Have you ever heard of a place where forests are not just full of trees, but also healing plants? 🌳🌿 In the province of Fujian in southeast China, people are finding amazing ways to grow plants that can help heal people, while also protecting the forests!
Meet Mr. Yang, a farmer who lives in Guangze County. In 2014, he started a group called a cooperative to grow special medicinal herbs under the tall forest trees. One of these herbs is called Solomon’s seal (that’s a fancy name for Polygonatum cyrtonema Hua 🌱). It’s a plant used in traditional Chinese medicine to make people feel better.
But growing these plants takes time. Sometimes, you have to wait 3 to 5 years before you can harvest them! That’s a long time to wait without earning money. 💰 So, Mr. Yang needed help to keep going.
That’s where something called green finance comes in. Green finance is like getting special loans or money to help people who are doing good things for the environment. In 2022, Mr. Yang’s cooperative received 800,000 yuan (about $111,000) as a forest development loan. With this money, he could expand his herb farm by 13 hectares (that’s about the size of 32 football fields!). 🏞️
Mr. Yang’s story shows how Fujian province is helping farmers and the environment at the same time. They are using green finance to give money to people who want to grow plants, protect forests, and do other eco-friendly things. 🌱💚
Since the green finance program started in 2022, many farmers like Mr. Yang have received loans. In Guangze County alone, loans totaling 95.6 million yuan (about $13.3 million) have been given out! That’s a lot of money to help the environment and the people.
These loans are helping farmers do things like grow more herbs, process bamboo, and even work on carbon sink projects (that’s where forests absorb carbon dioxide from the air!). 🌍
By giving farmers the money they need, Fujian is making sure that the forests stay healthy, and people can make a good living. It’s a win-win situation! 🎉
Fujian didn’t just start this by accident. In 2020, they decided to make places like Sanming and Nanping special zones for green finance. That means banks and insurance companies were encouraged to help people who are working in forestry.
Fujian has a huge amount of forest land—over 121 million mu (a Chinese unit of area). That’s almost three-quarters of the province! By 2030, they hope to develop 35 million mu into productive ecosystems, which could make more than 130 billion yuan in output.
That means more planting, breeding, harvesting, processing, eco-tourism, and landscaping. Imagine visiting beautiful forests, seeing amazing plants, and knowing that you’re also helping the planet! 🌳🌎
Isn’t it awesome how people are using smart ideas like green finance to take care of nature and help communities at the same time? Maybe someday, you’ll think of creative ways to help the environment too! 💡
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
