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In 2008, WWF-TCCC (The Coca-Cola Company) program launched the Water Source Integrated Protection Project in Pi County, Chengdu. The Anlong village project which started from 2011 is a part of the Water Source Integrated Protection Project. Now, one year has passed and a more beautiful Anlong appears with water spirit.

Located in the west of Chengdu city and embraced by ZouMa River and its branch Dianzhan ditch, the village of Anlong is at the junction of ZouMa River, TuoJiang River and QingShui River. The water from the inner river system of the DuJiangyan irrigation project, running through the well-developed water grids in Chengdu plain, constantly nourishes each inche of the land in Along and the industrious people there.

As a Chinese old saying, ‘The benevolent fi nd joy from mountain and the wise fi nd joy from water’. Human has the instinct affection to the water. The Loving Water Corridor in Anlong is built with the natural materials. Along the corridor, there are farms, running streams, fl ying birds and blooming fl owers. When walking in the corridor, people can really enjoy the pleasure from water scenery and cultivate the environment protection sense: “Understand water, Love water and Save water”.

Along the river, there are some terrace-like constructed buffer wetlands. After naturally treated by these constructed

Species

wetlands, the grey water from the farmhouses can be safely returned to the river. These wetlands can also protect the river bank.

“No pesticide and No chemical fertilizer.” In Anlong village, environment-friendly farming becomes more and more popular. People use farmyard manures and oilcakes instead of chemical fertilizers, and deal with pests by planting some functional plants like mint. As a result, the fresh and high-quality vegetables are well accepted by people, so as the farm meal which main ingredients are vegetables from the farm lands in Anlong.

Firefl y, frog, egret etc are sensitive to environment, especially the water environment. They are selected as the biological indicators in Anlong village. By restoring their habitats, these biological indicators are protected as well as the environment on which they depend are protected.

From the planning stage on, we build the project sites like the Earth God statue, fi shlike water divide combining with the local culture and history. It also conveys the idea of Chinese traditional

Giant panda in Huangtuliang corridor. ©Wanglang National Nature Reserve

ANLONG: A VILLAGE OF WATER SPIRIT

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philosophy: Human live with nature harmoniously.

The water mill in the environmental education center demonstrates how the villagers used the water energy in the past. The divide of the toilet is made of 500+ recycled drink bottles. People

can also enjoy birding and reading in this environmental education center or do some water relevant experiments there.

In the past year, more than 3000 environment relevant visitors(Government offi cials, experts, volunteers etc.) from all

over the world visited Anlong. By communicating with the local people, most of them have a good understanding of the Anlong mode in water source comprehensive protection and, afterward, as messengers, they bring Anlong stories to the rest of the world.

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“I SELL VEGETABLES ON MICROBLOG” --A STORY ABOUT COMMUNITY In 2008, WWF-TCCC (The Coca-Cola Company) program launched the Water Source Integrated Conservation project in Pi County, the main water source of Chengdu city. In 2009, WWF helped the local villagers set up the Environment-friendly Farm team in YuanTian village, encouraging them to grow vegetables in an environment-friendly way and try to practise the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), in order to decrease the risk of Non-point pollution. Two years has past, the ecological farming has brought the farmers not only environmental benefi ts but also economic benefi ts. Modern farmer Li Xueyou’s story is a good example.

More than 3000 followers

Five O’ clock in the morning, when most of people are in their sweet dreams, farmer LiXueyou and his family began their busy morning.

"Today, we will distribute taro and Chinese chives. I bet the customers will like them!” Li Xueyou, a 42-year-old farmer said to his wife happily while carrying the vegetables onto his van.

The back part of the van has been fi lled with the vegetables packed in green environment-friendly bags that would distribute to more than 30 families. Li said with pride, “I am known by these customers via Micro blog, and thanks for that, my vegetable business is boosting.”

“My micro-blog has been verifi ed as a VIP, and I always have new followers each day. Till now, I have more than 3000 fans including some friends from NGOs, even some professors from agriculture fi eld.” When talked about his micro-blog, Mr Li became kind of exciting, “The micro-blog is a bridge, through it, the customers pay me the money in advance then I distribute my vegetables according to their needs.”

Li Xueyou and his solar electronic pest-catching device. © Dai Xin.

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Li Xueyou’s direct business with the customers via the microblog is actually a typical Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). CSA emerged from Swizerland in 70s last century and boosted in Japan afterwards. CSA is an agriculture mode much like this: the customers are trying to establish a good economic relationship with the farmers, in seek of safe foods. In CSA mode, there is no middleman who always manipulates the food price.

Say “NO” to chemical fertilizer! Say “NO” to pesticide

Two years ago, when WWF promoted environment-friendly farming in Yuantian village, such farming is not well accepted by the local villagers. People don’t believe vegetables growing without chemical fertilizer and pesticide can be sold well.

“My father got very angry when he heard I decided to grow ecotype vegetables. He laughed at me and thought I was a farmer who was too lazy to apply the chemical fertilizer and pesticide to the vegetables.”

