Summary

Tuole Village is famous as a national eco cultural village and the model village of culture industry in Guizhou province and China habitat environment example prize. Ancient Ginkgo Tourism Development company was set up in 2013 which aims to scientifically develop the scenic resources through systemic investment and reasonable innovation the living environment had been greatly improved.

Background and Objective

1319 households, or 4688 people are within this 6.9 square kilometers land. Before rehabilitation. Major problems include messy village layout, dilapidated houses, damaged historical sites, inaccessible roads and garbage and sewage everywhere. As industry was weak, the poverty rate was 28% with 150 poor households, or 520 poor people.

Actions and Implementation

(A) Solving environmental pollution and disruption through village pacts and green awareness. The environmental problem rooted in villagers' lack of environmental awareness. The government and the village actively carry out educational activities of environmental protection and pick up again the old maxim in Tuole village—"No deforestation, otherwise, stumble or fall”, so that the concept of environmental protection can be deeply rooted in people’s hearts. Incorporating regular management of the environment into the village pacts helps maintain a good environment and order. (B) Laying a solid foundation for tourism development and poverty alleviation by improving and renovating the village roads. The biggest obstacle for developing tourism here is village’s weakness in traffic accessibility and incomplete infrastructure. The government focuses on improving the road traffic network and has built the highway and the circular scenic road from the downtown area to Tuole village, fitness trails and bicycle lanes. At the same time, the government spares no efforts into constructing the green and ecological infrastructure. Based on this, the government set its sights on high-class planning, high standards and key tourism projects such as the construction of national scenic spot at 5A level, investment in the construction of ecological parking lot and the ASEAN Summit conference hall in Tuole. (C) Obtaining shared interests by allowing the villagers to fully participate in the project through the house transformation and the establishment of cooperative. The key issues of the poverty alleviation project lie in whether the villagers can benefit from the development of scenic spots and enhance their ability of maintaining sustainable livelihood, if not, it will lead to repeated poverty. In terms of words left, please find attachment for details of narratives.

Outcomes and Impacts

(A) The sustainable funding: 1) Effectively use investment by pooling different fiscal funds from various channels and manage them as a whole; 2) Use government funds as a leverage to develop industries but not directly distribute to person, forming a virtuous cycle of asset operation, avoiding the trap of vicious circle of poverty alleviation. (B) Sustainable industries to reduce poverty: 1) Strictly protect tourism resources in Tuole village to ensure sustainable development; 2) Help establishing village cooperative in the mode of cooperative plus enterprise and allow the villagers to increase income with shares and jobs. We achieved a balanced development of social and economical benefits by binding villagers’ income with dividends in scenic spot development, utilizing professional technology and enterprise network to market projects. (C) Sustainable ecological environment: simultaneously improve both software and hardware of environment protection. While developing tourism, we never allow the red-line of environmental protection to be crossed.

Gender and Social Inclusivity

Through on-the-spot research in Tuole village, we put forward design projects and act under this plan. In the process, we finance through varied channels and mobilize villagers to be involved in construction, aiming to restore a beautiful environment for local villagers and increase their happiness index. Our initiative could be replicated with more supports from the government policy and funds, and certainly, the active participation of villagers.

Innovative Initiative

(A) Rationalize interest sharing mechanism. This project bring the government, enterprises and the village fully involved in the village renovation and industrial development. The government pools fiscal funds together; enterprises remain committed to the exploration and marketing of tourism and agriculture industry; the village collective lead villagers to bring resources such as land and ancient trees together. The three parties, combining each other with the cooperatives plus enterprise mode, perform their own duties and manage to maximize social and economic benefits. (B) Implement "Three Changes"(namely, change resources into assets, change capital into shares; change farmers into shareholders) mode with the cooperative as the core. This nationwide example mode for China’s targeted poverty alleviation was initiated by Liupanshui city, aiming to set village cooperatives to guide farmers to hold shares of such collective assets as the land and houses, which are operated in scale and opened with management rights into the market, but without sacrificing the collective ownership, and eventually benefit the village collective and individuals with dividends. "Three Changes"mode, which was successfully applied in our initiative, once again proved effective in targeted poverty alleviation, especially for the western China areas. (C) The software and hardware of the ecological protection and village renovation should strike a balance. In the past, the local government tilted the scale over hardware construction like infrastructure but ignored the villagers' software like environmental awareness. In view of this, this project recall the ancient village’s inherent environmental awareness, through broadcasting, education and renovation, to preserve their ancient villages and environment. The recent years have witnessed more than 300 delegations both at home and abroad visiting Tuole to study the lessons of improving people’s living environment.

Resources devoted to delivery

No. Title Source Author Publication Title Volume Number Date Page Number 1 The Ancient Ginkgo Ecological Maintenance in Guizhou Tuole Ancient Ginkgo Scenic Area Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences WANG Nan, WANG Jin, PAN Yu-dao The Ancient Ginkgo Ecological Maintenance in Guizhou Tuole Ancient Ginkgo Scenic Area 12 2014 2

Conclusion

Yes. In 2014, China's State Council Office launched Opinions on Improving Living Environment of Rural Areas, aiming to supporting poor counties like Panxian to renovate its villages. In 2017 the "Three Changes" mode of Liupanshui city was first listed within China’s Central Document No.1, giving our initiative recognition and support ranging from fiscal funds and policies. We become more confident that, with this Three Changes mode, we could forge our project ahead.