GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Annex 3.
Rice Terraces Systems in Subtropical China -- Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces
Location: Xinhua County, Hunan Province, China
The People’s Government of Xinhua County, Hunan Province August, 2016 GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
SUMMARY INFORMATION
Name/Title of the Agricultural Heritage System (local Name and Translation, if necessary): Rice Terraces Systems in Subtropical China -- Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces
Recommending/Applying Organization: The People’s Government of Xinhua County, Hunan Province, P. R. China
Country/Location/Site: This site is located at Xinhua County of Loudi City in central Hunan Province covering the whole Xinhua County. The core area of the site is located at N27°28′-27°45′, E110°52′-111°00′, which covers three townships, including Shuiche town, Fengjia town and Wentian town.
Accessibility of the Site to Capital City or Major Cities: Xinhua county, about 200 km from Changsha, the capital city of Hunan Province, boasts great land and rail transportation, with land transportation connecting Loudi and Huaihua, State Road 207 and Highway S312, S225, S217 and other highways; Shanghai-kunming Railway, Jiaozuo-Liuzhou Railway, Hunan-Guizhou Railway and Luoyang-Zhanjiang Railway pass through. The nearest airport is Huanghua Airport in Changsha.
Approximate Surface Area: The total area is 3642 Km2, among which the core area is 460 Km2.
Agro-Ecological Zone: Low/middle hilly areas for rice terraces in Southern China.
I GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Topographic Features: Its typical landscape is low and middle hills and mountains, with the terrain tilting from northwest to southeast. There are mountains of Xuefeng (covered with snow in Winter) towering in the west and north area, low hills and mountains in the southeast area, Zi River and its tributaries in the center. The highest altitude of this region is 1,584m and the lowest is 353m, with the relative height difference for over 1,000m.
Climate Type: It is subtropical monsoon climate with the average annual temperature of 13.7℃, in which the highest temperature can reach 39.0℃, while the lowest temperature is -13.0℃; the annual precipitation is 1650~1700mm; the average annual frost-free period is about 260 days; the annual accumulated temperature (≥10℃) is 5296℃; and the average annual sunlight hour is 1488 hrs.
Approximate Population: The total population is about 1.4 million, of which population lives in the core area is about 90,000.
Main Source of Livelihoods: Food and vegetables for local people are mainly supplied by the Ziquejie Terraces. The revenue from agriculture and husbandry accounts for one-third of the total income for farmers.
Ethnicity/Indigenous Population: This area is dominated by Han people (It was once occupied by multi-ethnics, including Yao, Miao, Dong and others in the history. Nowadays, lots of customs of those ethnic groups are still very well retained in this region.)
Summary Information of the Agricultural Heritage System: Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are a typical rice terraces system. This area was inhabited since Qin and Han Dynasties. The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces have a long history for more than one thousand years since there were the written records about terraces reclamation in Song Dynasty. Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces have formed a
II GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China staggered three-dimensional landscape consists of forest, folk houses, terraces and waters. For thousands of years, ancient residents in Ziquejie built terraces according to the local topography, geology, soil, forest vegetation and water features. They also created an effective natural gravity irrigation system with simple engineering facilities, which in turn formed traditional farming methods that were compatible with the environment. These methods are still widely in use till now and serve as a typical example of soil and water conservation. Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces provide important multiple ecosystem services, such as livelihood security, biodiversity conservation, and water and soil conservation. Traditional rice varieties of this region represented by the black tribute rice and red rice have high quality after the natural and human selection for a long time, which have become the important part of gene bank. Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are the historical and cultural relics integrating the southern rice culture and the fishing and hunting culture in mountainous region inhabited by Miao and Yao ethnic groups. Its culture is filled with local and traditional characteristics, including the Meishan culture, farming culture, religions, folk houses and residential buildings, food culture, etc. Nowadays, with the rapid urbanization and industrialization, because of the outflow of young workers, the labor intensity of agricultural production, the relatively low profit of traditional agriculture, and some other reasons, Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are facing the loss of traditional farming techniques and traditional rice varieties, underdevelopment of terrace infrastructures, and the threats of severe droughts, etc. In 2012, Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces was selected as one of the China Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems. The local government and multi stakeholders initiated a series of projects, which signaled as a prelude of the agricultural heritage protection and development in Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. Being listed as the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System, the dynamic conservation and adaptive management of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces will be further promoted and strengthened, which is of great practical significance.
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Contents
1 System Characteristics ...... 1
1.1 Food and Livelihood Safety ...... 4
1.1.1 Variety of Food Resources ...... 4
1.1.2 Variety of Forest Products ...... 5
1.1.3 Important Source of Income ...... 5
1.1.4 High Quality Traditional Rice Varieties ...... 6
1.2 Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function ...... 7
1.2.1 Biodiversity ...... 7
1.2.2 Ecosystem Services ...... 10
1.3 Knowledge Systems and Adapted Technologies ...... 14
1.3.1 Compound Ecological Cultivation Model in Paddy Fields ...... 15
1.3.2 Natural Gravity Irrigation System ...... 17
1.3.3 Traditional Construction and Maintenance Technology of Terraces ...... 19
1.3.4 Traditional Rice Cultivation Technology ...... 21
1.3.5 Traditional Cultivation Technology for Finger Millet ...... 23
1.3.6 Traditional Technology to Maintain Soil Fertility ...... 25
1.3.7 Traditional Ecological Technology for Pest Control ...... 26
1.3.8 Traditional Farming Tools ...... 26
1.4 Cultures, Value Systems and Social Organizations ...... 29
1.4.1 Traditional Belief Featured with Unique Wu Nuo Witchcraft Culture ...... 30
1.4.2 Unique Festivals and Customs ...... 31
1.4.3 Traditional Folk Arts ...... 33
1.4.4 Traditional Villages Featured by Plank Houses...... 36
1.4.5 Unique Hot and Sour Food Culture ...... 39
1.4.6 Mutual Cooperative Labour Relations ...... 41
1.4.7 Local Rules and Regulations ...... 42
1.5 Remarkable Landscapes, Land and Water Resources Management Features ...... 43
1.5.1 Composite Landscape ...... 43
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
1.5.2 Landscape of Farmlands ...... 45
1.5.3 Landscape of Soil and Water Management ...... 47
1.5.4 Village Cultural Landscape ...... 48
2 Historic Relevance ...... 49
2.1 The Origin and Evolution History of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces ...... 49
2.2 Integrated Culture Promote the Sustainable Development of Terraced Fields ...... 50
2.3 Incorporation of Rice Cultivation with Fishing and Hunting Promote Sustainable
Economic Development ...... 52
2.4 Historical Model of Harmonious and Sustainable Development of Human and Land ...... 53
3 Contemporary Relevance ...... 55
3.1 Important Guarantee to Maintain Sustainable Development of Agriculture ...... 55
3.2 Important Foundation to Maintain Regional Ecological Balance ...... 55
3.3 Typical Model for Utilizing the Multi-functionality of Agriculture ...... 56
3.4 Important Approach to Improve the Livelihoods for Local Farmers ...... 56
4 Threats and Challenges ...... 58
4.1 Threats ...... 58
4.1.1 Relative Low Comparative Benefits of Agricultural Production ...... 58
4.1.2 Increased Vulnerability of Ecosystem Caused by Extreme Weather ...... 58
4.1.3 Underdeveloped Infrastructure of Terraced Fields ...... 59
4.1.4 Tourism Facilities and Reception Conditions Need to be Improved ...... 59
4.2 Challenges ...... 60
4.2.1 Traditional Agriculture Suffers from the Impacts of Modern Agriculture ...... 60
4.2.2 Importance of Agricultural Production Weakened by Urbanization ...... 60
4.2.3 Traditional Culture Influenced by the Development of Modernization ...... 61
4.2.4 Ecosystems Affected by Many Factors ...... 62
5 Practical Considerations ...... 64
5.1 Ongoing Efforts to Promote the GIAHS ...... 64
5.2 Potentials and Opportunities for Sustainability and Management of the GIAHS ...... 68
5.2.1 Development Potential ...... 68
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
5.2.2 Development Opportunities ...... 70
5.3 Expected Impacts of GIAHS on Society and Ecology ...... 73
5.3.1 Social Impacts ...... 73
5.3.2 Ecological Impacts ...... 74
5.4 Motivation of the Local Community, the Local/national Authorities and other Relevant
Stakeholders ...... 74
5.4.1 Local Community...... 74
5.4.2 The People's Government of Xinhua County ...... 75
5.4.3 The People's Government of China ...... 76
5.4.4 Related Enterprises...... 76
5.4.5 Tourists ...... 77
6 Dynamic Protection Outline of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces ...... 78
6.1 Conservation Baseline ...... 78
6.1.1 A Series of Protection Measures have been Taken ...... 78
6.1.2 Guiding Principles for Future Work was Clarified ...... 80
6.1.3 Analysis of the Multi-values of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces ...... 81
6.1.4 Protection Area and Core Area of Agricultural Heritage Zoned ...... 86
6.2 Further Initiatives to Promote GIAHS ...... 87
6.2.1 Protection of Agriculture Ecosystem ...... 87
6.2.2 Protection of Agricultural Culture ...... 88
6.2.3 Protection of Agricultural Landscape ...... 89
6.2.4 Development of Eco-Agriculture ...... 90
6.2.5 Development of Recreational Agriculture ...... 91
6.2.6 Construction of Cultural self-esteem ...... 92
6.2.7 Construction of Management Ability ...... 93
6.3 Strategies to Cope with Threats and Challenges ...... 94
6.3.1 Challenges ...... 94
6.3.2 Strategies to Cope with Challenges ...... 97
6.4 Financial Support ...... 98
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
6.4.1 Financing Channel ...... 98
6.4.2 Utilization of Funds...... 99
6.4.3 Supervision and Inspection ...... 99
Reference ...... 101
Appendixes ...... 103
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
1 System Characteristics
Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is located at Xinhua County of Loudi City, Hunan Province, China. This proposed GIAHS site covers the entire Xinhua County, including 26 towns, with a total area of 3642 Km2. The core area of this site is located at N27°28′-27°45′ and E110°52′-111°00′, consists of three towns, namely Shuiche town, Fengjia town and Wentian town, with a total area of 460 Km2. As a typical rice terraces agro-ecosystem, Xinhua County has the total area of terraces for more than 200,000mu (15 mu=1 ha), in which the core area accounts for around 80,000 mu. Those terraces are mostly located at the altitude between 500m and 1000m, with an average gradient of about 30°, in which the gradient of the steepest area could reach 50° or more. Within Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, the largest piece of paddy filed is no larger than one mu and the smallest piece of paddy filed can only be planted with dozens of seedlings. Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is famous for its large scale, steep slopes, small and sophisticated pieces of paddy fields, and its beautiful landscape (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces had already been developed into considerable scale in the Song Dynasty with its heyday arrived in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces has a long history for more than 1,000 years, which is jointly created by local indigenous people of Miao, Yao and Dong ethnic groups, and Han. Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are the historical and cultural relics that integrated and 1
GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
blended rice culture and the fishing and hunting culture of mountainous region in southern China, mostly inhabited by Miao and Yao ethnic groups. The traditional farming methods and the use of natural gravity irrigation system of the Xinhua Ziquejie Rice Terraces are unique in the rice culture. Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces have been successively selected as National AAAA Tourist Attraction, National Scenic Spot, National Natural and Cultural Heritage, National Water Conservancy Scenic Area, China Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems, and one of the first batch of World Heritage Irrigation Structure nominated by ICID (International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage). Global (National) Importance
Model for Sustainable Utilization of Water Resources
The most unique feature of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is its natural gravity irrigation system. Located in the hilly area with prevailing subtropical monsoon climate, the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are a typical erodible and fragile southern hilly area with concentrated rainfall and frequent and intense rainstorm. To overcome the natural hazards, ancestors of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces created a variety of techniques in water sources conservation, water storage, water retention, water delivery and irrigation, and they realized the natural gravity irrigation with simple and effective engineering facilities. With the natural gravity irrigation system applied and the scientific approach for water management inherited from generation to generation, ancestors of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces effectively controlled the natural hazards, such as soil erosion and drought. The natural gravity irrigation system of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is a perfect irrigation system and also a perfect water and soil conservation infrastructure created by the ancestors of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, which could be seen as a demonstration model of the harmony between mankind and nature, water and soil conservation of ecosystems, sustainable development of agriculture and sustainable utilization of water resources in the southern hilly areas in the past thousand years. The infrastructure was very well-established and is still in effective use till now, which can maintain the normal daily routine and production for
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
local farmers as well as maintain the sustainable development of agriculture in the future. It can be a significant reference for farmers in other similar regions in the world.
Model for Food Production and Soil and Water Conservation in
Mountainous Regions
The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces has gone through the transition from fishing and hunting civilization to agriculture civilization. Historically, this region was a multi-ethnic community inhabited by many ethnic groups except for Han, including Miao, Yao, Dong and other ethnic groups. Through the development and cultivation of limited mountainous land, local ancestors solved the food shortage problem caused by population growth and set a precedent for rice cultivation agriculture; they also ensured and inherited the development of civilization and the integration of different ethnic groups. Meanwhile, terraced cultivation methods adopted at the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are all in accordance with the local topography and landform, and play an important role in the water and soil conservation.
Effective Model for Resilience to Extreme Climate Events
The three-dimensional landscape constituted by forest, villages, terraces and river is formed in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. The forest at the top of the system plays an important and effective role in water regulation and storage. The natural gravity irrigation system of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces formed a unique ecosystem jointly with the forest vegetation and terrain that can provide efficient irrigation even in years with extreme drought events and thus set a model to successfully deal with the negative effects of climate change. The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces include terraced agricultural production system, natural ecosystems, the natural gravity irrigation system, the mountainous cultural system, and integrated landscape system; the specific characteristics of the system are mainly reflected in the following aspects:
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
1.1 Food and Livelihood Safety
1.1.1 Variety of Food Resources The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces provide land security to ensure the food and livelihood security for local farmers. The area is the typical region for the cultivation of middle-season rice, with humid climate and suitable temperature. Rice cultivation is the most important agriculture development in this region. In addition to rice production, the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces also produce wheat, corn, beans, potatoes, oil crops, herbs, vegetables and fruits, etc. Local farmers are good at making use of local resources. Rice is their major food. The plantation of a variety of crops guarantees the food security for the future generation in this region.
Table 1. Area and of Output of Crops in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Core Area Area (mu) Output(ton) Area (mu) Output(ton) Rice 821764 386868 55492 26964 Wheat 13610 2724 928 185 Corn 255601 85317 16850 6425 Other cereals 1119 1821 531 450 Beans 38496 5409 2939 423 Tuber crops 88854 29161 13648 4429 Oil crops 117975 11626 9695 736 Herbs 82225 42166 11151 8328 Vegetables 126436 188342 9283 10921 Melons 21106 72711 428 1226 Other crops 152529 15875
In addition to the cultivation of different crops, almost all the rural households in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces raise a different number of poultry and livestock to provide meat, eggs and other related products to enrich their foods and nutrition.
Table 2. Poultry and Livestock Farming in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Core Area
Sales/Home Stocks Sales/Home Stocks Slaughtered Slaughtered Pig (10 thousands) 944988 1575337 64373 97402 Cattle (10 thousands) 206548 83588 13876 7818 Sheep (10 thousands) 92940 94733 7584 8664
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Poultry (10 thousands) 360 574 28 53 Total meat production(tons) 112252 7315
Egg production (tons) 3245 181
Fish, shrimp and other aquatic organisms, wild or farmed by farmers in paddy fields in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, ponds and rivers are also the important food sources for local farmers. The annual output of aquatic product at the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is about 25,000 tons, among which the annual output of the core area is about 1,200 tons.
1.1.2 Variety of Forest Products
There are rich forest resources in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. There are about 200,000 ha of forest land, 170,000 ha of forests, 7×106 m3 of forest volume, and 3.55×106 m3 of timber volume, of which 1.01×106 m3 are the timber volume of firs and 4.5×105 m3 of masson pines. Economic forests mainly consist of honeysuckle, tea-oil tree, Chinese chestnut, Eucommia ulmoides olive and tea trees, with a total area of 3443 ha. As one of the important forest resources in local area, phyllostachys pupescens consists of a total area of 30,000 ha and accumulated 62.34 millionplants. These important forest resources provide a lot of timber, herbs, foods and other forest products for local farmers (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Forest products of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraced region
1.1.3 Important Source of Income As one of the traditional agricultural areas, agriculture and husbandry have become the main sources of income for local farmers at the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces.
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
The GDP of Xinhua County in 2013 was 16.87 billion RMB, of which the primary industry was 4.66 billion RMB, the secondary industry was 5.70 billion RMB and the tertiary industry was 6.51 billion RMB, respectively. The ratio of these three industries was 27.6: 33.8: 38.6 (Figure. 3), in which the proportion of agriculture is far greater than that of the national average (10%).
Industrial Structure of the Ziquejie Terraces (Unit: billion RMB)
4.66 6.51 Primary industry (27.60%) (38.60%) Secondary industry 5.7 Tertiary industry (33.80%)
Figure 3. Industrial structure of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces
1.1.4 High Quality Traditional Rice Varieties The cultivation of traditional rice varieties in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces has been served as the basis for local agricultural development. These traditional rice varieties are of high quality and rich in nutrients. In addition to being consumed as staple food, most of the rice varieties are processed into secondary products or made into a variety of liquor products for sales. On the one hand, rice cultivation meets the food needs of local farmers; on the other hand, it also increases the income of local farmers through the sales of secondary products. Among them, the black tribute rice and red rice are two most distinctive rice varieties in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces with their high quality (Figure. 4). The black tribute rice is characterized by dwarf plant and cold-resistant features, but it has the relative low yield of only 250-300 kg per Mu. The black tribute rice is a kind of round rice with dark and bright brown colors, which has intense flavor, soft and delicious taste. Since it is rich in selenium, the black tribute rice can help to build stronger kidneys. The red rice has long stalks and is characterized by cold-resistant and excellent disease resistance features, but it is
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China vulnerable to lodging and has the relative low yield of 200-250 kg per Mu. The planting area that is most suitable for red rice is mountainous area with the altitude of more than 800 meters. The red rice is a kind of slender rice with crystal clear color and soft and delicious taste. With high glutinous content and rich iron element, the red rice has amazing blood tonic function. Currently, traditional rice products of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are developed based on the high quality of these important features of traditional rice varieties and some products have been certified as the organic products, or the product of geographical indications issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, which has further promoted local agricultural development and increased the income of local farmers.