In Li’s farmland, we can see some small yellow fl ags and some big size cola bottles hung on the trees. Li said these yellow fl ags are pest-catching boards and the cola bottles are traps with honey water fi lled thus can attract and catch insects.

“This big stuff is a solar electronic insect-catching device given by the Agriculture Development Bureau of our county free of charge. Li showed us the device “Look, it has caught lots of insects. Now, without using the chemical fertilizer, I feel better in health”

Besides the aforementioned, Li Xueyou also insists on applying farmyard manure instead of

chemical fertilizer. For that, he often goes miles away to get the oil cake (Remains of oil expression)-A natural fertilizer.

"Oil cake is good. It can kill some insects and fertilize the soil at the same time. It can keep the soil away from scleroses too.” He added.

After a two-year trial, Li Xueyou’s ecological farming expanded from half acre to 4 acres with more vegetable outputs. Last year, with the help from volunteers, Mr Li opened his micro-blog account. On his micro-blog pages, we could see he wrote lots of messages, introducing his seasonal fresh vegetables.

Small vegetables, big interests

Without chemical fertilizer and pesticide, the ecotype vegetable requires a longer growth cycle and charges more in the market but Li still has strong confi dence in the ecotype vegetable.

“Last year, I suffered some losses, but this year, with more customers, I

guess I can balance my business. I’ve made a rough estimation, if my CAS goes well, I can make a big profi t in the coming future.” Li said.

“In modern agriculture, the abuses of chemical fertilizer and pesticide cause a lot of non-point pollutions in the rural areas which threat the underground water and the river. The environment-friendly farming can control the non-point pollution effectively” said Li Ye, the Head of WWF Chengdu Offi ce, ” The environment-friendly farming and CSA are important parts of our Integrated Water Source Protection Pilot Project, besides that we have restored the river, the wetland, the habitats for key indicator species and so on. We will improve and promote such integrated water source protection mode and let more public,enterprises and other stakeholders engage in our water source protection in Chengdu and make this as a pilot case in the Yangtze basin.”

Li Xueyou and his microblog. © Dai Xin.

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WATER-MILL OF WEST SICHUAN UNCOVEREDIn the afternoon of December27th, 2011, the fi rst environment education center of Sichuan is founded in Anlong village of Pi county, Chengdu. This center was supported by WWF-TCCC (The Coca-Cola Company) program. It not only shows the water and farming culture, but also carries out the educational function to make people can “know water, love water and protect water”. It was awarded by Chengdu EPA and Chengdu Science Association “Chengdu environmental protection education base” and “Chengdu popular science education base for the youth” respectively.

Water-mill of west Sichuan uncovered

The Environment Education Center of Anlong village is characterized in suspension by wooden which is widely used in west Sichuan plain area. It is beautiful and earthquake-proofed. In side of its architectural features, it not only inherits the West Sichuan dwelling style, but also rebuilts a Water-mill. It is said that Water-mills were very popular on Chengdu Plain the late 1960s and early 1970s. With the popularity of modern agriculture, this traditional agricultural tool faded out people's eyes by and by.

“This water-powered mill is not a model, it is a real one!”, said Li Ye, head of WWF Chengdu offi ce, pointing to the water-powered which is working, “Before people used it to grind rice and mill. This water-powered roller is rotated by the water in the channel under the mill. Despite it rotates slowly, it can grind 400kg rice without electricity. It is a green energy-saving product. ”

Li Ye also said, “The water-powered roller seems like backward productive tool but it is a model of low-carbon and circulation environmental protection. The rebuilt not only make us back to

memory of the water and farming culture of west Sichuan, but also make people further think how to use water resources scientifi cally. ”

The toilet can be interesting too

In the center, the idea of environmental protection and energy conservation runs throughout the design. Even in most easily overlooked places, such as water closet, the idea of environmental protection is fully refl ected.

“The separate wall in the toilet is made of more than 700 used Coke bottles and mineral water bottles, which make it have fashionable style, and enlighten the idea of environmental protection.” The WWF project offi cer, Xu Chagjiang told the reporter, “The aquarium with sand and plants below the hand washing basin is actually a small artifi cial wetland, through which the hand washing water can de purifi ed and reused. ” The water closet also uses so called dry toilet. A lot of water can be saved here to fl ush. After half year’s fermentation, human excrement can be turned into organic farm manure for the use of

ecological agriculture in Anlong.

Well equipped

The center installs a lot of facilities about Popular Science Education and Environmental education. Besides the most common biological microscopes and water quality testing instruments, the center especially installs birding scopes, according to its situation.

“The center sits on the edge of Wild Duck Lake where you can see egrets. It’s a wonderful place to watch birds. We hope people can learn the relationship between human and water by activities, just like watching birds on wetland”, Doctor Ling Lin said, “The next step is that we will let more people concern water source place of Chengdu thorough this center, adopt this model in the Yangtze River basin and the other river basins on the earth. Meanwhile, we will pay a lot of attention to the policy advocacy of water source place and encourage the public and some enterprises take active part in the protection of water source place for the development of Modern Garden City of Chengdu.”

Water mill. © Dai Xin.

