Chinese Farmers Afford to Protect Forest Resources

Farmers in Qingyuan County of east China's Zhejiang Province used to cut large quantities of wood to cultivate cash-earning mushrooms, a table delicacy, but today, they themselves plant trees for cultivating mushrooms. Qingyuan County, known "China's Mushroom City", is the first place in the world to plant mushrooms and has a history of 800 years.

At present, 50 percent of the county's total income and the city's per capita income come from mushroom growing. A survey on the county's forest resources show that local forest reserves were 7.43 million cubic meters in 1984, the figure decreased to 4.78 million in 1997.

To maintain the sustainable development of the mushroom growing, the county government established a license system in early 1999, under which the county government decides the total mushroom output in accordance with the conditions of forest resources and the demand on the market and issue licenses to mushroom growers. More than 24,000 households are engaged in mushroom growing, accounting for 55 percent of the county's total, statistics also show.

This spring, local farmers planted 800,000 trees on hill slopes and private plots. The county government also invested large sums of money in planting trees.

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