Protection of forests pays off for villagers

"A number of companies, including chemical plants and chopstick manufacturers, would pay a good price — as high as 100,000 yuan — for our trees," Zhang Linshun, the village's Party head said. "It was a huge amount of income and a major appeal to villagers then."

The village owned about 1,267 hectares of forests filled with pine trees and broad-leaved trees, local government data showed.

"However, many precious trees grow from hard rocks on the mountains and it may take hundreds of years for a tree to grow after people cut one down," Zhang said. "The village committee decided not to sell trees and to stop the ongoing logging of natural forests.

"If we sell the trees, we will be the guilty people condemned by our descendants."