Table 3. Main Trace Element Components in Tribute Rice of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Tribute Rice of Tribute Rice of Ziquejie Main Nutrients Common Rice Ziquejie Terraces Terraces/ Common Rice Selenium 0.015mg 0.041mg 173% Iron 4.8mg 16.72mg 248% Calcium 64mg 138.55mg 116.5% Zinc 13mg 23.63mg 81.8%
Figure 4. The black tribute rice and red rice in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces
1.2 Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function
1.2.1 Biodiversity (1) Agricultural biodiversity
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
There are 8 traditional rice varieties cultivated in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, including: Baisha Glutinous rice, Yunnong Glutinous rice and Jing No.1 Glutinous rice, MaGu red rice and black tribute rice (Figure 5), black rice, purple scented rice and red rice (See Annexed Table 1). There are also about 150 hybrid rice varieties, including T-you 705, Ling Liang-you 942, Zhu Liang-you 819, Lu Liang-you 996, T-you 111, Ⅱ You Hang 2, Yang Liang-you 6, Y Liang-you 1, Y Liang-you 7, Shen Liang-you 5814, Wu-you 308, Tian-you 998, T-you 272, T-you 207, Jin-you 117, Feng-you 9, Shen-you 9586, Fengyuan-you 299, and so on.
Figure 5. Traditional Rice Varieties Cultivated in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces
In addition to a variety of rice varieties, there are also lots of other crops planted in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, including corn, potatoes, beans and other traditional varieties of finger millet, foxtail millet, and Tartary buckwheat. Locally grown soybean, black bean, rice bean, green bean, broad bean and potatoes are also traditional varieties and considered as important germplasm resources. Oil crops planted there mainly include oilseed rape, tea-oil tree and peanuts. There are also different vegetables, such as cabbage, radish, carrot, celery, squash, peppers and so on; and fruits, such as chestnut, bayberry, grapes, loquat, grapefruit and so on. In addition, different kinds of herbal plants are also planted in this region, including honeysuckle, Officinal Magnolia Bark, Eucommia ulmoides olive, Amur Grape Stem, Medicinal Evodia Fruit, Cape jasmine, ginkgo, Fragrant Solomonseal Rhizome, lily, gastrodia elata, pearl barley, Polygonatum, Rhizoma Belamcandae, platycodon grandiflorum ,
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Gynostemma pentaphyllum, Atractylis ovata, Rhizoma Coptidis, Indian Buead, nodakenin, herbaceous peony, chrysanthemum, Heartleaf Houttuynia Herb, Scrophularia ningpoensis Hemsl, honeysuckle and others (See Annexed Table 2). Many varieties of local livestock like chickens, ducks, pigs, cattle, sheep and other livestock are also extensively farmed in local area, of which there are three Yellow Hair Chicken, Barred Plymouth Rock chickens, laying hens, black-bone chicken and other chicken varieties; in terms of duck varieties, there are Shaoxing duck, southern egg-laying duck, Beijing ducks and other species (Figure 6); pig breeds include Landrace pig, Large Yorkshire, Duroc, Xiangxi Black pig, Ningxiang pigs, DLY (Hybrids of Duroc, Landrace and Large Yorkshire ) and other species; cattle breeds are Xiangnan Yellow cattle, Xiangxi Yellow cattle, hybrids of Angus cattle and local cattle breeds, hybirds of Lee Limousin and local cattle breeds, and hybirds of Simmental Beef Cattle and local cattle breeds, sheep and goat breeds include black goats and Boar Goats and other species (See Annexed Table 3).
Figure 6. Chicken and Duck Raised in Local Farm House
The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are also rich in diversity of aquatic organisms, including fish, shelled animals, Amphibians, mollusks, insects and other aquatic organisms, among which there are 23 kinds of fish, including crucian (Figure 7), grass carp, cyprinoid fish, fresh-water bream and Parabramis pekinensis (See Annexed Table 4).
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Figure 7. Small Crucian in Paddy Fields
(2)Associated biodiversity The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are covered by dense forests and its vegetation is in good conditions. There are 99 plant families with 258 plants genera and 933 species in this region. Among them, 20 plant species belong to class I, II and III of national protected plants respectively, with 5 species of class I national protected plants, including ginkgo, Metasequoia, Taxus chinensis and others; 11 species of second class II national protected plants, including Pseudolarix amabilis, Emmenopterys henryi, Cercidiphyllum japonicum and others, and 4 species of class III national protected plants, including Tapiscia sinensis Oliv, Pteroceltis tatarinowii and others (See Annexed Table 5). Forest coverage of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is up to 68%, nurturing many precious wildlife resources. There are 41 kinds of animals listed as class I, II, III national protected animals respectively (not including insects). Among them, there are 2 class I national protected animals, namely the clouded leopard and python; 13 class II national protected animals, including Macaque, Pangolins, otters, large Viverra and others; 26 class III national protected animals, including fox, yellow weasel, and others. (See Annexed Table 6) 1.2.2 Ecosystem Services Currently, the classification system for ecosystem services widely recognized by international society is that proposed by MA (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment) Working Group. In this system, ecosystem services are summarized into four main
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China categories according to the types of services, namely provisioning, regulating, culture, and supporting. Through diversified and stable production, the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces solve the livelihood and food security problems for local farmers and help to conserve biodiversity and inherit traditional culture in local areas. In addition, the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces also have many other important ecosystem services, which are mainly reflected in the following aspects: (1) Water Conservation The distribution of rainfall in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is uneven, with less rainfall in late summer and early autumn. In drought years, crop failure would often occur in lots of rice fields down the hills, while paddy fields in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces suffer little from the droughts. Without ponds or water reservoirs, adequate water resources in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces can be attributed to the huge invisible water reservoir formed by forests, soils and terraces automatically. The top of mountains in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are covered by dense forests, which provide good conditions for the retention of rain and water. Local mountains were built with granite that featured with solid bottom and less fractures, which served as the water-proof bottom of this invisible reservoir. In addition, the soil on top of the granite is sandy loam that can absorb rainfall very well, and then exudate water evenly, thus helps to form the excellent water conservation system. Soil water storage capacity of this region is up to 0.3m3. Based on the topsoil is 40cm in depth, 27,784 ha of forest soils in the core area can store water up to 3.3×107 m3. (2) Soil Retention Soil retention is an important aspect of ecosystem services. Covered by dense forests, the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are rich in a variety of plants. Forests in this region are mainly formed by cedar forests, chestnut forests and bamboo forests, mixed in a variety of shrubs featured with herbal plants, mainly ferns. Soil fixation character of vegetation roots is realized by the organic matter secreted by plants, which can therefore cement the soil and make them strong enough to resist the soil erosion. The canopy of tall trees intercept rain drops to undermine the erosion force of rain splash
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China directly on the soil, while the regulation of the ground vegetation and the litter layer on precipitation and runoff basically eliminate the erosion forces of rainfall from the top and runoff on the surface of the soil. Therefore, this ecosystem can help to achieve better soil conservation, which is reflected in avoiding the waste of land, reducing sediment deposition and preventing the loss of soil nutrients. Based on the literatures, the amount of forest soil erosion in the core area of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces was calculated with the moderate erosion modulus of 200 t / hm2﹒a. It turned out that the total annual amount of soil retention by vegetation is about 5.5 million tons. (3) Climate Regulation For the capital city of Xinhua County, the average temperature is 16.9 ℃, with the extreme maximum temperature of 40.1 ℃ and the extreme minimum temperature of -10.7 ℃. Green vegetation can lower the heat in summer through the canopy shade and regulate transpiration. The core area of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces has high vegetation coverage that can help to achieve significant climate regulation effects. The core area is enveloped by clouds year round with less direct sunlight. It enjoys the cool climate with an average temperature of 13.7 ℃, which is 3 ℃ lower than that of the capital city of Xinhua County. It shows the important climate regulation value of the terrace ecosystems in this region. (4) Eco-Environment Improvement for Farmlands Rice-duck and rice-fish are two important compound cultivation models in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, which can greatly improve the eco-environment of farmlands. In terms of the rice-duck model, first of all, it can greatly improve the economic benefits from agriculture; secondly, it can enhance the quality of rice by reducing the use of parathion and heavy metal contents in it; thirdly, significant ecological benefits can be generated. Ducks raised in the paddy fields can prey on pests of rice and some sclerotia mycelium, which can remove the diseased leaves of rice, old leaves and the weeds. Therefore, these activities can effectively control and eliminate the rice sheath blight, Chilo suppressalis, rice leaf folder, rice plant hopper, rice grasshoppers, armyworm and other pests of rice and paddy weeds. By taking
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China worms and young grass as fodder, ducks can prevent insect from damaging rice plants and their manure can be used as fertilizer for the rice fields. In the meantime, their activities in the paddy fields can help to loosen the soil, which will both greatly improve the permeability of paddy soil and reduce the hazards of toxic substances while accelerating the decomposition, absorption of fertilizer. In addition, ducks can also help to achieve better intertillage weeding and thus accelerate the root development of rice and realize the faster sprouting. In terms of rice-fish model, after fish are put into the paddy fields, their feeding and other activities will help to loosen the paddy soil and change the soil aggregate structure, which is beneficial to the respiration and development of rice roots, and thus in turn contributing to the effective rice tillers. Meanwhile, biological magnification of weeds and plankton is weakened, thereby reducing the methane emissions in paddy fields. The fish waste contains rich nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which can help to reduce the use of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers in the paddy fields. This model can greatly reduce the damages of tryporyza incertulas, vertical leaf roller, rice plant hopper, rice leaf insects and other disease and insects to rice and thus greatly reduce the use of pesticides. In addition, activities of fish in rice fields can also partially help to realize biological prevention and control of pests and diseases of rice by prey on insects and thus help to achieve better ecological benefits. (5) Gas Regulation
Trees, shrubs and grass can help to stabilize CO2 in the atmosphere through photosynthesis while releasing O2 at the same time; soil microbes consume O2 in the atmosphere by respiration and release CO2 simultaneously, which help to maintain the balance of CO2/O2 in the atmosphere. This plays a vital role in reducing the regional greenhouse gas and mitigating global warming. According to the statistics of Forestry
Bureau, the forest land in the core area of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces can fix Carbon for about 689,129 tons and releasing oxygen for 507,329 tons annually. The total amount of farmland and garden plots in the core area of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are about 10,111 ha, which can yield a total agricultural production for about 60,087 tons per
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China year. The annual fixed carbon of these areas was about 97,942 tons, meanwhile 72,104 tons of oxygen was released. Total annual carbon sequestration of the core area of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces amounted to 787,000 tons, with the amount of released oxygen up to 579,000 tons. (6) Environmental Purification Green plants can directly absorb atmospheric pollutants through their leaf tissues, such as SO2, fluorides, NO2, Cl2, O3, etc. They can also dissolve part of the water soluble contaminants by the wet leaf surface. Based on the air quality monitoring results of the capital city of Xinhua County in 2013 by Bureau of Meteorological, Bureau of Agriculture, and Bureau of Animal Husbandry in Xinhua County, the
3 3 average content of SO2, NO2, TSP was 0.076 mg/Nm , 0.033 mg/Nm , and 0.089 mg/Nm3, respectively. According to the air quality monitoring data in areas near Fengjia Village, Xi-xi Village and Longpu Village within the core area of Xinhua
3 Ziquejie Terraces, the average content of SO2, NO2, TSP, PM10 was 0.029 mg/Nm , 0.017 mg/Nm3, 0.054 mg/Nm3, 0.036 mg/Nm3, respectively. Since the standard
3 3 values of SO2, NO2 and TSP contents in atmosphere are 0.15 mg/Nm , 0.10 mg/Nm and 0.15 mg/Nm3, respectively, the air quality of the core area of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is obviously superior to that of the capital area of Xinhua County and is far below the standard value of SO2, NO2 and TSP. 1.3 Knowledge Systems and Adapted Technologies
As the dominant cultivation model in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, paddy fields in this region are supplemented by rain fed cropland. The unique rice terraces farming methods formed in the past thousand years are still widely in use, including the compound ecological cultivation model in paddy fields, the natural gravity irrigation system, the construction and maintenance method of traditional terraced fields, the traditional rice cultivation techniques, the traditional cultivation techniques for finger millet in dryland, the traditional techniques to maintain soil fertility, the traditional ecological pest control technology and the traditional farming tools.
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
1.3.1 Compound Ecological Cultivation Model in Paddy Fields (1) Rice-duck Model Rice-duck model is commonly practiced by local farmers in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. Local Farmers usually select paddy fields with adequate water resource and plenty of sunlight to provide appropriate habitats and food source for ducks. They select the high-quality rice varieties with compact plant type, high yield, and strong resistance. They also select fine duck species with relatively small or medium body size to ensure their adaptation to the rice planting density, which enables the ducks freely travel in the paddy fields for food and other activities. In terms of timing, in late May when the transplanted rice resumes growth and enters peak tilling period, ducklings are put into the rice fields for free-range farming. During the day, ducklings foraging in the field prey on larvae and weeds and at night they return to duck sheds on their own (local houses are generally the wooden structure and the bottom layer usually taken for keeping poultry). Corn and other grains are added to the fodder for the ducks to fatten up and gain weight. By the end of September, after the rice is harvested, mature ducks remain in the field to pick up scattered rice and prey on field pests. When the Double Ninth Festival arrives, mature ducks can be used for food or sold out. October to next April, a proportion of female duck are kept and fed for egg laying, or re-breeding. Rice-duck model is shown as in table 4.
Table 4. Annual Circle of Rice-duck Model Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Rice Period of Rice Fallow growing resuming growth harvest Fallow period period season and tilling season Duck re-breeding Ducklings are Growing season for Mature growing period for female put into the ducklings ducks season duck paddy fields (2) Rice-fish Model Rice-fish model is also commonly practiced by local farmers in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. Local farmers usually select paddy fields with low altitude, adequate water resource, convenient irrigation and drainage, good water quality, good water retention conditions and sufficient sunlight. Ridges of selected paddy fields are 15
GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China usually heightened and reinforced to prevent water leakage, since ridge collapse and floods over the ridge that might cause the loss of fish in the paddy fields. Small ponds digged in the paddy fields are usually called fish pits, which usually consist about 5% to l0% of the total area of the paddy fields. Digging fish pits are considered as the key step in fish-farming in local areas, followed by fish ditch excavation, usually in the shape of “Cross” or "#". Various shapes can be adopted in fish ditch with the prerequisite of ensuring smooth movement of fish to the larger areas of paddy fields. Meanwhile, bamboo fences are set up at both the water inlet and outlet of the paddy fields to prevent the escape of adult fish. The size of fish ditch usually is 60cm in width and 50cm in depth. , The ditching is normally conducted 20 to 30 days before rice planting. Between the Spring Equinox in March and Tomb Sweeping Day in April, it is the time for the first plowing, maturing basic fertilizer (organic fertilizer) and repairing the ridge. In late April, it is time for the second plowing, harrowing, and repairing the ridges with mud. From late May to early June, when transplanted rice resumes growth and begins tilling, small fish fry are put into the fish pits and they begin to slip through the pond into the paddy fields to conduct foraging activities. From late June to late August, the rice enters into the heading, flowering, and milk ripeness stage. During this lush growth period of rice, fish is fed on insects in the field (leaf borer, rice plant hopper, etc.) and continue to grow. In early September, grown fish can be harvested, sold and consumed, while small fish are left to continue to grow. From October to March in the following year, the paddy fields are flooded and enter the fallow period, when fish are left in the pond for overwintering. The rice-fish model is shown as in table 5.
Table 5. Annual Circle of Rice-fish Model Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Period of Rice Fallow resuming Harvest growing Fallow season period growth and season season tillering Growing Overwintering Fish fry are Growing season Adult
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China season for period for small put into the for small fish fish fish in fish paddy fields paddy fields 1.3.2 Natural Gravity Irrigation System Ancestors of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces built terraces according to local topography, geology, soil, vegetation and water resource features. They also created the effective natural gravity irrigation system with simple engineering facilities, which form a unique landscape of irrigation project in paddy fields. The natural gravity irrigation system was selected as one of the first batch of World Heritage Irrigation Structure by International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) in 2014. It consists of three parts, including water storage facilities, irrigation and drainage canal system, and control facilities. Irrigation of the large-scale terraced lands in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces mainly relies on the diversion irrigation from stream water. The direct irrigation of individual water source only covers part of the terraced lands located on the edge. Therefore the altitude of the terraced lands is determined by that of the water from the creeks. Since the irrigation water source can be accumulated by creek dams to intercept and diverse the water, many small barrages were built above streams on local mountains by ancestors of this region (Figure 8). Those barrages were about 1 meter in height and about 2 to 3 meters in length, and had multiple functions such as river closure, spillway, sediment disposal and channel water, etc. Those barrages were built at different altitudes according to the water supply needs of terraced fields. According to the status quo, there are 69 barrages in this region.
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Figure 8. Water Reservoir
Creek water is delivered to terraced fields through the conveyance channels. Since the amount of water used for irrigation is relatively small and the length, cross-section and flow rate of the conveyance channels are all small, those delivery channels are also named Mao Chuan (referring to the small capacity and construction) by the local people. Generally, those Mao Chuan in the fields do not run through the fields directly, instead, they bypass the inside nor outside along the terraced fields, in between are low ridges separating the drainage and the terraced fields (Figure 9). Irrigation in the terraced fields adopts the method of consecutive irrigation and drainage, which takes narrow terraced lands as the water channels of the adjacent fields and thus realizes the irrigation through terraced fields (Figure 10). To prevent the collapse of the ridge caused by erosion, while the water inflow from the terraced fields at higher level to lower-level terraced fields, bamboo with knots broke through were used as tray (small aqueduct) to diverse the water flow, which enables the water to be transported to terraced fields in long distance. (Figure 11)
Figure 9. Mao Chuan in Terraced Fields
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Figure 10. Irrigation system through Terraced Fields
Figure 11. Bamboo Tray as Aqueduct
1.3.3 Traditional Construction and Maintenance Technology of Terraces The soil in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is sandy loam soil featured with light soil texture, which makes the construction of terraced fields to be of great difficulty. Therefore, gradual construction methods were adopted by local farmers in constructing terraced fields. Firstly, excavation of dry lands were conducted in the gentle slopes; after a period of cultivation, dry lands in the gentle slopes became flatter dry lands; secondly, measures were taken to transform the dry lands into tablelands in accordance to local irrigation conditions and gradually turn them into cultivated lands; the final step is to gradually transform the tablelands into terraced rice fields. Through the process of dry lands-tablelands-paddy fields and repeatedly scarifying, fertilization and gradual cultivation, the construction quality of terraced fields is guaranteed; the fertility of terraced fields is stabilized, while the impermeable and durable character of ridges is ensured.
