Dulongjiang Township: Poverty Alleviation Combined with Eco-Environmental Conservation

The Dulongjiang Township in Gongshan Derung and Nu Autonomous County of Yunnan Province is located in the border region near Myanmar. It is the only place in China with a compact community of the Derung ethnic group. Of the 4,272 local residents, 99 percent are ethnic Derung.

The township has a unique geography and abundant wildlife. Its forest coverage is as high as 93 percent. More than 1,000 higher plant species and 1,151 wild animal species have been discovered, making the Dulong River Basin a museum of natural landforms, a gene pool of biological species, and the last primitive land in Yunnan.

Restricted by natural conditions and social development, the Derung people had long lived in a primitive state of slash-and-burn farming. Their primitive lifestyle left more and more mountains barren, and the people had to struggle for a living. The yearly per capita net income was only 1,255 yuan in 2011.

Thanks to China's natural forest protection initiative and policies on turning marginal farmland to forests, the mountains have once more become green, and the waters turned clear. But there remained imbalance between eco-environmental conservation and the daily needs of the people. This presented a real challenge to the local authorities.

The question was how to escape poverty while still protecting the eco-environment. The answer lay in how to develop in parallel with protection and escape poverty through development. Based on local conditions, the local authorities decided to take protection as the guideline, and develop special businesses and border tourism, with support from the state eco-compensation policy and external assistance.

Thanks to the eco-compensation policy, the poor people with the capacity to work can earn a stable income by serving as forest rangers or doing other environment-related work. They have also changed their traditional lifestyle, and begun to use electricity instead of firewood. Their participation in local eco-environmental restoration projects and eco-businesses also earns them service payments. By the end of 2018, the Derung people had escaped poverty as a whole ethnic group.

云南貢山縣獨龍江生態扶貧

云南省貢山獨龍族怒族自治縣獨龍江鄉地處中緬和滇藏結合部，是全國唯一的獨龍族聚居地，國境線長達97.30千米，全鄉總人口4272人，99%為“直過民族”獨龍族。獨龍江鄉具有獨特的自然地理環境和豐富的動植物資源。目前，森林覆蓋率高達93.10%，獨龍江流域已發現高等植物1000多種、野生動物1151種，是名副其實的自然地貌博物館、生物物種基因庫、“云南旅游的最后一片原始秘境”。

受特殊的自然條件和社會發育程度制約，過去，云南獨龍江鄉獨龍族群眾靠“輪歇燒荒、刀耕火種、廣種薄收”等生產生活方式艱難度日。傳統的生產生活方式導致獨龍江鄉的“樹越砍越少，山越燒越禿”，群眾卻一直在“貧困線”上掙扎，到2011年獨龍族群眾人均純收入僅為1255元。國家實施天然林保護、退耕還林政策后，山綠了、水清了，而生態保護和獨龍族群眾生存的矛盾依然突出。正確處理好生態環境保護與群眾脫貧致富之間的關系，是當地黨委、政府歷來高度重視的工作。

破解獨龍江鄉生態保護與群眾脫貧致富矛盾的基本思路，是在保護中發展，在發展中脫貧。當地黨委、政府立足鄉情、廣泛論證，提出“生態立鄉、產業富鄉、科教興鄉、邊境民族文化旅游活鄉”的發展思路，在保護優先的前提下發展林下特色產業和實施生態補償政策，并通過外部力量的幫助，激發當地群眾的內生動力，實現就地脫貧一批。實施生態補償政策，讓有勞動能力的貧困人口就地轉成護林員或生態保護人員，實現工資性的穩定收入；實施“以電代柴”項目，改變傳統的生產生活方式；成立生態產業合作社，讓群眾通過參與生態修復工程和生態產業項目，就地實現勞務收入。2018年年底，獨龍江鄉獨龍族實現整族脫貧，這是習近平生態文明思想的生動實踐。