Provisions of Shanghai Municipality on Forest Management

(Promulgated by Decree No. 9 of Shanghai Municipal People's Government on January 22, 2024, and effective as of May 1, 2024)

Article 1 (Purpose and Basis)

With a view to implementing the concept of "green mountains and clear waters are as valuable as gold and silver", protecting, cultivating and reasonably utilizing the forest resources of this Municipality, accelerating land greening, ensuring forest ecological security and building ecological civilization, these Provisions are formulated in accordance with the Forest Law of the People's Republic of China and the Implementation Regulations of the Forest Law of the People's Republic of China and the other laws and rules, and in the light of the actual circumstances of this Municipality.

Article 2 (Scope of Application)

The protection, cultivation, and utilization of forests and trees, as well as the operation and management activities of forests, trees, and woodlands within the administrative areas of this Municipality shall be governed by these Provisions.

Article 3 (Principles and Objectives)

For the protection, cultivation, and utilization of forest resources, the nature shall be respected and adapted to, and the principles of ecological priority, protection priority, integration of protection and cultivation, and sustainable development shall be adhered to.

This Municipality shall, aiming to cultivate a stable, healthy, high-quality, and efficient forest ecosystem, implement classified management of the public welfare forests and commercial forests, highlighting the leading functions and developing the multiple functions to achieve sustainable utilization of the forest resources.

Article 4 (Management Department)

The forestry department shall be responsible for the forestry work in its administrative area.

The relevant forestry work institutions of the people's governments of this Municipality, districts, and town/townships shall assist the forestry department in carrying out the forestry related work.

The departments of development and reform, planning and resources, water affairs, transportation, agriculture and rural affairs, state-owned assets, finance, emergency management and the other departments, as well as the fire and rescue institutions, shall collaborate to implement these Provisions in accordance with their respective responsibilities.

Article 5 (Target Responsibility System and Assessment and Evaluation)

This Municipality shall implement the target responsibility system and the assessment and evaluation system of the forest resource protection and development. The higher-level people's governments shall assess the accomplishment of the lower-level people's governments in achieving the goals of the forest resource protection and development, and the work of forest fire prevention and major forestry pest control, and shall disclose the assessment results.

Article 6 (Forest Chief System)

This Municipality shall fully implement the forest chief system, and establish a three-level forest chief system of this Municipality, district, and town/township (sub-district) in accordance with the principles of hierarchical management, territorial responsibility and integration of departments and areas at different levels, designating the corresponding general forest chiefs and forest chiefs.

The forest chief system in this Municipality shall focus on the tasks of protecting the ecological resources, promoting land greening, facilitating forest management, reinforcing disaster prevention and control, improving the monitoring systems and strengthening the law enforcement and supervision. The forest chiefs at all levels shall be responsible for organizing and leading the protection and development of the forest resources within their respective areas of responsibility, coordinating and resolving the relevant issues and organizing the other implementation work in accordance with the job responsibility of the forest chief system. They shall also be responsible for organizing the assessments of the next-level forest chiefs.

Article 7 (Forest Ecological Benefit Compensation System)

This Municipality shall establish a compensation system for forest ecological benefits.

The municipal finance department shall include the compensation funds for the forest ecological benefits in the scopes of financial transfer payments. The district finance departments shall coordinate and arrange the forest ecological benefit compensation funds in accordance with the prescribed procedures based on the funding needs of the ecological projects.

The specific management measures for the forest ecological benefit compensation funds shall be formulated by the municipal finance department together with the departments of municipal development and reform, forestry, agriculture and rural affairs, ecological environment and the other departments.

Article 8 (Publicity, Education, and Scientific Research Promotion)

The governments and the forestry departments at all levels shall strengthen publicity and education on forest resource protection, as well as the relevant knowledge popularization.

The education departments and schools shall provide education on forest resource protection to the students.

The grassroots mass self-regulatory organizations, news media, forestry enterprises and institutions, volunteers and so on shall be encouraged and supported to carry out forest resource protection publicity activities.

The research in forestry science and technology shall be encouraged and supported, and the transformation of achievements shall be promoted. The advanced and applicable forestry technologies shall be promoted to improve the level of forestry science and technology.

Article 9 (Commendation and Rewards)

The organizations or individuals that have made significant achievements in afforestation and greening, forest protection, forest management, and forestry scientific research shall be commended and rewarded in accordance with the relevant provisions.

Article 10 (Protection and Development of Forest Resources)

The municipal and district people's governments shall incorporate the forest resource protection and forestry development into their national economic and social development plans.

