"The premise of bird watching tourism is to have birds for people to enjoy, and to protect the birds." China's natural ecological environment is getting better and better, which has promoted the continuous growth of bird populations and populations. ”
The development and planning of bird watching tourism sites should strengthen the research on the carrying capacity of the bird watching ecological tourism environment and the planning of bird watching routes, and deal with the dialectical relationship between the development of bird watching tourism and the protection of birds and bird habitats
Wen | Mei Yongcun and Peng Zhangqing, reporters of the "Lookout" news weekly
In the spring of March, when a ray of sunlight swept over the peak of Ash Furnace Mountain at an altitude of more than 900 meters, the forest began to stir, and birdsong began to rise and fall. Villager Xing Changchun also got busy.
At about 6 a.m., he hiked for more than ten minutes, scattering small handfuls of corn kernels on stones, dead stakes and tree trunks. When they were ready, Xing Changchun sounded several whistles, and more than 20 wild white birds poured out from different directions in the dense forest, or flew or paced to the feeding point, eating and playing.
Xing Changchun, 50 years old this year, is a villager in Toyota Village, Qingshui She, Yong'an City, Fujian Province, and the earliest "bird guide" in the village. His "hatched" ecological bird watching spot is located on the mountainside of Ash Furnace Mountain next to the village, and a small stream flows through the front of the mountain forest, and the air is fresh and peaceful. In order to cultivate this bird watching spot, he spent nearly 5 years before and after, no matter the wind or rain, he never stopped feeding.
Bird watching is a kind of optical tool such as telescopes and cameras to observe the activities of wild birds in their natural state. The gorgeous wild white egret can attract more than a dozen bird watching tourists for the Xing Changchun family every day, and the food and accommodation and bird watching tickets bring them a lot of income.
"There are thousands of fixed bird watching points in the country, and more and more bird watching associations and other organizations have emerged," said Duan Wenke, founder of the wild bird photography website Bird Network, saying that with the improvement of the mainland's ecological environment, the development of rural infrastructure construction and the growth of people's income, the development prospects of ecological bird watching tourism are fascinating.
White storks frolicking in trees in Toyota Village, Qingshui She, Yong'an City, Fujian Province (March 25, 2020) Photo by Mei Yongcun / This issue
The "green water and green mountains" industry that is rich in the people
A flock of flowing white orioles kept nibbling on the corn kernels on the stones, the spring water flowing from their blood-red paws, and the low roar of the stream echoed in the valley.
Located in Shangshanyang Natural Village in Toyota Village, this ecological bird watching spot is a cascading natural waterfall with a width of more than 10 meters and a drop of more than 40 meters. The gust of wind blows, and the small droplets of water from the waterfall are like smoke and dust, filling the mountain forest, covering the forest with a thin veil of water, adding a dreamy color to this bird watching spot. "This is the most poetic bird watching spot I've ever photographed!" Wang Naizhu, a fuzhou bird photography enthusiast who has come to Toyota Village many times, told reporters at the waterfall shooting site.
Toyota Village is located in the mountains of central Fujian deep forest, forest area of more than 50,000 acres, wild bird resources are extremely rich, yellow-bellied horned pheasant, white-necked long-tailed pheasant, white-necked long-tailed pheasant and other national key protected wild birds can be seen everywhere. There are 12 ecological bird watching points with their own characteristics in the village. Lin Huibi, director of the Toyota Village Committee, introduced that about 40 bird watchers come to the village by car every day to shoot birds, and the flow of people has brought "financial flow", which has heated up the mountain village homestay, catering and agricultural and sideline products sales.
Not alone in Toyota Village. Mingxi County, Fujian Province, is an important resting place for migratory birds and summer migratory birds breeding ground in eastern China, and is also an important area on the East Asia-Australasia international migratory bird migration route, with more than 130 species of migratory birds transiting through Mingxi County every year, with a million numbers, making it one of the important bird watching bases in China. In recent years, Mingxi County has vigorously developed bird watching characteristic tourism, guided farmers to build a homestay economy, and stepped out of a rural revitalization road with "bird watching + forest health" as the main body, with 30,000 bird watching tourism in 2019 and tourism income of 90.72 million yuan.