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
The traditional maintenance technology of terraced fields mainly used is to soak the fields in water during winter and conduct repeated ridge repairs in spring. On the one hand, after the harvest of mature rice in fall every year, the paddy fields are irrigated and soaked in water till the spring of the coming year. The water being reserved in the fields is about 10-20 cm in depth, and local farmers use different ways to find and fix holes in the ridges. On the other hand, local farmers generally plow and plough the terraced fields in autumn and winter, and they also plough and level the terraced fields for 2-3 more times before planting rice in spring (Figure 12). Ploughing under dry conditions requires suitable soil moisture. Generally it is the best time when the soil is humid and its maximum water holding capacity is about 70%. An important part of the soil preparation process is called “paste ridges”, i.e. to clean up and repair the ridges (Figure 13). Usually when the terraced fields are ploughed for the first time, weeds on the ridges will be removed and thrown into the fields to be buried by soil to ensure rotting. When the terraced fields are ploughed for the second time and irrigated, ooze is used to increase the thickness of the ridge by about 10 cm. The pasted ridges are left for dry in the sun for about three days before ooze is used to level up the sides of the ridges for the second time with the main purpose to increase the thickness of the ridges and ensure its leakage-proof, water retention and prevent the collapse of the terraced fields. In addition, to prevent eel and mud fish from drilling holes that might result in leakage caused by the penetration in the ridges, local farmers would light up at nights for observation.
Figure 12. Farm Cattle Ploughing in the Terraced Fields
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Figure 13.Maintaining Ridges of the Terraced Fields
1.3.4 Traditional Rice Cultivation Technology (1) Traditional Technology for Raising Rice Seedlings High quality seeds are the foundation for raising rice seedlings, while accelerating germination is the key to the success. Since ancient times, local farmers have mainly used large bamboo baskets or squared barrels for accelerating germination. This method is relatively simple and easy to master. In the process of accelerating germination, local farmers wash up the squared barrels first, then open the cork on the one end with hole and slightly elevate the other nonporous end a little for water draining. After that, the well soaked rice seeds are washed clean, drained and poured into the squared barrels till 60 percent space of the squared barrels is filled up. Straws are used to cover the seeds with heavy bricks or rocks on their top to ensure insulation. According to the experience of local farmers, temperature should be high in the period before the germination of the radicle (commonly known as chest burst) of rice seeds to accelerate the germination, which is also considered as a key step to prevent or reduce the failure of germination. The best temperature for germination at this stage is about 40℃. After germination, the temperature shall be lowered to about 30-35℃, while attention shall be paid to the moisture regulation and good oxygen supply maintenance. When roots of most rice seeds broke out of the chest, local farmers conduct a thorough turn over and add more fresh water while maintaining the temperature between 30-35℃. After one night, they conduct thorough turn over for the second time. At this point, the germination of rice seeds is basically
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China completed. The length of the roots to be geminated is determined by the weather. The rice sprout shall be longer in good weather for the faster emergence of seedlings. When the weather is bad, the rice sprout shall be shorter to enhance their cold tolerance capacity. When the sprouts are of 0.33-0.66 cm in length and the roots are about 1.32-1.65 cm in length, seedlings are ready for plantation in good weather. Southward fields with sufficient sunlight are usually selected as rice seedling beds. The soil texture is required to be loosen and fertile. The fields are required to be fallow fields in the winter with smooth surface, even fertility, adequate water resource and convenient drainage and irrigation. (2) Traditional Technology for Determining the Rice Transplantation Time Determination of timing is the key for the traditional rice transplantation techniques. The long-term practical experience of local farmers shows that rice seedling transplantation for the middle-season rice shall be completed between the
Beginning of Summer Festival to Grain Full Festival in May, which is about half-month. According to the farming proverb, significant impact would be made on the growth and yield of rice if the rice seedling transplantation is delayed for one day, or even for one hour. (3) Traditional Technology for Field Management Intertillage weeding is an important field management measure to be used during the tillering period (Figure 14). It can remove the weeds, reduce the consumption of water and nutrients, improve soil air permeability and facilitate the fertilizer and soil integration by increasing soil temperature, which is conducive to the decomposition of manure and thus accelerate the growth of new root and tillering. As the farming proverb says, “the soil shall be plowed by the iron plate and the mud shall be deeper than one’s ankle”, “ploughing in the field three times makes the rice rounded like full moon”, “ploughing in the field on sunny days is better than manure while ploughing in the field on rainy days is worse than relaxing at home”. Intertillage weeding usually is conducted when the transplanted rice seedlings turn green and before their elongation stage. The first round of intertillage weeding shall be conducted early. The
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China earlier the intertillage weeding is conducted, the earlier tillering effects can be achieved. Generally speaking, intertillage weeding can be carried out after the rice seedlings are transplanted for 10 days, surviving successfully by turning green. About 7-10 days after the first round of intertillage weeding, the second round can be carried out; and the last round shall be carried out at the late tillering stage to consolidate the achievements of earlier tillering and to suppress the invalid tillering at later stage. Intertillage weeding shall be conducted in sunny days as the farming proverbs described previously. Before stepping, the fields shall be covered by shallow water. Irrigation shall be conducted to deliver deep water in the fields after stepping, which will help to drown the weeds easily. A small amount of lime could be used during the second intertillage weeding. The fields are dry in the sun for about 2-3 days after intertillage weeding; this can help to rotten the weeds. Meanwhile, barnyard grass and other weeds that are hard to eliminate shall be removed manually by local farmers.
Figure 14. Weeding 1.3.5 Traditional Cultivation Technology for Finger Millet Finger millet is a unique endemic species being planted in the dry lands of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. As a kind of annual herbs (Figure 15) and a kind of food grains other than wheat and rice, finger millet can be made into delicious finger millet Baba or made into porridge for human consumption. It is not only highly welcomed by local people, but also has high medicinal value. Its straw can be woven
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China into baskets, hats and other decorative products, as well as being used as raw materials for papermaking.
Figure 15. Finger Millet
Finger millet is usually grown in dry lands with an altitude higher than 800 meters. Yield of finger millet is normally low but with high economic values. Cultivation of finger millet requires sophisticated techniques. First, the key in finger millet cultivation is crop rotation. As the farming proverb says, “continuous cropping of finger millet would cause the farmer to cry out,” and “three years of continuous finger millet cropping would be worse than weeds”, which explained the reasons why finger millet should avoid continuous cropping. Continuous cropping of finger millet would cause serious plant disease and pests and rampant weeds. Meanwhile, plantation of finger millet consume large portion of the land fertility, and cause the soil compaction easily. Therefore, crop rotation is required to ensure yields. Best choices for alternation of cropping prior to finger millet are beans, potatoes, cotton, corn, and green manure. When sorghum or buckwheat is selected as the alternative cropping prior to finger millet, yield of finger millet is significantly lower. Second, since seeds of finger millet are small, fine field preparation is required. After the harvest of alternation cropping prior to finger millet, soil moisture shall be maintained at an appropriate level. Early shallow plowing and stubble cleaning shall be conducted to ensure soil moisture conservation for autumn plowing. Spring
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China ploughing shall ensure raking, levelling, farming and plowing and other site preparation work to provide good conditions for the germination and growth of finger millet. The base fertilizer for sowing finger millet in spring shall be conducted in the fields during the autumn/winter farming period. For example the fertilizer is applied in late fall, and a thorough turn over shall be conducted in the spring season. Third, timely sowing shall be ensured. Spring sowing of finger millet in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces shall be conducted after the Grain Rain Festival when the average daily temperature is stabilized at around 15 ℃ and ground temperature stabilized at more than 10 ℃. Summer sowing of finger millet shall be conducted as early as possible. Fourth, finger millet requires diligent intertillage weeding Intertillage weeding can not only ensure drought resistance and soil moisture conservation, but also remove weeds, loosen the soil, ensure the robust growth of finger millet, and improve the quality of finger millet. At least three or four times of intertillage weeding are required in finger millet cultivation. Plantation of finger millet shall ensure rational dense planting. The first intertillage weeding shall be conducted during the thinning and shallow ploughing of seedlings for weeding. The second intertillage weeding shall be conducted during the final singling and shallow ploughing of seedlings. The third intertillage weeding shall be conducted after jointing stage and combined with maturing and deep ploughing as well as ridging. The fourth intertillage weeding shall be conducted at the booting stage and combined with shallow ploughing as well as weeding and soil loosening. When finger millet roots are exposed into the air because of heavy rain, ridging shall be conducted timely. 1.3.6 Traditional Technology to Maintain Soil Fertility The traditional composting of organic fertilizer mainly uses the rice straw or grass collected from the hills. Those raw materials are put into the bottom of the hog lots or cattle pens for animals to sleep on. When manure of livestock is completely mixed with those raw materials, the bedding is raked out by iron rake and put onto the flat ground to pile up for fermentation. This traditional composting method for
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China producing organic fertilizer is still in use by local farmers. Organic fertilizer after composting is stacked to the corner of rice fields for application during spring sowing. Application of organic fertilizer in the field increases the organic matter content of the soil and the number of micro-aggregates in the soil to improve the physical properties of the soil. In addition to nitrogen and potassium, there are more organic acid and other trace elements in the organic fertilizers. The base fertilizer is used for the paddy fields after they are soaked in cold water, to facilitate the elongation of rice roots. The principle of “using the crude fertilizer as the basis while fine fertilizer on the surface” shall be applied. 1.3.7 Traditional Ecological Technology for Pest Control Insecticide at the Waking of Insects. At the Waking of Insects Festival of the year, local farmers sprinkle lime water over the eaves and corners of their houses to prevent insects and disease. Ecological pest control. The most commonly used method is control of pests by ducks or fish breeding in paddy fields within the rice-duck or rice-fish model. In addition, the frogs are very well protected in this area to control pest. Homemade pesticide for pest control. Plants such as Tea leave pies, tobacco water and yellow vine, Chinese Azalea Flower and others are used to control pests. 1.3.8 Traditional Farming Tools Terraced field farming in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces mainly relies on the traditional labor-based methods by using manpower, animal power, hand tools, iron tools and others. The traditional tools used in paddy farming include ploughs, iron harrow, wood harrow, iron rakes, wood rakes, iron hoes, rakes with four teeth, and others (Figure 16). The traditional tools for rice harvesting include sickles, squared barrels, bamboo baskets, and bamboo dustpans, etc. (Figure 17), in which the squared barrels are the most commonly seen and used. During the rice harvest season, rice plants are cut down to dry in sunny weather for 1-2 days and then the farmers stand around the squared barrels with rice plants in their hands to thresh the rice grain into the squared barrels. The traditional drying tools are mainly bamboo mat (Figure 18)
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China which usually set aside in the flat ground to facilitate the storage. The traditional drought resistant tools are mainly the dragon-bone waterwheel (Figure 19). The uneven distribution of water in terraced fields forced farmers to take measures to resist the drought events, which led to the invention of dragon-bone waterwheels that are mainly used through manpower stepping to transport water from low-lying area to the higher altitude regions. The traditional food processing tools include stone mills, rocks for grinding rice, stone mortar, rice sieve, rounded pan, dust pan, etc. The other traditional farming tools remained in local area include fishing baskets, rain clothes, bamboo hats, wooden buckets, thick bamboo tube, etc. (Figure 20).
Figure 16. Traditional Farming Tools
Figure 17. Traditional Harvest Tools
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Figure 18. Traditional Drying Tools for Rice and Grain
Figure 19. Dragon-bone Waterwheel
Figure 20. Other Traditional Farming Tools
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
1.4 Cultures, Value Systems and Social Organizations
The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces located in a region that integrated and blended southern rice culture and the fishing and hunting culture of mountainous region inhabited mainly by Miao and Yao ethnic groups. The agricultural production in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is relatively lower than that of plain regions requiring local people to gain more foods through other ways, such as capturing fish and shrimp as well as animal hunting to sustain their daily lives. Meanwhile, the steep reclamation of terraced fields and the humid and rainy weather led to the relatively high probability of natural disasters, such as landslides, collapse and others. Historically, the ancestors of the Miao, Yao and Dong ethnic groups were active in the Xinhua Ziquejie terraces for a long period of time. Therefore, the unique natural conditions, the rich natural resources, the production mode combining farming, fishing and hunting, the succession of many ethnic groups over a long period of time in this region, and together with many other factors, have resulted in the diverse and distinctive intangible cultural heritage in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, which are the important characteristics of the traditional culture of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces (See Table 6).
Table 6. List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Item level Numbers Examples Notes National level 2 Xinhua Folk Songs, Martial Arts of Meishan Including Provincial level 2 Xinhua Folk Songs, Martial Arts of Meishan national (Hunan Province) level City level 2 Hometown of Chiyou, Waters of Meishan (Loudi City) legend of Tianzishan Mountain, Sanhe Soup, Bamboo Weaving of Meishan, Changxin Including County level Festival, Meishan Elegy, Nuo Lion Mask Dance, 15 provincial ( Xinhua County) Meishan Nuo Opera, Bamboo Drama of Xinhua, level Di Hua Drums, Xinhua Printmaking, Meishan Medicine
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
1.4.1 Traditional Belief Featured with Unique Wu Nuo Witchcraft Culture Traditional cultural beliefs in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces reflect characteristics of Wu Nuo witch craft culture, which takes the polytheism as the main feature (Figure 21). Wu Nuo folk activities expressed the worship of local people to the ancestor named Chiyou. Meanwhile, through the worship of the founder Zhang Wulang and White Goddess that represent the gods of Meishan, local people express their hope and good wishes of achieving harmonious coexistence with the natural environment and maintaining sustainable development. First of all, Nuo opera (Figure 22), Nuo dance, Nuo lion mask dance (Figure 23) are important activities to express worship for Chiyou. Nuo opera, Nuo dance and Nuo lion mask dance are dance forms developed and evolved from primitive ritual activities. The actors performed with props, such as Nuo mask, wood knife, wood gun, dummy, and musical instruments and other props, and dance moves to express people’s worship for their ancestors. Secondly, though the worship for gods of mountains, gods of waters, gods of thunder and other gods, local people express their hopes and good wishes of achieving harmony with the natural environment. For example, local people pray for good weather and abundant harvests in the coming year by inviting Taoist priest at the Lunar New Year day to resort to magic arts, which actually express the people’s reverence for the natural environment. Thirdly, local people shows their worship for gods mastering the production techniques to express their hope for a better life, such as founder Zhang Wulang, who mastered the techniques of hunting and fishing and was able to cut a mountain for cultivating fields; and the White Goddess who was in charge of poultry. These unique beliefs help people to constrain their daily behavior and protect the environment of the terraced fields actively. For example, bounded by beliefs mentioned previously, local people will not cut down trees on the upper terraced fields and will not destroy the mountains in the upper areas for farming purposes as well. Traditional beliefs are of great importance to maintain the sustainable development of the terraced fields.
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Figure 21. Nuo Mask
Figure 22. Nuo Drama
Figure 23. Nuo Lion Mask Dance
1.4.2 Unique Festivals and Customs Special festivals and customs of the Ziquejie terraces are listed as the following:
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Figure 24. Festivals and Customs of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces
(1) Eating Glutinous Rice Cake on Spring Sacrifice Day The Spring Equinox is named as Spring Sacrifice Day by Xinhua people, which signals the coming of spring. This is also a time for snakes and other pests to wake up from their winter hibernation. Therefore, people would use glutinous rice cake to stick the pests in their holes with the hope to prevent them from harming the agricultural production in the coming year. This practice has gradually evolved into the custom of eating of glutinous rice cake on Spring Sacrifice Day. In Xinhua region, people call the glutinous rice cake ate on Spring Sacrifice Day as “Che Ba”, which means “stick the snake holes” in local expression. There is an old saying that “eating the glutinous rice cake on Spring Sacrifice Day can expel snakes from the house”. (2) Celebrating the Birthday of Cattle on April 8th of Lunar Calendar Cattle have a very important position in the hearts of Xinhua people. Xinhua people believe that April 8th of Lunar Calendar is the birthday of cattle. On this special day, both farmers and cattle are given a day off from working to show the respect and care of farmers for the cattle. (3) Changxin Festival On June 6th of Lunar Calendar, Xinhua people make glutinous rice cake from the newly harvested rice to sacrifice for gods and also to pray for a good harvest in the coming year. (4) Middle-autumn Festival In Xinhua, except for the common customs of eating moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival, local people carry on some other activities, such as burning
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China pagoda, stealing vegetables from the fields, praying for children. Among them, praying for children is a unique folk activity to Xinhua and is also very popular. Burning pagoda: people build hollow pagoda piled with crocks and burn firewood inside. By 9 or 10 pm, the pagoda is burned into red all over it. When burning pagoda activity reaches its climax, powder mixed with sulfur, charcoal, saltpeter are thrown to the pagoda, causing the rising of the red and green flames from the fire. Stealing vegetables from the fields: during the Middle-autumn Festival, people are allowed to steal vegetables and fruits from someone else’s garden, which is forgivable even being caught by the owner. But the stolen vegetables and fruits can only be eaten on site, taking away is not allowed. Praying for children: children steal a wax gourd, dress it up as a boy, and then put it on the bed of the people who has no boys. After eating the peanuts and sunflower seeds offered by the host, the children are ready to leave. One of the children might suddenly claim something is forgotten on the “wax gourd boy” being left in bed and run over to it and pull the melon wine, then the water in the wax gourd bursts out and wet the quilt. At this moment, all children would clap their hands and shout “Oh ho ho – urine is released!” in loud voices. The host would laugh with joy together with those children rather than scold them. This game is highly welcomed and enjoyed by both adults and children in Xinhua County. (5) Slaughter of Pig on the Laba Festival Farmer households slaughter pigs on December 8th of the Lunar Calendar and to thank the protection and bless of Meishan gods by redeeming a vow to a god with pig heads. This ceremony is also performed to pray for bumper harvest and thriving of domestic animals in the coming year. When the ritual is completed, a huge pot of “pork blood soup” shall be prepared, and friends shall be invited to share this delicious meal. Meanwhile, cooked blood of the pig shall be distributed to neighbors. 1.4.3 Traditional Folk Arts (1) Grass Dragon Dance
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Dragon made of vanilla is closely related to the rice terraced culture in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces (Figure 25). Local people take this kind of grass dragon as the incarnation of god of the five cereals, and the Mother Goddess, who are protecting the prosperous harvests, household security, and prosperity in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. Whenever serious pests or drought occur, people go to the fields to dance with grass dragon to pray for controlling the pests or resisting the drought. During the Spring Festival, grass dragon dance come into each household to pray for gods’ blessing for the safety and prosperity of their families. In addition to the dragon head and dragon tail, grass dragon normally has 7 to 9 arches in the middle. The dragon bone is made of bamboo and is tightly fastened to a wooden stick about 2 meters in length. Three thick braids made of woven straw are used to put together the dragon head, arches and dragon tail. A linking distance of 5-7 chi per arch is maintained (about 3 chi =1 meter). The distance between dragon head and the first arch is 7chi, and the distance between the following arches is successively shortened and the distance between the final two arches is about 5 chi. Before the grass dragon dance, rituals to invite the gods are performed. Gods of “three-qing”, “two emperors”, Queen Mother, King of local temple and land god of local region are normally invited. When the inviting rituals are completed, grass dragon dance come into each household. After dance in each household, the host shall send a red envelope, glutinous rice cake, and other gifts to the dragon dancers, and then set off the firecrackers to send the dragon off. When closing the grass dragon dance, the dragon tail exit first, followed by the turning around of dragon head to head for the next household. After the grass dragon dance is conducted in each household, complex closing ceremony is held by a Buddhist or Taoist priest to claim the completion of the grass dragon dance ceremony.
