| curpage: Home |
|
In early autumn, walking into the National Reserve Forest area in Zuoxi Village, Zuoxi Town, Qingyuan County, lush Chinese fir trees stretch their branches and leaves in the wind, while newly planted nanmu saplings thrive with luxuriant foliage.
“My family’s forest land has become part of the National Reserve Forest. The first time, I received 220,000 yuan in income, and I’ll get over 8,600 yuan in ‘dividends’ every year after that,” said Hu Hengyang, a villager from Zuoxi Village, on September 1, delightedly counting the income brought by his “shareholding” in the National Reserve Forest. In February 2023, he signed a contract to include his 228-mu (approximately 15.2 hectares) of responsibility hills into the National Reserve Forest project, becoming a “shareholder” who will enjoy benefits for the next 40 years.
Like Hu Hengyang, 100,000 forest farmers in Qingyuan have become “shareholders”, sharing the ecological dividends of the National Reserve Forest.
Located in southwestern Zhejiang, Qingyuan is the core area of the Baishanzu section within the candidate zone of the Qianjiangyuan-Baishanzu National Park. The county’s forest coverage rate is as high as 85.92%, ranking among the highest in Zhejiang Province. However, in the 1970s and 1980s, rural areas generally lacked afforestation technology, and fragmented forestry resources coupled with extensive management models made it difficult for forest farmers to prosper despite owning “golden mountains and silver mountains”.
How to awaken the “dormant” forest resources? Qingyuan took the lead in launching the first large-scale state-community cooperative afforestation initiative, innovating with a model where “state-owned forest farms provide funding and technology, village collectives and forest farmers provide land, mountain rights remain unchanged, forest rights are shared, and profits are divided proportionally”. This resulted in the establishment of over 300,000 mu (approximately 20,000 hectares) of artificial timber forests across the county.
“At that time, the ‘one-time dividend upon expiration after logging’ model was used. The project had a long investment cycle and slow returns, failing to meet the income expectations of forest farmers. Additionally, the first round of state-community cooperative afforestation was relatively concentrated in time, and due to logging quota restrictions and ecological protection needs, it was difficult to timely realize the benefits for state-owned forest farms and forest farmers,” said Xia Ruiman, Deputy Director of the Ecological Forestry Development Center of the Qingyuan County Natural Resources and Planning Bureau.
How to achieve a win-win situation for forest resource protection and forest farmers’ income? In 2023, Qingyuan introduced the National Reserve Forest State-Community Cooperation 2.0 model. Zhejiang Qingyuan Hexing Ecological Forestry Development Co., Ltd., fully established by the county’s Liangshan Group, uniformly entrusts state-owned forest farms to manage the acquired and transferred forest land, exploring characteristic industries such as precious tree planting, carbon sink trading, underforest economy, and forest wellness.
“In the original cooperation model, forest farmers had to wait about 30 years to receive this money. Under the current 2.0 management model, forest farmers receive expected annual income not lower than the compensation standard for ecological public welfare forests, with settlements at expiration based on ‘no repayment for overpayment, supplementation for underpayment’,” explained Wu Qiang, Chairman of Zhejiang Qingyuan Hexing Ecological Forestry Development Co., Ltd.
Moreover, in the second round of cooperation, the forest land has transitioned from a single management model focused on Chinese fir to an ecological multi-layered forest cultivation model of “large-diameter Chinese fir + precious tree species + underforest economy”, maximizing the benefits of forest resources.
“We plant large-diameter Chinese fir worth over 1,000 yuan per cubic meter in the upper layer, cultivate precious nanmu valued at over 10,000 yuan per cubic meter in the lower layer, and cycle plant ganoderma and radix issatidis on the ground. Just from the upper and lower layers, forest farmers can receive 1,750 yuan per mu, and even more when including income from the ground layer,” said Wu Qiang.
As the National Reserve Forest project deepens, ecological benefits are transforming into tangible well-being for the people.
Chen Zhenghua, Deputy Party Secretary of Gaoda Village in Wubao Township, mentioned that the first round of the National Reserve Forest state-community cooperation project brought over 600,000 yuan in income to the village. Last year, Gaoda Village signed a second-round cooperation agreement with Hexing Company, adding over 500 mu of collective mountain forest to the National Reserve Forest, generating over 400,000 yuan in income, with stable annual dividends of about 20,000 yuan to follow. “These funds will be used for village development and improving people’s livelihoods, continuously enhancing villagers’ sense of happiness”.
The “good prospects” brought by a healthy ecology extend beyond this. Qingyuan is also actively utilizing “financial empowerment + carbon sink forestry” to continuously expand new channels for “ecological monetization”.
In 2023, the strong village company under An’nan Township successfully obtained a 3-million-yuan Forestry Carbon Sink Income Right Pledge Loan using the carbon emission reduction Income Right of 379.34 mu of forest land as collateral. This was the local area’s first such loan.
“With this ‘ecological loan’, we have expanded our business scope to include event hosting, industrial project planning, and more. Our motivation to work has increased!” said Wu Huihua, General Manager of An’nan Township’s strong village company.
From “dormant forests” to “gold generated from the sea of trees”, the National Reserve Forest “Qingyuan Model” is continuously unleashing the ecological dividends of lucid waters and lush mountains, paving a green development path for rural revitalization.
[Extended Reading]
The National Reserve Forest project centralizes the transfer of forest land scattered among thousands of households to state-owned operating units, achieving large-scale intensive management. This effectively solves the problem of forestry production entities being “small, weak, and scattered” and greatly improves forest land output efficiency. As of July 30, 2025, Qingyuan County has signed forest land transfer contracts for 85,000 mu and listed forest trees for 57,000 mu. Calculating based on village collectives and forest farmers accounting for 40%, they have already received over 52 million yuan in income. It is estimated that over the 40-year cooperation period, these forest farmers will receive nearly 130 million yuan in dividends.
[Expert Commentary]
Wu Jiasen, Professor at the School of Environment and Resources and Carbon Neutrality College of Zhejiang A&F University:
The “National Reserve Forest Model” implemented in Qingyuan is a vivid transformation and deep implementation of the concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” from theory to practice. This model, with mechanism innovation at its core, not only effectively broadens the diverse value realization paths of ecological resources—turning static forest resources into dynamic economic income through the integration of carbon sink trading, underforest economy, forest wellness, and other formats—but also, guided by a focus on people’s well-being, enables 100,000 forest farmers to transition from “forest guardians” to “shareholders”. This achieves sustained income increase through dual channels of “stable annual income + increased income from employment” and uses village collective dividends to feed back into rural construction, injecting green momentum into common prosperity. This approach provides a replicable and promotable sample for ecological regions across the country exploring the “synergistic advancement of ecological protection and economic development”. Its experience holds significant demonstration significance and reference value for promoting rural revitalization and practicing green development concepts.