The 15th Protocol of the Sino-Finnish Working Group for Forestry has been prepared by the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the State Forestry Administration of China. It was signed on 21 August, 2008 in Helsinki. The Protocol includes six cooperation projects.

Cooperation projects in 2009-2010

The Sino-Finnish Working Group decided that a joint seminar or workshop will be arranged where to deal with the collective forest tenure reform launched by China, and Finland’s efforts to improve the size of privately-owned forest entities in order to prevent splitting of forest land. The date of the seminar and the details will be agreed by the both sides in the close future.

Earlier, a joint Sino-Finnish Seminar on Forest Certification had been arranged in Beijing. Based on successful co-operation in this field, the Chinese side will conduct a study tour to Finland to learn forest certification systems.

In the years 2007-2008 the parties implemented a project which studied the effect of afforestation on carbon sequestration and the water balance of the area. The pilot project was implemented in the Province of Guangxi. The target is to continue the project. Universities, research institutes and enterprises are invited to participate the project.

Also, both sides propose cooperation in the fields of sustainable forest management, and promotion of production of bioenergy and related technology.

Other cooperation

Between the two countries, there has been substantial exchange of visits at the professional level. Also many high representatives of the forestry authorities of both China and Finland have visited each other to learn the forest sector.

China is a very significant forestry country. The total forest area is 175 million hectares, which is about seven times the Finnish forest area. The forest area of China is growing thanks to numerous plantation establishment projects.

The next cooperation meeting will be arranged in Autumn 2009 in Beijing.