Course:CONS370/2019/Analysis of the management of village fengshui forests in Guizhou Province, China.

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Fengshui forest, planted around the villages of Ethnic Minorities, has a long history in China and plays an important role in maintaining the sustainability of forests and preventing soil erosion. It reflects not only the geomantic ideas but also the livelihood methods and organizational forms of minorities, which contain rich cultural connotations. This paper analyzes the management of village fengshui forests in Guizhou Province in China. Since 1980s, there have been three forest tenure types in Guizhou: state forests, collective forests, and household forests[1]. Recently, many collectively owned forests have been transferred to individual household control by the Chinese government[1]. Fengshui forests have not attracted the attention of government departments and have not been reflected in any legislative and policy documents, resulting in no special organizations and institutions to study and protect them. Instead, the local regulations such as Cunguimingyue[2] (village law and customary pacts) formulated by local people are effective in regulating villagers’ behavior and maintaining some village fengshui forests in a good condition. To protect village fengshui forests more efficiently, it's important to take traditional local fengshui forest management into consideration when formulating China's forest policy.

Description

Fengshui forest, typically small patches of preserved forest planted around the villages of minorities, is widespread in South China and has existed in China for more than 2200 years. Fengshui means "wind-water", the flow of life-generating and sustaining energies, which refers to a system of traditional Chinese geomancy beliefs and practices that optimize the land planning and management by harmonizing human settlement with natural surroundings[3]. Fengshui forest is indispensable for environment such as regulating microclimatic and hydrological conditions, and mental health of Indigenous and local communities. Fengshui forest can be classified into three types: village fengshui forest, cemetery fengshui forest and temple fengshui forest, among which the village fengshui forest is the most important one[4]. This paper focuses on the village fengshui forests in Guizhou Province. Guizhou Province with an average forest cover of 40% is located in the southwest of China[5]. Village fengshui forest in Guizhou Province, which features unique ethnic cultures and biodiversity, nurtures the villagers who depend on these forests for gathering and collecting products for livelihood.

Tenure arrangements

Before 1949, fengshui forest in rural regions of southern China was abolished as superstition, so that the government didn't control it. During that period, the State granted individuals full ownership of forest lands, to be specific, large-scale forest land property was owned by feudal landlords while small-scale forest property belonged to rich peasants. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, land redistribution has been gradually implemented, resulting in a shift in fengshui forest tenures. Parts of fengshui forest were under state control and others were owned by communities for improving villagers' living standard. Collectivization progressed rapidly during the Great Leap Forward (1958-61), which led to the gradual division of many fengshui forests into collective lands. From then on until reforms in the 1980s, approximately 42% of China's forests were controlled by the state and the rest were collectively owned[1], meaning that collective management remained dominant. However, it was during this time that state control of forests failed to manage land efficiently[1], thus fengshui forest suffered severe damage as the demand for timber increased.

In the early 1980s, the Chinese government started to implement forest tenure reform for minority people in order to encourage their work incentives, improve forestry management and increase productivity. This is mainly because minority people and their ancestors who are dependent on the forests have inhabited the mountains and managed the forest resources of this region for more than 1000 years. Local community or private forest management by minority people has been recognized as a potential approach for achieving forest sustainability[6].

Since the 1980s, the Chinese government have transferred many collectively owned forests to individual household control over tree and forest resources, which means the major trend in Chinese forest governance has been toward decentralization[7].

It is important to note that in 1981, the state issued the "Resolution on Issues Concerning Forest Protection and Development" also known as the "Three Fixes Policy", to "fix forest land ownership, fix ownership of use rights to mountains, and fix responsibility for forest management"[7]. This policy encouraged private-sector to participate in forest management and gave individual farmers greater rights, and converted collective forests to 2 new tenure arrangements: freehold mountain land and contract mountain land. Under the freehold arrangement, farmers could obtain rights to use the land and ownership of trees they grow. Under the contract arrangement, they could obtain use rights by signing a contract with a village committee[1]. Both freehold and contract mountain land belong to household forests that are referred to in this paper. Besides, during the 1980s and 1990s, in response to the large-scale deforestation that followed the first allocation of forest tenure to households in the early 1980s, the state imposed significant controls on timber harvesting and other forest activities. Until 1986, about 70% of collectively managed forests had been replaced by individual households[8]. In 1998, based on the original principles of national forestry, the government revised the Forest Law of the People's Republic of China. This new law announced that ethnic minorities were entitled to autonomy and economic benefits in the field of forestry, which encourages local communities to use traditional ecological knowledge and practices, such as Cuiguimingyue, to participate in forest conservation.