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Figure 25. Grass Dragon Dance
(2) Meishan Martial Arts Meishan martial art is already listed as State-level Intangible Cultural Heritage of China, which fully reflects the folk life and cultural traditions of the Meishan region. Meishan martial art was formed in the harsh natural environment and social environment of frequent fighting. Historically, the ancestors of Meishan area gradually formed a simple and practical martial art school in the daily life and production process which featured defense-based and capable of both attack and defense. Among them, the martial art in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces has the unique styles. First, in terms of the instrument used, there are pitchforks, iron rakes and iron rulers used in hunting as well as wooden benches, square table sticks, long chimney, umbrellas, and other things for daily use. Secondly, many of the martial art techniques and actions have evolved from the daily farming and hunting labor and other production processes (Figure 26).
Figure 26. Meishan Martial Art
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
(3) Xinhua Folk Songs Xinhua folk songs are also listed as State-level Intangible Cultural Heritage of China and widely distributed. Folk songs in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces has the features of high tunes, loud and clear singing, which is These unique folk songs that can only be found in Xinhua County (Figure 27). The formation of Xinhua folk songs is closely related to the historical natural ecological environment and the production conditions in this region. In ancient time, the reclamation of terraced fields was generally conducted at areas far from the villages. Therefore, when people went to work in the terraced fields, particularly those close to the forest edges and untraversed regions, they might encounter wild beasts and other animals, which would bring extreme danger to them. Therefore, people might beat the gongs or chant or sing the folk songs to scare away the animals in lurk; at the same time, singing folk songs can effectively relieve fatigue during the labor and make the farmers relax. Xinhua Folk songs have a close relationship with the daily life. A lot of folk songs in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces describes the daily production and labor scenes, such as the “rice planting song” that boasts the production process in terraced paddy fields, and the “Brother is hunting birds in the mountains” that depicts the hunting process.
Figure 27. Xinhua Folk Songs
1.4.4 Traditional Villages Featured by Plank Houses Houses in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces have experienced a development process from rock shelters to plank houses, and then to stone houses. The primitive rock shelter was built in accordance to the rock and used trees as the walls, which actually
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China was a “semi-underground” type of residential building. The plank house was evolved from the rock shelter. Ancient residents usually selected to excavate the soil cave in a cliff wall and put wood and bark around the cave as fence. Later, with the development of production practice, people started to replace the primitive grotto or soil cave with laid stones or piled bricks. With wooden roof lying on top of the erecting walls, the stone house was built. People in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces pay special attention to the construction of their houses. Before the selection of the house location, a geomancer shall be invited to check out the geomancy (Feng Shui) of the house, mainly to see whether the construction site would match the birth date of the owner. When the construction site is determined, a good timing to start construction would be selected too. After the house foundation is built, a cock is killed when the frame of main gate is erected, and a piece of red cloth written with “North Star will always shine” shall be hanged on it. Firecrackers shall be set out when the cross beam of the house is erected, and the host shall offer a feast for the entire construction worker to “satisfy their appetite”. Existing traditional villages well reserved in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are Louxia Village and Zhenglong Village. Louxia Village is located at the north of the Shuiche Town, with a long history that can be traced back to Jianglong period of Song Taizu (960-963 AD). It is listed as one of the provincial historical and cultural villages in Hunan province. Most traditional folk houses in this village are plank houses with wood as the raw material and two-story column-and-tie construction as the main external construction style. Old House Courtyard, Moon-shaped Curtyard, Five-room Courtyard, Xianghua Courtyard, and some other ancient buildings are very well reserved in Louxia Village. The whole village was built up to the mountains with two opposite peaks in front the village. Houses in the village are located in turn along the hillsides until half way up the mountain, ascending like stairs up the hill but well-proportioned, reflecting the principle of “imitation of nature to achieve harmonious between man and earth” proposed by ancient ancestors when they created these settlements. From the
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China perspective of evolution and development history of the village, Sixiang Study Room and Cangxi Temple are the oldest buildings reserved in Louxia Village, which were also the core areas of the village for its development and aggregation. In terms of inhabitant constitution, most of the inhabitants in Louxia Village are the descendants of families surnamed Luo, with typical characteristics of clan kinship. Meanwhile, tribes with surnamed Luo also attach great importance to the education and culture for the future generations so as to pass on knowledge, and maintain a typical farming-education culture. Zhenglong Village, located at the northeast of Shuiche Town, is now listed as one of the traditional villages of China. A large number of ganlan-style wooden houses were reserved in Zhenglong Village. Most of them were built in years between the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, and had a history for almost one hundred years. Houses were built along the mountain, with two stories and exterior wood walls. Gable walls on both sides were made of bamboo and painted in white, and the roof was covered with small black and green tiles (Figure 28). From a distance, it seems that the entire wooden buildings in the village are concentrated and densely arranged, but with a close look you would find that each independent building has a small courtyard that provides enough space for drying crops and planting vegetables, fruits, or even feng shui trees. Individual houses are connected by stone roads leading to every corner of the village.
Figure 28. Traditional Folk Houses
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
1.4.5 Unique Hot and Sour Food Culture With the relative high altitude, abundant rainfall, and cloudy weather throughout the year in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, it is difficult to preserve fresh food for a long time because of the relative high air humidity. This feature of the natural environment had profound impacts on the production and daily life for local people. They need to prevent rheumatic diseases in everyday life. In practice, it is increasingly recognized that people can effectively prevent rheumatic diseases by reasonable diet consisting of pickled cabbage, pepper, and wild pepper. As a result, t a hot and sour diet was formed, taking “dispelling dehumidification and sweating to decrease internal heat” as the main characteristics. Meanwhile, preservation methods such as salted or smoked after salted are used to preserve food, such as thick chili sauce, chopped hot pepper, white pepper, salted vegetables, firewood smoked meats, smoked duck and fire roasted fish. In addition, local snacks are mainly made of special products of the Ziquejie terraces, such as sticky rice, finger millet, buckwheat, fern root and other unique products. At the same time, for the convenience of carrying and eating, most snacks are made into the typical form of stuffed bun which is commonly seen in southern areas, including leafy stuffed bun, finger millet stuffed bun, Glutinous Rice Starch stuffed bun, raw rice bun, navel shape stuffed bun and etc. Tea, rice wine and cold drinks are used to form the beverage with local characteristics. There are Gong tea, mashed tea and barley tea. The main type of rice wine is the brewed sticky rice wine specialty made in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. The cold drinks refer to the unique drink made of the fruits of Liangshu Tree-the endemic vines in this region. The overall characteristic of traditional food culture in the Ziquejie terraces is formed based on the local products and also adapted to the characteristics of local natural environment. For example, the typical “ten courses of meat, ten courses of vegetables and ten kinds of drinks”. The “ten courses of meat” include Sanhe soup, snow balls, pounded duck, rice flour meat, vinegar and sour fish soup, mud fish with tofu, duck bun, steamed duck with chestnut, pig’s blood bun. The “ten courses of vegetables” include glutinous rice cake, raw rice bun, rice cupcake, Ma Lianhuang, coarse cake, glutinous rice starch, fern root cake,
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China fried rice and peanut bun, rice powder with pepper, navel shape bun. The “ten kinds of drinks” include fermented glutinous rice wine, sweetened distilled grain wine, sweet wine, rice liquor, cellar wine, barley wine, cold drinks, mashed bean and Gynostemma pentaphyllum
Table 7. Traditional Food Culture in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Category Illustration Examples To conduct salted and smoked preservation Smoked firewood smoked meats, smoked methods on home-raised livestock, poultry and products duck, fire roasted fish fish to ensure easy preservation Eggplant peel, white pepper, Salted Salted vegetables, supplemented by ginger, salt chopped hot pepper, thick chili products black bean and other condiments sauce, radish salted with thick chili sauce, salted vegetables A cooking style combined local properties and Sanhe soup, snow balls, pounded went through long-term development and duck, rice flour meat, vinegar Style of evolution that has become one of the important and sour fish soup, fish gel, mud cooking cooking schools of Hunan province with a sour fish with tofu, duck bun, steamed and spicy characteristics and the function to duck with chestnut eradicate cold and dehumidification glutinous rice cake, raw rice bun, made of special products of the terraced region, rice cupcake, pig’s blood bun, such as purple rice, sticky rice, finger millet, Ma Lianhuang, coarse Snacks buckwheat and other unique products, has the cake, glutinous rice starch, fern character of being convenient for carrying and root cake, fried rice and peanut eating bun, rice powder with pepper Meishan Gong tea, Gynostemma pentaphyllum tea, moon-shape Made of tea, soil bean, barley and Liangshu vein Beverag tea, cloud and mist tea, mashed specially produced in this region, has the functions es tea (three kinds of beans and of quench the thirst and satisfy the hunger three kinds of rice), barley tea and cold drink Made of carefully selected sticky rice of high fermented glutinous rice wine, Liquor quality produced in local area as raw material sweetened distilled grain wine, drinks through the processes of soaked, steamed, jar sweet wine, rice liquor, cellar closure and other elaborate traditional crafts wine, barley wine
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Frozen Fish of Shuiche Town Sanhe Soup
Snow Balls Coarse Bun with Steamed Chicken
Figure 30. Traditional Food Culture
1.4.6 Mutual Cooperative Labour Relations Individual unit area of the Ziquejie terraces is relatively small. Cultivation is mainly cultivated by manpower and a kind of traditional labor-intensive agricultural production. Therefore, a working partnership featured with mutual assistance and cooperation between local farmers is formed. To be specific, in the busy season, it is difficult for labor force in one household to complete the big amount of farming work in terraced fields in time. , Therefore, local farmers cooperate and help each other by the way of “exchange labor”, “labor repay”, “labor switch”, “casual labor”, “labor assistance” and others. As a typical mutual cooperation model between labors, this labor relationship not only solves the temporary labor shortage problem during agricultural production, but also helps to achieve a harmonious coexistence between neighbors. Thus, this labor relationship has a positive reference for the communication and association within the neighborhood and the community now and in the future.
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
1.4.7 Local Rules and Regulations From generation to generation, Local Farmers in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are consciously abide by some of the village rules and regulations related to water distribution management and water engineering maintenance in terraced fields. For example, water resource at higher places shall be used for irrigation of terraced fields with higher altitude while water resource at lower places shall be used for irrigation of terraced fields with lower altitude (Figure 31). As a rule, water from a higher level of channel is used to irrigate terraced fields in higher places. The number and location of terraced fields to be irrigated by each channel is regulated beforehand. With simple control and regulation facilities, like water distribution recorded by carved wood or rock (Figure 32), effective water management can be realized. Water shortage might occur at the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces some time, but disputes between farmers never occur.
Figure 31.Water Distribution in Terraced Fields
Figure 32.Water Distribution Recorded by Carved Rock
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
1.5 Remarkable Landscapes, Land and Water Resources
Management Features
1.5.1 Composite Landscape Based on its topography, geomorphology, ecological environment and traditional buildings, a composite landscape that integrated terraced fields, meteorological scenery, folk houses and forests is formed the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. There are more than 500 levels of terraced fields in the Ziquejie terraces. Most of them are located at an altitude of 500-1000 meters with the highest elevation of 1200 meters and the lowest elevation of 450 meters. Slope of the terraces is between 25º-40º, with the deepest slope of 50º. Traditional ganlan-style folk houses and geomantic forests are interspersed between layers of terraced fields and provide a harmonious landscape of the four elements, namely the terraced fields, vegetation, folk houses, and rivers (Figure 33).
Figure 33.Vertical Landscape of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces
The total core area of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is about 80,000 ha, of which the concentrated pieces are more than 20,000 ha. The largest single piece of terraced field is less than 1 mu while the smallest can only be inserted with dozens of seedlings. The five representative concentrated terraced fields are Longpu, Shifeng, Changshi, Baishui and Jinlong, while different landscape features are shown in different fields.
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
For example, the Yajizha terraces within Changshi stretches along the hillside for a long distance and is of grand scale (Figure 34); the Baguachong terraces in Shifeng wanders through the valleys and shows a magnificent varied scenery with the Eight Diagrams pattern in it (Figure 35); Laozhuang terraces in Jinlong is gently surrounding hills near the village and forms a unique landscape showing the harmony between natural and human by integrating the simple structured folk houses and the terraced fields with lively lines (Figure 36).
Figure 34. Yajizhai Terraces
Figure 35. Baguachong Terraces
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Figure 36. Laozhuang Terraces
With weather changes, coupled with dynamic changes of farming season, the landscape in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is distinctive in different seasons. In spring, it is filled with abundant water, which looks like mirrors. In summer, it is filled with young and green rice seedlings. In autumn, it is filled with golden rice which is ready for harvest. In winter, it is covered by heavy white snow.
Figure 37. Landscape of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces in Four Seasons
1.5.2 Landscape of Farmlands Land use of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is mainly dominated by forest land and cultivated land. Forest land in core area of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is about 30,510 ha, accounting for 68.3% of the total area, while cultivated land in core area of
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is about 7,564 ha, accounting for 16.94% of the total area, of which 80.5 percent of the arable land are paddy fields and terraced paddy fields accounted for 87.6%. Rice cultivation in terraced paddy fields is the dominant cropping patterns in this region. Local farmers put fish or ducks into the terraced rice paddy fields (Figure 38 and 39) to improve economic efficiency and increase the diversity of food as well as to improve the ecological environment of farmland. Meanwhile, farmers also plant a variety of crops, vegetables fruits, herbs, etc., in dry lands to provide different agricultural products, which enrich the landscape of local farmland (Figure 40).
Figure 38. Rice-Fish farming in Terraced Paddy Fields
Figure 39. Rice-duck farming in Terraced Paddy Fields
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Figure 40. Landscape of Farmlands
1.5.3 Landscape of Soil and Water Management The natural gravity irrigation system of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces (Figure 41), together with traditional cultivation methods, water conservation and retention, forest protection, water management, and the other village rules and regulations, has formed a highly effective soil and water management system to realize the gravity irrigation and soil conservation in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces.
Figure 41. Natural Gravity Irrigation System
In addition, in order to protect the water conservation function of the terraced paddy fields, enough water is kept in the terraced paddy fields even in winter to prevent the soil of the ridges from mud crack that might in turn damage the water conservation and retention. This practice has formed a unique landscape in winter (Figure 42).
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Figure 42. Water Conservation in Winter
1.5.4 Village Cultural Landscape Formation of villages in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is closely related to the formation and evolution of terraced fields. Scattered folk houses make it convenient for local farmers to work in the nearby fields and use water, reflecting the settlement principle that “the best settlement place should be near by the mountains and rivers, and also adapt to local conditions”. Plank folk houses with simple structure and the terraced fields with majestic landscape are silhouetted against each other while squared and painted white window panes and the pastoral scenery perfectly complement each other (Figure 43).
Figure 43. Folk Houses in Changshi Village
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
2. Historic Relevance
2.1 The Origin and Evolution History of the Xinhua Ziquejie
Terraces
The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces has a long history, but since the ancestor who lived in this region has no direct written record of its history, the historical research of this region is mainly based on the research of relevant literatures, surname genealogy records and genealogy records. In 1998, three grinded stone spears were excavated from Longxi Village of Wentian Town in Xinhua County, which were identified by the experts as weapons of the late Neolithic Age. A paper by a Gong Sheng (senior licentiate by imperial favor) named Chen Changbing was recorded in the Xinhua County Annals in Dao Guang period of the Qing Dynasty (1782-1850). It recorded that "a person surnamed Feng hided in this region to take refuge from the wars in the Qin Dynasty. He lived beneath the rocks and took grass, fruits and vegetables from the nature to survive. But later he disappeared and never was heard of. Local people built the Tianyun temple to worship him”. This record serves as the evidence that the Ziquejie region was already populated by human in the Qin Dynasty. The fifth year of King Hangao (202 BC), Wu Rui was assigned by the emperor as the King of Changsha while Mei Juan followed him and resided in Meilin (plum forest), which gave this region the name of “Mei Shan”. In Tang and Song Dynasties, the imperial government encouraged cultivation on “highlands”. The so-called highlands or mountain lands were fields cultivated along the hills and formed level differences in heights, commonly known as ‘terraced fields’. The terraced fields had been very popular in Hunan in the Song Dynasty. According to the Xinhua Records of Geographical Names, Louxia Village in Shuiche Town is inhabited by a tribe surnamed Luo and the first member of this tribe to migrant to this region was named Luo Yanyi. The migration was conducted in the years of Taipingxingguo in the Northern Song Dynasty (976-983). The village name of Louxia was given by the terraced fields on the slopes behind the village which looked similar
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China to stairs. It is clear that as early as the Northern Song Dynasty, terraced fields in Ziquejie region begun to take shape. In Xining period of the Song dynasty, Zhang Chun was sent to Meishan by the imperial government to “recruit Meishan”. Since then, Xinhua County was established to manage Meishan, which signals the allegiance to the government of ethnic groups in Meishan. In 1072, Zhang Chun wrote a poem entitled “Cultivation of Meishan”, which says that “continuous houses are mainly plank houses while the terraced lands are most barren when the people mainly rely on slash-and-burn farming method”, which served as the recorded authentic description of the development of terraced fields in Xinhua County by Miao, Yao and other ethnic groups at that time. The scale of terraced fields enlarged gradually during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. With the development of terraced fields in the Ziquejie region, many public facilities providing direct service for the agricultural production had been built up. Take the tea-booth along the Xixihe River as an example; more than ten tea-booths were built successively in Ming and Qing Dynasties, including Danru Pavilion, Jiqing Ting Pavilion, Zerun Pavilion and a dozen of other Pavilions.