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ZHARU VALLEY, A STAR IN THE AUTUMN OF THE BEAUTIFUL JIUZHAIGOUBerberis, Fraxinus bungeana, Cotoneaster…when all those names were called out by Li Jianyu, our tour guide, their Chinese spellings were a total blank in my mind. All I could do was to shoot those red fruits and colorful leaves with my camera. This special tour to Sichuan Jiuzhaigou Valley was in deep autumn with heavy fruits on all the trees. Away from the crowded tourists, I joined a Hong Kong tour group of 15 members and walked into the quiet Zharu Valley.

Prayer fl ags of each household hanging in dense like a forest and the religious fl ags twining through the forest and make it look like a maze

Zharu is a valley in east of Jiuzhaigou major scenic spots. With a stream fl owing through, it is embosomed by fi ve or six mountains, all above 4,000 meters high. Deep down along the stream, it is the sacred Zhayizhaga Mountain (around 4,500m above sea level). Upstream, it leads to two alpine lakes, the Dalianhai Lake and the Heihai Lake. Designed by WWF and the Jiuzhaigou Scenic Administrative Bureau, a revolving around mountain pilgrimage route for Tibetan prayers is explored by Li Jianyu and two other Australian volunteers after site investigation and opened up to the tourists. It takes 4 days to walk through the whole route, while three days are necessary for a trip with scientifi c research and exploration. Besides these, there is also very relaxing roam trip along the route, for which one day is enough. This time, the host only arranged a half day travel for us, with less than a 10km’s journey. Even though the time and trip were short, it was still an abundant harvest of appreciating forests, streams and Tibetan village customs at an altitude about 2,100 meter high above sea level.

The car took us to a stream. On the other side of the stream, Nadichaguo is right in front of us. It is composed of 9 villages in JiuZhaigou Valley (“JiuZhai” means “nine villages” in Chinese). A new white tower built by by 1,023 Tibetans from over 200 households stands in from of the village. Around the tower, prayer fl ags from each household were hanged in dense like a froest and religious fl ags twining through the forest and make it look like a maze. Li Jianyu introduced to the visitors the Bonpo, the primitive religion of the local Tibetans and explained the meanings of each picture on the religious fl ags to the visitors in

Cantonese, telling them to turn the prayer wheel in counter-clockwise unlike in clockwise of Tibetan Buddhism.

In 1966, a forestry industry department discovered the beautiful Jiuzhaigou Valley during timber surveys. In early 1980s, Jiuzhaigou began to receive visitors and soon became a world famous scenic spot and one of China’s fi rst certifi cated sites of the World Natural Heritages. I remember my fi rst visit to Jiuzhaigou, it was in 1984, the local Tibetan children herding sheep were asked by tourists for a photo taking; the water mill still in use attracted all

WWF Supported Tibet Home Museum. © Zhong Jia.

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tourists’ curiosity for a closer look. However, with increased number of visitors, to better manage, more and more regulations were put out, accommodation in villagers’ house is no longer allowed inside the scenic spot area, and the Tibetan original environment is also fl ooded by hustle and bustle.

WWF innovatively develops Zharu Valley tourism in Jiuzhaigou. Its core designing ideology is to better introduce the Tibetan culture that advocating beatifi c union of Heaven and Man, and the coexistence of human and nature to more tourists. Almost all the Tibetan families in Zharu Valley participate in the tourist business. But at the same time, they still keep grazing, collecting wild products as usual and they preserve their original houses, tools as well as their eating and living habits. Therefore, any people come here would have the privilege of experiencing and learning the local wisdom for living in harmony with the nature in original ecologic environment.

Handfuls of daphne odoras immersed in boiling water, then taken out and patted on the sick would produce amazing effect of eliminating illness and misfortunes

Wandering in Zharu Valley, relics of ancient villages, water mills and forests interwove with red, yellow and green may strike your heartstrings. Besides them, the extensive natural pure Chinese pine forest is both grand and mysterious.

Gumu Langzhen is a Tibetan girl from Rexi Village in Zharu. She has come back with a master degree in New Zealand and now is working as a tour guide in Zharu Valley. She said “After the enforcement of returning the grain for the forest policy, the government is planning to organize people to plant sea-buckthorns and Chinese pines on the returned land. But we don’t think that is necessary, we believe that forests can grow by themselves.” As expected, we found yellow sea-buckthorn berries are dangling from branches along the stream and

waist-high or higher Chinese pines thrive all over the hillside fi elds.

Gumu Langzhen showed me a cluster of plant which were still green in autumn with unfolded lanceolate leaves thick and fl eshy, “This is daphne odora, which contains both medical effect and religious signifi cance for us.” When treating sick people, monks would immerse handfuls of daphne odoras in boiling water, and then take them out to pat on the sick so as to eliminate sickness and misfortunes. Though this is a religious ritual, modern medical research has shown that daphne odora do have medical functions.

Li Jianyu told the Hong Kong visitors that root of Fraxinus bungeana can be used as a cure for cough. This plant of Gentianaceae family can be found everywhere on mountain paths in Zharu Valley. Though their branches withered at present, they would bloom into dazzling trumpet-shaped blue fl owers in summer time. In Rexi village, half of the collected Fraxinus bungeana roots were sold the moment the hosts presented them before the guests.

