First published on 05/14/2018
By: WANG Zhilu
Chinese tulip tree, binomially known as Liriodendron Chinense, is an endemic species in China, among which the largest old-growth forest, is located in Laozhai Village, Guizhou Province. Lied on the east of Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, Guizhou is a mountainous province in the southeast of China, where more than half of the land is Karst topology and is covered with varied forests and diversified wildlings. Laozhai village was one of the earliest community conserved area in China acknowledged by UNEP-WCMC ICCA Registry. Prior to the GEF SGP project in 2013, the nature reserve for Liriodendron Chinense authorized by local government was founded as early as 1988, however, an “empty shell”. No institution, personnel, and funding were specially set up for the forest preserve. Due to its high economic value, Liriodendron Chinense suffers excessive felling from both inside and outside the community – hundreds of people chopped trees in one day at the prime time. Villagers soon realized the Liriodendron Chinense trees are indigenous fortune that they relied on – ought to be well conserved and sustainably utilized. Therefore, in 2003, a team of 11 voluntary forest keeper was appointed by the community, along with a series of rules for forest protection: no outsiders were allowed in the forest; two keepers a day from January to June and no less than six keepers per day from June to September, when seeds were mature; Wildlife hunting and fruit picking were strictly forbidden unless permitted. Through the dedications of villagers as a whole, the insane woods chopping and wildlife poaching were restrained effectively.
The typical and successful conservation in Laozhai Village drew the attention of the local NGO. In 2013, Guizhou Anthropology Association together with GEF SGP, carried out the “sustainable building project” in this typical community conserved area, in order to reinforce the sustainability of conservation . By combining the 20-year experiences and lessons with literate theories such as Elinor Ostrom’s “8 principles for managing a common”, the project developed an evaluation system for sustainability and a protocol for natural resource management, involving resource research, system building, capacity building and economic development.
According to the evaluation report, Laozhai village received a positive feedback and was especially outstanding in the two criteria – “least acknowledge from the government” and “able to receive multiple support”. Indeed, for 20 years, the villagers in Laozhai have always been the true master of the community, being responsible for and benefiting from their own unique conservation system. Liriodendron Chinense forest has expanded from 50 hectares in last century to nowadays more than 300 hectares, where 20 or 30-meter-height trees are fairly common in the old-growth forest. With the help of the NGO and GEFSGP, the Laozhai Village came up with the written protocols and responsible commission for forest management to normalize and professionalize the conservation work, which benefited the community of more than 600 people.
However, threats are far from full elimination. In 2015, a nearby wind power plant caused some damages to the liriodendron forests when the road construction led to broken stones. To defend its own very rights, the village negotiated with the power plant and finally won a compensation of 1.8 million Chinese Yuan – a successful negotiation through the mean of law. Besides it, the ownership of the conserved area remaining unclarified is yet to be resolved in the future.