2.2 Integrated Culture Promote the Sustainable Development of Terraced Fields
The formation and development of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is the integration and common development process of ethnic groups like Miao, Yao, Dong, Han and other ethnic groups. Through exchange and integration of production technology, lifestyle, culture, religion and other aspects, people from different ethnic groups have realized the in-depth exchanges on the terraced field farming culture, so as to achieve the sustainable development of terraced cultivation and farming. In return, culture integration of ethnic groups has brought momentum for the further development and evolution of production system of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. According to some research results, ethnic groups living in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces region are descendants of Jiu Li and San Miao. According to legend, Shan Juan, the descendant of Chi You and tribe chief of San Miao, took refuge at Wuling
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
(now Xupu County) to avoid the suppression of Emperor Shun. He was buried at Chahe Mountain (back-land of ancient Meishan, lies along the Zijiang River, which came to be considered as quite a part of Changsha Man or Wuling Man). Ancestors of inhabitants in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces region were also considered as the descendants of Panhu, the first ancestor of Miao and Yao ethnic groups, which is documented in the Record of Large-scale Troop Rallying of First Emperor in the Golden Throne written by folk master of Meishan. Historically, the Yao, Miao, She, Tujia and other ethnic groups are collectively referred to as “Mo Yao”. Three ancient sites of “rock shelter” inhabited by people of Yao ethnic group still remain in Longpu Village. Ancestors of inhabitants in Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces region were also considered as the descendants of Yue ethnic group in ancient times. Since ancient times, Hunan Province is the settlement place for Baiyue, therefore, the Meishan culture is characteristic of Yue ethnic group culture. During the transition from Sui Dynasty to Tang Dynasty, another ethnic group named Baihuyi with the dominated surname of Fu moved into Meishan region, which later considered as the ancestors of people from Tujia ethnic group. Currently, Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces region is dominated by Han Nationality. Historically, some clansmen of Miao and Yao were dead in wars, some of them moved to other regions, while some of them integrated with the Han people. Especially after the Song Dynasty when the imperial government adopted the policy that “cattle and seeds would be given to anyone who choose to register in this region”. People would be provided with paddy fields and dry lands after they completed household registration. Meanwhile, people of ethnic groups who were outstanding would also be given the opportunity to take official positions. With all these measures, many ethnic people in Meishan region were gradually assimilated. Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces region supported the surviving and procreating of many ethnic groups in this region especially since the Song Dynasty when the imperial government completed the cultivation of Meishan region. The war continued year after year in other areas, while the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces “enjoyed peace
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China when the whole country was in war and enjoyed harvest when the whole country was suffering from severe droughts”. To some extent, it vividly described the important role of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces that played in the social and economic development. To the Qing Dynasty, rice produced in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces was sold to other places, in which the Tribute Rice from Huangjiling Mountain gained its widespread fame, which made Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces the production base of rice.
2.3 Incorporation of Rice Cultivation with Fishing and Hunting
Promote Sustainable Economic Development
The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces represent the unique traditional agricultural production pattern in southern China by incorporating rice cultivation in terraced fields and fishing and hunting in mountainous regions. This pattern provides main products and materials necessary for daily life of local farmer in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, which is also the most unique economic mode of production in this region for thousands of years. The long and prosperous cultivation history of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces has eloquently proved that the incorporation of rice cultivation in terraced fields and fishing and hunting in mountainous regions is the fundamental reason behind the sustainable and continuous development of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces in the socio-economic development process. Historically, many poets lively and vividly documented the unique mode of production in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces through their rich literature works. For example, “white towel on the heads and complex knots in the clothes; wild flowers and fruits can be seen everywhere while the green leaves falling on the shoulder” written by Zhang Chun; “clothing is made of colorful fiber; speech far different from the standard; slash-and-burn cultivation is adopted, and fruits are picked from the mountains where hunting is conducted ” written by Wu Zhiyao; and “why would the fields cultivated millet and grain through fire field farming method would be used to cultivate mulberry and fiber” written by Wu Juhou and so on. In terms of local topography, seventy percent of the Meishan region is mountainous areas while twenty percent are cultivated lands and the rest ten percent are water system. Dong people
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China and hunters scattered in the mountainous areas together with the common people living in the cultivated lands formed a social structure of fishing and hunting coexisting with farming. There was the existence of two different types of agricultural production, one was the rice cultivation in paddy fields, the other one was the farming of upland crops in slash and burn lands. Until now, the historical fishing and hunting culture in mountainous regions can be still traced from lifestyle of local farmers in the Ziquejie terraces, such as the worship for Zhang Wulang, who was not only the founder that cultivated the mountains and pioneered the farming in lands, but also a master in hunting and fishing.
2.4 Historical Model of Harmonious and Sustainable
Development of Human and Land
Historical and cultural tradition in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces has a distinctive characteristic, emphasizing that the production activities of local farmers must highly consist with the natural environment, such as production modes, folk house construction, and site selection of villages, cultural beliefs and even the behavior of people’s daily life. This reflects the traditional concept of the environmental protection proposed in ancient Chinese culture, which emphasized that people must “conform to the nature, conform to the historical trend to avoid harm, man-nature harmonization and change waste materials into things of value”. This philosophy that contains a profound sense of ecological ethics and rich agricultural wisdom is the cultural motivation to ensure the man-nature harmonization in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. In the long history of reclamation and cultivation activities, ancestors of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces had to overcome the harsh natural conditions of steep terrain. It is worth noting that, unlike terraces in other parts of the world, the slope of most terraced fields cultivated in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces exceeds the publicly recognized critical value of 25°. This special natural condition forced people to be more cautious about the possible adverse consequences of their production and life behaviors on the environment and thus to attach more emphasis on the protection of
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China the environment. In addition, the history of this region is filled with the outbreaks of long and large-scale military conflicts between the central government and the Miao, Yao and other ethnic groups, which forced the production of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces to be prioritized in the production and supply of necessary military materials for a large number of troops. All these reasons have made the ancestors in Ziquejie region to improve farming methods, improve water conservation and fertilizer retention, strengthen the ecological benefits of rice cultivation to ensure the sustainable support ability of the production systems of the terraced fields, such as water-logged compost - ridge repairing - seedlings transplantation - water conservation and management - harvesting, the pest control technology combined with natural ecological conditions. In summary, it is easy for us to find that the traditional culture of the Ziquejie Terraces are still showing its unique and incomparable charm of ecological civilization to the people around the world, which also makes it the lively case for other countries in the world to actively develop ecological agriculture.
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
3. Contemporary Relevance
3.1 Important Guarantee to Maintain Sustainable
Development of Agriculture
The evolution and development of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is the best example to demonstrate how to respect nature, conform to nature, protect nature and rationally use natural resources. It is not only in line with the “ecological agriculture”, “circular agriculture” and “low carbon agriculture” advocated by the government, but also helps to realize the grand goal for the construction of ecological civilization and beautiful China proposed by the 18th CPC National Congress. Protection of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces can promote the conservation of local agricultural biodiversity, livelihood security, excavation of traditional agricultural values, and development of modern ecological agriculture, which will not only generate significant ecological and social benefits, but also generate significant economic benefits. It is of great significance for the construction of rural ecological civilization, improvement of the ecological environment in rural areas, sustainable development of economy and society in rural areas, and the construction of beautiful countryside.
3.2 Important Foundation to Maintain Regional Ecological
Balance
The ecosystem of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces has many ecological services, such as maintenance of livelihood security, biodiversity conservation, water conservation, soil retention, climate regulation, eco-environment improvement of farmland, and others. This ecosystem has high degree ecosystem stability. Farmers of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces help to ensure food safety and maintain the rich biodiversity, since they insist on the traditional farming techniques with low dependence on pesticides and fertilizers. Local farmers also play an important role in maintaining the regional ecological balance by using traditional farming knowledge and technology, closing hillsides off to facilitate afforestation to improve forest vegetation coverage, intercropping moso, kiwi and other crops in the forest, as well as
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China other traditional dry land cropping methods to improve the agriculture ecosystem functions.
3.3 Typical Model for Utilizing the Multi-functionality of
Agriculture
Local farmers take advantage of the traditional farming knowledge and technology and the excellent ecological environment to develop high-quality agricultural production, to carry out deep processing of agricultural products and brand building in order to increase the added value for agricultural products. Currently, eight agricultural enterprises have been established in the core area of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. Some of their agricultural products have received the certification of organic, green product, or geographical indications. The “black tribute rice” brand has been created. The demonstration base of “black rice”, “red rice” and rice-fish farming have been set up. There is also the national ecological demonstration base of organic rice cultivation. Unique landscape system, rich tourism resources and unique regional culture of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces provide favorable conditions for the development of recreational agriculture in this region. The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces was approved as National Scenic Spot in December 2005, National AAAA Tourist Attraction in December 2012, and World Heritage Irrigation Structure in 2014. All these made the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces a place with a high scientific value and nature tourism value.
3.4 Important Approach to Improve the Livelihoods for Local
Farmers
With the development of sightseeing-tourism agriculture in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, local farmers have engaged in processing of local agricultural products. They set up shades or stalls to sell their locally produced agricultural products, such as black rice, red rice, and firewood smoked meats, finger millet, fish from the paddy fields, duck etc., which increase their income. With the development of tourism in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, some of the migrant workers have decided to return home
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China and started a business. For example, 18 people have already returned to Longpu Village to learn rice cultivation, rice-fish farming, rice-duck farming, and other traditional techniques. This helps to pass on the traditional farming knowledge and technology.
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
4. Threats and Challenges
4.1 Threats
4.1.1 Relative Low Comparative Benefits of Agricultural Production The sustainable development of terraced fields in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is restricted by the problems of part-time farming and aging of agricultural labors, low productivity, and high labor intensity. Limited space and narrow ridge of the terraced fields hindered the operation of agricultural machinery in the fields. As a result, the cultivation, fertilization, plantation and harvest of crops can only be completed by manpower. The production conditions still remain at the level of that in remote ancient times. According to estimates, production cost and the cost of wages in the rice cultivation in terraced fields have already exceeded the market value of rice products. In recent years, many challenges and problems have occurred in agriculture. For example, the price increase of agricultural materials causes the decrease of the agricultural comparative benefits; economic fluctuations led to increased uncertainty in the growth of farmers’ income; property income of farmers remained at a low level, the increased difficulty to promote farmers’ income growth, and the widened urban-rural income gap have not been fundamentally alleviated. 4.1.2 Increased Vulnerability of Ecosystem Caused by Extreme Weather The extreme drought events in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces have been increased dramatically in recent years. For example, from July 1 to August 15, 2013, controlled by the strong subtropical high pressure, Xinhua County experienced continuous hot weather with an average temperature of 31.6℃, which was the highest in history. The number of consecutive days with daily maximum temperature ≥35.0℃ was up to 36 days, which was a high record. During August 10-13, daily maximum temperature was more than 40℃ continuously with the highest temperature up to 40.8℃, breaking the historical high record. According to the field survey, 3 ha of terraced fields in Longpu Village became dry land due to the lack of water; other villages also experienced a small amount of terraced fields turning into dry lands due to the lack of water too. If we do not put more efforts for protecting the Xinhua
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Ziquejie Terraces under the threats of global climate change, many functions of this system will face increased challenges. 4.1.3 Underdeveloped Infrastructure of Terraced Fields In recent years, with the increase of human activities, construction of roads and infrastructures, and many other reasons, irrigation channels in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces formed in the past have been hindered with blockages over time. Some functions of the irrigation system have been lost due to the lack of management over a long period of time. Severe leakages occurred in river dams and channels. Since the water conservancy facilities in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are in ancient condition, in which the dams were built of rocks and relied on firewood, grass and mud to prevent leakage, the drainage channels were made of soil with leakage all over the place. All these deficiencies resulted in relatively low utilization efficiency of water irrigation. Due to lack of special maintenance funds, these issues have not been properly resolved yet. 4.1.4 Tourism Facilities and Reception Conditions Need to be Improved The tourism development of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces was started relatively late, therefore the constructions of tourism facilities, construction land for tourism development, and other supporting facilities still need to be further improved. Transportation in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces mainly relies on road transportation of State Road 207, Highway S312, S225, S217 and railway transportation lines of Jiaozuo-Liuzhou, Hunan-Guizhou and Luoyang-Zhanjiang railway lines. Currently, most visitors to the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are the tourists from Loudi, Shaoyang, and Yiyang in relatively close distance. Most of them come here for short distance trip or self-drive tourists. With the opening of Loudi-Huaihua Highway and Shanghai-Kunming high-speed rail in 2014, transportation to the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is more convenient than ever before. However, road conditions of most roads are still very poor and need to be further improved. Since transportation in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is within the complicated terrain, the sight-seeing spots are far away from each other, together with the environmental vulnerability of the Xinhua Ziquejie
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Terraces and the underdeveloped transport planning within the scenic areas, the transportation is still a big problem for the tourism development in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. In addition, the reception capacity in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is limited and the services still need to be improved.
4.2 Challenges
4.2.1 Traditional Agriculture Suffers from the Impacts of Modern Agriculture Nowadays, the traditional animal-based intensive farming system in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces has changed dramatically. Lacking of policy guidance, local farmers are inclined to cultivate hybrid rice with higher yield and relatively simple daily management, and also use chemical fertilizer and pesticides in the fields to ensure their livelihoods and the short-term economic benefits. At present, except for a few households that are members of the organic black rice production base, more than 80% of the local farmers choose to grow hybrid rice, causing the decrease in plantation of traditional rice varieties with local characteristics. The area of terraced fields with animal-based cultivation is also significantly reduced. According to the field survey, the number of cattle raised by the 183 households of Longpu Village in 2004 was 185. However it had decreased to only 20 in 210 households in 2014. If guidance is not put in place as soon as possible, under the impacts of modern agriculture, agriculture in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces will be not only in the danger of losing the advanced concepts and agricultural wisdom inherent in the system, but also put its agricultural and cultural diversity under threats. Meanwhile, the inheritance of the traditional agriculture based on human-land harmony and intensive farming will also be challenged 4.2.2 Importance of Agricultural Production Weakened by Urbanization Due to relatively low comparative benefits from farming in the terraced fields, a large number of rural laborers went out as migrant workers and no longer took agricultural production as their only source of income. At the same time, low-income and high intensity of agricultural production greatly reduced the attachment of new
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China generation of farmers to their farmlands. Terraced fields being left uncultivated has become one of the most outstanding social problems in current rural regions. According to the field survey, more than 70% of young rural residents in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces went out and became migrant workers and their non-farming income had accounted for 78% of the total household income. In practice, because of the loss of young labors, only the elderly, women and children were left behind to take on agricultural production, and it is difficult for them to protect the terraced fields effectively even they have strong willingness to do so. This will result in the gradual loss of the traditional farming techniques, the intensive farming methods, the traditional village rules and regulations, and the traditional folk customs. The sustainable development of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces will be greatly threatened. The inheritance of the traditional agriculture will also face great challenges. 4.2.3 Traditional Culture Influenced by the Development of Modernization The modernization development has gradually changed the lifestyle and organization mode of local farmers in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces and resulted in the negative impacts on the inheritance of traditional folk customs and culture. First of all, the young generation of farmers has low sense of identity towards traditional agriculture and lack of interests in the knowledge and technology of traditional agriculture. A status quo survey has been conducted to investigate the villagers living in the core areas of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces about the “familiar or master” degree of the agricultural heritage knowledge. The participants were separated into three groups, including the young group with the age of under 40, the middle aged group with the age between 40 and 60, and the elderly group with the age of over 60. The result shows that whether in terms of the recognition degree of the features and elements of cultural heritage in terraced fields, or in terms of the degree of their inheritance, the level of the young group was significantly lower. For the elderly group, 100% of them thought that farming system, village regulations and folk customs were the agricultural heritage elements that need to be inherited, while the
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China recognition rate among young people was only 33%; in particular, the recognition rate among part-time farmers, who were frequently working outside and college students that return hometown, was only 25%. In all kinds of folk customs, young people under the age 40 had relatively high inheritance rate towards food culture and heritage of the martial arts, with a rate about 70%. However, in terms of local folk songs, except for those young people who work in scenic spots and have been trained, most young people could not sing any folk songs revealing the endangered situation of local folk songs. Secondly, the accelerated tourism development of the Ziquejie terraces, and the increased contact and exposure to the outside world, foreign culture, especially the commercial culture, have great and growing impacts on local culture. To cater the taste of tourists or to satisfy the excessive pursuit of economic benefits, shoddy cultural products are made for sale. As a result some of the traditional culture techniques cannot be inherited in their first-class level. In the past, traditional folk activities and celebrations had to be held at specific time and in specific place and they would be celebrated in the traditional ways with traditional contents. However, nowadays, to meet the needs of tourists, traditional folk activities and celebrations had become the fast-food style culture, and failed to demonstrate and unleash its core values. Currently, not many ancient customs and folklore with distinctive characteristics of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces remain. In addition, some new residential construction no longer inherits the style of traditional houses. 4.2.4 Ecosystems Affected by Many Factors Tourism in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces has been developed rapidly and the visitors increased rapidly. Since it was open to the outside world in 2008, the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces have been overcrowded with tourists, with the maximum of 50,000 tourists per day in tourism seasons. The new forms of tourism, such as the agritourism, bring serious pollution and destruction. The waste water and garbage produced by slaughtering pigs, sheep, chickens, dogs and other animals and poultry for food consumption were increased greatly. Some tourists recklessly tread on grass and pick up branch of trees, destructing the vegetation to some degree. Some tourists misplace
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China garbage, or indiscriminately defecate on lands. In addition, disorder of residential scaffolding and squattering aggravates the state of environment. All the above factors also deteriorate the ecological environment quality of farmland at the same time. With the departure of rural labor force, modern agricultural technology with high yield and labor saving effects gradually replaces the traditional agricultural technology, leading to the increased usage of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in terraced fields. Reduced human and animal power, thinner plough layer of terraced fields, increased soil bulk density and weakened water conservation ability of soil resulted in the deterioration of environmental quality of farmlands.