Randomly picking out some plants along the road, Gumu Langzhen would immediately tell me their names either in Latin or in Chinese, but most of the time in their Tibetan local language. “This is Elaeagnus umbellata. We collect their fruits in dustpans and eat them with tsampa at home.” I tasted one, sour and sweet and assumed that it might be rich in vitamins. “This is Anemone Vitifolia. Its cotton fi bre can be used for making pillows.” According to Li Jianyu, the fi ber of Anemone Vitifolia was too short to be spun, and Anemone Vitifolia is in a totally different category with cotton. Gumu Langzhen picked off some of its withered and blacked leaves and rubbed them several times with her hands, “we use the rubbed leaves to feed pigs. But the green ones are not usable, they taste bitter and pigs don’t like it. ” One can make tools of what comes to hand, the Tibetan people’s wisdom can also parallel

Shennong who tastes a hundred herbs.

Li Jianyu continued, this is Salvia, it can be used as spice. Rub its leaves with your hands, they may immediately smell fragrantly. You can have a try! Angelica root is a medical plant. Cantonese like cooking soup with it, oh? Take a photo of it; Maianthemum bifolium, the local Tibetans use it in vegetable salad; Radix bupleuri, good medicine that brings down fever and cure cold… ”

A bunch of plant that full of prickles is tied to the beam in order to prevent rats

From the mountain came hoarse “coughs”. “Blue eared pheasant!” Gumu Langzhen exclaimed. There were birds chirring and chirping in the pinewoods. Prunella strophiatas with an obvious yellow eyebrow ripple and Elliot's Laughingthrush with its small rounded white bulging eye all happily bounded in groups in the bushes. Phoenicurus frontalis with red and blue feathers also showed off their beautiful colorfulness on bare branches. If the time had permitted for a wander in places in higher altitude, we might have seen many more birds or even larger animals.

Li Jianyu told us that due to the lack of tour guides, ecotourism in Zharu Valley didn’t offi cially do any marketing to the public, and introduction of it could only be found on the English website of Jiuzhaigou’s Administrative Bureau. It only receives around three or four hundred of visitors every year, most of whom were foreigners or Hong Kong tour groups. “Domestic visitors are rare here,” Li Jianyu said, “Zharu doesn’t boast things like waterfalls, lakes like in the major scenic spot area, and visitors prefer to take photos in the beautiful scenery instead of learning about animals and plants.” However, Wu Jiawei, the project manager of Sichuan KANGMEI Institute of Community Development and Marketing, are very confi dent about arousing domestic visitors’

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interest. Appointed by WWF, Wu Jiawei has been doing ecotourism project development for many years in Zharu. At present, he is assisting the Research Department of Jiuzhaigou Administrative Bureau in designing and making brochures for nature observation in Jiuzhaigou. Therefore, visitors may fully appreciate Jiuzhaigou by means of tour guides as well as brochures for observation during their trip for sightseeing in major scenic spots. However, at the present, the 300 RMB entrance ticket of Jiuzhaigou is only valid for one day, so the major scenic spots are bound to be visitors’ priorities, and few are willing to buy another ticket for a tour in Zharu

Valley the next day. If visitors in the major scenic spots can be guided for appreciation of animals, plants as well as knowledge in meteorology and geology, many people are expected to show their interests.

However, in order to know more about Tibetan customs, farming culture and the primitive Bonpo religion, people would never miss the trip to Zharu Valley. WWF has established a family museum in Rexi Village. Utilizing on Zhenban Cuojia, a Tibetan girl’s old house, it deploys the house the primary look as it was: parents’ living room, room of her uncle who is a lama, a room for chanting sutra, storage room,

parlor…In addition, many furniture and tools are also reserved such as wooden water bucket, water vat, cask with barley wine, handmade leather boots, pack basket, pot-scouring brush, colored cabinet, decorations on walls and lintels, as well as things and pendents embodying religious belief and abundant other things. It is interesting that a bunch of plant full of prickles is tied to the beam in order to prevent rats from stealing food.

Drinking a bowl of hot butter tea in the luxuriant Tibetan parlor and enjoying the freshly-picked walnuts, the Hong Kong visitors were reluctant to leave.

THREE YEAR TRANS-PROVINCIAL JOINT CON-SERVATION ACTION PLAN

On October 25, 2011, WWF supported Qingmuchuan Nature Reserve to hold the three year planning workshop to discuss the joint action among three nature reserves in Shaanxi, Gansu and Sicuan Province for the next three years. The workshop aimed to summarize the achievements of the joint actions over the past fi ve years and develop a three year plan to address the common needs regarding resource conservation in the region.

In the following month, three nature reserves organized a large scale anti-poaching campaign with a mountain clean-up to address the illegal poaching and logging activities. Also inspection for poached wildlife in restaurants, markets and along the roads and toll gates

are conducted. The overall activity focused on cleaning the traps, taking in poachers and controlling illegal behaviors in the target area.

