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PHOTOGRAPHY: China's Fragile Forests

Natural forests cover about 10 percent of China’s surface area, but few of the forests remain in a primary or pristine condition. Large swathes of forest have been destroyed by human activities including logging, wood collection and mining.

In China’s southern provinces, the mountainous forests that previously covered much of the region have been reduced by about 92 percent.

These forests are threatened primarily by timber collection, mining, unregulated harvesting of flora for traditional Chinese medicine and excessive development related to increased tourism. Increased reforestation efforts by authorities have also caused the proliferation of mono-culture forests, which are hampering forest recovery.

In 2011, the UN’s official "International Year of Forests," the forests of the southwest of China were classified by Conservation International as one of the world’s top ten most threatened forest regions.

A young boy in a cowboy hat looks out onto one of the many lakes that make up the Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve in northern Sichuan. Nestled high in the remote mountains of northern Sichuan, the Jiuzhaigou National Park is a spectacular area composed a series of valleys, containing a myriad of breathtaking turquoise lakes, rivers and waterfalls. It is part of China's only global biodiversity hotspot.
   
Deforestation in the upper-reaches of the Yangtze River in the 1990's was suspected as contributing to landslides and flooding which killed more than 4000 people and forced more than 18 million from their homes. A widespread logging ban was introduced in 1998 throughout the country.
   
In Inner Mongolia, deforestation has led to the increase and expansion of desertification. Mass tree-planting campaigns instigated by central government in the region have had very limited success rates.
     
  
Traditional Chinese medicine is collected from the forests by locals, often unregulated and unchecked. Unsustainable harvesting is still a problem throughout Sichuan as demand for the medicine increases each year.
   
The giant panda's natural habitat is confined to a sliver of mountain ranges extending through northern Sichuan province and into the neighboring provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi. Massive forest loss across China up until the late 1990s, has been the main cause for the disappearance of the species' habitat.
   
Discarded pieces of bamboo in a factory in southern Sichuan Province. As population rises and economic development continues at a breathtaking pace, heavier pressures are being placed on the forests, continuing this trend of consumption.
     
  
Schoolchildren in Inner Mongolia during a visit by Shanghai NGO Roots and Shoots. The NGO encourages sustainable tree planting in the region, coupled with education programmes aimed at educating local children about the importance of forests in preventing desertification.
   
A farmer stands in his field of maize, an area which was once bamboo forests in southern Sichuan Province.
   
A Tibetan farmer herds his sheep on the eastern fringes of the Tibetan Plateau. The region has suffered from deforestation resulting in many barren slopes in the region.
     
  
All of the pathways within the Jiuzhaigou national park are boarded so that little to no trampling occurs and damage to the forests is limited.
   
As China's rapid economic development continues, modernization through roads and infrastructure spreads to some of the country's most remote regions, increasing the ability to access the resources which these regions contain.
   
A worker in a factory that produces chopsticks made from bamboo. "China produces 57 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks every year, which requires over 1.18 million square meters of forest," according to Greenpeace East Asia.
     
  
A woman holds tea leaves collected from a plantation nestled in the remote mountain valleys of northern Sichuan. Tea plantations are some of the projects being targeted by the EU-China Biodiversity Program to promote sustainable harvesting in the region.
   
The turquoise lakes of the Jiuzhaigou park get their color from sediment run-off from the local mountains. The crystal clear water within the park is well protected and this small area is arguably the best protected collection of small bodies of water in the country . Outside the park nearby, the water is less protected and as a result is notably affected by pollution from developments related to tourism in the region.
   
The relationship between the people of the region and the forests is a fragile one as the west of China continues rapid development trying to catch up with the progress of the east.