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Chinese Legislature to Take Severer Stance to Illegal Lumbering
China's top legislature will take a severer stance toward illegal lumbering and officials' malpractice by modifying two articles of the nation's criminal law.
Offenders of a draft revision of the law, which was submitted to the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee for discussion Tuesday, could face an imprisonment not longer than seven years or detention, as well as economic punishment.
The offenders, according to the draft, are those who cause serious damage to the forest by illegally lumbering for cultivation, or occupying and using woodland for other purposes, and government workers who give illegal approval to lumberers.
It is an action urgently needed to protect the nation's forest resource since the above-mentioned activities are hardly considered as illegal according to the Criminal Law's 1997 version. Yang Jingyu, director of Legal Affairs Office under the State Council, China's cabinet, told the NPC Standing Committee, which began its 22nd session here Tuesday.
Only 16.5 percent of land in China is covered by forests, according to latest statistics. The Chinese government has been enacting a series of tree-felling bans in recent years, especially in the upper reaches of major rivers, as soil erosion and desertification are becoming frequent environment problems.
In a proposal concerning the revision, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji acknowledged that the existing law has been playing a key role in combating illegal lumbering since it was revised by the NPC in 1997.
"However, some new problems emerged in recent years, which can no longer be dealt with under the old articles," Zhu said.
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