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
5. Practical Considerations
5.1 Ongoing Efforts to Promote the GIAHS
In recent years, a series of measures have been taken by the Xinhua County to protect the Ziquejie terraces: (1) Construct Protection Mechanism to Strengthen Project Management The government of Xinhua County pays more attention to the protection and development of the Ziquejie terraces by taking it as a major strategic and key area to promote local development and actively applying for all kinds of cultural heritage conservation projects at all levels. In 2006, the scenic area management agency was established and scenic area management office was set up in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. The scope of its functions was clearly defined as scientific research, scientific propaganda, conservation of heritage sites, and tourism services. “Interim Protection Measures for the Ziquejie-Meishan Palace scenic area” was also issued to incorporate terraced fields and folks houses into a unified range of protection and management. In order to encourage local farmers to grow traditional high-quality agricultural products, the government developed a series of seed subsidy management practices and standards, and provided guidance for farmers in planting technology. The government of Xinhua County pays more attention to the protection and excavation of agricultural culture and landscape. The government has successively invested more than 200 million RMB to carry out various heritage conservation projects in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, including terraced field protection projects, natural gravity irrigation system restoration projects, comprehensive management projects of small watershed ecological environment, folk song training programs, residential landscape construction projects and viewing platform construction projects in scenic areas and others. The government also has adopted the “County with living culture and tourism” strategy for the revival, protection and development of Xinhua folk songs as one of its strategic tasks. In early 2005, leading group of “Folk cultural Heritage Rescue Project of Xinhua County” was set up and the “folk music and folk literature editorial team” was organized to compile local folk songs of Xinhua County
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China as pilot teaching materials. Ten folk song teams were organized to conduct training work at the early stage. Folk art workshops were held to fully tap local Nuo opera, martial arts, dance and folk grass dragon and other cultural resources of Shuiche Town. The troupe of folk customs and culture performing art was formed and had carried out a total of more than 10 cultural performances. In 2006, the “the Fourth Meishan Academic Seminar on Culture and the First Meishan Tourism and Culture Festival of China” was held. In the following years, “World Terraced Fields Seminar in Ziquejie”, “Seminar of Culture and Tourism Cooperation of Great Meishan”, “Dialogue of Liao Meixiang, the Leading Authority of Northern School of Yi-ology in Ziquejie”, “Terraced Fields Heritage Protection Seminar in Ziquejie” and other special academic research conferences were organized and held in succession to effectively promote the cultural excavation and landscape protection in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. More than 80 researchers and enthusiasts of Meishan culture participated in the “Seminar of the Excavation and Compiling of Tourism Resources of Meishan Culture” which was held in November, 2013, with the eldest of 82 and the youngest of only 25 years old. (2) Take Advantage of the Resources to Create High-quality Brand In 2004, the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces officially entered in the provincial candidate list for World Heritage by Hunan Province. In 2006, it was selected as the first batch of National Natural and Cultural Heritage and also entered in the national candidate list of World Cultural and Natural Heritage. In 2013, it was selected as the first batch of China Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (Figure 44). In 2014, it was listed in the first batch World Heritage Irrigation Structure. In addition, Xinhua folk songs were selected as the first batch of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Hunan Province in 2006 and the second batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage of China in 2008. Louxia Village was listed as the second batch of provincial-level historical and cultural village in 2009. Meishan Nuo Opera was selected as third batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage of China in 2011. Meishan Martial Arts were selected as the fourth batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage of China in 2014.
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
The government also actively promotes the industrialization of organic agriculture and has contributed to the establishment and development of 23 agricultural enterprises in Xinhua County, among which 8 are located in the core area of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. These agricultural enterprises are led by Hunan Zinong Agriculture & Forestry Investment Limited Liability Company, Ziquejie Branch of the Hunan Longping Hi-tech Specialized Grain Cooperative Association, and Hunan Zique Manor Ecological Agricultural Development Limited Liability Company. At present, some of these enterprises have been certified as national pollution-free agricultural products, green agricultural products, organic agricultural products, or received the geographical indications certification. They have established the brand of “purple tribute rice” and also adopted the business model by integrating enterprises, cooperatives, production bases and farmers to take advantages of the national land transfer policy in the implementation of standardization demonstration base construction projects of black Rice and red Rice in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, to develop the Ziquejie terraces as the national demonstration bases of organic rice planting.
Figure 44. Monument of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces as China-NIAHS
(3) Excavate the Cultural Connotation of Agriculture to Create Multifunctional Agriculture In order to fully demonstrate the multiple values of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, the Xinhua County attaches great importance to the in-depth excavation of agricultural culture in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces and proposes to take it as the core to develop the multifunctional agriculture in the system by the integrating of tourism
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China development, agricultural products processing, food culture and other aspects. , Xinhua County government has listed development of cultural tourism industry as the “No.1 Project” of the county and established the “Leading Group of Industries with Cultural Tourism Characteristic in Xinhua County” and “Xinhua County Cultural Tourism Investment Co., Ltd.”. Focusing on the Meishan Dragon Palace, Big Bear Mountain National Forest Park, Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces and other scenic areas, the government continuously expands the influences of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces by strengthening tourism promotion activities and organizing tourism recommendation fairs and festivals. Traditional farming methods of terraced fields are used to vigorously develop organic agriculture, focusing on the development of high quality black rice, purple rice, red rice, and other traditional food crops. Some other traditional varieties and specialty products, such as honeysuckle, tea and herbs are protected at the same time. Local high-quality traditional rice and other traditional agricultural resources are fully used for in-depth processing ecological agricultural products to upgrade the agricultural byproducts processing as leading industries and to increase the added value of agricultural products. Protection and inheritance of the traditional food culture and their cooking methods are also strengthened. Special teams have been set up to investigate and record the cooking methods, process and recipe of traditional snacks, traditional tea, traditional wine and traditional dishes through household survey and interviews. The corresponding video and photos, text and other data records are compiled. (4) Strengthen Propaganda Activities to Create Geographical Indications In order to effectively promote the agricultural heritage of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, a series of thematic traditional arts and cultural activities was organized and held. A variety of media have increased the publicity about the agricultural culture in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. The traditional farming culture museum was constructed and opened in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. In order to promote Xinhua folk songs as an outstanding folk culture tourism business card, Xinhua County government invested 150,000 RMB to coordinate and organize a professional team to
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China create and rehearse a large scale folk song opera entitled Mountain Treasures led by the Cultural Troupe of Xinhua County. In September 2011, the first International Rice Cultural Festival and Outdoor Living Festival in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces were held. In May 2012, the Chinese Photographers Association organized thousands of photographers nationwide to gather at the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces to jointly hold the First Tourism and Culture Festival of Great Meishan, attracting numerous media reports and many guests at home and abroad. Lots of other activities have been organized and held in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces to expand influences and impacts, such as “Chiyou Hometown-Meishan of Xinhua” National Photography Contest, “Ziquejie Cup” English TV Contest, and “Magic Great Meishan, Explore Ziquejie”. In addition, a documentary named “Walking on the table” has been made and played by CCTV 9 to promote local food culture and cultural landscape. The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces have been recognized as the “Hometown of Meishan Culture and Arts ", “Hometown of Chinese Poetry”, “Hometown of National Martial Arts”, “Hometown of Chiyou”, “Hometown of Chinese Folk Culture and Arts”, and so on.
5.2 Potentials and Opportunities for Sustainability and
Management of the GIAHS
5.2.1 Development Potential (1) Preferable Ecological Conditions Soil of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is sandy loam with rich organic matter content, excellent structural condition, and strong permeability. The PH value of this type of soil is acidic or neutral. The diversified land types are suitable for the growth of a variety of commercial crops and agricultural crops. Within the core area of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, the soil with extremely high, high, and middle level of organic matter content accounts for 38%, 16%, 28%, respectively. Located in mid and low latitude region, the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces belongs to the subtropical monsoon climate. This climate has both the characteristics of continental climate with sufficient sunlight and warm temperature, and also the characteristics of maritime climate with abundant rainfalls and humid and moist air. Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces have rich
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China fracture water in bedrock, mountain springs, and mountain streams, and hold abundant water resources. There are also dense forests and rich biodiversity in Ziquejie region. (2) Abundant Tourism Resources The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces have high aesthetic value, scientific value and cultural value, with its distinctive characteristics of large scale, steep slopes, smooth lines, and beautiful landscapes. Terraced fields, vegetation, river and folk houses as the four major elements make up the farming culture landscape showing the harmony between nature and human in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. Also, due to the mountainous terrain and intense humidity, clouds can be seen throughout the year. The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces have various spectacular landscapes for different seasons, which are very attractive for the tourists. There are lots of concentrated pieces of terraced fields distributed in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, including Longpu, Shifeng, Jinlong, Changshi, Baishui, Longxiang, Zhenglong, Zhile, and so on. Tourism resources of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, together with Meishan Dragon Palace, Ancient Towns of Upper Meishan, Big Bear Mountain National Forest Park and other tourist attractions compose a complementary portfolio of tourism products. This region was ranked as the forefront in Hunan Province because of its overall abundance of tourism resources, taste, and development conditions. The tourism resources in Xinhua County was classified as 8 main categories, 72 sub-categories, and 83 basic types, including one world-class tourism resources, 8 national ones, and 17 provincial ones. These tourism resources show the overall feature as full range of categories, a large amount of resources, high level of (3) Unique Regional Culture Ziquejie region has rich culture, characterized by the long-standing and well-established Meishan culture. Folk songs, ballads, love songs and Meishan martial arts are all widely spreading among local people. In particular, the “Wuwa” folk songs are high in tune and very popular. Nuo lion mask dance, grass dragon dance and Nuo dance are all of unique styles. The Nuo lion mask dance is an ancient reproductive
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China worship performance full of original flavor of life. The grass dragon dance uses dragon all tied with straw grass and wild wormwood. According to the legend, the grass dragon is the leader of all kinds of dragons and has the ability to ward off ghosts and evil spirits. Local customs of marriage, birth and funeral has partly inherited that of Miao and Yao ethnic groups in the history. There are 48 Yao village sites in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces and many rock shelters that lived by Yao people in ancient times, which are of great archaeological value. The unique natural environment created the local specialties and unique food culture, such as the “ten kinds of meat, ten kinds of vegetables and ten kinds of drinks” that had already became famous brands. 5.2.2 Development Opportunities (1) The External Environment of Tourism Development is Conducive to the Development of Tourism in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces In recent years, with the rapid development of tourism industry in China, a series of tourism development strategies launched by Hunan Province, creating a good opportunity for the tourism development in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. A tourism triangle centered around Changsha City has been proposed to mainly develop the tourism in North, Central and South part of Hunan Province, and to link the tourism development in West and East, so as to enhance the overall advantages of tourism industry in Hunan Province. The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is 300km, 280km and 259km from Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan, respectively. It is 130km, 168km, 255km and 237km from Shaoyang, Huaihua, Hengyang and Yiyang, respectively. All of them are in the transportation range of 3 hours by car and thus become the major sources of tourists to the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. The terraced fields, together with the surrounding scenic spots have formed the complementary tourist routes. From the perspective of relatively close distance, there are Gaozhou Hot Spring (resort), Meishan Dragon Palace (karst landscape), Lion Mountain Park (entertainment and adventure) and Big Bear National Forest Park and so on. From the perspective of middle distance, there are Zhangjiajie, Hengshan Mountain and Phoenix Old City. All
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China of them formed a complementary portfolio of tourism products that preserved the distinctive characteristics of each tourism resource. This kind of complementary advantage has provided the original impetus for regional tourism development. (2) Safety of Agricultural Products Requires to Develop Ecological Agriculture First of all, without clean soil, clean water and good environment, the production of high-quality agricultural products would be impossible. In recent years, decline of farmland quality, soil contamination, soil hardening and soil acidification have occurred in many regions of the country. Increasing the supply of agricultural products by chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other chemical inputs is not sustainable anymore. Raising the sustainable production of agricultural products can be achieved only by improving the farmland productivity, promoting the development of eco-friendly agriculture, adopting the cultivation method by combining cropping with animal husbandry, and improving the resource utilization. With the improvement of people's living standards and public awareness for food quality and safety, the demand of people for high quality agricultural products will also be increased. Agricultural heritage sites have inherent advantages for developing ecological agriculture, because of its high quality traditional rice varieties and good ecological environment. (3) Diversified Consumer Demands Bring Development Opportunities to Expand Agricultural Functions The economic development of China has entered a new stage. In terms of consumer demands, the consumption of China in the past had obvious imitation wave-features and now it has gradually come to an end. The personalized and diversified consumption has become the mainstream. Agriculture not only has the production function of products like rice, cotton and oil, meat, eggs and other products, but also has important ecological functions and life functions, such as biodiversity conservation, water and soil conservation, climate regulation, leisure and tourism, landscape and recreation, scientific research, cultural heritage and so on. With the development of industrialization and urbanization, the importance of the
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China ecological and life functions of agriculture has become more important and prominent, and brings opportunities for expanding the multi-function development of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. (4) Resource and Environmental Constraints Revive the Ecological Protection Principle of Traditional Agriculture In terms of the resource and environmental constraints, the current carrying capacity of the environment has been at or near its upper limit, and the agricultural development must conform to the expectation of people for a good ecological environment and thus to promote the formation of a new development model characterized by green and low-carbon cycle. Chinese traditional agriculture contains a wealth of ecological thoughts, such as the “theory of yin and yang and five elements”, “the San-cai theory of God, earth and human”, and other traditional views of nature. All of them thought that human being should protect water, soil, and other creatures and recycle all the resources, while following the mutual facilitation and restriction laws between biological creatures. The development model of the traditional agriculture plays an important role in the sustainable development of agriculture. The landscape formed by forests, terraced fields, folk houses and rivers in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces contains a wealth of ecological thoughts about resource utilization and ecosystem protection. (5) Brand Influences of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Have Formed Initially The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are World Heritage Irrigation Structure, China Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems, National Natural and Cultural Heritage, National Scenic Spot, National Water Conservancy Scenic Area, and National AAAA Tourist Attraction. Local government has increased the protection and publicity of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces and is positively applying for National AAAAA Tourist Attraction. Xinhua County government and Ziquejie Scenic Tourism Development Co., Ltd. have organized a series of tourism promotion activities, such as “International Tourism Festival of Hunan Province, China”, “Tourism Carnival - Meet in the Double Seventh Festival and Find Your Loved Ones in Ziquejie” and
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
“Charming Hunan and Xinhua”. The tourism income of the Ziquejie Scenic Areas had increased from 12 million RMB in 2005 to 322 million RMB in 2013, with the number of visitors from 30,300 to 787,000, indicating the continuous expansion of the influences of tourism brand.
Figure 45. Change of Tourism Income and Number of Tourists in Ziquejie Scenic Areas from 2005
to 2013
5.3 Expected Impacts of GIAHS on Society and Ecology
5.3.1 Social Impacts Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are a unique mode of production and land use pattern created by local farmers by adapting to the local conditions, and is also a successful example of harmony between man and nature. The systemic protection of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces can better protect the excellent germplasm resources, traditional farming techniques, local farming culture and biodiversity, enlarge the popularity and reputation of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, and enhance the protection awareness of local farmers, in order to achieve a win-win situation between social effects and economic effects. The agricultural heritage conservation strategy should consider the ecological environment as basis, take traditional farming culture as the core and use cultural creativity as means to strengthen the protection of agricultural heritage, to realize agricultural multi-functions, to enhance multi-cultural heritage value of this system, to transfer the agricultural heritage into practical productive forces, to
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China improve the living standards of residents in this heritage site, to enhance the management capability of local government on agricultural heritage, to enhance cultural consciousness of local farmers in this region, and to improve the capacity and level of community involvement in management. 5.3.2 Ecological Impacts The traditional terraced field farming methods have unique advantages in climate adaptation, ecosystem services, environmental purification, production, and so on. The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces consist of forests, terraced fields, water, and houses, in which the forest conserves water, the terraced fields use gravity irrigation, the villages are constructed according to the topography, the houses are constructed by local materials with well-proportioned layouts. This landscape reflects the concept of “Unity of Nature and Man” in Chinese traditional culture. This type of ecosystem pattern and concept provide a reference for other similar regions to learn the land use pattern, multifunctional agriculture, and low-carbon operation. In addition, since GIAHS program emphasizes the protection of traditional cultural heritage and agricultural biodiversity, it has the positive effect on the rural environmental protection and water and soil conservation etc., and also provides new opportunities for the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces to achieve sustainable development.
5.4 Motivation of the Local Community, the Local/national
Authorities and other Relevant Stakeholders
5.4.1 Local Community The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are the product of rice cultivation culture, which shows wisdom of local farmers gradually accumulated in the long history and during the process of human survival and development. It is the main source of livelihood, the cultural foundation and the living environment of local communities. Local farmers are positive and active in the protection of terraced fields. At first, local farmers hope to increase their income, eliminate poverty, acquire wealth, and strive for a relative comfortable life through the protection and development of terraced fields. Second, local farmers hope to protect the terraced fields inherited from
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China generation to generation through the GIAHS project. Elderly farmers have deeper feelings and attachments to terraced fields, therefore they have stronger desire to protect and inherit the terraced field cultivation culture. Third, local farmers hope to enhance their sense of place and cultural pride towards terraced field cultivation culture through the protection of terraced fields. Fourth, some migrant workers who used to work outside decide to return their hometowns, and actively participate in the protection of terraced fields, learn and inherit the traditional farming methods and traditional folk culture. 5.4.2 The People's Government of Xinhua County Tourism development of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces will inevitably involve the protection of traditional culture, the use of land resources, the maintenance of biodiversity, and many other issues. Those problems would require the government to promote the integration and intensive use of land resources by laws, policy, institution and planning. There are lots of reasons for the government to actively get involve in the development and protection of heritage fields. At first, the traditional farming culture and modernized business operations require the community residents to vigorously cooperate with the government since the government has great advantages in terms of administrative organization. The government will guide the modernization transformation of agricultural production and life styles of farmers by community building and to cultivate the agricultural heritage protection awareness among residents so as to ensure their initiative participation in tourism development. In the early stages of tourism development, the government will actively promote the institutional innovation of cultural tourism enterprises, and promote restructuring of the cultural tourism enterprises for the formation of cultural tourism corporations with high brand effects. Secondly, the government has an overall development perspective. They are taking the sustainable development of agricultural heritage and increase of the income of local farmers as core objectives. Their neutral authority in the distribution of benefits and disputes of benefit will enhance the confidence degree of enterprises and residents in the government. Finally, the government hopes to achieve
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China sustainable development of the heritage site through the effective protection of traditional cultural and biological diversity. Specialized teams were established to excavate the cultural values of traditional agriculture. Series academic research conferences were held, such as “International Terraced Fields Seminar in Ziquejie” and “Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Protection Seminar”. In addition, Xinhua County government has also constructed the traditional farming culture museum to effectively promote the inheritance of agricultural heritages of this region. 5.4.3 The People's Government of China The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces has a long history and is a typical example of the traditional agricultural production model. It has high landscape value, cultural value and economic value. Since the central government provided major support for its protection and development, it was selected as China Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems, National Natural and Cultural Heritage, National Water Conservancy Scenic Area, and so on. The central government attaches great importance for the protection and development of the Ziquejie terraces for the following reasons. At first, the central government hopes to protect and preserve the important agricultural heritages with high historical values for the future generations in China. Secondly, the central government hopes to establish typical model and demonstrative example to promote the protection and development of agricultural heritages in other places. Third, through the positive influence of GIAHS, the central government hopes to promote regional cooperation, make full use of the economic and ecological benefits from terraced fields, and promote the sustainable development of the ecological agriculture. 5.4.4 Related Enterprises Eight agricultural enterprises were set up in the core area of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces and some of their products have already been certified as national organic, green, or geographical identification products. Brands of local specialized agricultural products with higher added value were established for the traditional high quality purple rice, black rice and red rice. Enterprises or cooperatives were taken as the main
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China players in the certification of pollution-free, green, organic or geographical indication agricultural products. The GIAHS or NIAHS labels can be used for the agricultural products that met the standard by adopting the enterprise application, third-party certification and governmental approval methods. In addition, “Xinhua County Cultural Tourism Investment Co., Ltd.” was established to strengthen the overall tourism promotional activities, and organize travel and tourism festival promotions, so as to continuously expand the influence of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. Enterprises related to agricultural products and tourism in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces all hope that their products could enjoy higher value with the help of GIAHS. In that case, their product value and popularity will be enhanced and economic output could be increased, so as to realize long term development of these enterprises. 5.4.5 Tourists The Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are the cultural and historical relics that integrated the southern rice cultivation culture and the fishing and hunting culture of Miao and Yao ethnic groups. The beauty of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces based on its large scope and delicate shape has attracted countless tourists and wins its high popularity. Visitors wish the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces to be well preserved since they would like to appreciate the splendid and unique view, to experience the unique traditional farming culture, to taste the delicious food, and to sense the elegant charms of its ancient civilization.
