Wulong Township is located in Baoxing County, Ya'an City, Sichuan Province, with 7,674 people from 2,232 households, and the Tibetan ethic minority population accounts for 17%. There are more than 1,800 residents migrant to cities to seek opportunities and 1,700 left-behind women and children in the village. Tiepingshan Village, Zhanjiang Village and Tuanjie Village are located in the general control areas of the Giant Panda National Park. There are nearly 6,000 hectares of collective forests in the area, which is the habitats of national protected animals including giant pandas, red pandas, Sichuan golden monkeys.
Main problems: 1) The transportation network was blocked, the market was closed, and average consumption power is declining after the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic as local villagers have a relatively lower risk resistance and are hit badly by the pandemic. It was difficult to sell agricultural products and local average income declined. Therefore, villagers have to rely on inefficient traditional understory planting which is conflicting with natural resource conservation. 2) The pandemic has greatly reduced the job opportunities for migrant workers. Many labor force have returned to villages. However, the local demand for labor force and employment opportunities are limited. Due to livelihood and economic pressure, they went back to the disorderly use of natural resources; 3) The terrible impact of pandemic has called attention to an urgent need to raise environmental sanitation awareness. The ecological environment will be polluted without public education campaign. The insufficient awareness of epidemic prevention will lead to future risks of spread and infection; 4) The pandemic has worsened sustainable resource utilization mechanism and has brought threats to habitat management. Human activities have caused conflicts between livelihood and conservation of natural resources; meanwhile, there is a higher risk of cross-infection in the epidemic of zoonotic diseases. Also, local governments and conservation management departments have no coordination mechanisms, struggling to manage unlawful logging, indiscriminate harvesting, and wildlife hunting. A lack of community participation indirectly leads to the degradation of biodiversity; 5) The pandemic hinders the upscaling of community products and consumption. The traditional agricultural activities resulting in inconsistent product quality, unstable supply, and high circulation costs, which severely restrict the upscaling access of local agricultural products and access to high-end markets.
Main activities: 1) Build risk-resilience capability and eco-friendly industry standard system; Establish a standardized production system to open the high-end market; Run technical training for local farmers to improve their abilities in utilizing cutting-end technology; Initiate a standardized modern agricultural demonstration project; Expand the sales channels and develop diversified livelihoods such as eco-tourism; Create an eco-friendly agricultural product brand; 2) Build an information management platform to track and manage the planting and production process through sensors in fields which combined with the specific Internet technology applications, and present it with visual information. The application will be used to monitor the environment to ensure product quality and safety, and enhance the competitiveness of agricultural products; The information management platform could also be used for epidemic prevention; 3) Establish a community environmental protection mechanism. Cultivate the awareness of public affair participation and ecological protection through the discussion and self-governance practices. Establish a long-term ecological protection mechanism. Run workshops and training sessions on epidemic prevention to build risk resilience.
Anticipated outcomes: 1) Establish a risk-resilient and eco-friendly industrial system based on the rural cooperative joint organization. Meanwhile, expend sales channels for the local agricultural products and establish a local brand. The scale of the local agricultural industry will reach 1,000 mu, with an estimated output value of 2 million, an average household income of 5,000 yuan. 2) Build an information management platform for sharing, which will enhance customer loyalty and market competitiveness. Also, the platform could also be used for epidemic prevention in surrounding communities. 3)?Promote the establishment of a long-term mechanism for the residents to participate in the protection work such as patrolling, cultivate the awareness of self-governance, and clarify their benefits and obligations through full discussion. Draft 3 research reports and 3 industrial reports and deliver them on 3 seminars; Establish cooperation with local government departments and conduct training sessions on agricultural technology, supply chain, marketing, ecological protection, epidemic prevention with the help of agricultural technology experts and scholars. Cultivate 3-5 local farmers' leaders in the newly established 3 community sustainable livelihood development joint groups, which running 4 training sessions participated by no less than 200 people; Establish 2-3 demonstration areas ranging from 2-5 acres, with 2-3 demonstration households in each village; Promote the improvement of both quality and safety of agricultural products; The average yield per mu is increased by 20%-30%, and the product quality is increased by 15%-20% (product sugar index) ; Enhance product market influence through branding to build customer loyalty; Design ecological centered brand marketing events of giant pandas and other wild animals at least 3 times a year, generating an average annual income of 5,000 yuan; Establish 2-3 sets of hardware equipment on information management platform, 1-2 special seminars are held every year, with participants no less than 200 people. The 3 Villages develop rules and regulations on sustainable ecological production and protection; Wild animal patrolling team will conduct patrolling no less than 4 times a year; and epidemic prevention workshops should be run no less than 4 times every year, the annual coverage should be no less than 200 people.