Returning Farmland To Forest Policy Implementation Of The Status And Problems

The Project of Farmland Retirement for Afforestation is a key, long-term ecological construction project undertaken by the state along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River. The project has lasted for nearly nine years since the pilot project was first implemented. Based on the success of the project so far, the state's decision on farmland retirement for afforestation was correct, as well as concomitant policy measures made by the Central Party Committee and the State Council on"farmland retirement for afforestation, enclosing the hills for natural afforestation,using food supplies as a form of relief, individual contract of the woodland. The project amounts not only to an important move to the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers and strengthen the entironmental construction and protection of the western area. It is also a successful project in line with the state's humanistic policy to benefit the people, in which the pains for the moment become the gains for generations to come. The project is so huge and relates to so many aspects, however, that some problems which have appeared during the implementation need further research and some polices and measures need to be further perfected. In order to promote the task of farmland retirement for afforestation in a well-knit, reliable and healthy way, and in order to consolidate the achievements of the project to date, the present paper combines empirical investigation and careful analysis on the actual background together with the theoretic basis of the project and the expected target policy measures of Farmland Retirement for Afforestation. The paper takes Liangshan Prefecture (a key area in the implementation of the project) as a basis for concrete analysis on the problems that have appeared in the process of policy implementation. It then puts forward a concrete strategy to consolidate and perfect the innovative government policy of Farmland Retirement for Afforestation. Through its research on the policy, the achievements of the project will be consolidated and the project will achieve a sustained and healthy development.