Visiting Beijing was previously just a dream for Zhang Fulin, let alone being involved in a discussion with international experts and officials on environmental protection and grass-roots organization.

But yesterday proved that sometimes dreams can come true, as timid Zhang, a poverty-stricken 30-year-old villager from the mountainous county of Nanjian in southwest China's Yunnan Province, addressed an international workshop held in Beijing on protecting the biodiversity of her province.

"Encouraging local residents instead of local governments to become the backbone in biodiversity protection is the theme of the program," said Zhang, who has been involved in the United Nations Development Program project since 2001.

As an accountant, she was elected to a seven-person group for her village of Baomao to implement the initiative.

Zhang said her family has benefited from the program, not only because she got the chance to visit Beijing.

With a small-scale loan of 2,000 yuan (US$241) from the UNDP, Zhang and her husband planted cash crops, raised pigs and bought an energy-saving kitchen range. More than 150 families in her village got the loans ranging from 700 yuan (US$84) to 2,000 yuan (US$241).

"Now, our income has been doubled and villagers seldom hew trees," said Zhang, whose family income has risen to 5,000 yuan (US$602) last year from 2,000 yuan (US$241) in 2001.

In the past, poverty-stricken villagers in Yunnan had to cut down trees to afford daily necessities, greatly affecting the biodiversity of the region.

"We are seeking solutions to poverty alleviation and environmental protection," said Zhao Junchen, a researcher from the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences.

The program was jointly launched by the UNDP, the Global Environment Fund and the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences,

By August, a total of 1,424 families in Yunnan's Nanjian and Yunxian counties have participated in the small-scale loan program, which aims to tackle poverty and protect biodiversity.

"We have achieved an initial success as all the borrowers can repay their loans in a timely fashion and at the same time their income has increased by planting cash crops," said Zhao.

Meanwhile, the environment has been protected because the villagers are being mobilized to protect biodiversity.

Senior Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP China Macleod Nyirongo said the Yunnan project has been a great example of how to tackle poverty in upland areas.

"Poverty and biodiversity are intimately linked because the loss of biodiversity increases poverty, and poverty is a major threat to biodiversity," said Nyirongo.

That link has been strengthened in many poor rural regions in China.

Local residents in poor rural areas depend on biodiversity for food, fuel, shelter, medicines and their livelihood. But too much human activity has threatened biodiversity and caused natural disasters such as floods, droughts and landslides, which in turn worsen poverty.

Despite the threat, some local residents are still unaware of the importance of well-protected biodiversity.

"Some local residents still cut trees once in a while, although the frequency of this has decreased," said Zhang.

(China Daily September 10, 2004)