It's also important to highlight that in order to ensure the development and stability of the previous reform and the forest tenure institutions, the Collective Forest Tenure Reform was implemented nationwide in 2005 and in Guizhou in 2007 by the central government. This reform increased the degree of control by individual households over management activities and further improved their livelihoods through clarifying their use rights to trees and benefit from household forests[1], which is also a determinant of their incentives to plant or protect trees and forests.

After collectively-owned and managed forestland and forests were distributed to individual households, households enjoyed ownership rights over forests and use rights of 30 to 70 years over forestland. Particularly, contracts can be longer than 70 years with SFA approval[8]. Recently, the scope of "use rights" has been improved by several laws, including the right to occupy, manage, develop, transfer, and profit from the distributed forestland[8].

Nowadays, there are 3 forest tenure types in Guizhou province: state forests, collective forests, and household forests. State forests, where both ownership and use rights are held by the central, provincial, prefectural or county government[9] are managed by following national policies and regulations that are promulgated by the Ministry of Forestry and by nature reserve offices. Collective forests, where local communities own ownership and usufruct, are administered by village committees on the basis of local custom and mutual agreements. Villagers have individual or household rights which acquired the force of law under communal tenure and public property systems. Household forests, where collective property remains but individual households have use rights and ownership of trees and forest resources on the land[1], are managed by households according to the needs and aspirations of the family.

Administrative arrangements

Zhailaos

Zhailaos, local highly-regarded people who play a vital role in dealing with the daily and trivial affairs of the village, are chosen by villagers because they are reliable and have more knowledge and experience in settling rural affairs. They have strong voice and collective authority in fengshui forest management decisions[10]. They are invited by the formal village heads to provide important and valuable suggestions in village management and development as well as the conservation of ethnic traditional culture. Under the guidance of Zhailaos, the benefits generated from the fengshui forests are used to serve collective purposes in traditional arrangement. As time goes on, the traditional leaders such as Zhailaos almost ceased to exist, but villages in Guizhou province still maintain this good tradition with Drum Leader, Labor Leader and village representatives.The Drum Leader is responsible for religious worship and social affairs in the communities such as social morality, public security, etc. The Labor Leader is in charge of the community's agriculture. They often hold meetings to discuss the planning and strategies of village's fengshui forest management and development.

Collective Land Managers

Collective administration refers to the management of land collectively owned by one or more villages or sub-villages, and the allocation of the use rights to the villagers for farming, living, forestry or other purposes. The names of administration units for collective lands have changed over time. During the Great Leap Forward from 1958 to 1960, the State merged agricultural cooperatives into massive people's communes and implemented  a three-level system of ownership and production including communities, brigades, and production teams[8]. When it came to decollectivization in the 1980s, the commune became the township/town of today, the brigade became the administrative village, and the team became the natural village and the villagers' group[8]. Townships/towns include several administrative villages[8], which in turn encompass several natural villages. There are two potential owners—the village collective organization and the villagers' committee under the Land Administration Law. The most common form of administrative village is the villagers' committee, which is a form of local government associated with small towns. It holds the ownership rights to make decisions for the operation of their community on collectively-owned lands. The Organic Law of the Villagers Committees states that the town or township should establish these three-to-seven-member bodies for the lands under their jurisdiction, and make them in charge of land management[8]. The law declares the villagers' committee has an obligation to administer forest-related affairs and disseminate traditional ecological knowledge to villagers for conserving fengshui forest.

