Course:FRST370/2021/Tourism contributes to cultural protection and economic development of Ethnic minorities: A case study of Huangshui National Forest Park of Tujia Autonomous Region in Shizhu County, Chongqing, China.

This conservation resource was created by Course:FRST370.

The Chinese government has been committed to safeguarding the rights and improving the living conditions of ethnic minorities while preserving the ecological diversity of local community forests. Based on the Huangshui Forest Park in Shizhu County, Chongqing, China, this page explores its various forest management policies and how it contributes to the cultural protection of local ethnic minorities through the development of tourism.

Shizhu County, Chongqing has always been a Tujia Autonomous Region, and the state has established a folklore ecological scenic area in order to boost the local economy and develop local tourism. This place attracts many tourists every summer to escape from the summer heat. This page discusses the various stakeholders in this area and some of the forest management policies that are currently in place and may emerge in the future. Subsequently, relevant suggestions are given on this page, which provide reference value for local forest management and minority welfare protection in Shizhu County, while this page also serves as an educational lesson on ethnic minorities' folklore and forest protection ecology for the huge number of visitors each year.

An overview of Huangshui National Park.

Key words

Huangshui National Forest; tourism development; community forest; ethnic minorities

Description

Location

Scenic area of Huangshui, Shizhu County.

Huangshui National Forest Park is located on a mountain plateau in Shizhu County, Chongqing, China and it is in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. The total area of this park is 32441 hectares, including 6000 hectares that is available for sightseeing. The park is about 1,300 meters above sea level. Huangshui National Forest Park is the largest national park in Chongqing Province and it is the only tujia minority tourist attraction in Yangtze River tourist line.

History

In 1984, Shizhu County renamed Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County and it was under the Sichuan province.

On June 18, 1997, Chongqing municipality was established and Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County was moved to Chongqing.

On July 2000, Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County was under Chongqing municipality directly.

In 1998, Huangshui National Forest Park was approved as a national forest park by the State Forestry Administration.

Climatic conditions

Huangshui National Forest Park is belong to Tropical humid monsoon climate. The annual average temperature is 10.4℃. The highest temperature in summer is only 25℃. The temperature is warm and the participation there is abundant. Here the four seasons are distinct. The winter is warm and the summer is cool. The park has a great difference in altitude and vertical climate, which is the most suitable for summer to avoid summer heat.

Natural resources

Water resources

Plant: Huangshui National Forest Park has more than 3000 plant species and the forest cover rate is up to 90%. It is one of the last remaining places of the rare plant Metasequoia. Huangshui is famous for high yield of Coptis Chinensis.

Animal: Up to 2009, there are 1,380 species of animals in Huangshui National Forest Park. It is one of the areas with the largest distribution of endangered wildlife in the Three Gorges Reservoir region.

Water: There is abundant water resources in Huangshui National Forest Park. The annual average runoff in Shizhu County is 2.282 billion cubic meters. Water energy theory reserves 30.95 watts kilowatts. There are many lakes here, of which Sun Lake and Moon Lake are the most famous. Rivers and steams cross the lakes, with fantastic views around them.

Tenure Arrangements

Major reform of tenure arrangements in China

From the founding of the People's Republic of China, there are three major stage of the reform of Chinese forestry policies, which is from 1949 to 1978, from 1979 to 1997, and from 1998 to nowadays. These three historical periods are the establishment of forest policy, the decentralization of forest rights, and institutional reform.

• From 1949 to 1977, in other words, from the establishment of the country to reform and opening up, the new Chinese government enacted a series of laws and regulations to regulate forests that were mostly privately owned and traded before the founding of the country. In 1950, the Land Reform Law of the People's Republic of China was passed, dividing forests into state-owned forests and peasant co-owned forests, which were planned and managed by the state and peasants respectively. However, from 1958-1977, China experienced three years of natural disasters and a series of political disasters that led to a basic halt in forestry construction. This period can therefore also be summarized as a period of stagnation and hovering in China's forest policy.
• From 1978 to 1997, China's forestry policy emphasizes forest conservation and sustainable development. During this period, the new national leaders realized the importance of forest conservation and demanded, as a matter of policy, that all people plant trees and reward those who planted more trees. During this period, China's forests were divided into state forests and collective forests. Collective forests accounted for 55% and were allocated to different households by Contract Responsibility System (CRS). This system allows contracted producers to use and benefit from the forest, but the ownership of the land is vested in the state. Thus the system has somewhat decentralized forest rights to individuals.
• From 1998 to today, especially after experiencing the 1998 Yangtze River mega-flood, China's central government paid extreme attention to the degradation of forests. At the same time, the shortcomings of the CRS, with its confusing structure and difficult decision-making, led to changes in forest policy. During this period, China's forest policy shifted from a focus on timber production to a focus on ecological construction. Although forests are still divided into state forests and collective forests, the collective forest policy has undergone significant adjustments. During this period, the effectiveness of the CRS was enhanced, and the government allowed the assignment and leasing of contracts. However, the government retains some key limit values. Contract owners can only cut a certain amount of trees, which is regulated by the forestry department, as a way of limiting forest degradation. This means that the contract owner does not have full access to the forest.

