Veered Legal Principle, Renewed Rules and Unsolved Challenges of The Forest Law

The Forest Law has been amended in 2019, and enforced in 2020. This paper applies document study method to contrast the two laws in terms of legislation idea and concrete systems. It is found that the new Forest Law has a changed ecological view. While the old Forest Law attached importance to the ecological values of trees, e.g., preserving water and soil, adjusting climate, the new law pays attention to the value of protecting wildlife resources as forest ecosystem. The rules of the new law have been reformed, established comprehensive ecological protection measures, solidified forestry reform efforts in 20 years, and solved problems puzzling forestry practice for a long time. The present study shows that the new law also has old problems and new challenges that need to be solved in the future, such as defining the forest right, linking up cutting quota and forest management plan, the challenges of cutting management, and difficulties of forestry executive enforcement.