Mutual Benefits Between the Park and People's Livelihood

In Laojunshan Village of Muyu Town, the fields are verdant. If you observe carefully, you will find that the plants in the fields are not common local crops, but small saplings. The villagers are tending them with great care. Since this village was included into Shennongjia National Park, the park has limited the planting of crops to prevent chemical fertilizers from polluting the environment. The villagers have switched over from the planting of crops to that of saplings on their own land to increase incomes. Shennongjia is a place suitable for the growth of plants, so nursery stocks take root quickly and have less pests. Compared with crops, nursery stocks can avoid the risk of being damaged by animals. Meanwhile, the national park manages the scale of planting effectively and expands the market of nursery stocks; and it promises to purchase the nursery stocks planted by villagers before selling them in a unified manner so as to ensure the incomes of the villagers.

The villager Li Zhikui said in front of his own land that, “What I plant here is Mangnolia officinalis. There is totally more than 2 mu of it. The survival rate of the nursery stocks of Mangnolia officinalis is very high, so it is very easy to manage them.” The villager Xu Daibing said that, “Our family has 8 mu of land. The national park gives me 400 yuan as the land transfer fee and 1,200 yuan as field management fee for each mu, and I can get more than 10,000 yuan every year from this subsidy.” 

The park utilizes the local natural resources to help the villagers to adjust the industrial structure and breed nursery stocks of rare plants. In this way, the national park has expanded its green area and the villagers have increased their income. The goal of sustainable development based on the mutual benefits between the park and people's livelihood is fulfilled. (By Zhang Ran)