Natural forest that covers 68.49% of the forested area in China, and counts for 87.56% of the stocking volume of all forests, is a major source of wood and non-wood forest products. Because of social and economic development and imperative demand on ecological environment, especially after the big flood of 1998, the Chinese government established and kicked off the Natural Forest Protection Programme. Afterwards, a joint cooperation with international institutions were carried for the Sustainable Forestry Development Programme(SFDP). The programme includes three subsidiary projects: the Plantation Establishment Project (loan from World Bank), the Protected Areas Management Project(founded by the UN Global Environment Facility) and the Natural Forest Management Project (NFMP)(aided by the European Union). NFMP aimed for supporting of Natural Forest Protection Programme being undertaken by Chinese government is an aided technical assistant project. Total project fund is 22.5 million Euro, of which EU provides 16.9 million Euro of grant. The designated project area is 58 villages, 11 townships and 6 counties respectively in Sichuan, Hunan, and Hainan provinces. Three counties in Sichuan respectively are Songpan County in Aba prefecture, Pinwu County in Mianyang, and Baoxing County in Yaan. The execution period of the project is as 5 years.

　The mission of the project is “to contribute to environmental stability and sustainable development of local communities through experimentation and demonstration so as to provide more options on sustainable operation of natural forest for different interest groups”..

Project Outputs

　Four outputs should be expected by end of the project: (1) explore feasible natural forest operating patterns that can be experimented and demonstrated through actual practice at designated project areas; (2) improve people’s living standards at villages and townships where the project is implemented, and propose land using methods that are more suitable for local sustainable development; (3) improve standards of technical application, and replicate successful experience learnt from project pilot areas; (4) improve project management and reinforce capacity building of institutions, and improve management capability for natural forests at all levels of forests management departments.

　Above expected outputs need to be realized through implementation of four components: (1) Natural Forest Operation; (2) Community Development; (3) Training and Dissemination; (4) Project Management.

　　Background

　Sichuan, with its 85 million population, is a populous province as well as a prominent education province. There are 969 secondary VET schools with a total student enrollment of 572,400, which takes 50.41% of high school students between 15 and 18 years old. Due to China’s recent economy transformation and sector reconstruction, various new industries, sectors and job positions emerge, which requires a multi-level and multiple labour market configurations.

　According to Sino-Italy Bilateral Cooperation Agreement, both governments decide to implement Vocational Training Programme in Sichuan and Shaanxi Provinces by funding some provincial VET schools and providing technical assistance. Italian funds comprise approximately a � 7 million grant and � 11.5 million soft loan.

　6 beneficiary schools in Sichuan are, respectively, Mianyang Vocational Technical School, Chengdu Textile Engineering School, Sichuan Provincial Schools of Health, Tourism School of Sichuan, Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine and Jiajiang Yunyin Vocational High School.

　　Objectives

　The Programme aims to bring in advanced foreign vocational education concepts and models, to improve teaching approaches and curriculum development, to upgrade teaching facility and lab equipment, in order to consequently improve schools’ overall competence and its adaptability to the labour market. Meanwhile, the Programme aims to enlarge students enrollment and to subsidy indigent students to ensure more young students and laid-offs have access to pre-service trainings. Consequently, the Programme is to achieve its overall objective of increasing employment opportunities, improving the employability in Sichuan and reducing poverty.

　　Activities

　In order to reach the objectives, main Programme activities comprise, Technical Assistance of Italian Experts in China, training of school managers and teachers in China and in Italy, supply of teaching and lab equipment, and the matching civil works. Moreover, the Programme provides financial aids to poor students and short-term courses for laid-offs and unemployed to assist them complete their education and to be employed.

　　Progress

The Grant Project(s),with a execution period of 3 years, has commenced in 2004; The soft loan projects will be started within the year.