18/07/2005 - Are we there
yet? Bumping my head for the twentieth time
against the roof of our jeep, I became that
backseat kid again endlessly wanting to know
when we were going to arrive.
Two and a half hours out of Chengdu, the
capital of Sichuan Province in central China,
the highway took a turn for the worse, degenerating
from a one lane road full of potholes to a
dirt track with even more crater-like holes
to negotiate. But seven hours later of intense
road manoeuvring, we finally came to our destination
– the small village of Xiang Shujia.
Just down the road from Wanglang, one of
China’s oldest panda reserves, Xiang Shujia
is among a handful of former logging villages
where ethnic Tibetan Baima people are putting
down their saws and embracing the panda’s
bamboo forest habitat.
This is ecotourism Chinese style.
Baima hospitality
The Baima people – a minority tribal group
of some 1,400 people who for centuries have
lived in northern Sichuan and southern Gansu
provinces between Tianshui and the banks of
the Fujiang River – have long depended on
the forests as their main source of income.
But since a logging ban in the upper basin
of the Yangtze River was introduced in the
late 11000s to fight yearly flooding, the
villages have had to look for alternative
livelihoods.
Several are now in the process of developing
a small tourism industry as their lands are
rich in forests and natural landscapes, and
borders on the home of the giant panda. Xiang
Shujia, in particular, is becoming a popular
bed and breakfast centre for the droves of
tourists heading to Wanglang to see China’s
iconic wildlife species close up. Visitors
are also starting to take notice of the Baima
themselves.
As our jeep stops in the courtyard of one
of the brightly coloured wooden houses, we
are greeted by village leader Li Qin and young
Baima girls dressed in traditional costumes
with white feathers in their hair. As we take
our place on low-wooden benches near an open
fire, the girls break into traditional song
as they serve us spiced ribs with rice and
washed down with honeyed alcohol.
Westerners are something of a rarity in these
parts as most of the tourists who stay in
the homes of the Baima tend to be Chinese,
spending their vacations playing maj jong
and going on horseback rides through the forest.
The foreign tourists are usually found up
the road at a well-kept eco-lodge in the panda
reserve. But more and more are starting to
opt for the rustic village experience.
“We are not earning as much income as we
did as loggers, but the number of tourists
is growing,” said Baima leader Li Qin. “We
realize that to attract foreigners we have
to show our cultural side, offering more traditional
singing and dancing and ensuring our houses
are built in the traditional way.”
Relations between the Baima and the reserve
were tense following the 1998 logging ban
as villagers had to make a new living, which
included entering the Wanglang reserve to
collect wild mushroom and herbs, often at
the expense of disturbing the panda’s habitat.
But things dramatically improved as villagers
started receiving training on how to market
their communities to tourists.
With start-up loans from WWF, the global
conservation organization, women, like Bo
Lanzao who became the family’s breadwinner
after her husband was disabled in an accident,
are now making an income selling their handicrafts
to tourists on the way to the reserve.
“Our aim is to deter the villagers from disturbing
the panda habitat by ensuring they had a sustainable
alternative livelihood, including the poorest
of families,” emphasized Chen Youping, Director
of the Wanglang Reserve.
Low volume, high-value tourism
The government-run, WWF-supported Wanglang
Panda Reserve – covering an area of 320sq
km – lies in the Minshan Mountains in northern
Sichuan Province. Up to 20,000 visitors come
each year to admire the 32 pandas living here,
as well as other endangered species such as
black bear, red panda, musk deer, and golden
monkey, and to walk in one of China’s few
remaining virgin forests.
Wanglang is very much about low volume, high-value
tourism. A small, 12-roomed lodge – certified
by the Nature and Ecotourism Accreditation
Programme, an international accrediting organization
that identifies genuine ecotourism and nature-based
tourism operators – is built on the site of
a former logging camp.
“All the money from the reserve goes back
into community and conservation projects,”
said Youping. “However the pressure from the
local authorities to generate even more revenue
by bringing in more tourists is never far
away.”
“This is a very poor area and there is pressure
to replace all the income lost from logging
with ecotourism. But our priority is first
the animals and then ecotourism.”
Youping estimates that 30,000 visitors a
year is the maximum the reserve could sustain
without damaging the panda habitat. But this
is a far cry from the hoards of tourists visiting
the nearby world-recognized Jiuzhaigou nature
reserve.
