Ecological Protection And Community Development And Win-win

Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, Taiwan Morak typhoon in 2009, Yushu Qinghai earthquake in 2010, Zhouqu Gansu debris flow in 2010, and Japan earthquake, tsunami, nuclear leak in 2011,... ecological disaster in East Asia is growing faster in recent years. Economic growth, ecological protection, and community development become increasingly urgent proposition for China, East Asia, and the world.Awareness of ecological protection rises sharply in China after the great flood in 1998. By applying the top-down modern development model, the government established many Nature Reserves throughout the country quickly, especially in the poor mountainous, rural and pastoral areas, and ethnic minority areas. Establishment of Nature Reserves is undoubtedly the desire of the people in China today. However, it constituted a conflict and confrontation between the limited use of resources and the livelihood, development need, inheritance of ethnic culture of the surrounding communities.Viewed from a larger vision and a deeper structure, the cause of the conflict and confrontation is neither Nature Reserves themselves, nor the livelihood and culture of the local residents, but the single top-down concept and model designed by the nation, city, and the scientists, which can't adapt to the cultural diversity of various regions and different ethnic groups, and thus makes the local residents victims. Such problems are not limited to the Nature Reserves. In the current development of China, from urbanization to hydropower exploitation, the same problem is revealed everywhere and the same conflict is accumulated everywhere.In recent years, the Chinese government has repeatedly emphasized the concept of harmonious society, scientific development, and transition of development model. These three concepts constitute a common requirement, which is, the Chinese society needs a post-modern transition to correct the drawbacks of the old development model and build a new one based on the correction.From the perspective of the new development concept, we will recognize that, the communities' residents, their traditional livelihood and culture are not problems of the Nature Reserves any more. The local residents are the main body for the national ecological protection and sustainable development. The traditional culture and knowledge of farmers is also a dynamic resource of ecological and environmental protection. This is the fundamental reason and intent of introducing a new concept of environmental justice in the thesis.Under this intent, I saw the Qinling Project, which is innovated together by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), surrounding communities' residents, local government, and national Nature Reserves. It effectively achieved the concept and model of co-development of natural conservation and local livelihood and culture, which has a positive reference value to not only the ecological reserves, but also the society transition of development.WWF, as the global largest and the first international non-governmental organization of environmental protection invited to China, launched a project in China 2002, which is the "Protection and Development Together in Qinling Project" (referred to as Qinling Project). The purpose of this project is to protect the Giant Panda and its habitat, and at the same time, promote the economic, social, and cultural development of surrounding communities, form a sustainable win-win model for the ecological protection and the socio-economic development. In my opinion, this model has great reference value to different fields and various regions of China. So, I try to use the methods of ethnic sociology to describe and interpret the concepts, mechanisms, and outcomes of this model. This dissertation focuses on how the Qinling Project cooperated with the local government, guided the participation of surrounding communities, and ultimately achieved the win-win goal of ecological conservation and community development. The thesis is composed of five chapters, with front introduction and final conclusion. The third, fourth, and fifth chapters are the main body.The introduction part explains the reason and significance of the topic, elaborates the concept of environmental justice and related research, and describes research methods and research process. Chapter I:"Giant Panda and Qinling Protection", outlines the ecology of Qinling and the livelihood of surrounding communities, including the value awareness of Giant Panda of the local residents and the westerners, and reviews the history of Giant Panda protection in China, in order to show the multiple game on ecological conservation and community development among the nation, local government, surrounding residents, and scientists.Chapter II:"The History of the World Wide Fund for Nature", narrates the principles of the organization and its strategy of entering China, including its establishment and adaptation of the Qinling Project based on its international experience and China's national conditions.Chapter III:"Interaction and Reciprocity:Qinling Protection", describes the cooperation of the organization, local government, and Nature Reserves, including the expansion of conservation area, capacity building, and promotion of the concept on sustainable forest management.Chapter IV:"Good-neighborliness and Win-win:Ecotourism", depicts how the organization guided the Heihe Forest Park to set foot on ecotourism, raise incomes, change concepts, establish tourism revenue feedback mechanism, and seek the sustainable development of ecological reserves.Chapterâ…¤:"Consolidating of Foundation:Community Development", respectively depicts the developing process and current assessment of the communities around the core conservation areas and corridors in the Qinling Project, in order to show how it achieved the win-win goal of ecological protection and communities development, in addition, how it introduced other mechanism to support the building of conservation area.Based on the model analysis and assessment of the Qinling Project, by applying the view of ethnic sociology, the conclusion of the thesis is that, the biggest highlight of the project is its respect to the rights of local residents and the main body of local communities. This factor is essential not only in the success of the Qinling Project, but also in the study and practice of China's scientific development, transition, and building harmonious society. I believe that the current modernization method, which is dominated by the old development model, has declined in promoting social and cultural innovations. However, China's future development must rely on these innovations. In short, we have to adopt the post-modern developmental concepts and models, pay more attentions to the ecological environment and social justice, give greater respect to the culture diversity and the rights of vulnerable groups at the bottom, shift the decision-making mechanism from top-down to bottom-up, shift the development goal from short-sighted profit pursuing to long-term benefit gaining for both human and nature.