The year 2011 is the fi fth year of this joint effort. In 2006, WWF initiated the joint mechanism to involve local governments, nature reserves, and forest sectors in three provinces on the poaching associated issue, and reached the agreement that three relevant nature reserves will take turns to lead the joint anti-poaching activity each year. And the anti-poaching activities takes twice every year and covers a wider scope than ever.

Based on this mechanism, a more intensive joint conservation mechanism is established in

2009 to incorporate more activities such as post-quake community monitoring and co-management, joint response to emergency cases, and environmental education and communication, etc. And a conservation management committee is established for overall management and information sharing.

This year, the committee has made agreement on a three-year joint action plan based on the existing co-management framework. In the long term, WWF expects this joint action mechanism would be replicated among neighboring nature reserves within the giant panda landscape in the upper Yangtze range.

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IIn October 2011, the workshop on Giant Panda Conservation Strategy and Implementation Plan in West Qinling is held in Liuba County, Shaanxi. This is a joint effort among WWF, Zibaishan Nature Reserve, Motianling Nature Reserve and Sangyuan Nature Reserve in the west Qinling.

It is the following step of integrated survey and assessment on panda habitat in west Qinling, which is completed in June, 2011. This survey mainly focuses on fi nding the possibility of panda habitat expansion and the feasibility of the panda corridor establishment in the region for future conservation considerations. The report shows that the landscape richness index makes it a suitable site for panda and other wild rare species to live. Yet from the index of landscape diversity, dominance and evenness, the region is not well organized in terms of spatial distribution. Considering its

GIANT PANDA CONSERVATION STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATION PLAN IN WEST QINLING

potential ecological corridor function, there is still much work to be done for the overall landscape protection in this region to make it a health habitat for the wild species.

The workshop is organized with the purpose of developing a long-term strategy with specifi c

action plans. As this is a shared planning workshop, all the relevant stakeholders will take the joint leading role in rolling out the strategy and plans. Under the unifi ed framework, WWF will continue to support the related work in this area.

West Qinling panda conservation stratey workshop. © WWF China.

THE 4TH NATIONAL SURVEY ON GIANT PANDA IN GANSU AND SICHUAN PROVINCES

In October 2011, after one year’s preparation, the State Forestry Administration launched the 4th National Survey on Giant Panda. The survey will take 2 and a half years for a comprehensive and systematic investigation on situation of wild giant panda and its habitats, social and economic condition in its distributing areas as well as the current situation

of the captive breeding giant panda populations. The survey will cover 53 counties in 16 regions (cities and prefectures) in Sichuan, Shanxi and Gansu provinces, totally about 3.2 million hectors.

During preparation period for the 4th National Survey, WWF actively participated and

contributed to the making of the technical regulations, and Dr. Ling Lin, Deputy Executive Director of Operations, was selected as one of the expert committee members of the Survey. Because most of the survey members were from local forestry bureaus, giant panda natural reserves, forest farms, related scientifi c institutes,

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colleges and universities, before the survey is taken into action, all members need to be well-equipped with all necessary skills and techniques so that they can fully grasp all survey technical procedures, be capable of identifying wild animals, plants and edible bamboos; doing social and economical investigation and data processing to make sure the survey go on smoothly and information collected is of high quality. Thus, in early November 2011, WWF’s Chengdu Programme Offi ce cooperated with Sichuan and Gansu provincial forestry departments and organized experts to give systematic trainings for Sichuan and Gansu survey teams, including giant panda survey techniques on giant panda population and distribution, vegetation and bamboos, interference status, social and economical situation, protection and management status and so on.

Meanwhile, in order to consolidate knowledge and operation methods, Chengdu Programme Offi ce also supported the Sichuan survey team to conduct a one-month trial survey in Daxiangling Mountain System. Now, the trial survey has been successfully fi nished, and the overall fi led on-site survey will be activated in March 2012. Giant panda survey in the wild. ©Huang Yaohua.

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500 ENERGY EFFICIENT STOVES IN COMMUNITIE SURROUND MAMIZE NATURE RESERVE

Mamize Nature Reserve was established in April 2003. It locates at the southwest of the Sichuan Province,Liangshan area with an area of 38,800 hectares. Mamize Nature Reserve is the southernmost panda habitat of China. There are 4 towns/counties, 23 villages, 4800 households of about 12000 people living around Mamize Nature Reserve. Because of its remoteness, the local undeveloped economy, culture, transportation and communications are lagging behind. The per capita annual income is just about 1,600 yuan. Villagers heavily depend on forest resources. 1/5 of their total income comes from forest resources collection and long-term open-style pasture, which do great harm to the forest eco-system. At the same time, most of the villagers have been using the traditional “three-pots stove” for cooking. The thermal effi ciency of this stove is only about 10%, and it produces large amounts of dusts, threatening villagers’ health.

