Better life under eco-village plan
Today, Hainan's government is sowing the seeds of innovative rural reform in the province's countryside through the "ecological civilization village" program, and local farmers are happy to be reaping the benefits.
The campaign aims to improve farmers' standard of living through the paving of roads, construction of reading rooms stocked with innovation-oriented materials specific to the main local industries, development of infrastructure for alternative energy and launch of site-specific projects.
It combines subsidies from various tiers of government up to the provincial level with financial and labor contributions from residents, and some materials from companies.
"Guidelines are used rather than specific, rigid criteria in the eco-village designation to provide flexibility to accommodate local conditions," local official Chen Xiuyuan says.
But according to minimum requirements, qualifying villages must at least have paved roads, a forestation rate of 60 percent - well above the national average of 13.5 percent - and designated personnel for sewage treatment. They should also have environmental improvement plans, cultural sites and activities, and be "hygienic and tidy".
To date, 7,774 eco-villages have been constructed - 33.4 percent of the province's total natural villages - for less than 200 million yuan in total, Chen says.
"Funding is the primary factor, because finances are limited. And given the limited funding, we didn't have much we could spend on this project."
Most of Hainan's eco-villages are clustered around the provincial capital Haikou, according to director of the city's publicity department Chen Jun. He also says the city plans to make 65 percent of its 2,126 villages eco-villages by the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan in 2010.
Haikou's mayor Xu Tangxian says that as the existing villages grow, they are starting to merge into large "eco-towns" - the first of their kind and a focus of the government's work this year.
(China Daily 04/10/2008 page17)
