9月8日早间英文播报：Eco-reform aids green initiative

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Sheep graze at Saihanba National ForestPark in Chengde, Hebei province. [Photo/Xinhua]

Afterlogging ban, workers become rangers tapping potential of forest resources

Six years ago, a door slammed shut for SunXueshui and tens of thousands of other loggers and timber mill workers innortheastern China's Heilongjiang province.

For generations, they and their ancestorshad felled and processed trees for meager wages among the Greater HingganMountains in the forest-rich province, a stronghold of China's sprawlingnetwork of State-owned forest farms.

However, the province banned commerciallogging in natural forests in 2014 in an attempt to find a greener path forforest farms, which include both natural forests and plantations.

Shortly after the ban was introduced, theQianshao Forest Farm, Sun's employer, opened another door for its workers.

It refrained from sacking them, despite themassive loss of timber revenue, and instead shifted Sun and his colleagues tonew posts on lower salaries as forest rangers patrolling for forest fires andpests.

To make up for the shortfall, the farmallowed staff members to start businesses as a sideline, hoping they wouldreceive a financial boost by tapping other forest resources in anenvironmentally friendly way.

For Sun, this was through collecting andprocessing wild mushrooms, which are abundant in the region, as he sought toprofit from the nation's growing enthusiasm for organic food.

But as the supply of wild mushrooms wasconstrained by seasonal factors, Sun then saw a business opportunity in themountain springs that flow freely in the forests. In 2018, he set up a distillerythat makes baijiu－a Chineseliquor－at a smallfacility offered by the farm free of charge. Sun said that he uses spring waterand rice, a local specialty, as raw materials, unlike local competitors whocommonly use corn.

His brainchild is now a lucrative businessand the expansion of the distillery last year lifted its annual productioncapacity to 10,000 liters.

"We're planning to hire morehands," said Sun, 46, who started working as a lumberjack in1990."We'll first consider my fellow workers at the farm who have been infinancial difficulties."

In addition to the distillery, the farmbuilt 140 greenhouses for growing edible mushrooms, hiring about 150 formerlumberjacks. Wei Ranbao, a farm official overseeing the project, said thegreenhouses had raised farm employees' per capita income by some 3,400 yuan($492) a year in 2014. They now earn about 50,000 yuan a year.

The successes at Qianshao have set anexample for more than 4,800 State-owned forest farms scattered across China asthey attempt to shift their focus from the exploitation of forests' timberresources to their preservation, in line with government policies.

They also showcase the potential for forestresources to be used in greener ways, in line with the maxim "lucid watersand lush mountains are invaluable assets", which was put forward byPresident Xi Jinping in 2005, when he was Party secretary of Zhejiang province.

The forest farm reforms that started inHeilongjiang six years ago are part of a broader effort by the central authoritiesto revitalize the economies of former heavy industrial bases in northern andnortheastern provinces that have lost steam due to the gradual depletion of oildeposits and other natural resources.

During a 2016 visit to Yichun, an area ofdense forests in Heilongjiang, Xi, who is also general secretary of theCommunist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central MilitaryCommission, stressed the significance of environmental protection and demandedconcerted efforts to establish new industries other than logging.

In Beijing last year, he told legislatorsfrom northern China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region that strategic resolvewas needed when it came to building an eco-friendly economy. He described theprotection of the country's environment as being embedded in China's overalldevelopment strategy, and highlighted its particular relevance to thedevelopment of Inner Mongolia.

The forest farm reforms are also considereda crucial move in bolstering the ecological security of border regions as thecountry ramps up efforts to conserve its environment and build a"beautiful China", an idea first put forward in late 2012.

At a forest farm in Chifeng, InnerMongolia, last year, Xi said that building an ecological security barrier innorthern China was a strategic task. While visiting an afforestation area inthe northwestern province of Gansu last year, he called for a spirit ofperseverance and sustained efforts in building a beautiful China.

Building an ecological civilization is amajor task for China as it has grown prosperous and is becoming strong, Xisaid, calling for a solid "Green Great Wall" to protect theenvironment.

Find more audio news on the China Dailyapp.

记者：李磊、周慧颖

播报：CorrieKnight

原文链接：

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202009/07/WS5f556c98a310675eafc57ca8_1.html