Financial Literature | Blue Rainbow: Green Finance and the Story of Cambodia's National Bird, the Great Ibis

Financial literature

I know that Cambodia's national bird, the Great Ibis, is included in the protection of this critically endangered Great Ibis, because of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Misty Li, a professional woman like me. I'm doing green finance, she's wildlife conservation, and I have a biological perspective and a keen eye for biodiversity. We often talk about dinner and chat together, and I talk about the story of green finance protecting biodiversity, and she thinks it's amazing that there are so many financial tools to use. She will tell me a lot of stories about biodiversity conservation, which will make me gain a lot.

The story of the Cambodian great ibis, that is what she told us. Also together at that time was Lu Zhi, who was also engaged in biodiversity conservation, and she protected snow leopards in Qinghai. The three of us, the women, exchanged enthusiastically around biodiversity conservation. Because, in addition to the profession, we all have a love of wildlife.

The great ibis, Cambodia's national bird, looks much more majestic than its smaller, dumpster-rummeling relatives. The ibises are about 1 meter tall, weigh more than 4 kg, and their feathers and partially exposed skin are brown. Its natural habitat is swamps, wide rivers and seasonal flooding meadows in northern Cambodia, but also in small quantities in southern Laos and Vietnam. This bird is the most endangered and evolutionaryly specific species in the world. The population is estimated to be 100 heads or less! Classified as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, hunting, harassment and deforestation in lowlands are at risk of extinction and are part of the United Nations List of Endangered Wildlife.

Looking at the picture of the big ibis on display by Misty, I was attracted by the momentum of this domineering big bird, it seemed to know its own status, with its head held high, it was not an ordinary bird, it was the world's scarcest critically endangered bird, there were less than a hundred, so the global biodiversity organizations and bird lovers were doing their best to provide it with protection, including Misty. Because of its rarity and the world's attention to it, it became the national bird of Cambodia. Many overseas tourists travel to Cambodia for it, which is a project unique to Cambodian ecotourism.

Due to ongoing deforestation, human disturbances, and hunting, the population of the Great Ibis is still decreasing, and if not strictly protected, it will soon become extinct. On 21 March 2005, the Royal Decree on the Designation of Flora and Fauna as National Symbols of the Kingdom of Cambodia nominated the Great Ibis as the national bird of Cambodia.

The great ibises live mainly in the northern plains of Cambodia and are often active alone or in pairs or in small groups, rarely in groups with other birds. Forage in swamps, wide rivers and open lowland forests. Swamps, forests, and silt fields on both sides of rivers are its main feeding grounds. It is active in foraging during the day and perched on tall trees at night. Due to the massive deforestation and drastic reduction of swampy rivers, the habitat of the great ibises is seriously threatened. Especially with the development of industrialized large-scale agriculture, rubber, cassava, pulp and teak plantations have recently become the biggest threat to the giant ibis. The massive expansion of agricultural land, as well as increased hunting pressures and disturbances in feeding sites, are causing the great ibises to lose their breeding habitat. The ibises like to nest on tall, straight trees, but such tree species are also suitable for shaping the timber of house buildings. The large number of such trees will lead to a decrease in the number of nesting trees of the great ibis, affecting its reproduction. In particular, cutting down a large ibis nest tree during the nesting season increases reproductive failure. The massive felling of tall trees has led to a lack of suitable nesting trees for the great ibises being forced to nest in sub-optimal trees. In Siam, many large diplodocus trees have been selectively cut down, and in 2013 a large ibis nest was observed on the small branches of a small tree. After a strong storm, nests and broken bird eggs were found under trees.

The lack of appropriate green finance means prevents local farmers from profiting from the protection of the ibises, which in turn leads to a lack of enthusiasm for local farmers to protect the ibises. Some of the big ibises are hunted and killed, so rare that local farmers hunt them just to eat meat. Therefore, how to use green financial tools and means so that local farmers can truly benefit from the protection of the eagle is very important.