The municipal and district people's governments shall implement the requirements for the development and protection of the national land space, reasonably plan the structure and layout of the forest resource protection and utilization, formulate the goals for forest resource protection and development, improve the forest coverage and forest stock volume, and enhance the quality and stability of the forest ecosystems.

The governments at all levels shall include the funds related to the protection, cultivation, and management of the public welfare forests, as well as forestry insurance, forest fire prevention and pest control in their respective fiscal budgets.

Article 11 (Planning Compilation)

The municipal forestry department shall, in accordance with the development goals of the forest resource protection in this Municipality, formulate the municipal forestry development planning and the relevant special plans for forest land protection and utilization, afforestation and greening, forest management, etc. The municipal forestry development planning shall clarify the general ideas, goals, quotas, layout, tasks and guarantee measures of this Municipality's forestry development, strengthen the overall coordination between the forest land and the various natural elements, and improve the quality of the ecological space.

The district forestry departments shall prepare the forestry development plans for their administrative areas in accordance with this Municipality's forestry development planning and the goals of the forest resource protection and development in their administrative areas, and may combine with the actual circumstances to prepare the relevant special plans.

The forestry development planning and the related special plans shall be included in the corresponding national land space planning in accordance with the legal procedures.

Article 12 (Formulation and Implementation of Annual Plans)

The forestry departments shall formulate the annual plans for afforestation and public welfare forest tending based on the forestry development plans and the relevant special plans, and organize their implementation.

The annual afforestation plans shall focus on the tasks of continuously expanding afforestation space and creating the urban forest communities, with promoting the implementation of afforestation in the suburban green belts, ecological corridors, ecological interval zones, and afforestation of the forest ecological park belts around the new towns as the key projects.

The annual plans of public welfare forest tending shall take the public welfare forests with simple stand structure and low ecological functions as the key objects of stand conversion and forest tending, strengthen the optimization of the forest resource structure, and improve the level of the forest resource accumulated reserves and ecological functions.

Article 13 (Industry Afforestation)

The departments of water affairs, transportation, agriculture and rural affairs and the other departments shall, in the light of the development goals of forest resource protection, in accordance with the national and local provisions and in combination with the characteristics of the respective industries and fields, organize afforestation and greening by adjusting measures to the local conditions, increase the forest areas and improve the functional quality.

Article 14 (Scientific Afforestation and Inspection and Acceptance)

In tree planting and afforestation, the technical regulations for afforestation shall be followed. The scientific afforestation shall be carried out to increase the survival rate of the trees.

The design and construction of the afforestation projects shall meet the relevant technical standards for design and construction of the State and this Municipality, and shall be undertaken by the units with corresponding professional capabilities. When the State has qualification requirements, they shall also have the corresponding qualifications.

The district people's governments shall, in accordance with the law, organize the district forestry and the other departments to inspect and accept the afforestation within their administrative areas in the current year. For those included in the annual afforestation completion areas, the survival rates shall meet the requirements of the State and this Municipality. The results of the inspection and acceptance shall be promptly reported to the municipal forestry department.

Article 15 (Designation of Public Welfare Forests)

According to the needs of ecological protection, the forest land with important ecological locations or fragile ecological conditions mainly for the purpose of realizing ecological benefits, and the forests on such forest land shall be designated as the public welfare forests.

The municipal forestry department shall, together with the municipal planning and resources and the other relevant departments, formulate the scopes of the local public welfare forest in accordance with the relevant provisions of the local public welfare forest designation in this Municipality and report them to Shanghai Municipal People's Government, and the Municipal People's Government shall designate the scopes and publish them in accordance with the law.

Any adjustment of the public welfare forests shall be approved by the original designation authorities and made them public.

The forests that have not been designated as the public welfare forests and the forests on the forest land shall be classed as the commercial forests.

Article 16 (Classification Protection of Public Welfare Forests)

This Municipality shall implement strict protection for the public welfare forests.

The municipal forestry department shall determine the local protection level of the public welfare forests based on the requirements for ecological location protection and ecological functions of the public welfare forests, clarify the requirements for graded protection, and implement the requirements for land use control. The relevant levels and requirements shall be clearly defined in the special plans for the forest land protection and utilization in this Municipality.

Article 17 (Management of Public Welfare Forests)

The forestry departments shall, in accordance with the special plans for forest management and the annual plans for public welfare forest tending, organize the stand conversion and forest tending, etc. of the sparse forests, residual forests with low ecological functions and the other low quality and low efficiency forests in public welfare forests to improve the level of "greening, coloring, preciousness, and benefits", and enhance the quality and ecological protection function of the public welfare forests.

