Program helps locals live with elephants

Community care

In December, IFAW China, the protection station and the rainforest foundation expanded their project to the Konggeliudui community in Dadugang township, Jinghong.

The community is predominantly inhabited by the Hani ethnic group, with 39 households. More than 60 wild Asian elephants roam in the vicinity.

The community's primary livelihood revolves around rubber tapping and tea cultivation. "During the harvest season, villagers' chances of encountering elephants in the forest increases," Cao said.

"So our project is set to combine beekeeping with empowering residents, enhancing their skills and income while reducing their forest activities to minimize human-elephant conflicts."

During the project's inauguration in December, the first 100 beehives were distributed to 10 households in the community.

After some field research, the conservationists also found that traditional embroidery practiced by a few senior residents, including an inheritor of the intangible culture heritage, has the potential to become a new source of income for villagers and cater to visitors as Konggeliudui is close to the Wild Elephant Valley scenic area, a major tourist attraction in Xishuangbanna.

The local government has already helped build an embroidery workshop in the community, said Yang Yan, head of the village. "In our spare time, we can learn with our inheritor to make traditional costumes featuring the embroidery," she said.

It takes her more than a month to make a traditional costume, she said, adding that villagers can sell their costumes to visitors.

Cao and his colleagues are helping the community plan for rural tourism development by training community tour guides.

In April last year, IFAW China collaborated with Freshippo, also known as Hema, a direct warehouse shopping and grocery chain, to market honey from Daotangqing and another community in Xishuangbanna under a brand named Zero-Carbon Elephant-Friendly Honey.

The first carbon-zero honey in the country, with a limited run of 3,000 jars, was sold in Freshippo stores in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou in Zhejiang province.

The profits from the sales were subsidized to support the sustainable development of the beekeeping project, said Ma from IFAW China.

"The focus of all of our community projects has been to broaden local people's vision and empower them with new skills," she said.

chenliang@chinadaily.com.cn