Administrative arrangements

The main management departments of Huangshui National Forest and their functions

Huangshui National Forest Park has set up many administrative departments under the leadership of the Chinese Park Management Committee. These departments have a detailed division of labor and responsibilities, working together to ensure that the forest park's flora and fauna resources are not destroyed, that tourism operations are carried out properly, and that infrastructure is built.

Management departments and responsibilities:

• The comprehensive department is responsible for the daily work management of the park, including personnel, archives, clerical, labor union, and administrative logistics.
• The Finance Department is responsible for the daily income and expenditure, the sale of tourism services, and the financial work of employee welfare and salary issuance.
• The Engineering Department is responsible for the overall planning of the park, the construction of basic facilities, the protection of the ecological environment of the park, pest and disease control and forest fire prevention.
• The Tourism Department is responsible for liaising with external personnel for the promotion and reception of tourist attractions. The core task of the department is to ensure that more outside visitors understand the characteristics of Huangshui National Forest Park.
• The Service Department is responsible for the management of almost all infrastructure in the park, including catering, lodging, and guided tour buses. This department is also responsible for ensuring that the sanitary conditions in the park are up to standard.
• The police station is responsible for the personal safety of visitors and staff in the park, and for maintaining forestry resources.

Affected Stakeholders

The affected stakeholders in Shizhu County are mainly local minorities (mainly Tujia ethnic minorities) and other residents. These residents make their living from agriculture, handicrafts, and services, and depend on the local land and forest resources to produce the agricultural products they need. In the local affected stakeholders, the aging of the population is a serious problem, while the population has a low level of education and a lack of scientific and technical personnel, which is one of the difficulties in fighting poverty in the local area.

At the same time, farmers producing local specialty agricultural products, such as polygonati and coptis of the valley, areaffected stakeholders. These farmers rely on the production and sale of traditional crops for their livelihoods, and also rely heavily on the local forest and soil conditions.

Interested Stakeholders

Tourists: because of its proximity to Lichuan in Hubei to the east and only 160 kilometers from the main city of Chongqing, Huangshui National Forest Park attracts a large number of Chinese tourists every summer. These tourists bring huge economic benefits to the Huangshui region, and they are also influenced by the local minority culture, which further promotes the minority culture to the outside world.

Staff at tourist attractions: Huangshui National Forest Park has a good infrastructure of tourist attractions, as well as a large number of staff. These staff members earn wages by providing various services to visitors, such as ticket sales, attraction interpretation, etc.

Local government: The government manages the lives of the people and the development of the local tourism industry, and has enacted a series of policies to promote economic development and attract tourists from abroad to visit the area.

External Ecological Protection Organization: Huangshui National Forest Park is rich in natural resources, including 55 species of wild plants such as Red Dock, Metasequoia and Ginkgo, which are protected at the national level in China, and 9 species of wild plants protected at the municipal level. It also includes 24 species of key protected wild animals such as leopards. The abundance of natural resources has attracted the interest of external environmental groups, which conduct field research and want to contribute to local environmental protection.

Discussion

The relationship between forest and local minorities

Coptis is a famous Chinese herb and is widely used in Chinese medicine. The production of coptis is one of the traditional folk customs of the local Tujia ethnic minorities in Shizhu County. Because coptis is one of the non-timber forest products, its development and production reflects the relationship between the local ethnic minorities and the forest.