On the premise of meeting the requirements for ecological location protection of the public welfare forests and not affecting the ecological functions of the public welfare forests, after scientific demonstration, it shall be allowed to make reasonable use of the forest land resources and forest landscape resources of the public welfare forests, promote the construction of open-type leisure forest land, moderately carry out the under-forest economy, forest tourism, etc., to meet the growing ecological consumption needs of the people.

The relevant provisions of the State and this Municipality shall be strictly observed to carry out the above-mentioned activities by using the public welfare forests.

Article 18 (Conservation of Public Welfare Forests)

The responsible units for public welfare forest management and protection shall conserve the public welfare forests in accordance with the relevant technical regulations of the State and this Municipality.

The responsible units for the management and protection of the public welfare forests may entrust the units with professional conservation capabilities to carry out the conservation of the public welfare forests.

The forestry departments shall strengthen guidance and supervision on the conservation of the public welfare forests, and assess the quality of the public welfare forest conservation. The assessment results shall serve as an important basis for the allocation and payment of the compensation funds for the forest ecological benefits.

Article 19 (Management of Commercial Forests)

The commercial forests shall be operated independently by the forestry operators in accordance with the law. On the premise of not damaging the ecology, intensive management measures may be taken to reasonably utilize the forests, trees, and forest land, and improve the economic benefits of the commercial forests.

Article 20 (Total Amount Control of Forest Land Occupation)

This Municipality shall strictly control the conversion of the forest land to non-forest land, implement a total control over the occupation of the forest land, and ensure that the forest land holdings are not reduced. The occupation of forest land by the various construction projects shall not exceed the total control quotas of the forest land occupation in this Municipality’s administrative areas.

The municipal forestry department shall prepare the forest land occupation quotas in accordance with the relevant State requirements, and implement them after being approved by the Municipal People's Government and the State forestry competent department.

Article 21 (Permission for Occupation of Forest Land)

The mineral exploration, mining, and the other types of engineering construction shall not occupy or occupy less forest land. When it is necessary to occupy the forest land, applications shall be submitted to the municipal forestry department. After being reviewed and approved according to the review authority, the construction land approval procedures shall be gone through in accordance with the law. The municipal forestry department shall review the applications for forest land occupation within the forest land occupation quotas.

The units occupying the forest land shall pay forest vegetation restoration fees. The municipal finance and forestry departments shall formulate the specific collection standards for the forest vegetation restoration fees in this Municipality based on the State standards and in combination with the actual situations.

The district forestry departments shall arrange afforestation and restore forest vegetation in accordance with the provisions, and the afforestation areas shall not be less than the forest vegetation areas reduced due to the occupation of the forest land. The municipal forestry department shall regularly supervise the district forestry departments to organize afforestation, restore the forest vegetation, and conduct inspections.

When the construction projects involve occupying forest land, the planning and resource departments shall seek opinions from the municipal forestry department during the stage of verification and proposal of planning conditions.

Article 22 (Permission for Temporary Use of Forest Land)

The temporary use of the forest land shall be approved by the district forestry departments.

The term for temporary use of the forest land generally does not exceed 2 years, and permanent buildings shall not be built on the temporarily used forest land. When it is necessary to extend the use terms, applications shall be submitted to the original approval authorities for approval 30 days before the expiration of the use terms, except as otherwise provided by the laws and rules.

Within one year after the term for temporarily using the forest land expires, the land using units or individuals shall restore vegetation and forestry production conditions.

Article 23 (Management of Forest Logging)

This Municipality shall strictly control the annual forest logging volume and implement quota management for forest logging in accordance with the relevant State provisions on forest logging quotas.

For the logging of the trees on the forest land, logging licenses shall be applied for in accordance with the law, and the logging shall be carried out in accordance with the quantity, location, forest type, time, etc. specified in the logging licenses. The district forestry departments shall not issue logging permits beyond the annual logging quotas. When the temporary use of the forest land involves logging, applications for logging shall be submitted together.

For the logging of bamboo forests outside of the nature reserves, the application of logging licenses is not required, but the technical regulations for forest logging shall be followed. The rural residents do not need to apply for logging permits to harvest the scattered trees in their own plots and in front and behind their houses.

The renewal and logging of the trees in the non-forested areas shall be managed by the departments of water, transportation, agriculture and rural areas in accordance with the relevant provisions.

Digging and transplanting forest trees shall be managed according to the management of forest tree logging.

The forgery, alteration, trading and leasing of logging permits shall be prohibited.

Article 24 (Construction Notice)

When the construction projects involve occupation of forest land, temporary use of forest land, or logging, digging and transplanting the forest trees, the construction units shall set up notice boards or indicate the scopes and areas of the occupied forest land, temporary use of forest land, as well as the amount of logging, digging and transplanting forest trees in the construction nameplates, and make them public to the society.

