Yunnan Environment Development Programme
Project Introduction
Scott Wilson led this five-year poverty alleviation project for
the Yunnan Provincial Government that was funded by the UK’s
Department for International Development and the Chinese
Government.
Project Background
Yunnan Province in south-western China is ethnically diverse. Of
the 40 million population, 26 million are officially classified as
ethnic minorities. Around 4.2 million people are classified as
‘poor’, i.e. with an income of less than US$45 and 300 kg of rice
per person per year.
Yunnan is a spectacularly beautiful and mountainous province. It
includes the headwaters of three great Asian rivers: the Mekong,
the Irrawaddy and the Yangzte. It is recognised as internationally
important for its ecology and biodiversity.
The Provincial Government has identified environmental damage as
a key factor in the incidence of poverty in the province, as well
as being important to the broader issues of sustainable
development.
Project Scope
The Programme built on previous environmental and poverty
reduction initiatives to help the Provincial Government take a more
integrated approach to addressing the links between environmental
management and poverty. The Programme involved extensive field work
in a wide range of counties and villages across the province.
Scott Wilson worked both to influence provincial, and ultimately
national, policy on environmental management and poverty
alleviation and also to make real changes in individual
villages.
At the policy level our work included a comprehensive analysis
of current policies, their inter-relationships and conflicts. This
provided a useful basis for work on the Yunnan Sustainable
Development Plan. Scott Wilson helped to develop participative
approaches to plan making and provided training in new techniques
including sustainability appraisal. We also produced guidelines for
policy makers on a range of environmental and sustainable
development topics.
At the village level, we worked with the local communities to
understand their livelihoods and develop interventions which both
reduced poverty and conserved the environment. New developments
included the community-managed water supplies, energy saving stoves
and improved agricultural advice.
Value Adding Project Achievements
The project was ambitious in it aims to change policy and
practice in rural China. A number of innovations were particularly
successful. First, increased participation in plan and policy
formulation and in local development plans was encouragingly
received by participants and government officials. In the village
development plans particular efforts were made to involve women and
minority groups. Government officials strongly valued “western”
experience of sustainable development and particularly training in
new techniques such as sustainability appraisal. In the villages,
real progress was made in identifying win-win solutions that both
conserved the environment and alleviated poverty.
A notable example was the introduction of fuel-saving stoves
that burn wood more efficiently. This means that women have to
spend less time collecting firewood and that the pressure on
surrounding forests is reduced.
