By Yu Baoping

Research Report No 201, 2006

We undertook some surveys on research of rural areas in Bijie Prefecture of Guizhou Province from April 19-27, 2006, which covered both the city of Bijie and the three counties of Dafang, Qianxi and Jinsha. We gathered a great deal of first-hand information and came up with some new ideas about how to alleviate poverty and build a new countryside in the poverty-stricken regions.

It has been 18 years since Bijie Prefecture established the pilot zone on reform in 1988. The prefecture has focused its efforts on three main topics: development-based poverty alleviation, ecological construction and population control. As a result, the prefecture's infrastructure facilities have been constantly improved, its poverty alleviation-oriented development has been effectively pushed forward, its urban and rural economies have been developing in a coordinated way and its social undertakings have made tremendous progress. In short, tangible achievements have been made in all fields.

In 2005, the prefecture's gross output value totaled 23.102 billion yuan, up 16.6 percent year-on-year. Fiscal revenue was 3.481 billion yuan, up 31.95 percent year-on-year. Grain production reached 2,472,200 tons, up 3.78 percent year-on-year. Per capita urban disposable income was 7,225 yuan, up 23.96 percent year-on-year. Per capita rural net income was 1,876 yuan, up 9.35 percent year-on-year. The growth rates of gross output value, fiscal revenue and per capita rural net income all made a record high.

Despite all these achievements, the prefecture has not completely got rid of poverty. Of the 7.27 million-population, nearly 600,000 remain poor, and nearly 1.02 million belong to the low-income group. The total number of the poor and low-income people account for about 22 percent of the total population. As far as the per capita rural net income was concerned, Bijie Prefecture did not reach 58 percent of the national average level in 2005. Therefore, the prefecture still has a formidable task for poverty alleviation and still has to work hard if it is to basically move out of poverty and reach the country's average development level.

I. Eradicate Resource-Induced Poverty through Ecological Resettlement

If a region is still plagued by poverty despite years of hard work in poverty alleviation, the main factor is the disharmony between man and nature in the region, in addition to the innate or acquired low intelligence or the loss of working ability on the part of local people. In other words, the local natural and ecological resources cannot meet the survival requirements of the local people. Data indicate that in 2002 when China's poverty-stricken population dropped to 28 million people, 15 million or about 50 percent of the total were people with low intelligence. Another 25 percent or 7 million were people who remained poor due to the constraint of ecological resources. The two categories of people accounted for nearly 80 percent of the total poverty-stricken population. Therefore, a solution to these two categories of poverty is tantamount to a basic solution to China's poverty as a whole.

Currently, 80 percent of the nationally-designated poverty-stricken counties are located in six regions: the wind erosion and desertification areas on the southeast verge of the Mongolian Plateau, the areas of the Loess Plateau suffering serious gully soil erosion, the areas of the Qinling and Daba Mountains, the hilly areas of the southwest Karst Plateau, the alpine valleys of the Hengduan Mountains, and the arctic-alpine areas of the deserts in the western region.

In 2005, the national population density was about 136 persons per square kilometer, while in Bijie Prefecture it was as high as more than 270 persons per square kilometer or nearly twice as much as the national average. In the hilly areas of the southwest Karst Plateau where Bijie is located, the population density was also higher than the national average. These are the ecologically fragile areas. We felt profoundly in our investigation that special attention should be given to ensure that no more damage will be done to the ecological environment in the course of continued poverty-alleviation efforts. We may say that the poverty-alleviation efforts in the ecologically fragile regions should focus on harmonizing the relationship between man and nature.

China's poverty-alleviation efforts in the past were mainly made through "relief-based poverty alleviation" and "development-based poverty alleviation". In the ecologically fragile regions, however, resource development may not be an optimum or the only approach for their poverty alleviation and economic and social development in the future. While excess land reclamation and cultivation can be mitigated by returning farmland to forestry, the population overburden on the natural environment may be solved through population reduction. With the support of other effective policy measures, ecological resettlement or "resettlement-based poverty alleviation" can prevent further ecological degradation and eliminate poverty.

To carry out ecological resettlement, it is imperative to study a series of issues and conduct necessary experiments in light of the practical conditions of the existing six different regions. But first of all, the top priority now is to preserve the existing ecology and prevent it from further deteriorating.

II. The Ensuing Compensation Issue after Farmland Is Returned to Forestry

The 1998 flood resulting from the Yangtze River made us realize how serious our country's ecological problems were. Accordingly, China introduced the project of returning farmland to forestry or pasture. It was the largest-ever ecological project involving the largest amount of investment and the largest number of people. The project has lasted for nearly seven years since experiments began in 1999. The original policy provided that the state would make compensation to the peasants for eight years if their farmland was returned to ecological forestry, five years if their farmland was returned to commercial forestry and two years if their farmland was returned to pasture. Nationwide, the building of ecological forests was the most important and most crucial portion of the project, and the eight-year schedule will soon be reached. According to the original policy, it is the time now to reconsider whether compensation shouldbe stopped or a new policy should be promulgated.

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