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Pay people who give up their livelihoods for others

By Li Fangchao (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-03-15 06:36

People living at the source of three of China's major river systems have had to make a lot of sacrifices.

Animal husbandry, industry and resource exploitation have been banned in parts of Qinghai Province to ensure the flow of quality water to provinces downstream.

But there has been a proposal put forward to compensate people who have had to quit their traditional livelihoods, for the sake of the environment.

Qinghai is part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the major source of water for the Yangtze, Yellow and the Lancang rivers.

"Water, the natural resource we contribute to the downstream provinces as well as the whole country, is hard to calculate in value," Song Xiuyan, governor of Northwest China's Qinghai Province said at a press conference on the sidelines of the NPC session.

"We are sacrificing our short-term benefits for the long-term benefits of the whole country."

About 40 percent of Qinghai's territory contributes directly to the river system and must be protected, with the central government committing to pour in 7.5 billion yuan ($968 million) to fund protection work in the area.

The money is being used to convert rangeland and farmland into grass and forests and help people relocate.

"We have removed the need for scoring officials on economic achievements for their performance appraisals," she said, "Instead, we now see their environment protection work and social development as major factors."

Song said that she hoped the central government would approve an "eco-compensation mechanism" to benefit people who live within the protected area.

Downstream provinces are expected to pay Qinghai for giving up industrial activities so they can have clean water.

"People living within the areas are those who sacrifice most; we crave for such a mechanism to give them a better life," she said.

Wang Jirong, a CPPCC member and former vice-minister of the State Environment Protection Administration, said that such a mechanism was vital.

"How can you prevent them from feeding yaks if they (people living within the area) are starving?" she said.

(China Daily 03/15/2007 page5)