China's Forest Sector Markets: Policy Issues and Recommendations
SUMMARY Based on the papers contributed to this Special Issue and other studies an effort is made to identify the major policy issues facing the Chinese forest sector. The policy analysis is organized around the so-called ‘supply china’ (from stump to final products' markets). The discussion of policy issues and implications centers on the identified large and growing gap in the demand/supply balance of forest products. A major problem to carry out the policy analysis is the identified lack of consistent and transparent data for the different components of the ‘supply chain’. This is a situation which must be substantially improved in order to undertake relevant policy setting for the Chinese forest sector.
The China Forest Products Trade: Overview of Asia-Pacific Supplying Countries, Impacts and Implications
SUMMARY Over 70% of China's timber product imports are supplied by countries in the Asia Pacific region, and China is the dominant forest product market for many of these countries. Unsustainable harvesting practices, illegal logging, and negative impacts on community livelihoods plague many of these supplying countries. The countries may be divided into those still harvesting and exporting timber from natural forests on a large scale and those which have gone past their highest levels of natural forest timber harvesting and are now more aggressively pursuing plantation development and processing. Apart from Russia, China's top Asia Pacific timber suppliers could at best maintain current supply, with natural forest resources being depleted in less than 20 years. Resource limits also constrain expansion and/or long-term continuation of processed product export to China. Greater attention and action on the part of governments, market leaders, and international organizations is needed to address negative impacts, shifting supply to a sustainable, legal, and equitable basis and to determine from where China's long-term supply will come.
Trends and prospects in Mexican residential energy use
Trends of residential energy use in Mexico are described between 1970 and 1990. Top-down and bottom-up approaches are specified. The top-down approach shows that household energy demand has been non-elastic to energy price and that changes in household size were more important than income in determining per capita energy demand between 1970 and 1990. The bottom-up approach shows that cooking is the main end use while water heating and appliances are the end uses with the greatest rates of growth. Nearly 20% energy savings may be achievable in the future.