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Regreening Rural China: A Tale of two Counties

Seldom has a single project changed a poor region so radically and so quickly for the better, by Peyton Johnson
CHENGDU: Neighbouring Gongxian and Gulin counties historically has been famous for Just one thing: grinding poverty.
Both Gongxian and Gulin have traditionally been among the poorest of the 2.300 counties that make up what is known today as the People's Republic of China. They are part of southwest Sichuan, the largest and most populous of China's 23 provinces.
Now Gongxian and Gulin's days of massive poverty may be over, thanks to an afforestation drive over the past four years. Seldom has a single development project changed a poor region so radically and so quickly for the better.
"Both counties did very Well." said an official of the Ministry of Forestry, visiting from Beijing. That really can't be argued. We think they are on the way up now. They might never have done it. though, without the help from the WFP."
The WFP he was referring to Is the World Food Programme, the United Nations agency that uses food as aid. In the Gongxian and Gulin case the US$16.3 million WFP aid consisted of 43,6)8 tons of wheat from Canada and the United States and 60 tons of ingredients for soup, delivered between 1985-89.
The two counties extend over ' 432.052 hectares grouped into 868 villages, with a total population of 1,030.000.
At the peak of its reforesting activities the project benefited 340.000 people from both counties.
The project in these two counties of the remote mountainous border of the great Sichuan basin is part of Chinese efforts to reforest the entire country. This, before environmental deterioration and population growth sink China's hopes to raise its living standards.
China's sheer size and the Immensity of its 1.1 billion population make this objective one of the most ambitious tasks any nation has ever set Itself.
There are no small' tasks in China," the official from the Ministry of Forestry said." Jobs that might look relatively simple In other countries always end up as colossal operations for us.
"Still we have to pay careful attention to individual projects and It's Important to tackle the hard cases first. That's why Gongxian and Gulin counties are so Important. If we can win here, we can win anywhere in China."
In Gongxian and Gulin the WFP-assistcd project planted 21,500 hectares of new forests and 2200 hectares of seedling beds, or nurseries for further forestry expansion. Another 48,000 hectares of young forests were "tended" to make sure they will grow into healthy forests producing both more and better timber and higher incomes for the rural people.
The major species planted provide good timber plus a number of other valuable forest products such as resin and turpentine.
A century or so ago about half of this southern rim of the great Sichuan Basin, bordering on the provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou, was heavily forested. But social strife, civil war, indifference, natural disasters. and irresponsible cutting without replanting greatly reduced the forests over the troubled years.
By 1958 Gongxian county's forested area was down to just 8 per cent while Gulin's at slightly above 10 per cent, was not much better.
Today Gongxian has Increased its forested area to 29.5 per cent while Gulin, which began its afforestation campaign a few years later, has reached 23.4 per cent, no mean feat by anybody's standards.
Mountains or high plateaus cover 84 per cent of Gongxian and 81 per cent of Gulin. The soils in both counties arc poor Tor fanning. But they arc almost ideal for forestry, with good rainfall and mild subtropical winters.
Afforestation in both counties began in earnest following the merciful burning out, or sheer human exhaustion, in 1976 of the highly destructive 10-ycar-long "Cultural Revolution."
In the years before the WFP-assisted project, tree replanting averaged only 184 hectares a year. Within two years under the new afforestation project. replanting zoomed to 2.210 hectares a year, twelve times the old annual average.
The WFP commodities financed 11,342.500 man days of work, paid al 3.25 kilograms of wheat per day for each of 150,374 workers.
Since its inception In 1963, WFP has poured food aid worth more than US$1 billion Into some 150 developing coun tries around the world.
Unlike In many other developing countries, by no means was the food aid committed to Gulin and Gongxian just handed out to those who worked, or claimed to work, on the project. The Chinese Insisted on a system they call "check and acceptance."
Before any project worker could collect his or her rations. the work was, and is. first "inspected." If the work Is done well, he or she receives a "certificate of acceptance." Then and only then can a project worker collect the promised WFP rations.
If applied throughout the Third World it might well revolutionise the whole International development effort. Such application, to put it mildly, is highly unlikely. Yet the hardworking and disciplined Chinese sec it as both fair and logical, even necessary.
"Nobody tn this world should expect something for nothing," a forestry officer exr plains. "You don't even have the right to ask for it. Do It right, or don't do it at all "— Depthnews Asia.