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	CCICED Western China Forest Grasslands Task Force Phase II Work Plan November 2001- November 2002 Introduction On October 13, 2001 the Task Force Co-Chairs delivered the Task Force's Phase I Report to the CCICED 2001 Annual Meeting. The Report was well received by the Council. In particular, the Council appreciated the policy relevance of the Report, its basis in rigorous field work, as well as its identification of key policy and technical issues fundamental to reforming the forest and grassland sectors. The Task Force has been authorized for a second, one-year phase and has been invited to present a report to the CCICED at its next annual meeting on November 23, 2002. The primary objectives of Phase II are to complete the analysis of the Land Conversion Program and Natural Forest Protection Program (NFPP), analyze the key sector policy and technical issues identified in the first Phase, and provide relevant recommendations to the CCICED. The secondary objective is to conduct these analyses and prepare the associated products in a manner that builds constituencies for policy reforms, strengthens the Chinese capacity for policy analysis, and helps establish a basis for future forest-related research and policy analysis in China. As in Phase I, Phase II will focus on forests, addressing grassland issues where they interact with forests in the context of the Land Conversion program. The work plan for the second and final year of the Forest Grasslands Task Force is divided into three major parts: (1) Design and Implementation of the Land Conversion Program and the Natural Forest Protection Program (NFPP), (2) Designing Payment Schemes for Environmental Services, and (3) Designing a Policy Framework for Sustainable Forest Management. The background, rationale, and main products of each of these three parts are discussed below. The Task Force will synthesize its findings and policy recommendations from this three-part work plan in a final report to the CCICED, also discussed below. Part One: Design and Implementation of the Land Conversion and Natural Forest Protection Programs The Land Conversion Program and the NFPP constitute the Government's major initiatives in the forestry sector and are most likely to continue in some form into the future. The Task Force represents a critical opportunity to influence the implementation of the programs in a timely manner. The ten case studies conducted in Phase I were effective in identifying local-level impacts and issues but did not fully address the implementation arrangements &endash; how the program was implemented at the local level (e.g. province and counties) and what explains the variation in implementation -- nor has the knowledge generated from the cases been systematically disseminated to the key audiences influential in the design and implementation of the programs. This component of the work plan will address two objectives: complementing the existing local level case study data with additional information on the implementation arrangements of the programs at the various levels; and disseminating the results of this work to the audiences influential in designing and reforming the programs. The main output will be a two-volume publication, in both English and Chinese, describing the programs, the findings of the fieldwork, and the recommendations of the Task Force for program reform. The purpose of this publication will be to inform CCICED members and the broader Chinese policy-making audience of the status of the programs and the key recommendations to improve the design and implementation of the programs. The first volume of the publication will be a book representing the aggregate statement of the Task Force on the Land Conversion Program and the NFPP. Chapters will cover implementation, socioeconomic impacts, environmental impacts, impacts on grasslands and herder livelihoods, impacts of the NFPP on collective forest management and forest communities, impacts of the NFPP on national and regional timber supply, and findings and recommendations. Each chapter will be prepared by a Chinese expert or team of experts and reviewed by both national and international experts. The second volume of the publication will be a CD including reports on the ten case studies conducted in Phase I. Part Two: Designing Payment Schemes for Environmental Services The Conversion Program compensates smallholders for converting agricultural lands to forest and grass and is similar in nature to public payment schemes for environmental services established in other countries, such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in the United States. The first set of work, above, focuses on the impacts of the Conversion Program (and NFPP as well) and identifies issues associated with implementation. The Phase I report went beyond impacts and identified issues of concept, design, and the sustainability of public payment schemes as primary concerns. Related to these fundamental issues is the question of how the Conversion Program relates to the newly created Ecological Compensation Fund and what targeting and monitoring systems should be considered by the Chinese government to improve efficiency and efficacy of these public payment schemes. The purpose of this set of work will be to help broaden Chinese decision makers' understandings of the issues and options they face in establishing public payment schemes. It will assist them in reflecting on the concept, design, monitoring and sustainability of their public payment schemes by identifying and sharing relevant experiences in public payment schemes from other countries, and exploring the relationship between the Conversion Program and the Ecological Compensation Fund. The main output of this component of the work plan is a workshop on payments for environmental services, held on April 22 and 23, 2002 in Beijing, and the forthcoming proceedings from this workshop, which will be disseminated as widely as possible. The workshop included presentations from both international and domestic presenters. Chinese presenters, mainly from the State Forestry Administration, reviewed the situation of pilot implementation of China's ecological compensation scheme at the national level and in the provinces. The status of the Land Conversion Program was also reviewed. International presenters included those discussing selection of payment schemes, experience with the U.S.'s land retirement program, the potential for carbon trading, and experiences with payment schemes in Costa Rica, Brazil, and other countries. Part Three: Designing a Policy Framework for Sustainable Forest Management Equally important to generating information that would lead to improvements in the Land Conversion Program and NFPP, the case studies revealed a number of fundamental policy issues constraining the sustainable management and use of China's forests. As indicated in the Phase I report, these fundamental issues include tenure insecurity, tax and fiscal policies, forest harvesting quotas and regulations, and more general questions about the role of the state in the forestry sector at the central, regional and local levels. Although there has been prior research on each of these issues, the rich case study material and the attention of the CCICED audience present a new opportunity to deepen the quality of the analysis and elevate their discussion at the highest levels of Chinese Government. At the same time, the State Forestry Administration is currently conducting its own policy research agenda for which this work could serve as timely input. The main output of this component will be a national conference to discuss the key policy issues (as indicated above) and proceedings from this conference. The conference will be entitled "Advancing Sustainable Forestry in China: Developing a Policy Research Agenda to Meet Existing and Future Challenges. The conference will be focused on setting a vision for the future of forestry in China, with the goal being to identify a framework of policy and institutional elements needed for sustainable forestry and to determine where China lies with regard to each of these elements and what needs to be done to move closer to them. The conference will aim to maximize discussion and debate and to generate a long-term forest policy research agenda. The conference will be held in Beijing on June 13 and 14, 2002. Final Report to the CCICED The Task Force will present its final report to the CCICED at the Council's annual meeting on November 23, 2002. The report will be a synthesis of key findings from Task Force Phase II work as described above and will include key policy recommendations emerging from this work. The report will also identify issues that merit further study beyond the lifetime of the Task Force.