Therefore, wildlife conservation society and the World Wildlife Fund have used green microcredit in Cambodia to promote the production and trade of great ibises and ecotourism, so that farmers in the area where the great ibises live can truly benefit from the biodiversity conservation of the great ibises, so that the conservation of the great ibises has a better community base and grassroots foundation.

Wildlife Conservation and the World Wildlife Fund first used green microcredit to attract local farmers to participate in rice and ecotourism projects. The forests and wetlands of Cambodia's northern plains are home to these endangered birds and have long been used by local communities. These communities are very poor and heavily dependent on forests and natural resources for their livelihoods. Because it is a particularly remote rural area, the market economy and financial resources are very scarce, and agricultural products can only be sold at particularly low prices to a small number of traders, because there is no choice, they have to accept the restrictions of these traders' low prices. The services of financial institutions also find it difficult to penetrate into such remote rural areas, so the borrowing provided by these traders is the only source of credit, often at extremely high interest rates, so most rural households are caught up in a debt cycle to traders. High-interest loans are obtained from these traders, and agricultural production is carried out with these usury loans, which are then sold to the traders at very low prices. The squeeze on the high interests of intermediate traders from financing to trading has pushed local farmers into poverty.

In this endless cycle of poverty, people are indifferent to the rare big ibis, and it is difficult to develop a sense of pride and identification, so poaching occurs from time to time, and the purpose of some hunters is simply to eat these huge birds.

After analysing the situation of local communities, Wildlife Conservation and the World Wildlife Fund decided to start with green microcredit. They raised $190,000 to use a green microfinance pilot in Dong Risa, Pound Tom Province, to advance the protection of the Great Ibis. They formed the Great Ibis Conservation Project Cooperative, which provides loans to cooperative members at very low interest rates, breaking the cycle of high debt dependence of local farmers and traders. For farmers participating in cooperatives, in addition to providing low-interest green microcredit, they also buy rice produced by farmers at a price of 50% higher than the market price, which is named Big Ibis. However, farmers participating in this cooperative must commit to respecting wildlife protection and maintaining land-use boundaries, not to cut down tall trees in the protected areas of the great ibis, and not to hunt wild rare protected animals such as the great ibis.

Wildlife Conservation Society and the World Wildlife Fund also provide farmers participating in cooperatives with various agricultural trainings, such as training in low-tech cultivation without the use of pesticides or non-organic fertilizers, as well as training in Cambodian Organics Association standards.

In order to allow the rice of the great ibis to sell at a better price and reflect the premium of farmer biodiversity conservation, the initial business model was to sell directly to the national market center, bypassing the current middle traders, so that the purchase price of farmer rice could be raised and farmers could increase their income. Later, high-end restaurants, hotels, temples, etc. willing to pay for wildlife conservation were contacted to sell the rice at a price of 50% above the market, bringing more economic income to farmers. These incomes ensure the repayment ability of farmers to repay low-interest microcredit and improve the net income of farmers.

Farmers know that they are able to access low-interest microcredit for big ibises because of the big ibises; Grown rice can sell for 50% more than the market price, also because of the giant ibis; The reason why WIL and the World Wildlife Fund are willing to help them cross the middle traders and sell their rice directly to the center of the national market, and are willing to pay high prices for the temples, hotels and fine restaurants of the wildlife-friendly ibis, is because of the big ibis. Therefore, they developed a sense of identification and pride in the great ibis, and they began to actively protect the great ibis, in order to ensure the high price of the great ibis's rice in the market. At the same time, they also know that they can only stay in the cooperative if they comply with the protection agreement, so they will take the initiative to comply with the agreement, not to cut down the tall trees in the habitat of the big ibis, not to use pesticides and fertilizers in the rice fields, and to plant the big ibis rice in a way that rice fields and forest wetlands are intertwined to ensure that no pesticides and fertilizers will poison the predation of the big ibises.

These commitments by local farmers have further safeguarded and enhanced the market value of giant ibis. These big ibises not only satisfy the buyer's love for wildlife protection, but also, because of the pesticide-free fertilizer and the primitive farming ecology of the integration of forest and wetland rice fields, the great ibises have a special nutritional taste and the purity of nature.

