It is time to optimize forest management policy for both carbon sinks and wood harvest in China

Forestry protection constituted a fundamental element of China's forest management policy for the past four decades, which has played a critical role in increasing forest area and biomass stock. Nevertheless, an efficacious forest management policy should balance the dual roles of forests, serving as both carbon sinks and ecosystems, while also satisfying human demands for wood production. As one of the largest developing countries, China exhibited a significant increase in wood consumption from 49.42 million m³ in 1980 to 534.18 million m³ in 2020. However, the forest management policy in China tends to strictly limit domestic wood harvest for production. These forest management policies were formulated 40 years ago according to the situations at that time. Here, we evaluated the continued reliability of these protection-based forest management policies in the context of significant changes in forest structure. Additionally, we proposed a new wood harvest scheme that can satisfy all domestic wood requirements and has no negative impacts on forest carbon sink and soil erosion.