities destructing forest resources, to promptly handle the situation and report to local forestry and other relevant authorities.