Cunguimingyue

Fengshui forests are not officially recognized by Chinese forestry authorities, and hence they are not reflected in any legislative and policy documents[11]. The local village has implemented stricter regulations than the government regulations. As local traditional regulations are effective and well obeyed by the villagers, the local forest station officially accepts various types of traditional institutional arrangements in forest management such as Cunguimingyue. The Cuiguimingyue contains forest management regulations, which are conducive to self-governance of forest resource management[12]. Villagers generally observe these regulations strictly, which makes enforcement effective, even if the traditional regulations are only orally passed on from generation to generation. However, in special cases, the implementation of local regulations requires government's support. Local government allows this autonomy and provide assistance when necessary. Local regulations are applied to local governance and respected by local government which is beneficial for their implementation[13]. There are many regulations regarding the protection and use of fengshui forest, and violation of these regulations can be severely punished. Local villagers can report violations and take immediately actions to enforce these oral rules. Sometimes, these local regulations are more effective than government regulations in managing minor damages to fengshui forest since government workers are unable to detect all these minor damages[10]. It is strictly forbidden to harvest trees for the villager's self use. Fengshui forests can be cut only for some specific collective purpose. On some special occasions, trees over 1 m in diameter can be cut only when the collective needs them for the public welfare, e.g. several trees were cut and sold for building the village road 8 years ago[10].

Affected Stakeholders

Villagers and Minority people in the communities

The most important affected stakeholders are villagers and local residents who are the descendants and protectors of the cultural and natural heritage. They benefit directly from various natural resources for satisfying their daily demands. For example, The villagers are highly dependent on these forests to gather and collect products (e.g., vegetables and medicinal herbs) for family consumption, and they also earn some income from the sale of timber, fuelwood and non-timber products. The main agricultural income of the local people comes from the sale of rice and corn grown on this land[14].

The villagers have rich knowledge passed down from generation to generation in utilizing and managing the fengshui forest, resulting in sustainable forest development. One of the most typical representation of traditional knowledge is Cunguimingyue based on fengshui forest management, such as no land reclamation and no tree cutting for personal use. This traditional knowledge achieves the balance between economy and ecology since villagers make innovations in ecological management taking into account the local ecological environment[2][10].

Minority people have the tradition to keep fengshui forest for holy purpose and environmental purpose[2]. They have the belief that humans originate from nature, and that they should respect nature and manage forests well. They believe that "everything is spiritual", which means mountains, rocks, grass, wood, fish and cattle all have the same soul as human beings. Fengshui forest also has a "soul" and it is where the gods live, so no one is allowed to disturb it. Furthermore, Fengshui forest can not only conserve water, but also prevent soil erosion and regulate microclimate.

According to the three aspects above, fengshui forest is of great importance to villagers' ideal living environment, and hence they have high degree of care for forest. They still maintain the tradition of formulating the Cunguimingyue by themselves which includes many provisions related to successful village management. With effective enforcement of these regulations at the village level, local government allows this autonomy, which indicates local villagers have power in making/influencing the decisions about the production and operation of the fengshui forest. Besides, they hold the rights to possess, utilize and obtain profits reasonably for collective purpose from fengshui forest and its natural resources in accordance with Cunguimingyue. Therefore, local villagers and minority people have medium power at best as their rights are customary, not legal.

Interested Outside Stakeholders

Local government

Local government is powerful to issue and confirm forest management rights with local ethnic minorities, and they also monitor and approve adjustment scheme of local communities. Local government has the responsibility of protecting the cultural and natural heritage such as fengshui forests. For example, local Forestry Administration has the responsibility to implement afforestation and anti-desertification initiatives and establish reserve parks and protected areas in the management of fengshui forest. Thus, local government has high care for forests and high power in making and influencing decisions.

Tourists

Since fengshui forest in Guizhou covers many scenic sites, a large amount of tourists are attracted by local cultural and natural heritage, thereby booming local tourism development. In particular, the ancient tree is regarded as sacred wood. It is because people believe fengshui forest has a "soul", many tourists are attracted there to worship and bless their family. However, most tourists have only one purpose of enjoying the local beautiful scenery so that sometimes fengshui forest is destroyed by them, which indicates tourists have low degree of care for fengshui forest and low power.

