The National Forestry and Grassland Administration ("NFGA") has recently distributed the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of the Forestry and Grassland Industry (the "Opinions").
The Opinions read that it is expected to allocate forestry and grassland resources at a significantly higher level, further expand the scale of the forestry and grassland industry, ensure a more adequate supply of high-quality forestry and grassland products, have the industry structure further optimized, fully boost product quality and service level, witness a more efficient oversight of resource utilization, constantly enhance this industry's capacity to serve national strategies, and see China become one of powerhouses in the forestry and grassland industry, by the year 2035. To this end, the Opinions lay down key work in eight respects, including "enhancing the timber supply capacity", "solidifying and improving the development level of the under-forest economy" and "facilitating the upgrading of the product processing industry". In addition, the Opinions state that, the distribution of raw material bases and the layout of the processing of forestry and grassland products will be optimized to promote the connections between upstream and downstream entities. Peasant households and famers' cooperatives will be supported in improving conditions in which forestry and grassland products are stored, kept fresh, dried, sorted and packaged and elevating the level of initial processing. Also, efforts will be stepped up in the integrated application of technologies in biology, engineering, environmental protection and information, reinforcing energy conservation, environmental protection and cleaner production, and prompting the networking, smart and refined processing.