Economic upsurge in China takes forests into retreat

Fifty years of Chinese economic development has forced China’s forests into retreat. Inevitable environmental consequences such as desertification and flashfloods have resulted in China becoming a net importer of wood. The Great Green Wall Project, started in 2001 and sponsored by the government, aims at planting a 2,800-mile long shelter belt of trees across the northwest rim skirting the Gobi Desert. Costing ¥96.2 billion it is intended to combat sandstorm blowing closer to Beijing.

Over one million GM trees have been planted in "reforestation" initiatives since commercialization was approved by the Chinese State Forestry Administration in 2002. In the northwest regions of Xinjiang province some 8,000 square kilometers of farmlands are given over to the GM tree monoplantations. A further 400,000 GM poplars planted around the headland of the Yellow River and Yangtze River continue to be plagued by insect pests although they are engineered to be pest resistant. GM trees introduced into the environment without proper controls have subsequently been "lost" to monitoring.

Wang Huoron from the Chinese Academy of Sciences told the UN Food and Agriculture (FAO) in 2003 that the GM poplars "are so widely planted in China that pollen and seed dispersal cannot be prevented." He also reported to the FAO that without any licensing system and exchange between nurseries of traditional and GM plant varieties has made it "extremely difficult to trace" the location of GM trees.

Poplars, whether GM or non-GM, are susceptible to pathogens and the more varieties of poplars introduced into the forests, the greater the risk of pathogens. Leaf rust is the most significant diseases of poplars worldwide.

Yousry-El-Kassaby, a forest geneticist at the University of British Columbia response to China’s rapid reforestation projects was cautious. He said "instead of going through the more laborious process of traditional methods, these quick fix, single-gene technologies are really attractive technologies in the same way they are for GM crops.

The Chinese State Forestry Bureau has no licensing system over GM trees and the Department of Agriculture is powerless to control GM trees because they are not classified as food. According to the Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, there is an urgent need for communication between the two government department as genes from GM poplars have transferred to nearby natural trees.