Heavy Snows Damage One-Tenth of China's Forests

SFA Deputy Director Zhu Lieke said the heavy snows have damaged 10 percent of China's total forested lands and set back efforts to meet a national 20 percent forest cover target by 2020, according to the official state news agency, Xinhua.

Unusually heavy winter storms have buffeted southern China since mid-January, claiming the lives of at least 80 people. The Ministry of Civil Affairs estimates that 100 million residents have been affected by the weather which has caused widespread traffic jams, structural collapse, blackouts, tap water failures, and crop loss in addition to damaging forests in 19 provincial regions.

China's trees are breaking under the weight of unusually heavy snows. (Photo courtesy State Forestry Administration)

The weather has damaged 1,781 state-owned forest farms and 1,200 nurseries and killed or injured up to 30,000 protected wild animals, Zhu told reporters.

On Hunan Province's frozen Dongting Lake, the cold weather and a lack of food put the lives of 160,000 migratory birds at risk, according to the China Green Times, which is published by the State Forestry Administration.

As of February 1, the People's Liberation Army of China had deployed 306,000 soldiers to combat the effects of the snow in the southern parts of the country.

Irregular tactics, including shooting power lines with submachine guns to shatter the ice, and using tanks to crush ice on the road, were used frequently by the soldiers, a military source said.

The weather will cut the income of forest farmers this year and also over the next three to five years, Zhu said. Subsidies for replanting and loans would be offered to farmers and some fees would be waived, he said.

Timber output in the snow-stricken provinces could be affected for up to five years, said Xiao Xingwei, another State Forestry Administration official. "Some timber manufacturers may have to close because of a raw material shortage," he said.

However, "China's timber production capability has not been profoundly affected nationwide and timber supply will remain stable in general," Xiao said.

Timber produced from damaged trees might meet the supply demands of some manufacturers in the following one to two years, the officials said. To offset regional shortages, the government would increase imports in the short term.

Meanwhile, the government will increase spending for planting and management of young and medium aged forests.

Icy conditions have snapped these young trees. (Photo courtesy State Forestry Administration)

Xiao said the impact of the weather wouldn't affect biodiversity in general but regional losses are unavoidable. The hardest-hit areas would probably experience a decrease in biodiversity and an increase in water runoff and landslides, as well as forest fires and pests, Xiao said.

He called for the establishment of a forestry insurance system.

The officials warned against increasing forest fire risks, saying that toppled trees and dry weather after the unseasonable winter storms might create the conditions for devastating fires. Zhu cited the example of hard-hit Jiangxi Province, which has experienced 17 forest fires since the storms.

He said that the administration would work closely with meteorological departments to monitor the situation and work out responses.

China's weather experts say a La Nina sea surface cooling weather pattern in the equatorial Pacific Ocean aggravated the stormy weather.

The 19 provincial-level areas plagued by snow and cold weather are Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Gansu, Xinjiang, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan.

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