To deal with the above problems, in June 2011, WWF funded Mamize Nature Reserve in the construction of 10 energy

effi cient stoves at Gudui village. After experiment, the thermal effi ciency of the stoves reaches 24%, and also largely saves labor of collecting fi rewood. The pilot energy effi cient stoves were warmly welcomed by the villagers. On October 18, 2011, WWF Chengdu Programme Offi ce began its fi rst batch of the stoves at Xiaogudui Community around Mamize Nature Reserve. By Jan 2012, 500 stoves have been built inside project sites.

In order to enable more Yi People using the stove, protect panda’s habitat and the eco-system, reduce the amount of CO2 emission, WWF will funded to built 1600 energy effi cient stoves by the end of 2012. To make the project sustainable in fi nance aspect, the reduced CO2 emission will pass GS certifi cation and put into international market.

Technical worker building an energy effi cient stove with local Yi Villagers . ©Liu Fuwen.

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PANDA FRIENDLY PRODUCTS CERTIFICATION--A NEW APPROACH TO GIANT PANDA PROTECTION AND COMMUNITY SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT WITH MARKET FORCESDuring the Phase II of the Green

Heart of China Program, WWF has

shifted from supporting traditional

community projects to establish a

community sustainable fund-raising

mechanism for protection. However,

according to past experiences, the

most challenging and bottleneck

problem for community sustainable

activities is determined by

the product and its market. To

make community product more

competitive in the market and

raise the customers’ interests on

environment-friendly products

from panda habitat surrounding

communities, and to let customers

not only accept the products but also

willing to pay a higher price and

involve them in the conservation

stories behind those products is a

task need more efforts. That is to

say, we should try to make customers

realize that when they are buying

these products, they are actually at

the same time protecting biodiversity

and giant pandas.

Panda friendly products certifi cation

is a new approach that WWF’s

Chengdu Programme Offi ce has

initiated for giant panda protection

and sustainable community

development borrowing market

forces. In November 2011, Chengdu

Programme Offi ce organized

giant panda experts, community

representatives and overseas

potential buyers had a seminar on

Panda-friendly Brands in Chengdu.

Panda-friendly product refers to

high quality product that comes

from giant panda distributing areas

with strict control of non-negative

effects on giant panda and its habitat

from its producing, processing,

transportation and selling, and

the profi t gained will contribute to

community sustainable development

in giant panda habitat areas and

protection of the giant panda as well.

Panda friendly products come from

wild giant panda distributing areas

where the natural environment

is kept very well. The products

have advantage of high quality,

strong market traceability and

sustainability on the whole

process from production to

sales. Supporting panda-friendly

products is equal to supporting the

community development, protecting

environment and traditional culture

in giant panda distributing areas

and at the meantime to support

this kind of product is good to

improve company reputation and

the customers’ sense of honor for the

society.

The seminar also drew out a

basic standard for panda-friendly

products and made it clear that

non-timber products like medicinal

plant, honey, mushroom, fruit, nuts,

traditional handicraft, eco-tourist

product, carbon credit products

and ecological services from giant

panda habitats in Sichuan, Gansu

and Shanxi provinces may all be

potential panda-friendly products.

The certifi cation of panda friendly

products will push local economic

development, improve farmers’

living standard and change their

unsustainable way of utilizing the

natural resources, which will have

positive effect on protection of the

wild giant panda and its habitats.

The certifi cation of panda-friendly

products also encourages the

participation of local enterprises

to improve their sense of social

responsibility, product quality

and guide the customers to join

biodiversity conservation.

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TAIBAISHAN ECO-TOURISM MONITORING PLAN AP-PROVED FOR ACTION

On November 29, 2011, the review workshop on the Taibaishan Eco-tourism Monitoring Plan was held with experts and participants from Shaanxi Forestry Department, Shaanxi Normal University, Northwest University, Xi’an Tourism Bureau, Shaanxi Heihe Forest Park, Shaanxi Laoxiancheng Nature Reserve. The workshop was to review the Monitoring Plan from its feasibility and practicability before it was put into operation.

Taibaishan Eco-tourism Monitoring aims to provide solid data to guide in the sustainable development of eco-tourism and nature conservation in the region via the same unifi ed technical

specifi cations. This approach will directly contribute to the long term vision of building Taibaishan region into an intelligent eco-tourism spot in terms of overall management and operation. The monitoring covers six aspects, including the status of tourism operators, the revenue and expenditure of operators, the status of tourism development and management, tourist behavior survey, community socio-economic survey and family-based home-stay survey, stakeholder perception on eco-tourism as well as the extent of government support.

The expert group spoke highly of the Plan and provided specifi c

suggestions to improve it. As the fi rst of its kind in Qinling, the monitoring will surely play the piloting role and is expected to serve as a reference to the nature reserves and parks which share the similar tourism context.

Later, the tourism monitoring will start in January 2011 with 7 stakeholders involved, which includes the Taibaishan National Nature Reserve, Laoxiancheng Nature Reserve, Huangbaiyuan Nature Reserve, Taibaishan National Forest Park, Heihe National Forest Park, Qingfengxia Forest Park and Honghegu Forest Park. And the monitoring report is expected to be delivered in early July 2012.

