Birdwatching at Poyang Lake in East China’s Jiangxi Province has not only helped improve the local ecological environment, but also brought substantial economic benefits to locals.

Jiang Liangqing, a villager from local Yugan County, spends his days as a birdwatching guide. He would walk the tourists through the open fields and show them different species of birds that had chosen the place to escape the winter cold.

Jiang said things were rather different years ago, when birds were their natural rivals, pecking at their hard-fought crops.

“At the time, we weren’t able to harvest the rice grains because they still didn’t ripen. So we used firecrackers and made noise with basins and sticks to scare the birds away,” Jiang said.

Things took a turn when the local government decided to intervene. A careful distinction was then drawn between farmers and birds when up to 66 hectares of land was set aside as a man-made buffet.

To compensate for the farmers’ loss, authorities have paid out compensation over the past eight years, giving a total of about 187 million yuan (about $29.44 million) to balance nature and human activity.

After a new provincial bird protection regulation came into effect this year, Yugan County also set up a team consisting of officials, police and volunteers to carry out daily patrols to ensure that the birds would see no harm.

“Here at Poyang Lake, we have established six guard points, and there are three guards at each. Every day, we conduct four to five patrols, each lasting about two to three hours,” said Sheng Zhiping, a local resident. police officers in charge of the case.

As the number of migrating birds increased, so did the tourists coming to enjoy the sight. Wucheng City, located in a central area of ​​Poyang Lake, has built its special bird watching business over the years.

In the first 11 months of last year, the number of tourists flocking to the place quadrupled compared to five years ago, bringing considerable revenue to local homestay riders.

“Here we have the list of tourists we welcomed during the New Year holidays. And you can see that they were from Yunnan, Shanghai, Anhui, Zhejiang and Urumqi. They said that it “It was quite nice here and they saw a lot of birds. We are really happy that people our age can stay home and earn so much money,” said Fan Hongmei, owner of a homestay family. local.

Luo Qiang, a member of the Chinese Communist Party committee in Wucheng City, said they are also working to expand the migration season business to a year-round industry.

“After years of exploration, we have gradually formed different tourist routes with different characteristics according to the four seasons. This has helped protect the environment while benefiting people,” Luo said.

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