Villagers' New Lifestyles in Shennongjia

After the Regulations on the Protection of the Shennongjia National Park came into effect, all activities of hunting and fishing are prohibited, even collecting turf or bird eggs is illegal. Under such a strict protection system, the villagers are actively changing their lifestyle. Their living standards are improving day by day and the natural ecology also has a chance for rehabilitation.

Dajiuhu Wetland implements closed-off management, and all the accommodation and catering services were shut down in the wetland and private cars are not allowed to come in. From 2012, more than 1,800 residents, born and bred here, from more than 400 households in the wetland have been relocated successively to Pingqian Town 20 kilometers away.

The villager Qin Wanmei is among those being relocated. With the help of the compensation for relocation, her family built a four-storey building at the new settlement to run a B&B hotel, and besides that, she has rented a three-bay shop front providing catering service. The life of her family is getting much better. “There are solar street lamps near our house, and we use ecological gasification stoves for cooking meals and heating bath water. Our life is really much better than before.”

Ecological conservation will allow people to obtain long-term advantages and value by sacrificing short-term interests. More and more villagers have realized this truth like Qin Wanmei.

In 2017, Shennongjia National Park planned to cultivate 500,000 to 1 million rare local trees in two years to be used for the restoration of vegetation in the places with degenerated eco-environment and trees being felled within the park. The park develops the high-quality nursery stock industry in Laojunshan Village of Muyu Town. The villagers can participate in the construction of nursery gardens and cultivation of nursery stocks, and the park sends technicians to the site for guidance. During the management and protection period for the nursery stocks, the villagers are given subsidies. When the saplings grow up, the Administration of Shennongjia National Park will purchase them at market prices.

The villager Lu Yuping has planted 7 mu of Phoebe zhennan, which is a precious tree species. Her relatives often joke with her: "Your family will make big money from all these trees you have planted!" This honest woman farmer would shake her head as a sign of negation and say: "These trees should not be sold at will because they will be used for protecting the ecosystem in the future." Nowadays, the nursery stock industry base in Laojunshan has already been expanded to more than 100 mu, and 116 households are benefitted by it.

Villagers showed great enthusiasm in signing up for part-time ranger posts. In 2018, Shennongjia National Park offered 940 part-time ranger posts, with a standard of wage set at 4,800 yuan for each person every year. The investment in wages was more than 4.5 million yuan. In 2019, it offered 523 such posts, with an investment of more than 2.5 million yuan. (Text and photos by Wang Tong, Wen Jie and Yao Fei)