• The basis for forming the folklore of coptis production in Shizhu County is the unique local geographical location, suitable climate, and suitable humus soils. The high altitude and dense hills of Shizhu County make it difficult to realize large-scale and refined agricultural production, but it is more suitable for the growth of coptis. It is also convenient for land and water transportation in Shizhu County, which provides convenient transportation for coptis to the outside world. The Shizhu County belongs to the central subtropical monsoon climate, with sufficient rainfall, high soil water content, and cold and humid air, suitable for the growth of coptis. What is more, the local humus soil is suitable for the growth of coptis, while the high forest cover provides convenience for the manufacture of coptis production tools.
• There are some production beliefs of the deified cult of the Tujia. First of all, agricultural beliefs have a role in regulating people's psychology, enriching cultural life, and stabilizing social order. Secondly, the people of Shizhu County worship the land productivity and the land god, and the worship of the "tree god" and the prohibition of felling the "sacred trees" is a primitive concept of sustainable development. However, with the progress of agricultural science, these agricultural beliefs gradually faded out of life.
• Researchers have developed some strategies for the protection of folklore in coptis production. First, we could take advantage of the government to lead the design of the optimal folklore protection system for coptis. Second, the local government should strengthen the production awareness of farmers. Besides, by encouraging NGOs to participate in the protection of coptis production and improving the efficiency of coptis production through scientific research, we can anticipate for a more scientific production of coptis.
• In the past, a large amount of timber was needed for the production of coptis, and the cultivation of one hectare of coptis required the cutting down of three hectares of forest, which was a very serious destruction of the forest. Nowadays, the production of coptis has been cultivated under the trees in the forest, and the industry has developed the technology of planting coptis in cement pile sheds, which ensures the stable development of coptis production without destroying the local forest. The process of cultivation under trees is as follows: firstly, choose a woodland with high shade, dwarf trees with a height of 3 meters are the best choice; then remove the small shrubs and dead branches from the woodland to keep the shade at 70%-80%; after that, select two-year old seedlings with more than 12 leaves and transplant them around April; after cultivation, apply nitrogen fertilizer and phosphorus and potassium fertilizer successively, and treat the dead branches and leaves every year; increase the light penetration year by year, and in the fifth year, the 100% light penetration is applied to promote the accumulation of organic matter, and then harvest in the winter of the 6th and 7th year.

Achievements in poverty alleviation with forest and village tourism

China's vast rural areas are economically underdeveloped, so the Chinese government has adopted a precision poverty alleviation effort that aims to develop appropriate poverty alleviation programs based on local realities. China's tourism industry has grown rapidly in the last decade, and Shizhu County has abundant forest and rural tourism resources, so it is feasible to use forest and rural tourism to alleviate poverty for the local poor residents in Shizhu County

In 2017, Shizhu County, with the theme of forestry industry development and the focus on promoting poverty alleviation and income generation for poor households, has made efforts to promote forest recreation, forestry industry project construction, forestry industry poverty alleviation and other work, and the development of forestry industry in the county has achieved remarkable results which are listed as follows.

According to the principle of "priority implementation for poor villages, priority coverage for poor households and priority use of labor for poor households", Shizhu allows poor villages and poor households to participate in ecological construction, so that ecological construction can drive poverty alleviation. According to the news released by Chongqing Municipal Government, in 2017, the county completed a new round of reforestation project with a reforestation area of 84,000 acres mainly of fruit forests, of which 32 poor villages developed more than 20,000 acres of walnuts, crisp red dates, plums and other fruit forests, involving project funds of 30.74 million yuan. In addition, Shizhu also fully implemented the ecological public welfare forest compensation mechanism, actively created ecological protection public welfare positions, selected and hired eligible poor households as forest rangers to boost the income of poor households and promote poverty alleviation with ecological protection. in 2017, the county selected and hired 554 poor household forest rangers, accounting for 73.5% of all the 754 rangers, and each person can get about 6,000 yuan of forest protection compensation per year. In 2017, the forest tourism industry received more than 4.3 million visitors and achieved an output value of more than 2.15 billion yuan, and successfully hosted the Chongqing Forest Recreation Industry Development Conference and independently exhibited at the 2017 China Forest Tourism Festival, which strongly promoted and displayed the development of forest tourism and forest recreation in Shizhu.

The above facts show that it is feasible and effective to alleviate local poverty with forest tourism. In the future, Shizhu County can also incorporate local traditional practices, such as coptis production, as a part of forest tourism. In this way, local special traditional culture is preserved while alleviating poverty.

Limitation

• Seasonal imbalance

The main problem of vacation leisure tourism in Huangshui, Shizhu County is the seasonal imbalance. The number of tourists in summer is seriously overloaded. Tourism attractions, facilities and services are short supply. However, there are few tourists in spring, autumn and winter. As a result, the scenic area receives far more tourists above its carrying capacity during peak seasons, forest ecosystems are overused and scenic areas seriously polluted, whereas Tourist attractions, facilities and services are free in slack seasons.

The reason is that Shizhu County mainly develops the leisure tourism of Huangshui resort in summer, without all-round development of leisure tourism. Therefore, it is hard to achieve all year round development of its tourism industry.

• Extensive development

Forest tourism is a low-cost, high-benefit and fast-return industry, thus many regions take forest tourism as their new economic growth point, even projects are organized blindly and creative ideas brought in without considering actual conditions of the local area. Because sustainable development of forest ecosystem is not fully understood, only economic benefits are pursued in Huangshui, Shizhu County, and extensive development leads to serious damages and waste of forest resources.