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
6. Dynamic Protection Outline of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces
6.1 Conservation Baseline
6.1.1 A Series of Protection Measures have been Taken (1) Strengthen Application for Related Heritages. Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces was officially inscribed in the candidate list for World Heritage of Hunan Province in 2004; Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces were included in the first batch of National Natural and Cultural Heritages and the candidate list of World Cultural and Natural Heritage of China in 2006; it was inscribed in the first batch of China Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage System in 2013, and Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces was included in the first World Heritage List of Irrigation Projects in 2014; at the same time, Xinhua folk songs were selected as the first batch of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Hunan Province in 2006, and was selected as the second batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage of China in 2008; Louxia Village, as the core heritage area, was listed as the second batch of provincial-level historical and cultural village in 2009; Meishan Nuo Opera was selected as third batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage of China in 2011 and Meishan Martial Arts were selected as the fourth batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage of China in 2014. (2) Relevant publicity and exchange activities were held. Folk art workshops were held to fully tap local Nuo opera, martial arts, dance and folk grass dragon and other local cultural resources. The folk customs and culture performing art troupe was formed and had carried out more than 10 cultural performances of various folk customs. The “Fourth Meishan Academic Seminar on Culture and the First Meishan Tourism and Culture Festival of China” was held in 2006. In previous years, “World Terraced Fields Seminar in Ziquejie Region”, “Seminar of Culture and Tourism Cooperation of Great Meishan”, “Dialogue of Liao Moxiang, the Leading Authority of Northern School of Yi-ology in Ziquejie Region”, “Ziquejie Region Terraced Fields Heritage Protection Seminar” and other special academic research conference were organized and held in succession to effectively promote the cultural excavation and 78
GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China landscape protection of agricultural heritage in Ziquejie Terraced region. “Seminar of the Excavation and Compiling of Tourism Resources of Meishan Culture” held in November, 2013. “Chiyou Hometown-Meishan of Xinhua” National Photography Contest Spring Collection Activity, “Ziquejie Cup” English TV Contest, “Magic Great Meishan, Explore the Ziquejie Region” focused interview of TV media of Hunan and other activities have been organized and held in succession in Ziquejie scenic region to expand its influences and impacts. (3) Strengthen the Branding of Ziquejie. the First International Rice Cultural Festival and Outdoor Living Festival in Terraced Fields of Ziquejie Region was held In September 2011,; the Chinese Photographers Association organized thousands of photographers nationwide to gather at Ziquejie Terraces scenic region in May 2012 and jointly hold the 2012 First Tourism and Culture Festival of Great Meishan of Hunan Province in Ziquejie region, attracting numerous media reports and many guests at home and abroad. In addition, with the promotion of local food culture and cultural landscape through the “Walking table” series of the documentary channel of CCTV 9, this region has been recognized as the “Chinese Meishan Culture and Arts Village", “Hometown of Chinese Poetry”, “National Martial Arts Village”, “Chiyou Hometown Cultural Village of China”, “Chinese Folk Culture and Arts Village” and other cultural geographical titles. (4) Promoting the Development of Relevant Industries. Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces were authorized as the Provincial Key Scenic Spots of Hunan Province in 2004, and recognized as a national scenic area in December 2005. Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces were selected as one of the Eight Scenic Spots of New Xiaoxiang in 2007. It was announced as the National Water Scenic Area by the Ministry of Water Resources in August, 2009. This region was approved as a national AAAA level scenic spot with the Xiatuan Village and Zhenglong Village being selected as famous tourism villages in Hunan Province in December 2012. Some products have received organic, green, pollution-free, GI product certification and other certifications, promoting the
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China development of agricultural industrialization. Leading enterprises were cultivated and high-quality agricultural production bases were constructed. 6.1.2 Guiding Principles for Future Work was Clarified (1) The Principle of Sustainable Utilization Agricultural Heritage as a new type of heritage mainly reflects the dynamic balance between human activities and the natural environment. Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces contains the idea of sustainable development, makes the system passing from generation to generation and enjoys long-lasting prosperity. Protection is a prerequisite for development, and development is the way to realize protection, therefore, the establishment of protection and development planning of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces have to emphasize protection as a foundation for utilization, to promote the ecological and cultural heritage protection through the development and utilization of resources, to prevent destructive development and to create cultural brand on the basis of protection so as to promote cultural values. (2) The Principle of Multi stakeholders-participation Protection and development of Agricultural Heritage emphasize the participation of multi-parties and benefit-sharing. Governmental leadership, academic support and the full support of all sectors of society is the basic idea of multi stakeholders-participation. Protection of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces should clarify all interest parties and determine their respective responsibilities and obligations as well as their interests in the dynamic protection process in order to mobilize the enthusiasm of all parties and individuals to participate in the protection of agricultural heritage. A variety of organizations and individuals, including government, companies, and farmers and so on, will provide strong support for heritage conservation and development, and contribute to the establishment of benefit-sharing mechanism to improve the fairness of the distribution of benefits. (3) The Principle of Dynamic Protection Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is an agricultural production system that integrates production, ecological and cultural functions. Therefore, protection of Ziquejie
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Terraces should be focused on maintaining agricultural biodiversity and agricultural cultural diversity, and adjusting means of protection and improving their ability to adapt in accordance to changing social, economic and natural conditions functional expansion is the most important work in agricultural heritage development and the expansion of heritage functions on the basis of protection will improve the overall ecological, economic and social benefits of the integrated system. (4) The Principle of Integrated Conservation Agricultural Heritage is a complex social - economic - natural ecosystem that integrates ecology, environment, landscape, culture, technologies and other tangible and intangible heritage characters. Protection of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces requires the systematic thinking to realize the overall protection and to realize the coordinated development of the subsystems. We shall give full play to the social, economic, ecological and other multiple benefits of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces in order to achieve the development of harmony between man and nature in the heritage sites. 6.1.3 Analysis of the Multi-values of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces (1) Ecological Value In addition to Purple Fragrant Tribute Rice, Black Rice, Red Rice and other traditional rice varieties, a wide variety of other food crops, oil crops, vegetables, fruits and herbs are cultivated in Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. At the meantime, chicken, ducks, pigs, cattle, sheep, poultry and other livestock are widely farmed by local farmer households. Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are also rich in diversity of aquatic organisms, including fish, shelled animals, Amphibians, mollusks, insects and other aquatic organisms. 20 plants belong to grade I, II and III of national protected plants respectively and animals listed in national and provincial grade I, II, III protection are as many as 41 kinds. The top of mountains in Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are covered by dense forests providing good conditions for rain and water retention; the mountain bedrock is made of granite with solid bottom and few fractures holding the water resources as like as the water-proof bottom of a pond. In addition, the soil on top of the granite is sandy loam with good water holding capacity. Dense vegetation
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China covering Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces has delivered significant climate regulation effect, indicated by the annual average temperature of 13.7 ℃ in Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, which is 3 ℃ lower than that of the Xinhua county. (2) Economic Value Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are the foundation of food production and agricultural development of residents living in Xinhua Ziquejie Terraced region from generation to generation. This is a region of rich natural resources and high-quality genetic resources. Modern agriculture mode featured with huge resources and energy consumption has caused a series of drawbacks. On the other hand, traditional agriculture featuring efficient production, high quality and free of pollution is increasingly demonstrating many advantages. Covered by clouds year round, the temperature difference between day and night in Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is huge. The terraces in this region mainly rely on gravity irrigation of water from granite bedrock fissure, which is clean and rich in calcium, iron, zinc, selenium and other minerals. All these conditions have made Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces the most suitable region for high-quality rice cultivation. Ziquejie region is one of the major regions for purple rice production and purple rice produced in this region was designated as tribute rice in Qing Dynasty, and it is considered as a region of great potential for the development of efficient agriculture with ecological functions. At the same time, the unique forest, terraces, settlement and colorful landscape in Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are combined with the regional lifestyle. The natural beauty, historical beauty, geomorphological beauty and cultural beauty are integrated to form distinctive and unique tourism resources with great potential for tourism development. To protect the agricultural heritage in Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is to fully exploit its multifunctional and efficient agricultural development potential based on the development of organic agriculture and eco-tourism. In addition, its important ecological value contains tremendous external benefits, which can bring ecological compensation through its heritage protection and help to achieve internalization of its external benefits and the demonstration of implicit economic values.
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
(3) Social Value Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are rich in water resources and diverse in types of lands, suitable for cultivation and farming of a variety of economic crops and food crops. This region abounds in the production of honeysuckle, gastrodia elata, Eucommia ulmoides, radix polygonati offcinalis and other Chinese herbal medicines. There are more than ten thousand mu of honeysuckle cultivation bases and more than fifty thousand mu of production bases of other Chinese medicine in this region that are famous in Hunan Province. This region also abounds in the production of middle-season rice, red rice and black rice of high quality as well as smoked bacon products specially made in Shuiche Town that are world-famous; there are abundant bamboo resources as well; the tribute tea produced in Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces is the best among all tea selections and of the best-selling kinds in domestic market; there are also local flavor snacks and foods made of glutinous rice flour, such as glutinous rice cake of Shuiche Town as well as frozen fish of Shuiche Town. The main sources of income for local farmers are cultivation, farming and remittance from migrant labor. Thanks to the excellent ecological environment of Ziquejie region, local farmers are able to develop ecological agriculture and local agricultural products. In recent years, with strengthened leisure agriculture and tourism development, tourism revenue and amount of visitors have increased year by year, leading to increase incomes of residents in surrounding areas. Therefore, Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces had played an important role in the livelihood security of farmers. (4) Cultural Value Ziquejie region has rich cultural heritages and together with the long-standing and well-established Meishan culture. Folk songs, ballads, love songs and Meishan martial arts are all widely spreading among the people. In particular, the “Wuwa” folk songs are high in tune and enjoy great popularity and great charm. Nuo mask lion dance, grass dragon dance and religion Nuo dance are of unique styles, in which the Nuo mask lion dance is an ancient reproductive worship performance full of original flavor of life; while the grass dragon dance uses dragon all tied with straw grass and
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China wild wormwood because the grass dragon is the leader of all dragons and has the ability to ward off ghosts and evil spirits according to legend. Customs of marriage, birth and funeral contain the remnants of manners and customs of Miao and Yao ethnic groups. With a thousand years passed, the customs and manners remains almost the same. There are 48 Yao people village relic sites in Ziquejie region and many other rock shelters lived by Yao people in ancient times, which are of great archaeological value. Food culture. Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are rich in the production of middle-season tribute rice and red rice, black rice specialties that are rich in nutrients and aroma and can help to raise appetite. The glutinous rice being produced is of especially high quality, which in turn made the long-standing reputation of glutinous rice cake of Shuiche Town. There are firewood smoked meats, balls made of pig blood, smoked duck, frozen fish, sweet rice wine, konjak, dried bamboo roots, pteridum aquilinum and other special snacks with great taste and unique flavor. The frozen fish of Shuiche Town in particular is considered as one of the best. The cooking method is simple yet elegant since the water must be drawn from local mountain spring and the fish must be produced and harvested locally as well. The fish is cooked with any cooking oil and will be placed in a cellar or well for frozen after cooking. Chopped hot pepper and other condiments are used to decorate semi-crystal fish jelly make a delicate view of red and white that greatly arise one’s appetite while the taste in the mouth is smooth and rosy. The Gan-lan style folk houses are of unique characters. The Gan-lan style plank folk houses are inhabited over generations in Ziquejie region for several thousands of years. Villages formed by concentrated Gan-lan style folk houses are Zhenglong Folk Houses, Louxia Folk Houses, Changshi Folk Houses and Xixi Folk Houses, among which folk houses in Zhenglong Village formed the largest scale with more than 200 individual folk houses. Thickly dotted folk houses looked from a distance are indeed individual buildings containing separated courtyard that can grow vegetables, fruit and other plants in a closer look. Every building is decorated with carved corner claws
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China and walls and windows made of woven bamboo. With external coated in white lime, those concentrated folk houses are of great ornamental value. (5) Scientific Research Value Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces have important scientific values in the fields of agriculture, agro-ecology, agricultural economy, rural development, national ecology, anthropology, etc. First of all, with a history dated back to the Qin and Han Dynasties, Ziquejie region has a long history of rice cultivation that can provide a good foundation for the studies of ancient rice culture in China. Secondly, Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces have a wide variety of traditional rice germplasm represented by the fragrant purple tribute rice, black rice and red rice. After a long process of selection, rice varieties in Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are of excellent quality and form a gene pool that provide good conditions for the research of genetic resources. In addition, Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces also have biodiversity conservation, water conservation, soil conservation, climate regulation, gas regulation, environmental cleanup and other important ecosystem services, which are an important aspect of ecology research. Most importantly, ancient residents in Ziquejie built terraces according to the Ziquejie topography, geology, soil, forest vegetation and water features and local conditions, and created effective gravity irrigation with simple engineering facilities, along with traditional farming methods that were compatible with the environment. These methods are still widely in use and serve as a typical example of soil and water conservation ecosystem works and were selected by the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage Irrigation Project as the first batch in the list of World’s Irrigation and Drainage Irrigation Project Heritage. (6) Demonstrative Value In the long history of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, farming techniques acclimatized to the environment and nature were formed, and are valuable experience for the research and practices of agricultural production of rice in terraced fields; as a typical application of traditional agriculture of rice cultivation in terraced fields, Xinhua Ziquejie Terraced system is one of the most important Chinese agricultural heritages
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China and can serve as a showcase of demonstrative values for heritage protection and development of other regions and the development of rice cultivation in terraced fields in China and the rest of the world. Xinhua Ziquejie Terraced system with sustainable features can also provide a showcase for the sustainable agriculture and rural development in China. 6.1.4 Protection Area and Core Area of Agricultural Heritage Zoned Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Protection area of agricultural heritage is Xinhua County. Xinhua County located in the central to west area of Hunan Province and west of Loudi City. This region lies along Xuefeng Mountain and occupies its southeast side and locates at the middle area of Zishui River. This region is located at latitude 27°31'-28°14', longitude 110°45'-111°41', with a total area of 3642 square kilometers, of which, 72.68 million mu are arable land, an area of 286.08 hectares are woodland. Xinhua County jurisdiction covers 26 towns, one developing zone, one neighborhood office, two state-owned tree farms, with a total population of 140 million people. Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Protection core area of agricultural heritage is located southwest of Xinhua County, involving three towns, namely Shuiche Town, Fengjia Town and Wentian Town. The core area is about 460.3 square kilometers, accounting for 12.6 percent of total land area of Xinhua County, of which 30,510 hectares are woodland, accounting for 68.3 percent, 7,564 hectares are arable land, accounting for 16.94 percent, and more than eighty percent of arable lands are paddy fields. The core area covers three townships and 83 villages, is home to about 90,000 people.
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Fig. 1 Function Division of Heritage Sites
6.2 Further Initiatives to Promote GIAHS
In accordance with the management concepts of GIAHS and important agricultural heritage of China proposed by FAO and the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, the People's Government of Xinhua County plans to spend about 10 years (2015 - 2025) to build Xinhua Ziquejie Terrace into a demonstration base of rice terrace and irrigated agriculture in Southern China, a demonstration site of agricultural landscape tourism, a showcase of rice terrace culture and an excellent pilot of agricultural heritage management. Specific protection and development measures under consideration include eco-agriculture protection, agricultural culture protection, agricultural landscape protection, eco-agriculture development, recreational agriculture development, and development of both cultural self-esteem and management capability. 6.2.1 Protection of Agriculture Ecosystem Establish germplasm gene bank and realize protection of biological diversity based on the resources survey conducted over the traditional rice varieties, other crop germplasm resources and associated flora and fauna biodiversity.
