Yunnan village prospers, naturally
Locals in Daotangqing village, located on the edge of the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, Southwest China’s Yunnan province, have turned to keeping bees and growing eco-friendly fruit to raise their income and strengthen resilience to damage caused by elephant grazing.
According to Yunnan Daily, in 1992, a wild elephant entered Simao district of Pu’er city, around 60 miles north of the reserve, marking the first time in 16 years that wild Asian elephants had been spotted there.
Until the 1990s, elephant herds and humans lived together in harmony. The Xishuangbanna herd initially kept to land that had been left vacant to recover after intensive cultivation, feeding on freely-growing herbs on the ground.
With the reduction of wasteland following increases in agricultural efficiency, some elephant herds moved closer to human areas and started to feed on crops such as maize, rice and sugarcane. Over time, the amount and range of crops they ate increased.
The elephant presence became an issue. The mammoth creatures invaded paddy fields, orchards and households, destroying property, causing financial losses and even injuring people.
Cao Dafan, who works for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said the direct economic loss caused by wild Asian elephants in Xishuangbanna and Pu’er alone has exceeded 20 million yuan ($2.9 million) per year.
In June 2020, IFAW, the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve and the Xishuangbanna Tropical Rain Forest Conservation Foundation jointly launched the Community Livelihood Development program that aims to reorient village economies in the area to guard them against elephant damage.
Daotangqing village, administered by Mengyang town, was set to be the first pilot project. It sits close to the core activity area of the wild Asian elephant, with at least 20 of them living within a radius of 3 miles.
The villagers used to mainly rely on rubber farming for a living, which generated a relatively low annual per capita income of around 7,000 yuan.
The IFAW’s program attempted to address these issues by encouraging villagers to cultivate beehives, which are profitable and resilient to market fluctuations — and elephants.
The first 100 beehives were distributed to 10 local households in 2020. Since then, villagers have gradually switched their focus from rubber farming to beekeeping to reduce the risk of encountering elephants.
The bees also serve multiple secondary functions, such as helping to pollinate plants in the reserve, contributing to the conservation of biodiversity in the core habitat of the Asian elephant.
Since the beekeeping project began in 2020, it has increased the income of participants by nearly 90,000 yuan in total. The average household income will also continue to increase in the future as villagers’ farming skills improve.
Zhang Jiangmei, 39, is now capable of managing all aspects of beekeeping on her own. As one of the women who have been leading the beekeeping project, Zhang’s positive attitude and courage have also encouraged other women to join in.
“Some thought that feeding bees could be difficult and exhausting, but, in fact, my pace of life has slowed down instead,” she said.
“The income from beekeeping is enough so I don’t have to find another job elsewhere to support my family, which allows me to spend more time enjoying myself.”
The beekeeping project is not the only one active in the village. Another, named Carbon Reduction Estate, was started in August 2021 with the support of Swire CocaCola (China) Co. Ltd.
The project includes measures such as planting eco-friendly fruit and nut orchards as a substitute for rubber, and setting up photovoltaic power equipment. They are designed to transform the neighborhood into a center for biodiversity conservation, energy saving and rural vitalization.