About three years ago, Bai'ma Soinam, a farmer in Nyingchi Prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region, used to be content with a meager earning of several thousand yuan from tree cutting and lumber sale.

When a government regulations banning on logging took effect for conserving natural forests, the Tibetan farmer was initially reluctant to change his business and contract a 6.67-hectare nursery.

But now sales of saplings alone earns him an annual income of more than 600,000 yuan (72,289 US dollars).

"In the past I could only make both ends meet by logging, but now I live a well-to-do life through tree planting," Bai'ma Soinam said with satisfaction.

"The natural forest protection program is not only really benefiting us, but will also leave a good ecological environment for our future generations," he added.

Bai'ma Soinam was one of millions of ethnic people in southwest China region.

China started the natural forest protection program, dubbed " Tianbao" in Chinese, in 1998, which has broadened forest conservation from natural forest areas alone to the big river valleys. The program areas were defined in 17 provinces and autonomous regions, covering almost all the inhabited areas for ethnic groups in southwest China.

The program encourages local forest dwellers to consume electricity instead of firewood, plant trees for eco-conservation purposes and move out of mountainous areas where forests are densely distributed and living conditions are harsh for humans.

Thanks to the program, ethnic groups in southwest China are now living a new life and, more and more people in underdeveloped areas there have gradually established awareness of sustainable development.

Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province has had 12,000 poor households move to areas with better living conditions, whereas Tibet has resettled 3,560 people Tibetan farmers and herdsmen from remote mountainous to prosperous areas.

Three years ago, Anyang barely supported his family with gains from grazing and hunting in a mountainous area of Tibet's Qamdo Prefecture. Nowadays, he, together with his villagers, has moved to a plain area in Nyingchi County, and learned how to grow grain and vegetables. He has even bought a truck with bank loans and begun to do transport business. Only four months after his resettlement, he has earned 15,000 yuan (1,807 US dollars).

Most people from the ethnic groups in southwest China live in frigid zones and used to burn cow dung and firewood. On the basis of the "Tianbiao" program, the people have fired marsh gas and consumed electricity provided by hydro and solar power projects.

In the past, it took three hours a day for Zhoi'ma, a Tibetan farmer in Diqing prefecture of Yunnan, to cut firewood. Now she uses methane-generating pit and an energy-efficient kitchen range that were provided by the local government. And she has arranged a plastic-film-covered shed to grow strawberries and vegetables with pit residues and earned herself 3,000 yuan (361.5 US dollars) every year.

The "Tianbao" program has also helped the ethnic groups realize comprehensive development of their forest resources.

After the "Tianbao" started in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Region, more edible mushrooms grew in forests there and local dwellers have been able to annually garner more than 200 million yuan (24.1 million US dollars) from only picking the mushrooms.

In other ethnic group inhabited areas in Yunnan, including Dali, Lincang, Baoshan and Lijiang, the local residents earn over 500 million yuan (60.2 million US dollars) a year from growing walnuts.

Meanwhile, as "Tianbao" has effectively conserved forest landscapes and ecological environment in southwestern China, the sightseeing resources have been explored to develop tourism in the region.

Statistics show that in 2001, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, Tibet and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous regions and Chongqing municipality in southwest China received 240 million tourists from home and from abroad and earned 13.52 billion US dollars from tourism.

The "Tianbao" program has ended a pure subsidy-based approach and turned to a new way that provides diversified development options for forest dwellers, according to Lei Jiafu, deputy director of the State Forest Administration.