Pi Gang, a 20-year-old man from the Hani ethnic group, is forced
to wash his hat by the well in his native village in Yunnan's region of Xishuangbanna. He sadly
explains that he cannot do otherwise due to the putrid state of the
tap water in his house.
Water resources for some 300 farmers in Pi Gang's village now
come solely from wells, after the local reservoir was poisoned by
pesticide sprayed onto rubber trees, rendering their running water
undrinkable. In the neighboring village of Manha, the situation
worsened when even their groundwater ran out and villagers had to
make do with bottled water.
The tropical rainforest eco-system in Xishuangbanna is
understandably a jewel in the crown of one of China's most
naturally beautiful areas. It contains tremendous flora and fauna
reserves with one quarter of the wild animal species and one-fifth
of the wild plant species in the entire nation, despite only
occupying 0.2 percent of China's landmass. The importance of
environmental protection in Xishuangbanna can thus not be
underestimated.
"How could Xishuangbanna noted for tropical rainforest have
become short of water? This is partially due to uncontrolled
exploitation of rubber forests," said Yang Deming, an official with
Jinghong City of the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture.
Driven by the hiking price
Pi Gang resigned his job in the city of Jinghong about two
months ago to become involved in the rubber tapping business, a
career move which allows his family to earn as much as 10,000 yuan
(US$1,250) a month by selling latex.
A local rubber farmer Mei Kang exemplifies the economic boom the
latex trade has brought. His some 2 hectares of rubber forest bring
in over 100,000 yuan a year after he converted the land from
farmland to rubber forest in the mid-90s. Mei Kang said: "Now we
don't do farm work nor raise pigs and cattle. Everything we eat,
such as rice, vegetables and meats, are bought from the town."
The price of latex has risen nine-fold in 23 years from 2 yuan
per ton in 1994 to 18 yuan now. This craze has prompted the illegal
felling of vast swathes of natural and state-owned forests.
Massive rubber forest planting in the area since 2000 has taken
over some 20,000 hectares of land. There is now irrefutable proof
that the local ecology is suffering irreparable damage from the new
arrivals.
Negative ecological impact appears
Hou Mingming, head of the environmental science department of
Kunming Engineering College, said that latex is made up of 70
percent water and that since rubber forests do not store water
naturally, they are becoming a massive drain on the region's water
resources.
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This has signified not only forestry devastation but is also
causing permanent damage to water supplies, and shifting weather
conditions which are negatively impacting on the balance of natural
life in Xishuangbanna.
Researchers from the Menglun Botanical Garden of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences have proven that natural forests can store 25
cubic meters of water and 4 tons of soil annually per mu
(1 mu=0.0667 hectares), while rubber forest causes 1.5
tons of soil to erode per mu each year while tagged rubber
forest consumes 9.1 cubic meters of groundwater annually per
mu.
While forests can always be replanted, the loss of biodiversity
will be a permanent blot on the region. The rubber forest is a
hostile environment for other plants to grow in, with even weeds
killed by herbicides. Pi Gang fondly remembers a time when the
dense and alive forest around his village was source of mystery,
love and folklore. Now, even the birds have moved on to greener
pastures.
Meanwhile, the local weather also has been affected with the
famed Xishuangbanna fog, a by-product of its luxuriant forests, was
reduced to 22 days a year near Jinghong City in 2005, from 184 in
1954.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, June 29, 2007)
