A Study On Application Of Participatory Forestry Planning Method In Hebei Provincial Afforestation Projects

Taking the Sino-German Smallholder Afforestation Project Hebei II as the study basis, and adopting integrated research methods of document study, field research and survey research, this paper analyses in depth the application of the participatory forestry planning (PFP) method in the Sino-German Smallholder Afforestation Project Hebei II, and points out that project's demands, financial support, consultants' input and support and broad training are the main causes that the international cooperation afforestation projects adopt the PFP method. By way of comparing the PFP method with the traditional forestry planning method, the paper indicates that the application of the PFP method may make project implementation fairer and more public, realize the organic combination of technical factors and socio-economic factors, increase the farmers' decision-making power, and realize the legal protection of farmers' rights and interests. The main effects of applying the PFP method are summarized as follows: arousing farmers' enthusiasm for participation in the project, promoting the building of rural democracy, creating harmonious development environment, raising farmers' abilities of self-organization and self-development, and making project planning more scientific, afforestation techniques more flexible and the realization of project goals easier. The paper indicates the main restriction factors affecting the application and extension of the PFP method, which mainly include popularization, education and training of participation concept, project stakeholders' participating abilities and levels in the course of PFP as well as insufficient manpower and funds. At last, according to the problems in the application and extension of the PFP method, the special proposals are put forward as follows: establishing special organizations to institutionalize the application of the PFP method, widely popularizing the PFP method, strengthening the training of the PFP method, allocating special budget for PFP, setting up inspiring mechanism, and flexibly applying the PFP method in practice.