Article 25 (Forest Fire Prevention and Extinguishing Responsibilities)

The governments at all levels shall implement the forest fire prevention responsibility system, establish and improve forest fire prevention commanding organizations, organize and lead emergency management, forestry, public security and the other departments, as well as the fire and rescue institutions to closely cooperate in the scientific prevention, extinguishing and disposal of the forest fires according to their respective responsibilities.

The emergency management departments shall prepare the forest fire emergency plans, organize forest fire emergency drills, coordinate and carry out the work of forest fire monitoring and early warning.

The forestry departments shall prepare the forest fire prevention plans for their administrative areas based on the State forest fire prevention plans and in combination with the actual situations, and organize their implementation after obtaining approval in accordance with the legal procedures.

This Municipality shall strengthen the interconnection and intercommunication of forest fire prevention monitoring and early warning systems, forest fire alarm response systems, and natural disaster comprehensive monitoring and early warning systems, so as to enhance the forest fire monitoring and early warning capabilities.

Article 26 (Prevention and Control of Forestry Pest)

The forestry departments shall establish and improve the forestry pest warning and control systems, improve the serious pest monitoring and prediction networks, strengthen plant quarantine, and implement the reserve of pest prevention and control materials.

The forestry departments shall establish and improve the joint prevention and control mechanism for forestry pests, strengthen communication and coordination with the departments of water affairs, transportation, agriculture and rural areas and the other departments, and promote joint prevention and control of the forestry pests.

The forestry departments shall prepare the emergency plans for forestry pest disasters, and do a good job in early warning and prevention, rapid response, effective disposal, and information notification of the pest disasters.

The forestry operators shall, with the government support and guidance, carry out prevention and control of forestry pests within their management scopes.

Article 27 (Forest Resource Investigation and Monitoring System)

The municipal forestry department shall, together with the municipal planning and resources department, establish a forest resource investigation and monitoring system, organize investigations, monitoring, and evaluations of the types, quantities, structures, distribution, quality, functions, protection and utilization status and changes of the forest resources in the whole Municipality, and regularly publish the relative information.

The municipal forestry and planning resources departments shall collaborate to promote forest resource investigation and monitoring and land survey work, implement full process quality control, strengthen the integration and sharing application of forest resource investigation and monitoring results and land survey results, and provide data services and decision-making basis for scientific forest ecosystem protection and restoration, forest carbon sink measurement and promoting peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality and so on.

Article 28 (Prohibited Acts)

The acts of land reclamation, rock quarrying, sand quarrying, soil extracting, seed collecting at the expense of deforestation, tapping resin, bamboo shoots, roots, stripping barks and excessive pruning in violation of the operating technical regulations and the other acts that destroy the forest trees and forest land shall be prohibited.

The acts of discharging wastewater and sludge containing excessive heavy metals or other toxic and harmful substances into forest land, as well as the sediment, tailing, slags, etc. that may cause forest land pollution shall be prohibited.

The acts of cutting firewood, destroying seedlings, and grazing in young forests shall be prohibited.

The acts of moving the forest protection signs without authorization or damaging the forest protection signs shall be prohibited.

Article 29 (Verification Work Mechanism)

The municipal forestry department shall establish and improve the forest verification mechanism, and organize verification of afforestation, forest land construction, public welfare forest tending, forest fire prevention, and forestry pest control in accordance with the prescribed verification procedures. For the problems that have been verified, they shall be rectified according to the verification requirements. The municipal forestry department shall strengthen the supervision and inspection of the rectification.

Article 30 (Credit Management)

The forestry departments and the other relevant departments shall, in accordance with the provisions of the State and this Municipality, collect the credit information related to forest management from the units and individuals on the municipal public credit information service platform, and take measures of incentive for keeping credit and penalty for losing credit in accordance with the law.

Article 31 (Legal Liability)

Any violation of these Provisions shall be dealt with in accordance with the Forest Law of the People's Republic of China and the Implementation Regulations of the Forest Law of the People's Republic of China and the other relevant laws and rules.

When the forestry departments and the other relevant departments and their staff commit acts of abuse of power, dereliction of duty, and favoritism, the directly responsible supervisors and the other directly responsible persons shall be punished in accordance with the law.

Article 32 (Implementation Date)

These Provisions shall be effective as of May 1, 2024. The Provisions of Shanghai Municipality on Forest Management promulgated by Decree No. 17 of Shanghai Municipal People's Government on September 21, 2009, and revised and re-promulgated according to Decree No. 30 of Shanghai Municipal People's Government on May 22, 2015 shall be simultaneously repealed.