HCVF IDENTIFICATION STARTED IN FENGXIAN COUNTY, SHAANXI PROVINCE

Following the standard of high conservation value forest (HCVF) identifi cation developed in Shaanxi province, Fengxian County has been selected as the second pilot site for HCVF identifi cation after Foping County.

Fengxian is one of the 23 forestry county in Shaanxi Province, which locates at the source of the Jialiang River in south Qinling. The total land area of the County is 295,835 ha, and the forest land is 266,700 ha, approximately accounting for 90.2% of the total. This context makes it a perfect site for the HCVF identifi cation.

The reason to initiate the HCVF identifi cation is this approach has been globally accepted as one of the most effective ways in the protection and sustainable use of the forest resources. In recent years many northeastern and southeastern provinces in China has adopted this approach to guide in the forest management in their region. Shaanxi Province started this work only in 2010 with the support of WWF to develop such an HCVF Identifi cation Standard, which is completed and reviewed by expert for actual implementation. Based on this Standard, WWF

supports the identifi cation of HCVF in the whole Shaanxi Province, which will contribute to the sustainable management of forest and also the giant panda habitat.

The experience accumulated in Foping County, the fi rst HCVF identifi cation pilot site will be replicated in this new pilot as well. The actual implementation work is expected to start in early 2012. And WWF will also work closely with relevant forestry bureaus to promote the forestry management and protection work.

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Final Report of Small Grant Project for Rangers in Qinling Giant Panda Habitat Released

In October 2011, the fi nal report of small grant project for rangers in Qinling giant panda habitat is printed out and released to the whole panda conservation network.

Since 2005, WWF has been collaborating with Shaanxi Forestry Department to establish the integrated Qinling Giant Panda conservation network by promoting the landscape level monitoring and patrolling in the fi eld. This required very intensive input from more than 200 rangers in 20 panda nature reserves in Qinling. Apart from a series of trainings targeting at rangers, WWF also launched the small grant projects as a way to stimulate the frontline rangers on self learning and capacity building.

The small grant projects support rangers to conduct small-scale research on nature conservation within their working nature reserve and nearby communities. This approach aims to enhance the capacity of rangers to identify the conservation issues and provide relevant solutions for future reserve management. It is expected to supplement the fi ndings of the annual monitoring and patrolling and to provide solid survey and research data for decision-makers in each relevant nature reserves.

SHORT NEWS

Through the past three years’ effort, the small grant project has won support from the rangers and more than 100 proposals were submitted for approval. In 2010 WWF supported the implementation of 9 projects, with research themes covering road impact on panda habitat, endangered medical plant survey, tourism impact on panda habitat as well as the carbon emission survey project, etc. All these work combined the local context with the rangers’ professional knowledge, and encouraged them to focus on one specifi c issue in the reserve.

Luonan County Sustainable Forest Management Plan Ready for Implementation

On December 20, 2011, Shaanxi Luonan County Sustainable Forest Management Plan review workshop was held in Xi’an. More than 20 participants from Northwest Research and Survey Institute of State Forestry Administration, Shaanxi Forestry Department, Shangluo Forestry Bureau and Luonan Forestry Bureau.

This plan was developed by Northwest A & F University and Luonan Forestry Bureau with the purpose of promoting local forest planning and management and conserving the bio-diversity and overall forest ecological system. Luonan County is the fi rst to be selected to develop the county level management plan. And later its pilot experience will be shared across the Qinling panda

landscape.

This plan has three components, which includes sustainable forest management plan for county, for forest park and a simplifi ed version for community household respectively.

The expert group approved the Plan, which is expected to be implemented in the fi eld very soon in 2012.

Community Survey of Sichuan PES Pilot Project is Preliminary Completed

In November 2011, WWF’s Chengdu Programme Offi ce participated in an international conference of “Legislation of Payment for Ecological Services and Wetland Ecological Compensation” that initiated by the National Development and Reform Commission. In the conference, WWF provided valuable suggestions for the national legislation, which have helped pushing forward the enforcement of the PES regulations. In the 4th meeting of PES project, Chengdu Programme Offi ce shared the implementing experiences of Er’bian PES pilot project in Sichuan Province with Chishuihe River basin PES team. Chishuihe River basin PES team expressed that the Er’bian PES model of its developing and implementation is very good reference for their own projects.

Meanwhile, WWF Chengdu Programme Offi ce PES expert team was also working intensely on community survey of the

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Guanliaohe River basin. The survey included livelihood baseline survey on villagers in Yuping Village and Ganzikou Village and fully grasped the information of the target community’s land use, economic income, fi rewood consuming and its way of production, which provided related data for cost effi ciency analysis and prepared a ground base for the 1st stage MoU for PES in the area.

Gansu Province Biodiversity Protection Strategy Workshop was Held in Lanzhou, Gansu Province

Ever since 2004, Gansu Provincial Wild Animal Management Bureau has started regular monitor on biodiversity under the support from WWF’s Chengdu Programme Offi ce. Up to now, the management bureau has fi nished background investigation of some typical natural reserves and held technical and management trainings, which effectively pushed forward the development of the natural reserves in Gansu Province. However, because most of the natural reserves in Gansu Province are facing diffi culties and restrains like

short of fund, insuffi cient conservation and strategy developing capacity, huge and unreasonable consumption of natural resources in surrounding communities, biodiversity protection is somewhat limited in Gansu nature reserves.

