Baima Snow Mountain National Nature Reserve is located in Deqin and Weixi County, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwestern Yunnan Province. It is in the transition zone between the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. Gathering is one of the main traditional livelihood strategies of Lisu villagers in Lamasi. However, driven by economic interests, the boundary of nature conserved area was gradually blurred. Raising honeybees and planting Chinese medicinal materials could have dealt with community protection and development issues well, but the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced the sales and price of honey. Some farmers have returned to their traditional livelihoods of white bean cultivation and cattle raising, which are conflicting with the protection of community conserved areas.
Main problems: 1) The sales channels of agricultural products are blocked after the outbreak of COVID-19. As a remote mountainous village, the Lamasi community has been severely impacted by the travel restrictions. Before the pandemic, the agricultural products in Lamasi community were mainly purchased by broker-dealers in the village. However, less broker-dealers continue buying and retailing, and a lower price of agricultural products directly lead to a lower household income. Additionally, the quality of fresh wild mushrooms has greatly undermined because there are no processing facilities in the village. 2) The pressure on community natural resources and environmental risks have increased. The pandemic has a negative impact on the prices and sales of honey and medicinal materials. To stabilize their income, the villagers shifted back to grow beans and raising cattle, which is more reliable and lucrative but might cause further damage to natural resources. 3) The COVID-19 has exposed the insufficient risk-resilience capability in local community. In recent years, due to higher returns from beekeeping and cash crops, villagers in Lamasi have gradually given up planting, instead buying from the outside world. However, the pandemic increased the anxiety of insufficient food supplies.
Activities: 1) Develop deeper processing products through upgrading processing of existing products such as honey purification and drying wild mushroom to extend the storage time. The project is expected to organize female residents to improve awareness on utilizing agricultural technologies and build primary processing facilities. 2) Assist the women-centered group to broaden the sales channels such as connecting with urban consumers, cooperating with e-commerce companies for online sales, and cooperating with eco-product stores and eco-restaurants. 3) Build sustainable agricultural models to minimize the dependence of food on the market and increase the self-sufficiency rate within communities. Assist the villagers to adept themselves to rebalance the structure of the planting and breeding industry.
Anticipated outcomes: 1) Local food production: 90% of the villagers will understand the situation through the local food production report; The community agricultural action plan will be approved by 90% of the villagers; 80% of villagers will participate in the product primary processing workshops. 2) Build bridges between community ecological products and the market. Develop 2 community ecological products with attractive packaging design (local honey and wild mushrooms). The products will be sold on 1 e-commerce platform and 1 physical store. 3) Focus on female residents? capacity building related to community ecological protection and livelihood development. At least 45 female residents will participate in surveys for drafting reports. At least 12 local women directly participate in the decision-making process. At least 150 female residents participate in community public affairs, leading by a committee of about 10 female residents.