NGOs

Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) are also interested stakeholders of fengshui forest, including NGOs of different fields such as tourism, environmental protection, education and culture. They can provide policy suggestions and information consultation services to local government. In addition, they can serve as supervisors for fengshui forests and establish negotiation mechanisms with local communities on fengshui forest issues. As a result, they have low to medium power and high care.

Environmentalists and ecologists

Environmentalists and ecologists consider that fengshui forest represents a unique cultural and ecological resource. They are passionate about maintaining ecological system and restoration of fengshui forest and work on the projects related to forest conservation. They are authorized by the government and have no direct and long-term relationships with forests. Therefore, they have low power but high degree of care for fengshui forest.

Discussion

Achievements

The customary regulations of fengshui forest management has been integrated into Chinese culture for a long time, which have an essential impact on natural resources management and sustainable development. As part of local culture, it inspires new conceptions of human-nature relations in rural communities. The villagers establish a good system of fengshui forest management though local regulations, and all components and activities are essential for the traditional management system to function well. The knowledge and perspectives of fengshui forest will still be a crucial component in Guizhou province since the local villagers will continue to pursue a harmonious relationship between them and the ecosystem. Furthermore, it can be expected that they will be integrated into modern forest conservation policies and structures.

Conflicts and issues

Although applying traditional ecological knowledge and practices to current forest management practices can bring many benefits, it is still challenging.

Limitations in the historical and quantitative data of fengshui forest hinder the correct understanding of the legacies from traditional ecological knowledge and practices for people. As a result, people often affix the label of superstition to fengshui forest, which makes it challenging to protect fengshui forest. In the meantime, some indigenous and traditional knowledge are disappearing due to the acceleration of urbanization and globalization[10]. Nowadays, more and more young people migrate to cities elsewhere for employment and they show little interest in this traditional management system[10]. In the case of the decline of indigenous residents as a proportion in population and absence of understanding by immigrants, the decision-making power by indigenous people and the role of customary law and civil organizations in protecting fengshui forest are becoming weaker and weaker, which increases the difficulties of fengshui forest conservation.

Sometimes, government policies have negative impacts on the local village's natural resource management regulations. On the one hand, government intervention leads to more vulnerable practices in traditional knowledge[10].[provide an example here] In consequence, the traditional knowledge is accelerated to erode, and thus the conflict arises at the local level. On the other hand, government's official regulation influence local people's daily needs, which results in a conflict. The local government asks the villagers to plant trees on the collective pasture land. But in this case, they can no longer send cattle to feed themselves on the collective pasture land anymore, which is difficult for them to look after the cattle on the pasture land. They now have to collect grass to raise cattle, so they are unwilling to follow the formal regulation of government[2]. However, it is noteworthy that fengshui forest has not been taken by relevant government departments seriously. There are no specialized organizations and institutions to study and protect fengshui forest. Some local forest departments even do not know how many fengshui forests there are in this area, let alone protection.

Assessment

Villagers and Minority people in the communities have relatively high power to influence decisions in accordance with local traditional regulations, such as Cunguimingyue, which is formulated by themselves. These regulations are strictly and effectively abided by villagers and minority people, so local government allows autonomy. Meanwhile, they have the use rights to possess, utilize and obtain profits in collectively owned forests and individual households. Fengshui forest in Guizhou province plays an important part in local communities due to the ecological and religious roles, showing that the local people are forest-dependent. Local government has high power to participate in policies formulation and adjust scheme of fengshui forest development so that it is capable of sheltering fengshui forests to a certain extent. Many tourists are attracted by local cultural and natural heritage to visit fengshui forest, which is beneficial for Guizhou province to develop tourism. The tourists have low power to make decisions and their actions can cause damage to the environment. Although environmentalists and ecologists value the forests, they have relatively low power because they are authorized by the government they cannot directly influence the policy decisions or decision-making progress of government. The objective of the ecologists is to restore the loss of forests and degradation of the ecosystem. Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) have low to medium power in  making decisions in policies and supervising the environmental protection and management of fengshui forest. They can connect local communities with local government for the co-management as well [provide a reference for this statement].

