Study On Management And Legislation Of Forest Biological Disaster

A very small number of alien or native forest pests, such as insects, pathogens, rodents or weeds, damaging woody plants either directly or indirectly and causing damage to forest ecosystems as a whole both in structure or in function, finally result in enormous economic, social and ecological loss. China, as one of few countries most seriously suffering from forest biological disasters (FBD), lags behind the developed countries in basic research, management and legislations of FBD, which creates an urgent need to improve them.This paper, employing the basic principles of general natural disaster, makes a systematic analysis of FBD by means of a three-element framework of hazard-causing factor(HCF), hazard-containing environment(HCE) and hazard-bearing body(HBB). A conclusion has been drawn that FBD is a result of co-action of the risk of HCF, the stability of HCE and the vulnerability of HBB as a union of an objective appearance of natural phenomenon and a subjective human evaluation.FBD hazard-causing factor can be roughly divided into endogenous and exogenous hazard factors. The former, among other biological and non-biological components in forest ecosystem, constitute the domain of discourse for the management of the stability of HCE, but the latter (alien species) are the key of management of HCF in FBD. In history the risk of HCF showed itself in an increasing trend, and its evaluating methods mainly include field survey method, remote sensing assessment method, the formation mechanism of evaluation, expert interviews, neighborhood analogy, etc., and therefore forest pests can be divided into four grades. FBD hazard-causing acts with negative externalities should be rectified by internalization through a variety of measures. The management strategies to eliminate or reduce the risk of HCF include mainly forest plant quarantine measures and the elimination or control of populations of HCF.FBD hazard-containing environment has the division of coniferous vs. broad-leaved; natural vs. planted; native vs. non-native forest. The stability of HCE of FBD historically presented declining trend, and its assessment methods include ecosystem stability, closeness to natural forest and forest health etc. Forest, as a typical kind of public goods, blesses the hazard-containing environment of FBD with positive externalities. This creates an impetus to internalize them through a variety of measures. To enhance the stability of HCE there are measures such as biological environment strategies in ecosystem management, close-to-natural-forest management and forest health measures; and non-biological environment strategies such as anti-globalwarming measures, land use planning, and environmental pollution control.Forests provide an indispensable value system which consists of economic(narrowly), social and ecological ones. According to their possibility of being shared, relevant beneficiary population is divided into specific beneficiaries, non-specific beneficiaries and overall human, thus the HBB have a division of particular, regional and global ones. The human dependence upon forest leads to the vulnerability of HBB, which historically showed an overall trend of gradually rising. This vulnerability can be assessed by such indicators as physical exposure (Ve), disaster loss sensitivity (Vs) and disaster response capacity (Vd). To reduce this vulnerability, measures should be adopted according to the characteristics of three HBB:disaster insurance, financial support and technical guidance, etc. for a particular HBB; Regional cooperation, ecological compensation and transfer payments, etc. for a regional HBB; International cooperation, development aid and international volunteer operations for a global HBB.The theory and practice of FBD management has undergone three phases in which people first mainly focused HCF, then notice HCE, and now pay more attention to the systematic management of FBD. Based upon a systematic analysis of the causes of FBD, a brief introduction to the general principles of the systematic management of natural disasters, and a detailed discussion of the three managing objects, this paper gives a general framework of the systematic management of FBD. This consists of managing objectives, managing subjects (system), managing objects, managing environments, managing process, and managing regulations.Law is an indispensable policy tool in FBD management. Some, or all, of provisions in normative legal documents such as Constitution, laws (narrowly), administrative regulations, departmental rules and regulations, local regulations, and international legal documents, constitute the major legal sources for the FBD legal system. These can cover the legal aims, the basic principles, the basic concepts, the main institutions, and the guarantee mechanism. Though the legal system plays an important role in the current management of FBD, there are many shortcomings. which can be improved through the three legalizing ways based on the systematic management of FBD:reinterpretating the existing law, modifying the current law and developing new laws. The limitations of the functions of law in the management of FBD, the difficulty of implementing the FBD legislations, and the inevitability of FBD to a certain degree, are three marginal issues that should be taken into account in the FBD legislation.The innovative points of this dissertation lie in the fact that the basic principles of science of disaster in general have been employed to deal with the FBD as a special one, and that a new viewpoint and framework of FBD traditionally discussed within the theory of forest protection has been given out, which is a typical innovation as "old phenomenon-new method". Put specificly, here are the following three points: a new interpretation of FBD cause based upon the systemtic analysis disaster in general, a new idea of FBD management based upon the systematic management of disaster in general, and a new framework of FBD legislation based upon the systematic management of disaster in general.