A picturesque village nestled in the mountains 

With the arrival of spring, tree planting has become a common sight on the mountain slopes of Wuping, a county in Longyan City, Fujian Province in southeast China.  

In recent years, Longyan has put ecological conservation at the top of its agenda. At the same time, it has been committed to pursuing green development and improving living standards.  

In March, the State Council approved the establishment of demonstration zones featuring the high-quality development of the old revolutionary bases in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, and west Fujian Province, where Longyan lies. Longyan was part of the Communist Party of China-led revolutionary base in the 1930s, and this initiative aims to help former revolutionary base areas catch up with more developed regions by tapping into their comparative advantages. 

Wuping is the birthplace of the forestry rights reform. China's first new forest rights certificate, which confirms individual farmers' rights to manage portions of collectively owned forestland, was issued to a farmer in Jiewen Village in Wuping on December 30, 2001. 

 A Wuping local picks purple lingzhi mushrooms, highly valued in traditional Chinese medicine 

Forestry is a pillar industry of Wuping. Before the reform, however, villagers lacked incentives to protect forests, leading to excessive logging and poor management of other forest resources. The granting of the certificates motivated villagers to protect forests, and cultivate and harvest forest products for a higher income. 

During a fact-checking trip there in June 2002, Xi Jinping, then Governor of Fujian, endorsed the move, saying it is right for the household responsibility system in agriculture, under which farming households independently produce crops on contracted plots, to be introduced to forestry for the benefit of locals. The replacement of the collectivized production system in agriculture with the household responsibility system in the late 1970s was a landmark reform in the development of rural China. 

In March 2021, during an inspection trip to Fujian, President Xi Jinping underlined the need to continue following the reforms. He called for new breakthroughs in readjusting the collective forestland ownership system and for exploring ways to increase economic returns from eco-friendly production. 

A man harvests bamboo shoots from a forest 

Wuping has since put Xi's insights into practice. For instance, it has revved up support for sustainable forestry through inclusive finance. It has also developed five signature forest products—passion fruit; a local breed of poultry known as the Xiangdong chicken; purple lingzhi mushrooms, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine; green tea; and ardisia crenata, an indoor ornamental plant. Some 104,000 hectares of forest are being used for "forest agriculture," generating a revenue of 4.02 billion yuan ($631 million). What Wuping has achieved is evidence that ecological conservation and economic development are not contradictory goals.  

This new model has been successful across Longyan, with many of its villages turning to the production of medicinal plants inside forests. To date, Longyan has established 123 forest-based non-timber business demonstration zones. In 2021, forest products were grown in more than 703,000 hectares of forest, registering a revenue of 24.2 billion yuan ($3.8 billion) and involving 177,000 rural households. Wuping neighboring Changting and Liancheng were named demonstration counties.  

Longyan will not rest on its laurels. Going forward, it will make the most of opportunities stemming from its listing as a national pilot city for forestry reform and development. In November 2021, it released a plan for implementing this program, outlining 14 priority areas. President Xi's words that "green is gold" are guiding Longyan toward sustainable prosperity.