Recommendations

It is strongly recommended that the central governmental forest agency should take fengshui forests into consideration when formulating the policy and legislative framework. In addition, a more democratic and participatory approach should be adopted in the legislative and decision-making process, especially the participation of people in the community. Furthermore, it is necessary to combine traditional knowledge with systematic and modernized knowledge to achieve sustainable forest management[2]. Last but not least, the policy makers and development practitioners should consider incorporating the customary regulations in law, and provide more space and autonomy for local people to manage fengshui forest[10]. Without outside intervention, the villagers are able to implement sustainable forest resource management for better life.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Lu, Z.; Peters, C.; Ashton, M.; Feng, J.; Xue, D. (2016). "The effect of forest tenure on forest composition in a miao area of Guizhou, China". Mountain Research and Development. 36: 193–202.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Yuan, J.; Liu, J. (2009). "Fengshui forest management by the Buyi ethnic minority in China". Forest Ecology and Management. 257.
  3. Coggins, C.; Chevrier, J.; Dwyer, M.; Longway, L.; Xu, M.; Tis, P.; Li, Z. (2012). "Village Fengshui Forests of Southern China: Culture, History, and Conservation Status". ASIA Network Exchange. 19: 52–67.
  4. Hu, L.; Li, Z.; Liao, W.; Fan, Q. (2011). "Values of village fengshui forest patches in biodiversity conservation in the pearl river delta, China". Biological Conservation. 144: 1553–1559.
  5. Government of Guizhou. 2015. Report on the Work of Guizhou Government 2015 [in Chinese]. Guiyang, Guizhou, China: Government of Guizhou.
  6. Pagdee, A.; Kim, Y.; Daugherty, P. J (2006). "What makes community forest management successful: A meta-study from community forests throughout the world". Society and Natural Resources. 19: 33–52.
  7. 7.0 7.1 Kram, M., Bedford, C., Durnin, M., Luo, Y., Rokpelnis, K., Roth, B., Smith, N., Wang, Y., Yu, G., Yu, Q., and Zhao, X. (2012). Protecting China's Biodiversity: A Guide to Land Use, Land Tenure, and Land Protection Tools. (N. Smith, Ed.) Beijing: The Nature Conservancy.
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 De ́murger, S.; Yuanzhao, H.; Weiyong, Y. (2009). "Forest management policies and resource balance in China: An assessment of the current situation". Journal of Environment and Development. 18: 17–41.
  9. Yeh, ET. (2000). "Forest claims, conflicts and commodification: The political ecology of Tibetan mushroom-harvesting villages in Yunnan Province, China". China Quarterly. 161: 264–278.
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 Yuan, J.; Wu, Q.; Liu, J. (2012). "Understanding indigenous knowledge in sustainable management of natural resources in China taking two villages from Guizhou province as a case". Forest Policy and Economics. 22: 47–52.
  11. Liu, Z.B. (2006). "The cultural value of the Dong's birth customs at Zhanli and its comparisons to the Han's traditional customs". Guizhou Ethnic Studies. 26: 41–46.
  12. Wang, H.J., Tu, Y. (2006). A case of sustainable forest resource use and management in Buyi village in Guizhou. Guangdong Forest Science 22, 80– 84 (in Chinese).
  13. He, P.K., He, J. (2000). Local regulations and forest management in ethnic region. In: He, P.K., Li, W.C., Wu, X.F. (Eds.), Forests, Trees and Minorities. Yunnan Nationality Press, (in Chinese), pp. 113–122.
  14. Mao, S.; Shen, Y.; Deng, H.; Wu, G. (2019). "Distribution pattern of traditional ecological knowledge on plant utilization among major minority peoples in Guizhou, China". International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology. 26: 37–44.


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