Preserving Dulong River valleys(2)

Mist lingers on the Gaoligong Mountains. Niu Yang / For China Daily

To protect the area's environment, Li says, the ethnic people named after the Dulong River that flows from the Tibet autonomous region to northern Myanmar with a population of fewer than 10,000, has gradually abandoned their traditional slash-and-burn lifestyle and love for hunting.

In Qinlangdang, one of the remotest settlements in the township, which is part of the Maku village, Yang Si, the 38-year-old village head, attributes the area's progress to government policy and huge financial input.

In December, 2011, a dirt road reached Qinlangdang from the Maku village. "It took the construction workers three years to break through and strengthen a single bend on the road," Yang says. "It kept collapsing after the rains."

Since the opening of the road, the government has built 70 new villas for Maku's 268 residents in Qinlangdang. About 100 residents in Qinlangdang have moved into their new houses. The other villagers will gradually move into them too.

Although the annual income per person is only 2,000 yuan ($320) on average, Yang says that the villagers do not need to work hard to make ends meet. "The government gives us 77 kilograms of rice and 20 yuan per mu (0.067 hectare) per person every year, to return land from farming to forestry," he says. "Here no one tries to find a job outside."

The traditional lifestyle has its roots in the area's unique natural environment.

"The slopes are so steep that you must slash and burn to reclaim the land for farming," he says. "Even that wasn't enough for us to make ends meet. If it was raining like this month (May), we couldn't keep the fire burning in the woods. Then we didn't have enough to eat. So we went hunting."

Now the animals are abundant in the forests, Yang says. Last year six oxen of the village, which usually graze free on the village's summer pasture, were killed by black bears or leopards. "The country's compensation standard is 3,000 yuan for an ox," he says. "But an ox is priced at about 8,000 yuan."