Mountain pilot aims to hit the heights

As one of three pilot national parks in Yunnan province, Laojun Mountain National Park focuses on striking a balance between rational construction planning and ecological protection. As one of the protection measures, the park's management bureau has introduced NGOs to develop local economies and reduce the need for illegal logging and hunting in the forests.

However, an overlap between government bodies has impeded the establishment of unified regulations to act as guidelines for the founding of a national park system, a move that was given the green light at the Communist Party's Third Plenary Session in November.

In February 2009, the Yunnan government approved the establishment of Laojun Mountain which covers 72 hectares across five townships in Yulong Naxi autonomous county in the city of Lijiang.

"Currently, not many people in China understand the concept of national parks and how to run such places," said Zhang Xuemin, director of the Laojun Mountain National Park Management Bureau. "The key aim is to embrace ecological protection, biodiversity research and community progress simultaneously."

The communities in the park are far from easy to handle, however. More than 65 percent of the 24,974 population exists far below the poverty line, with annual per capita income of just 2,300 yuan ($390) in the rural areas. Zhang said a higher standard of living would encourage the locals to protect the environment more effectively.

A four-hour drive southwest to downtown Lijiang brings one to the Jiushijiu Longtan section of the park, lying in primeval forests where signs of human activity are rare. He Changping and his colleagues moved in to start work in 1999, when Lijiang Laojunshan Tourism Development Co obtained the franchise to run the area and build roads and other tourist facilities.

Back then, the workers had to carry rice and other foodstuffs to a campsite near the summit where the Qunlong reception center is now located. This year, 60 million yuan has been plowed into the construction of an 8.5-meter-wide highway leading to the reception center, which lies 1 km from a string of green plateau lakes that are regarded as natural wonders.

Educating the visitors

"The vulnerable environment here won't easily recover if it's damaged, so we encourage visitors by giving them a free breakfast if they recycle their trash. The high altitude means trash decomposes extremely slowly and we have to educate visitors in good habits," said He Changping.

The reception center, which includes a cafe and restrooms, covers 0.22 hectares. According to international standards, set by the UN, land for construction cannot take up more than 1 percent of the park's total area, so a hotel will be built on the same site. If tourism flourishes in the deep forest, the number of visitors will be limited to a maximum 1,000 per day, he said.

The management bureau brought in Beijing Sansheng Environment and Development Institute to provide funds to villagers to enable them to cultivate cash crops and raise bees, thereby lifting local incomes. In Damaidi village, each of the 22 households pays 1,000 yuan a year into a development fund. A further 22,000 yuan is loaned to four families by Sansheng, providing capital of 44,000 yuan per annum.

Last year, Liu Shuncai, the village head, obtained a low-interest loan of 8,000 yuan from the fund to buy 20 beehives. He made a substantial profit by selling the honey, and is still in credit even after servicing his loan every month.

"The income per person in my family doubled to 8,000 yuan last year," he said, adding that four other families have taken out loans to cultivate herbs used in Chinese traditional medicine.

In Jinsichang, the park's central village, the standard of living is extremely low. Official statistics show that last year the average per capita income was 700 yuan, which left many locals dependant on illegal logging and hunting to make ends meet. Recognizing the severity of the situation, the management bureau signed an agreement in August with The Nature Conservancy, a US-based NGO, allowing the organization to conduct research and protect the habitat of the Golden Monkey in Yunnan.

Liu Hui, the manager of the conservancy's office in Lijiang, said that this year the NGO doubled the price it paid farmers for white kidney beans on condition that they refrained from cutting extra wood and killing the indigenous wildlife. Liu and her colleagues have to walk at least 15 km to visit the far-away monitoring station for the monkeys, which are situated too deep in the interior for highways and automobiles.

The NGO has also organized villager mountain patrols to track Golden Monkeys and stop the locals from harming the endangered species. Liu said her organization has installed more than 30 surveillance cameras in the woods to monitor local activity.

To the north, Liming is the park's most populous township. More than 4,800 residents live in a narrow river valley in the shadow of the famous Danxia landforms - stunning, rainbow-colored mountains - that are part of an ambitious plan to build highways, hotels, plank roads, and other tourist facilities.

In 2009, Yunnan Expo Tourism Holdings Ltd agreed a joint venture with the government of Lijiang to develop tourism in the Liming area. So far, the company has invested at least 250 million yuan to improve the infrastructure. A new cableway is under construction. When it's finished, cable cars will carry visitors to Qiangui Mountain, where the rocks on the summit resemble thousands of tortoises.

"Any construction has to pass our tests in the planning stage. Construction companies aren't allowed to use explosives because the rocks may collapse from the impact," said He Jiguang, director of the management bureau's planning division.

Depleted resources

However, tourism hasn't brought the riches the villagers had anticipated. Feng Jinlong, Liguang's village head, said the conflict between development and environmental protection hasn't eased following the boom in tourism. He earned 240,000 yuan by selling land and invested the money in raising chickens and sheep. However, the residents of villages deep in the mountains still live below the poverty line.

The area's natural resources are still being depleted, too. In Liming, which is renowned for its tobacco, demand has soared for the firewood needed to dry the leaves. Moreover, because the stem of every kidney bean plant has to be tied to a support, stocks of natural bamboo are being reduced rapidly.

Laojun Mountain falls under three banners: a national park, a geographic park and a scenic site, each governed by the forestry department, the land and resources department and the housing and urban-rural development bureau.

The park's management bureau has no real power to stop environmental violations or to order villages and townships to follow the strict planning requirements. However, in October, it forced Yunnan Expo Tourism Holdings to demolish 50 meters of plank road that did not comply with the planning rules. It was a rare victory for He Jiguang.

"The management bureau has less power than a county government, even though we're at the same level," said Zhang Xuemin, the bureau's director, who urged the central government to establish a ministry-level department to govern all national parks.

"Many of the ongoing nature reserves or scenic sites are naturally beautiful landscapes, but are used independently for sightseeing and research. That has resulted in low efficiency in terms of management and budgets, so the national parks system will integrate the two models to promote conservation and development," said Yang Weimin, the deputy head of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Finance and Economic Affair, in an educational booklet published for the November plenary session.

Contact the writer at huyongqi@chinadaily.com.cn

Li Yingqing and Guo Anfei contributed to this story.

Top: The view of the summit in Laojun Mountain National Park in Yunnan province. Above: The Golden Monkey is one of the rare species that lives in the area. Left: Members from the US National Park Service, taught English to local children during a 2010 visit to Liming, a town in the park. Niu tun / for china daily, Li Xiaolan / for China Daily

(China Daily USA 12/19/2013 page9)