In December 2011, WWF cooperated with Gansu Province Forestry Department and held a Biodiversity Conservation Strategy Seminar in Lanzhou. The developing of conservation strategy is to provide guideline and strategic instruction for conservation organizations and natural reserves. It changes the traditional way that each natural reserve working separately into united strategic planning and implementation which will greatly enhance biodiversity conservation in the whole province. Meanwhile, the workshop also came up with a consensus that the protection focus of natural reserves in Gansu Province from 2012 to 2020 will be Mianshan Mountain---West Qingling Mountain, wetlands in southern Gansu, Qilian Mountain area and West Jiuquan desert; species will be giant panda, snow leopard, wild camel, etc. In following

several years, Gansu Province also plans to establish monitor and patrolling network and a platform for the exchange of nature reserve protection information and experience.

Seminar on Effective Management on Huangtuliang Corridor Area was Held in Pingwu County, Sichuan Province

From November 23 to 25, WWF’s Chengdu Programme Offi ce organized experts and representatives from China Academy of Science, Peking University, Pingwu County Forestry Bureau, Wanglang National Natural Reserve and China Huaneng Group Cooperation inspected the construction and management of Huangtuliang Corridor area in Pingwu County and fully understood the impact of the construction of Huangtuliang tunnel will bring to the corridor area and the surrounding giant panda habitats. Later, experts discussed and updated the action plan of effective management of Huangtuliang corridor area, which will contribute to better implementation for the next stage.

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Why we are here

www.panda.org

To stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment andto build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.

• THE GREEN HEART OF CHINA PROGRAMME • OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2011 WWW.WWFCHINA.ORG

COMMUNICATORSChang Youde, Room 1609, Wen Hua Gong, Beijing Working People’s Culture Palace, Beijing, P.R. China. Post Code: 100006

Tel: +86 10 6511 6221, Fax: +86 10 6511 6222, Email: ydchang@wwfchina.org

Zhao Jinna, Room 539, Xi Ge Ma Building, No.18 South Feng Hui Road, Xi’an, Shaanxi, P.R.China. Post Code: 710075

Tel: +86 29 6263 1251 Ext. 807, Fax: +86 29 6263 1252-803, Email: jnzhao@wwfchina.org

Luo Xingbi, Room 603, Wu Ding Yuan Shan Yang Zuo, No. 100 Bei Er Duan, Yi Huan Lu, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. Post Code: 610081

Tel: +86 28 6800 3625 Ext. 811, Fax: +86 28 8319 9466-808, Email: xbluo@wwfchina.org

Dai Xin, Room 603, Wu Ding Yuan Shan Yang Zuo, No. 100 Bei Er Duan, Yi Huan Lu, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. Post Code: 610081

Tel: +86 28 6800 3625 Ext. 802, Fax: +86 28 8319 9466-808, Email: xdai@wwfchina.org

REVIEWERSLiu Xiaohai, Head of Xi’an Programme Offi ce, Room 539, Xi Ge Ma Building, No. 18 South Feng Hui Road, Xi’an, Shaanxi, P.R. China. Post Code: 710075

Tel: +86 29 626 31251 Ext. 804, Fax: +86 29 62631252-803, Email: xhliu@wwfchina.org

Li Ye, Head of Chengdu Programme Offi ce, Room 603, Wu Ding Yuan Shan Yang Zuo, No. 100 Bei Er Duan, Yi Huan Lu, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. Post Code: 610081

Tel: +86 28 6800 3625 Ext. 811, Fax: +86 28 8319 9466-808, Email: lli@wwfchina.org

Ling Lin, Deputy Conservation Director for Biodiversity and Operations. Room 603, Wu Ding Yuan Shan Yang Zuo, No. 100 Bei Er Duan, Yi Huan Lu, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. Post Code: 610081

Tel: +86 28 6800 3625 Ext. 811, Fax: +86 28 8319 9466-808, Email: lling@wwfchina.org

Dr. Zhu Chunquan, Conservation Director for Biodiversity and Operations. Room 1609, Wen Hua Gong, Beijing Working People’s Culture Palace, Beijing, P.R. China. Post Code: 100006

Tel: +86 10 6511 6266, Fax: +86 10 6511 6222, Email: chqzhu@wwfchina.org

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSSpecial thanks to WWF Netherlands, WWF-Switzerland, Fondazione Zegna and EU for their fi nancial supports to the Qinling Project Phase III, WWF UK, WWF US, WWF Germany and WWF Sweden for their fi nancial supports of Minshan Initiative, and WWF Netherlands, WWF UK, WWF US, WWF Germany, WWF Sweden, WWF Switzerland and WWF Canada for their supports of the Green Heart of China Programme. Sincere thanks to the Coca-Cola Company for WWF-TCCC Partnership, and WWF Network and WWF-US Humanitarian Partnership Programme for making efforts to post-disaster reconstruction plans.