• Inadequate management service

Forest as a tourist resource of long growth period requires special protection and management in the development, otherwise, forest resources will be exhausted when economic benefits are obtained. However, tourist management is ineffective in Huangshui, Shizhu County. Forest tourism is faced with serious management deficiencies. Many tourists have poor environment protection consciousness, and improper tourist activities can be found everywhere, in view of this and also the long restoration period of forest resources, some high-quality forest resources in Chongqing are declining to“ecological fragments”.

Referential value

Huangshui National Forest Park, as the largest and only minority tourist scenic area among national forest parks in Chongqing, is a multifunctional and comprehensive tourist destination. The guidance mechanism of local government, the utilization of brand effect, and the coexistence among different stakeholders all provide great reference significance for similar community forestry construction.

Assessment of relative power

Assessment of relative power

Local Minorities: high importance, low influence

Local ethnic groups such as the Tujia have traditional beliefs in spirits and believe that trees and crops are a gift from God, so forests and crops are very important to them. However, their total population is small and their education level is generally low, so their social influence is not high.

Coptis Farmers: high importance, low influence

The farmers who grow coptis are very dependent on local coptis cultivation techniques and soil and water conditions, and coptis is one of their few sources of economic support. Therefore, they are very concerned about local forests because they depend on forest land for coptis  production. However, in order to make money, local young people do not want to be farmers anymore, but choose to work in big cities, so more than 80% of coptis farmers are middle-aged and old people between 40 and 60 years old, and have relatively low social influence.

Local government: high importance, high influence

The local government governs the lives of the local people and the development of tourism, so their social influence is relatively high. At the same time, they see poverty alleviation, economic development and ecological conservation as their goals, so the forests and folklore of Huang Shui Town are very important to the government.

Tourists: high importance, high influence

Tourists are the strongest pillar of Huangshui National Forest's economic development, and they raise huge economic revenue for the park every year. At the same time, they help spread the culture of ethnic minorities to the outside world, so these tourists have a very high influence. The park also provides various services for the tourists, such as catering, accommodation, sightseeing, etc., so the tourists also have high importance.

Staff at Tourist Attractions: high importance, low influence

All of the staff within the attraction depend on this work for their livelihoods, and they help the attraction function properly, so they have a high level of importance in this community. However, their influence is low because many of these staff groups are formed on an ad hoc basis and their composition is very fluid.

External Ecological Protection Organization: high importance, low influence

Many of these conservation groups are formed spontaneously by eco-friendly caretakers, but are independent of the Huangshui National Forest Park. Even though these organizations have a high importance of the park's natural environment protection, their influence is relative low due to the spontaneity of their membership and the lack of state support they receive.

Recommendations

• Develop tourism from the perspective of space and time.

In order to alleviate the problem of overloading in peak season, it is necessary to tap the potential of tourism in Huangshui Scenic area and to develop alternative summer tourist attractions around Huangshui Scenic area. For example, constructing more summer leisure accommodation towns around Huangshui will divert the overloading summer tourists in Huangshui Town.

From time scale, Huangshui needs to change from summer leisure tourism to four seasons leisure tourism. That means not only improving the leisure tourism in summer but also to develop tourism activities in spring, autumn and winter. For example, in spring, we can develop leisure tourism with the theme of "green" and tourists can go on to enjoy beautiful flowers in Shizhu County. In autumn, we can develop leisure tourism with the theme of "yellow" and tourists can enjoy yellow and red leaves, pick and taste fruits, taste delicacies such as rice cakes and wild mushrooms, and participate in outdoor activities such as hiking and climbing. And in winter, there are a variety of snow and ice leisure sports such as watching the rime, snow and ice, skiing. With the leisure tourism with the theme of "white", tourism will enjoy the customs activities of Tujia nationality and understand their culture.

• Create more tourism products.

It is also necessary to take good advantages of natural resources and local traditional culture to develop variety tourism products in Huangshui. For example, we can take advantage of mountains, streams, lakes, forests and grasslands to develop sports and leisure tourism projects such as river descent and river cross-country. This achieves the combination of sports and tourism, which will attract more tourists.

Shizhu County is the core birthplace and distribution area of Tujia culture. Tujia culture, represented by Tujia Cattle playing as a national intangible cultural heritage protection project, has profound cultural deposits and distinct characteristics. Cultural and artistic leisure tourism products can be developed, such as Tujia ethnic costumes, stone carving and other exquisite handicrafts. Additionally, we can launch leisure tourism activities during ethnic festivals. For example, we can restore and strengthen the traditional Tujia festival, such as the Moon festival, god washing festival. Those festival celebration activities tend to accumulate rich local cultural connotation, and has a strong participation, entertainment. These ethnic minority traditional cultures with regional characteristics tend to attract more tourists.