For the high-level diners who have gone beyond survival, food is the sublimation of spirit and feeling, a high-end cuisine, must have a beautiful story legend and culture, from the northern plains of Cambodia the original forest of the great ibis, in the mysterious beauty of the endangered and rare great ibis, in the original beauty of the integration of the original forest wetland rice field, in the pure beauty of the original nature, bringing high-end diners beautiful feelings and stories, It satisfies the high-end diners' yearning for distant and pristine ecology in industrialized cities and the spiritual appeal of protecting rare and endangered wild ibises.

In this way, because of the great ibis, the farmers of the distant primeval forest and the modern city have a close connection, and the farmers use their protection of the original ecology and the habitat of the great ibis, bringing the ecological beauty ecological taste of the ecological story of the high-end diners of the modern city, the taste of the great ibis, the taste of nature, the taste of the pure primary forest, and the cry and chirping of the distant endangered great ibis. In the bustling modern city, tired high-end diners rushing in the modern cement city, yearning for and missing the feeling and taste of primitive nature, they need to find the tranquility of the original source of life from these ecological ingredients, find pure and primitive ecological ingredients to soothe the tired stomach and tired heart, they are willing to pay for these ecological comforts that they feel invaluable, and the big ibis rice gives them a double-layer comfort of the heart and taste, which is the true embodiment of the market value of ecological ingredients and the source of paid power.

The combination of green microfinance and the big ibises trade allows farmers in distant villages to pass on the pristine ecology of the beautiful mountains and rivers and the unique independence pride of the big ibises to the modern city through the big ibises. There, the great ibis rice realizes the transformation of ecological value. Those who have a premium of 50% higher than the ordinary rice on the market are the weary modern urbanites who recognize and pay for the original ecological value attached to the big ibis.

From the story of Cambodia's giant ibis, we can see that the supply and demand for ecological products are often geographically misaligned. For the primitive ecology that urbanites are incomparably rare and yearning for, for the already critically endangered big ibis, tired and wandering modern urbanites have a strong willingness to pay after becoming rich, because the traditional large-scale industrialization has destroyed the primitive ecology in the city and around the city, and the modern urbanites' yearning and desire for the most primitive ecology of life, many writers are depicting this yearning and calling for nature. Writers, the best at is to grasp people's mental exhaustion and pain, so many writers around the world's deep cry and call, has embodied the modern urban group tired urban people's love for the ecological primitive nature and can not ask for pain and sadness, do not need our experts' rational analysis, that is a naked emotional call, but also reflect the majority of the urban population trapped in the cement forest city dazed tiredness and helplessness, As well as the worry and anxiety of seeing the pristine ecological forest wetlands becoming less and less distant from humans. These anxieties and worries turn into the motivation to pay for the market value of ecological products.

However, ecological products cannot be converted into value locally, because for farmers in primitive villages, poverty makes it difficult for them to feel this way, and they feel poverty and the need for food and clothing more deeply. They have a wealth of ecological products, even including extremely rare and scarce big ibises, but there is no market, and financial institutions rarely provide services for such distant villages, so they hunt big ibises, even just to eat its flesh. When ecological value cannot be converted into real money and silver in the real market, it is worthless in the eyes of local farmers.

What does finance do? What is the essence of finance? It is to solve the supply and demand due to time dislocation and spatial dislocation to achieve the optimal allocation of resources. In the story of the great ibis, the construction of green microfinance and the big ibis rice transaction is to solve the time dislocation and spatial dislocation at the same time, and to provide low-interest green microcredit to solve the time dislocation when the villagers need to grow rice but have no money. When the villagers are full of ecological value of the big ibis rice planted but do not know where to sell, through the construction of the big ibis rice remote trading, to solve the problem of spatial dislocation. When the cultivation of big ibis rice has reached a considerable scale, it is possible to expand the trading volume and transaction volume by establishing a large ibis rice futures transaction, and the financial support farmers will receive more, and the advance payment of futures will better solve the problem of lack of funds for farmers.