Jiuzhaigou, with its marble entranced hotels
and exceptional scenic charms, is a mecca
for mass tourism. Listed as United Nations
World Heritage site, the reserve attracts
a million people a year that come to see its
fabled lakes, waterfalls, and snow-capped
mountains. But overdevelopment, including
a newly constructed ring road, has fragmented
the region’s panda habitat.
According to Wanglang’s Chen Youping, mass
tourism in Jiuzhaigou no longer makes it an
ideal habitat for wild animals and is lobbying,
along with WWF, for a reduction in the numbers
of visitors. WWF is also trying to make tourism
a shade greener in the reserve's Zharugou
Valley, which is soon to be opened to the
public.
“A recent investigation found that mass tourism
to Zharugou would not only negatively impact
the area, but also a neighbouring golden monkey
reserve,” said Ling Lin, Director of WWF China’s
programme office in Chendgu.
“I am hopeful that we can convince local
authorities to develop responsible tourism
at one of China’s most famous sites. If successful,
it would serve as a model for other nature
reserves to follow,” he added.
Beyond the Great Wall
Tourism, let alone ecotourism, is still a
relatively new phenomenon in China. As a result
of China’s economic boom in recent years,
more and more ordinary Chinese have the disposable
income to take holidays. For most, a vacation
is still a novelty, and if they take one at
all, don't plan a visit beyond the Great Wall
or Beijing's Forbidden City.
At the same time, foreign tourists are flocking
to China in droves. Last year, according to
the World Tourism Organization, the number
of visitors to China soared 27 per cent to
41.8 million compared with 2003. China has
now overtaken Italy as the world’s fourth
most popular tourism destination. Of course,
the Great Wall and the Forbidden City are
high on the “places to visit” list, but many
are looking to go off the beaten track, keen
not only to explore panda country but also
to go trekking in Tibet or biking in inner
Mongolia.
Companies such as WildChina have seen the
potential of tapping into this market. Set
up in 2000, it offers tourists the opportunity
to experience another side of China. Its marketing
director, Adorn Murray, is well aware though
of the danger posed by exposing the countryside
to hoards of hikers, trekkers, and cyclists.
“We believe that working to protect and preserve
nature should be part of any responsible business
strategy,” Murray said. “It would be tragic
if convening with nature leads to its destruction
rather than its conservation.”
The majority of the tour company’s clients
are foreign but the Chinese are increasingly
putting on their hiking boots and beginning
to explore their own country.
“Most of my friends are young professionals
and they are just not satisfied with going
to see the Great Wall, they want to go and
explore other parts of the country,” said
Mathew Hu, a tour guide with WildChina.
During China’s Cultural Revolution, the environment
was considered a resource and not something
that needed to be protected. Today, adventure
travel and the environment seem to be a way
for young people to seek personal development,
something which was never an option in their
parents’ or grandparents’ day.
It was only in 1994 that Chinese environmental
organizations were allowed to set up, albeit
under the watchful eye of the government.
However, while any criticism of government
policy is limited, they are having an impact
in raising environmental awareness, which
in turn is raising interest in ecotourism.
Green Earth Volunteers, for example, has 50,000
members who increasingly spend their weekends
planting trees and organizing field trips
WWF, the first international conservation
organization invited to work in China, has
also been active, supporting projects in Sichuan
and Shaanxi provinces including research,
monitoring, patrolling against poaching, and
illegal logging as well as social development
projects including ecotourism and training
for local communities.
“Our projects show that you don't have to
kill the goose that lays the golden eggs,”
said Jim Harkness, outgoing head of WWF China.
“From Wanglang to Jiuzhaigou, we are working
with local authorities to green popular tourism
sites. High-end small-scale green tourism
is sustainable and can be as profitable as
mass tourism.”
* Claire Doole is Head of Press at WWF International
END NOTES:
• Results from the most comprehensive survey
of China’s giant panda population, carried
out by China’s Forestry Administration and
WWF, reveal that there are nearly 1,600 pandas
in the wild, over 40 per cent more animals
than previously thought to exist. The last
panda survey in the 1980s found around 1,100
giant pandas in the wild.
• WWF China is also working to green tourism
in Yunnan, Shaanxi, and Hunan provinces, as
well as within the Yangtze River basin. With
effective habitat protection within the river
basin and commitment to sustainable development
practices, WWF believes that giant panda populations
can recover in the wild to secure levels.
The Yangtze River Basin is the geographic
and economic heart of China, and is one of
the critical regions for biodiversity conservation
in the world. Its diverse habitats contain
many rare, endemic and endangered animal and
plant species, the best known being the giant
panda.
By Claire Doole
