In celebration of the 30th Anniversary of forestry cooperation between China and Finland, Sino-Finnish Workshop on Rural Forest Reform in China and Sustainable Forest Management was held on September 1, 2010, in the Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF), which was organized by CAF and Forestry Development Centre, Finland, under the auspice of the State Forestry Administration (SFA) and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland. SFA Vice Administrator ZHANG Jianlong, and Anttila, Finnish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry were present and made speech at the workshop. Also present at the opening ceremony of the workshop were Finnish ambassador Lars Backstr?m, CAF president ZHANG Shougong, Deputy Director General ZHANG Hongyan of Dept. of Int’l Cooperation, SFA, and senior specialist Jan Heino of Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

ZHANG Jianlong states that in 1980 the two sides signed the MOU of Scientific and Technological Cooperation Between the Ministry of Forestry, P. R. China and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland, which was the first bilateral MOU of cooperation signed by the Chinese forestry department with foreign department and laid a good foundation for forestry exchange and cooperation between the two countries. Now the tenure reform of collectively owned forest in rural regions of China has got some achievements while in the new period, it is confronted with challenges of establishment and development of forest farmers’ cooperatives, scale management of forest, and sustainable forest management. The workshop is expected to generate valuable recommendations on these regards and further promote the forestry cooperation between the two sides.

Anttila expresses in her speech that Finland has, just like it in China, undergone a process of reforms in land ownership and so far maintains a well-established management system of private forests. But Finland, in recent years, sees a shrinkage of private forest area, and as well is faced with issues of scale management and sustainable management. She hopes to learn Chinese experience from the workshop so as to facilitate the growth of forest ownership structure in Finland.

Nearly 100 participants have taken part in the workshop from management departments, research institutes, universities and forest farms of the two sides, who have conducted a deep exchange and discussion on the themes of forest land management, resource management, economic policies, sustainable forest management and joint-ventures that are closely associated with the forest tenure reform.