The story of Cambodia's great ibis rice also solves the most difficult monitoring problem. Wildlife Conservation has developed an effective monitoring system that allows remote sensing and satellite analysis of the habitat of the great ibis to ensure that villagers comply with forest wetland conservation protocols, uses breeding pair counts to conduct annual assessments of major bird populations, and tracks cooperative farmer family wealth levels through livelihood monitoring. A friend of mine in finance asked me why humans sacrifice their own interests to protect birds, and what is the more rational reason besides the return to the primitive ecology? I asked her, do you know the way of the asuka? The Path of birds is also known as the Path of Life.

Birds play an irreplaceable special role in human survival, mainly including the following aspects: (1) Birds are one of the natural enemies of insects, and their number helps to prevent the rapid growth of pests and has a controlling effect on forest, grassland and agricultural pests. (2) Birds are an important part of the natural ecosystem, and species are interdependent and mutually exclusive through food chain relations. Birds that feed on berries can help plants spread seeds, and hummingbirds, nectar birds, and sunbirds help flowering plants spread pollen. Without these birds, the renewal succession of plants will be hindered and the ecological balance will be severely damaged. (3) Birds help plants to reproduce after eating fruit, or take seeds to farther and more fertile land to grow, undertake the transportation of seeds and nutrients, participate in the energy flow and inorganic material circulation in the system, and maintain the stability of the ecosystem.

Everything on this earth is constantly evolving, survival of the fittest. The reason why plants want to evolve their fruits so sweet is to make birds like to eat. Birds eat the sweet fruit and, by flying, carry the seeds to distant places, preventing the degradation of the plant's inbreeding. The path of birds flying is the way of sowing life. Birds also help spread pollen and eat plant pests. There are birds, there is normal plant growth and circulation, there is plant photosynthesis and growth, human beings can have food and oxygen to survive. Therefore, where there are birds, there is hope for life.

Therefore, the famous ecological writer Rachel Carson described the spring without birdsong in "Silent Spring", which is so shocking and sets off a global environmental protection wave. Spring without birdsong means a lifeless future. Therefore, to protect the essence of birds and the essence of biodiversity, it is still to protect us humans.

However, the large-scale exploitation of the natural world by human beings poses a great threat to the survival of birds, and urban expansion, forest destruction, shrinking wetlands, environmental pollution, and indiscriminate hunting have seriously damaged bird resources, and the number of many rare birds is decreasing, and some have reached the point of extinction. The great ibis is currently the rarest bird in the world, belonging to the ICAN red list of critically endangered species, is an important part of biodiversity in the diversity of species, but also an important link in maintaining the stability of the ecosystem, but also an important species to maintain the ecological balance of nature and genetic resources, the protection of the great ibis, the protection of bird resources, related to the survival and development of human beings, but also an important indicator of the progress of a country, a nation's civilization progress. In order to protect bird resources, the international community has formulated the World Convention for the Protection of Beneficial Birds, and the mainland has also issued the Regulations on the Protection of Terrestrial Wild Animals.

The distant Cambodian ibis, I yearn for it. In this silent night, I seem to see the mighty big ibis, walking in the primeval forest swamp with the steps of the king, and its successful redemption is the credit of green finance. Green finance, is to help the original only exist in the scientist's accounting and economists in the externalities of the ecological value, real money into the market payment, just like the rising price of the big ibis, green finance with its magical maximum range of to find trading and payment function, for the ecological value of the big ibis, with the hand of finance, for the big ibis, build a protective wall for the big ibis, so that the big ibis can sing in the spring, enjoy the sunshine and love. When many birds are singing peacefully, the way of birds, the way of our human life, spreads on the earth.

Author: LAN Hong (Deputy Director, Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, Eco-Finance Research Center, Chinese Min University, Director of China Financial Writers Association)

Content source: Financial Literature

Editor: Wang Yuanyuan