Afforestation alleviates poverty in Qingzhen

Qingzhen, a county-level city in Southwest China's Guizhou province, has in recent years continuously expanded its afforestation program to help alleviate the poverty of its people.

In 2016, the program to return farmland area to forest in Qingzhen city involved 1,000 hectares, 23.10 ha of which was planted by 136 people from 50 poverty-stricken households. 

These people in need were given subsidies of 103,968 yuan ($15,307) in total, with each household receiving 2,079 yuan on average. 

The area returned to forest from farmlands in 2017 exceeded 666 ha, of which 14.16 ha was planted by 51 poverty-stricken households, with 184 people receiving subsidies of 106,200 yuan in total.

Later last year, Qingzhen employed a total of 118 needy people as forest rangers.

They each received an income of 1,800 yuan per quarter and a subsidy for forest management and their protection performance of 800 yuan per year.

In addition, the city paid 6.65 million yuan in 2019 in compensation for ecological benefits of non-cash forests, which included 60,323 yuan that went to 711 local poor households.

Che Weiwei contributed to this story.