At an altitude of 870 meters above sea level, Danshang Village, Xiayang Township, Mingxi County, is the highest mountain village in Mingxi County, with a forest coverage rate of more than 90%, and the small mountain village has made bird watching tourism into a well-known "green water and green mountain" industry.
In 2017, Danshang Village integrated resources to build a bird watching valley and an ecological bird watching corridor, and at the same time established a bird watching tourism cooperative, which is integrated with the village community and joint venture, and has a board of directors and a board of supervisors to standardize operations. The 11 poor peasant families in the village at that time were the first "shareholders" of the bird watching tourism cooperative. In the cooperative, the village committee accounts for 20% of the shares, the villagers invest in the shares through investment, work instead of labor, etc., accounting for 80% of the shares, and the village committee and the villagers share dividends in a 2:8 ratio.
After the establishment of the bird watching cooperative, Danshang Village has carried out two dividends, one dividend per household in 2018 was 200 yuan, and in 2019, one share per household increased to 300 yuan, and the remaining funds were used as cooperative development funds. "As long as we protect the green mountains and rivers of our village, more and more birds will fly outside, and the people who come to see birds outside the mountains will bring more income to our village, and everyone's dividends will be more in the future." Huang Huichong, deputy director of the danshang village committee, looked forward to the business prospects of the bird watching cooperative to the villagers. Up to now, the Danshang Village Bird Watching Cooperative has 83 villagers, with 4 ecological bird watching points, 3 tourist wooden houses and a bird friend reception center.
Tong Chuan, deputy director of the Wetland Ecology Professional Committee of the Chinese Ecological Society and professor of Fujian Normal University, believes that the places where the development of bird watching tourism is booming are mostly remote villages surrounded by green mountains and rivers, and some are even "empty shell" villages in the past industrial development. The natural nature and decentralization of bird watching tourism determine that it is a "rich in the people" format, which brings considerable economic benefits to villagers while having little side effect on the environmental impact of the destination.
Tong Chuan said that the development of bird watching tourism in rural areas according to local conditions can not only meet the needs of urban residents to get close to nature, but also help remote rural farmers continue to increase their income, which is a good way to transform green waters and green mountains into golden mountains and silver mountains and achieve rural revitalization, and the development potential cannot be underestimated."
"The premise of bird watching tourism is to protect the birds"
After retiring 13 years ago, Fujian bird watcher Cai Weihe gradually liked Ueno's bird-like activities, covering more than 20 provinces in China and photographing nearly 900 bird species before and after.
The Fujian Minjiang Estuary Wetland is a place he frequents, having traveled to and from the area more than 30 times a year. Due to its location in the middle of the East Asia-Australasia migratory bird migration route, there are more than 50,000 migratory waterbirds resting here each year, with 152 bird species.
Cai Weihe's favorite are three rare birds that return to the wetland: the Chinese crested tern, the spoon-billed sandpiper and the black-faced spoonbill. Among them, the head feathers of the Chinese crested tern resemble the phoenix in ancient Chinese mythology, which disappeared from the vision of ornithologists for 63 years and now has less than 100 surviving in the world. Because of its unpredictable tracks, the Chinese crested tern is known as the "bird of mythology". Eighteen years ago, this bird reappeared in the Minjiang Estuary Wetland. In May 2020, the reporter once witnessed seven Chinese crested terns foraging and frolicking here.
"The premise of bird watching tourism is to have birds for people to enjoy, and to protect the birds." China's natural ecological environment is getting better and better, which has promoted the continuous growth of bird populations and populations. Duan Wenke said.
In recent years, China has actively established bird nature reserves, carried out rescue and protection actions for endangered birds, increased the protection of bird habitats and migratory rest areas, and maintained the continuous growth of bird populations. At present, the newly revised Wildlife Protection Law of the People's Republic of China has included migratory bird habitats and migration routes into the scope of legal protection.
In recent years, Fujian Province has successively issued a series of documents such as the "Fujian Minjiang Estuary Wetland Biodiversity Conservation and Restoration Project Construction Plan" and the "Minjiang Estuary Wetland Conservation Area Protection and Upgrading Plan" to consolidate the institutional foundation of wetland protection in various ways, guard the ecological red line of wetland protection with strict measures, and protect the homes of birds.
In 2017, Mingxi County took the lead in promulgating the "Bird Ban Order" in Fujian Province, and in 2018, it launched a special action for the protection of migratory birds. The county has carried out real-time monitoring of bird habitats and promoted the use of green pesticides and organic fertilizers to ensure the ecological safety of bird habitats.
