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Sanjiang Plain

Xiaojiahe wetland in Sanjiang Plain

The Sanjiang Plain, a vast complex of marshes, meadows and forests, which is located on the northeast of Heilongjiang Province, PRC and along the Russian border, became a major focus of the government’s national grains production program. Starting in 1949, agricultural development programs transformed the Sanjiang Plain from an almost uninhabited wilderness into one of PRC’s top eight grains producing centers of corn, soybeans, and rice. Conversion of the wetlands/forest areas to farmland was exacerbated in the last decade when the heavy industries in the province had to shut down and many of its laid-off workers were encouraged by government to shift to farming.

Project site village of Dongxian with Korean ethnic minority

Project site village of Sipai with ethnic minority group of Hezhe

The transformation of the Sanjiang Plain to agriculture use was accomplished however, at considerable environmental cost. The immense networks of drainage channels, pumping stations, and flood control dikes that were built in the Plain destroyed millions of hectares of natural marshes and wet meadows, and altered the water cycle of the entire watershed. Deforestation and cultivation of hillsides caused severe soil erosion, diminished water retention capacity of uplands, and increased the vulnerability of farmlands to both floods and droughts. By 2000, over 5,000,000 hectares of wetland and forest had been put under cultivation. Forests and wetlands now cover only 10% and 8%, respectively of the Sanjiang Plain.

Members of village project implementing group at Dongxian

Envisioned alternative livelihood activity - cattle raising

Envisioned intensive agriculture - greenhouse for rice seedling

Through the Poverty and Environment Program, a project is currently being implemented in selected communities in Heilongjiang Province to develop and pilot test sustainable alternative rural livelihood activities and participatory co-management of wetland reserves with community-based organizations (CBOs), nongovernment organizations (NGOs), and the local government.

The project focuses on the poor farm households in the adjacent areas of the nature reserve who rely on farming wetland areas they have converted to farmland. The project is expected to increase the income of the poor communities and improve their capacity to manage wetland resources.

Villager meeting to decide on the project management framework in Sipai

Need assessment in Dongxian

Need assessment in Yongfeng

The lessons learned from the project will be used as basis for recommending policy and institutional reforms that address the poverty-environment nexus that can be scaled up at the provincial level and adapted in similar agro-ecological environments in the western poor regions of the PRC.