In Anhui, thousands of 'forest chiefs' guard woodlands

Jiang Yulong has been working on the State-owned Miaoshou forest farm in Jingde county, Anhui province, since 1986. Covering more than 3,500 hectares of mountainous area, the farm was established in 1959 mainly to supply timber.

"Hundreds of farmworkers had been relying on sales of timber, rather than the government," Jiang said.

That added pressure to produce. The farm cut down the old trees and replaced them with new varieties that grow more quickly. It was able to produce more than 70 million cubic meters of raw wood per year, which brought the farm about 5 million yuan ($797,000) in income to feed the workers, Jiang said.