It is understood that China is one of the countries with the largest number of bird species in the world, with 1445 species of birds, of which 394 species are wild birds under national key protection, and 3 of the 8 migratory bird migration routes around the world cross the territory of China. Tong Chuan believes that the mainland has strong natural resources for the development of bird watching tourism, on the basis of a good ecological environment and the growth of bird populations, township road traffic is smooth year by year, which can meet the needs of bird watching enthusiasts for self-driving, and also promote the prosperity of bird watching tourism.
Cai Weihe calculated that bird watching enthusiasts who like photography usually spend money to buy camera bodies, photographic lenses, tripods, computers, photographic backpacks and other equipment, and the comprehensive investment is generally more than 100,000 yuan per person. Tong Chuan said that the wild bird activity first arose in the more economically developed Britain and Northern Europe, which has a history of more than 200 years. Domestic folk bird watching activities began in the 1990s and were initiated by bird lovers in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and other cities. In the past 30 years, the income of residents has increased steadily year by year, more bird lovers have a good economic foundation, and bird watching organizations have come into being, promoting the accelerated development of the bird watching tourism industry.
A vision of Danshang Village in Xiayang Township, Mingxi County, Sanming City, Fujian Province, famous for bird watching tourism (taken on November 25, 2020) Photo by Jiang Kehong/ This magazine
Promote the healthy progress of bird watching tourism
The interviewed experts observed that China's bird watching tourism has great potential for development, and with its accelerated development speed, it has also begun to show certain drawbacks, mainly reflected in disorderly competition, lack of planning, and uneven quality of industry personnel, which need to be channeled.
In recent years, Toyota Village, which has "eight mountains, one water and one field", has relied on mountains to eat mountains, and has carefully cultivated more than ten bird watching points with birds, some of which have become "net red punching places" for bird lovers, and their influence has spread at home and abroad. Some farmers in the village have stepped onto the road to prosperity through the bird watching service industry.
Some farmers operating bird watching points in Toyota Village told reporters that the "financial flow" brought about by bird watching tourism has triggered a chain reaction among local farmers, and some villagers who have gone out to work and do business have returned to their hometowns and competed to open bird watching points, and there has been a momentum of homogenization and disorderly competition. For example, operators compete to attract bird watching enthusiasts at a low price, which damages the overall quality of bird watching services to a certain extent. Individual farmers use "invisible" means of destruction to obstruct the normal operation of other bird watching points.
The reporter's investigation found that the situation in Toyota Village is not an isolated case, and similar phenomena in bird watching tourist destinations in other regions occur from time to time. Professor Tong Chuan suggested that at present, four tasks can be considered to maintain the healthy development of bird watching tourism:
The first is to make overall planning and layout, rational and orderly development. The development planning of bird watching tourism sites is a systematic project, involving social, economic, resource and environmental aspects, it is necessary to fully consider the medium- and long-term development of domestic and foreign markets, appropriately select the development mode, strengthen the research on the carrying capacity of the bird watching ecological tourism environment and the planning of bird watching routes, and deal with the dialectical relationship between the development of bird watching tourism and the protection of birds and bird habitats.
The second is to strengthen the concept of the legal system and standardize bird watching tourism. Bird watching tourism can be distinguished from mass tourism, and bird watching behavior norms and standards can be formulated at the national level, a monitoring and evaluation system for bird watching tourism can be established, and the development of bird watching tourism can be strictly regulated.
The third is to strengthen publicity and education guidance and cultivate the bird watching tourism market. At present, the willingness of urban residents to return to nature is becoming stronger, and extensive ecological environmental protection education can be carried out, and the awareness of the public to cherish and protect wild birds can be cultivated, and a relevant cultural atmosphere can be formed.
The fourth is to strengthen the training of bird watching tourism talents and create a team of high-quality tour guides. Bird watching tourism is a new thing, can rely on colleges and universities to establish bird watching tourism talent training base, carry out relevant policies and regulations, bird watching tourism, environmental management and other aspects of professional training, select a group of high-quality talents into the management, absorb university graduates and high-quality bird lovers as part-time bird guides, the implementation of bird watching tour guide qualification certification system.
Source: Xinhua Net