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Divide the protected forest area into different functional forest areas for the targeted protection of ecological forest resources based on the survey of forest vegetation resources. Protect water sources and establish water supply systems in rural areas to ensure safe and convenient access to clean water. Establish mechanisms for the rural ecological environment protection and construct biogas digesters to ensure that human and animal feces could be directed into digesters for the generation of clean energy. Strengthen environmental governance and road repairs in rural areas and to improve the living garbage treatment level. Establish agro-ecological monitoring and protection network system. Establish disaster monitoring, early warning system and agro-ecological demonstration base to achieve a balance between ecological benefits and the economic benefits of farmers. 6.2.2 Protection of Agricultural Culture Extensively collect traditional farming knowledge and skills of terraced cultivation to form a systematic database of texts, videos and images. Establish a special classification system and protection methods by widely purchasing and collecting traditional farming tools. Extensively collect and document the related materials and documents of traditional folklore and traditional arts and to form corresponding audio, video and other data through modern digital methods; conduct a detailed investigation and recording of traditional cuisines and recipes, etc., and make the corresponding video and photos, text and other data recorded; establish farming museums to exhibit or display the collected related objects, videos and photographs; achieve digital display and dissemination on the internet of traditional farming knowledge, technology, equipment, as well as folk art through modern technical means;
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
carry out regular trainings traditional on tillage knowledge, farming techniques and traditional folk cultural heritages; help the general public to learn more about, pay more attention to and more willing to protect Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces though seminars, skills training, publicity pamphlets, readings, legal Q &A service concerning protection regulations of agricultural culture, quizzes on the local rules or regulations and other means to strengthen the transmission of traditional farming techniques and farming knowledge. Actively carry out heritage education among middle and primary school students concerning the traditional agricultural culture of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces in order to cultivate the cultural identity of middle and primary school students towards the traditional farming knowledge, technology, food, folklore and other excellent traditions in Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. 6.2.3 Protection of Agricultural Landscape To determine a reasonable proportion of arable and forest lands, focusing on protection of water source forests on the hilltop and to implement projects of afforestation to increase forest coverage. Protect famous trees and old trees through labelling, recording and specialized management to strengthen the special protection of ancient and famous trees. repair field ridges and ditches based on the protection of original ecological environment; systematically summarize the principles of natural gravity irrigation system and its scientific management of water and water systems by creating digital products showing graphic and animated interpretation for publicity and training; conduct training of young farmers of the knowledge and inheritance of traditional cultures and restore the traditional water inspectorate system; speed up the recovery of abandoned terraced fields and terraced dry lands transformed from paddy fields to ensure maximum rice cultivation areas with adequate water resources;
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
strengthen the renovation and management of the “mountain-water-terraced fields-folk houses” village landscape to maintain a harmonious relationship between man and the overall landscape; establish a special fund to protect traditional folk houses and accelerate repairing and restoration of traditional heritage folk houses; repairing, maintenance and protective development will be concentrated on Zhenglong Village as the “Chinese Traditional Villages” and Louxia Village as the “Provincial Historical and Cultural Village of Hunan”. Application of Louxia Village for designation of “National-level Historical and Cultural Village” will be actively carried out. 6.2.4 Development of Eco-Agriculture To encourage cultivation of traditional high-quality varieties of crops and establish a special heritage compensation mechanism for terraced fields in heritage sites; set up a special protection fund for terraced fields, establish a reward system to encourage the traditional rice production in terraced fields, and scientifically develop the award criteria and scope. improve the heritage land transfer system and expand the scale of organic rice cultivation in terraced fields; establish technique standards for traditional rice cultivation for strengthening the technical guidance of traditional farming and encouraging and supporting farmers to raise ducks and fish in paddy fields so as to promote this and other complex ecological agricultural technologies to improve economic efficiency; optimize the distribution of high-quality rice production base, high-quality tea base, high yield herbal demonstration base, small grains production base, duck, cattle and other ecological farming bases; strengthen certification of pollution-free, green food, organic agricultural products and the geographical indications as well as usage of agricultural heritage label;
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
vigorously develop local deep-processed products using high-quality traditional and local agricultural products as the main raw material and to develop multi-functional foods to increase the added value of agricultural products; promote the local specialty products of high quality through media channels such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines and other media and carry out the promotion of all types of products from multi-level and multi-angle channels and actively participate in various agricultural exhibitions and promotional activities; establish an internet platform for agricultural products of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces to showcase the featured products of heritage sites, and market information; provide capital, technology, policy and other related support for agricultural enterprises and to develop farmer households, family farming(livestock) field and farmer cooperatives with large scale production of traditional agriculture varieties; innovate the production and business model of traditional agricultural products by learning from modern agricultural business philosophy and strengthening cooperation and association of farmers; to encourage enterprises to build production bases for enterprises and cooperatives to lead farmers; strengthen the guidance for farmers to practice traditional technical and establish benefit sharing mechanisms. 6.2.5 Development of Recreational Agriculture Build a recreational development pattern focusing on “one center, three zones and six clusters”, which consist of comprehensive service tourism center of Shangmei Ancient Town of Xinhua County, experimental zone of terraced rice cultivation in Ziquejie region, scenic zone of health preservation in Daxiong Mountain, culture and leisure zone of Meishan Mountain, cluster of Ziquejie region, cluster of Shangmei Ancient Town, cluster of Chetianjiang, cluster of Meishan Dragon Palace and cluster of Suxihe River. A set of recreational agriculture development systems integrating agricultural production, cultural experiences, ecological protection, product processing and leisure recreation featuring rich types of industries and distinctive characteristics will be developed.
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
designate Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces as the eco-agriculture demonstration zone, the rice culture demonstration area, the leisure and health demonstration zone and creative agriculture park; design and develop the agricultural heritage souvenirs and conduct the exhibition, promotion and marketing of those souvenirs. improve infrastructure and facilities of the recreational agriculture by enhancing information services and strengthening tourism reception capacity of existing hotels and restaurants through upgrading. clarify functions of relevant government departments and tourism companies and to cultivate agricultural heritage awareness among residents in order to initiate their active participation in the development cause of recreational agriculture while attention shall be paid to the protection of farmers’ rights. 6.2.6 Construction of Cultural self-esteem prepare textbooks for officials and leaders, agricultural technology manuals, reading materials for elementary or junior high school students, and integrate the content of agricultural heritages into exhibitions and enrollment in school education in order to promote understanding of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces; develop deep affection and sense of pride in local residents towards the agricultural heritages and to raise awareness and participation of all related parties in the protection and development of cultural heritages; film propaganda video materials, make tourism brochures and calendars containing introduction of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, and use traditional media channels such as newspapers, radio, television, high-speed intersection boards, etc. as well as microblogging and WeChat and other new media platforms to disseminate agricultural heritage and related products in a more lively and practical way conducive to the heritage protection and development of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces; by means of culture to the countryside and other means the cultural sector shall carry out the farmers’ education, produce and distribute audio-visual materials to disseminate agricultural heritage and its protection and development ideas;
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the agricultural technology sector shall integrate agricultural heritage protection and development of ecological agriculture into daily work, and include agricultural heritage in agricultural technical training; sponsor, participate and organize agricultural and cultural exchange activities, especially academic activities themed with Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces to excavate multiple values and diverse cultural systems; organize photographic exhibition, essay competition, collect, write and film poetry, prose, fiction, photographic products relating to Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces so as to raise publicity of agricultural heritage of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces. 6.2.7 Construction of Management Ability Set up appropriate agencies for the agricultural heritage protection and development of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces and enhance the protection, utilization and management ability of the government concerning protection of cultural heritage by enriching and supplementing professional management personnel and designating permanent staff dedicated to the protection of cultural heritage of agriculture, development, education, and other aspects ; establish and perfect relevant rules and regulations for participation of communities suitable to carry out the protection of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces to legalize decision-making related to community participation in the protection of agricultural heritage in order to ensure the seriousness and continuity of community participation in the implementation of protection; carry out agricultural heritage training for grass root agricultural technicians, managers and entrepreneurs, establish and improve agricultural extension and training system by carrying out technical training to improve the knowledge of local residents and to develop their various business capacity so as to increase the enthusiasm of local residents in the participation of cultural heritage protection and development of agriculture;
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establish product tracing system, product recoding system and food safety system to prevent and stop illegal activities so as to realize a healthy and orderly development of cultural heritage protection and development; establish Agricultural Heritage Fund Board of Xinhua County and allocate appropriate certain amount of the special fund annually for the award to organizations and individuals that have made outstanding contribution to the development of heritage sites so as to promote the enthusiasm of residents and enterprises in heritage sites towards the protection cause; guide farmers to participate in the construction of production bases in the form of land and labor shares or to participate in specialized farmer cooperatives to turn the scattered smallholder production into large-scale production in the form of production bases.
6.3 Strategies to Cope with Threats and Challenges
6.3.1 Challenges (1) Terrace Ecosystem Influenced by Natural and Human Factors Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces are located in the hilly region with a prevailing subtropical monsoon climate featuring concentrated rainfalls, most of which are rainstorms. As a result, this region is an erodible fragile area typically seen in hilly areas of Southern China. Frequency of extremely dry weather in Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces has increased dramatically in recent years under the background of global climate change and exacerbated extreme weather phenomena. For example, from July 1 to August 15, 2013, influenced by the strong subtropical high pressure, Xinhua County experienced continued hot weather with an average temperature of 31.6℃ that was the highest in history; the number of consecutive days with daily maximum temperature ≥35.0℃ was up to 36 days, which was a record high. During August 10-13, daily maximum temperature extremes lasting more than 40 degrees with the highest temperature up to 40.8 degrees were a record high. According to the survey, 3 hectares of terraced field in Longpu Village became dry land due to lack of water. Other villages also experienced a small amount of terraced fields turning into dry
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China lands due to lack of water. Pollution and destruction caused by growing tourism, such as the agri-tourism, is even more alarming since tourism generated a large amount of waste and disorder of residential construction. With the departure of rural labor force, technology with high yield and labor saving effects gradually replaced traditional agricultural technology, increased use chemical fertilizers and pesticides , reduced use of human and animal power, thinned the plough layer of terraced fields, and increased soil bulk density and weakened soil water and fertility conservation capacity . (2) Traditional Agricultural Production Methods was Challenged Due to relatively low comparative income and high opportunity costs, production cost plus wage costs in the terraced rice-growing region have already exceeded the value of rice products according to survey. A large number of rural laborers became migrant workers and incomes from migrant work have increasingly become the most important source of household income. At the same time, low-income and high labor of agricultural production greatly reduced the attachment of new generation of farmers to lands. Terraced lands being left uncultivated has become one of the most outstanding social problems in current rural regions. According to the survey, more than 70% of young rural residents in Xinhua Ziquejie Terraced Fields region went out and became migrant workers and non-farming incomes accounted for 78% of the total household income. In practice, only the elderly, women and children were left behind to take on agricultural production since a large number of young labor forces went out and became migrant workers. It is difficult for those left in the villages to resume the responsibility of terraced fields’ protection despite their willingness. Currently, the traditional animal-based intensive and meticulous farming system in Xinhua Ziquejie Terraced region has changed dramatically. According to the survey, the number of cattle raised by the 183 households of Longpu Village in 2004 was 185; the number had decreased to only 20 in 210 households in the Village in the year of 2014. In the absence of policy guidance, local residents prefer high-yielding and labor saving farming techniques for their livelihoods and short-term economic benefits. For
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China example conventional varieties were replaced with hybrid rice varieties with higher yields and over-reliance on chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other inputs. This results in gradual loss of interests of the younger generation in the traditional farming techniques, the intensive and meticulous farming methods, village regulations and folk conventions. The advanced traditional agriculture of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces based on harmonious relationship between man and nature and the intensive and meticulous farming methods is at risk of loss. (3) Traditional Culture Influenced by Modern Ways of Living Modernization gradually changed the lifestyle and patriarchal ways of organizational management of people living in Ziquejie Terraced region and resulted in the negative impacts on the inheritance of traditional folk customs and culture. First of all, the young generation of farmers have lowered sense of identity towards traditional agriculture and lacked of interests in knowledge and technology of traditional agriculture. A survey of the “familiar or master” degree of the cultural heritage elements in Ziquejie Terraced region of the villagers living in the core areas of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces was conducted. The recognition rate of village regulations and folk customs among young people under the age of 40 was only 33%; in particular, the recognition rate among part-time farmers frequently working outside and college graduates that return hometown was only 25%. Secondly, with the accelerated development of Ziquejie tourism resources and the increased contacts and exposure to the outside world, foreign culture, especially the commercial culture, had great and growing impacts on local culture. To cater to the taste of tourists or to satisfy the excessive pursuit of economic benefits, tourism developers adopted some of the traditional culture techniques that failed to meet the first-class level. Shoddy cultural products just made for economic means were even produced for sale. In the past, traditional folk activities and celebrations had specific time and place for celebration and would be celebrated in the traditional ways with traditional contents. In order to meet the needs of tourists, traditional folk activities and celebrations had become the fast-food style culture, which failed to demonstrate its core values.
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Currently, there are not much ancient customs and folklore with distinctive characteristics of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraced region being left. Nuo Mask Lion Dance and high-pitched folk songs have been on the verge of extinction. In addition, new residential constructions that no longer inherit the style of traditional houses frequently take place. The government released some restrictions on the remodeling and renovation of folk’s houses and the changes of lifestyles and production patterns in accordance to the development of tourism in terraced fields. No compensation was provided for the restriction and most residents failed to share the benefit from participation in agricultural culture and landscape protection and utilization, it was difficult for local farmers to develop a continuous enthusiasm for protection and participation in agricultural heritage without their primary interests. 6.3.2 Strategies to Cope with Challenges (1) To enhance diversity and stability of ecosystems. To protect vegetation on the hilltop and prohibit deforestation; to determine a reasonable proportion of arable and forest lands and strengthen ecological security of water source forests in terraced fields; to implement the projects of afforestation to increase forest coverage; to speed up repairing of serious damaged irrigation and water conservancy facilities, ridges and ditches on the basis of the protection of original ecological environment. to speed up the recovery of abandoned terraced fields and dry lands transformed from terraced rice paddy fields to ensure maximum cultivation area of terraced paddy fields under the condition of sufficient water resources. (2) To enhance the sustainability of traditional agriculture. Develop ecological agricultural products by taking advantages of the superior natural ecological conditions. Currently, there are about 10 enterprises and cooperatives engaging in production of ecological agricultural products and they had already obtained organic, green, GI product certification and established Ziquejie “Black Rice”, Ziquejie “Red Rice”, Ziquejie paddy fields-farmed fish and other
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China standardization demonstration bases. Ziquejie had become a national cultivation demonstration bases for ecological and organic rice and its experiences and experiments had been promoted and applied in the whole county. (3) Promotion of the inheritance and development of traditional culture. Throughout the development of the tourism industry and ecological agriculture, farmers could be encouraged to participate in agricultural heritage protection. Construction of tourism information network, improvement of the transport network, upgrading of the existing hotels and restaurants, adjustment of development and layout of part of the tourist product in heritage sites will together create a tourism development enriched in regional culture and the agricultural and cultural flavor of local region. Relationship between the parties shall be straightened out and a clear division of sectional responsibilities is required in the process. Benefit sharing mechanisms of agricultural heritage tourism shall be established to encourage the participation of farmers so as to attract young migrant farmers to return home and start their own businesses in order to promote the inheritance and development of traditional agricultural techniques and knowledge.
6.4 Financial Support
6.4.1 Financing Channel In order to obtain sufficient funds to promote the agricultural heritage protection, management institutions of the heritage areas and the government must broaden the sources of funding by establishing multi-channel modes of financing, establishing Agricultural Heritage Protection Fund as a special fund for the protection of agricultural heritage. The financed work can be done through the several major sources listed as follows: (1) International aid: apply for special funds from GEF through FAO and the fund will be used to finance the agricultural heritage protection in applicant nations; apply for financial supports from relevant international organizations for the protection of agricultural heritage.
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(2) The beautiful countryside construction and new rural construction: to actively seek funds for construction from related sectors and departments to improve the living environment in rural areas. (3) Protection of traditional ancient villages: application of relevant projects for ancient villages, ancient building renovation or repair to promote the repair of traditional ancient villages. (4) Supportive fund for industrial development: through government financial subsidies and incentives to encourage the development of organic, environment-friendly products. (5) Poverty alleviation and development funds: to take effective use of the national poverty alleviation and development funds to guarantee the right of the poor to develop. (6) Social Fund: For example, to encourage the companies and individuals benefited from the GIAHS to take a portion of their funds and directly invest in heritage protection. 6.4.2 Utilization of Funds First of all, it is necessary to appropriately increase the proportion of supporting funds for major projects, such as the agricultural infrastructure and land management projects to improve agricultural production conditions; secondly, to increase financial support for ecological compensation work for ecological environment protection; again, to ensure reasonable allocation of funds to conferences and forums or other promotional activities; and finally to ensure adequate funding of scientific research in order to ensure the smooth progress of scientific research of agricultural heritage. 6.4.3 Supervision and Inspection In order to ensure the safe, rational and effective use of the funds, relevant departments shall supervise and inspect the usage and management of funds. The supervision and inspection mainly consist of the following four aspects: first, to supervise and inspect the usage and management of fund in major projects during the year; secondly, to supervise and inspect the construction targets and quality to ensure
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China whether relevant units had carried out their respective responsibilities and the progress and quality of the projects in accordance with the requirements of liability statement; thirdly, to supervise and inspect the implementation of corrective measures. Local governments and relevant departments shall be urged to promptly solve the illegal violation of major issues that have not been corrected and processed; fourthly, to supervise and inspect discipline violation cases. Further, in order to ensure the rational use of funds, ecological environment inspection efforts shall also be enhanced to ensure the smooth progress of ecological compensation work.
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Reference [1] Bai Yanying, Min Qing-wen, Liu Moucheng. Implications of Successful Experience of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage in Foreign Countries for China[J], World Agriculture, 2014, (6): 78-82. [2] Duan Xingfeng, Song Wei, Zeng Xun, etc. Preliminary Study of Soil and Water Conservation Features of Forest Soil in Ziquejie Terraced Fields in Hunan Province[J]. Soil and Water Conservation Research, 2011, 18 (1): 157-160. [3] Jia Simiao (author, the Northern Wei Dynasty), Liao Qiyu (Translator), Liao Guilong (translator). Qi Min Yao Shu [M]. Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2006. [4] Kuang Daren, Qiu Wennong. Characteristics and Impacts of Meishan Cultures[J]. Yiyang Teachers College, 1998, 4: 61-63. [5] Li Wenhua, Liu Moucheng, Min Qingwen. Agricultural Heritage Protection: A New Opportunity for the Development of Ecological Agriculture[J]. Chinese Journal of Eco-Agriculture, 2012, 20 (6): 663-667. [6] Li Wenhua. “Ecological Agriculture-Theory and Practice of Chinese Sustainable Agriculture” [M], Chemical Industry Press, 2003. [7] Li Ximin, Zeng Xun, Luo Zhongshan. Ancient and Beautiful Ziquejie Terraced Fields[J]. Chinese Soil and Water Conservation, 2013, 3: 1-4. [8] Li Xinwu. Research of Great Meishan (Book One and Book Two) [M]. Hunan People’s Publishing House, Changsha, 2014. [9] Lin Xinwu, Li Xinmin, Li Zhineng. Meishan Chiyou[M]. Hunan Art Publishing House .2012. [10] Liu Daorong, Wang Weiguang. Ziquejie Terraced Fields[J]. Xin Xiang Comments, 2005, (4): 62. [11] Liu Fandi. “Shan Juan • Chiyou and Wuling” [M], 2003 Hunan University Press. Liu Yangyang.General History of Hunan[M]. Hunan Publishing House, 1994. [12] Mao Panyun, Shi Xiaochun, Zhou Tanke. Brief Account on the Cultural Studies of Meishan 1988-2012[J]. Hunan Institute of Humanities Science and Technology, 2013, 1: 42-50. [13] Min Qingwen. Globally Important Agricultural Heritage-A New Type of World Heritage[J]. Resources Science, 2006 (4): 206-208. [14] Xiao Zengyan. SWOT Analysis on the Application of Ziquejie Terraced Fields in
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Hunan for World Heritage[J]. Geographic Environment Research, 2005, 17 (6): 74-77. [15] Xie Ping.On the Language Arts of Xinhua Folk Songs in Hunan[J]. Chinese Music, 2012, 3: 196-197,220. [16] Xu Zhifang, Nie Fangrong, Zhang Shuofu, et al.Gravity Irrigation System of Hunan Ziquejie Terraced Fields[J]. China Rural Water and Hydropower, 2006, 4: 73-74, 77. [17] Zeng Di. Primary Investigation of Yao People’s Relics in Fengjiashan Mountain[J]. Journal of Loudi Teachers College, 2004, 1:84-87. [18] Zeng Xiaoping. Analysis of Characteristics of Xinhua Folk Songs[J]. Art Criticism, 2009, 9: 103-105. [19] Zhang Changwei, Xu Wensheng, Li Yalong, et al. Water Conservation Capacity of Litter from Man-made Forests in Ziquejie Terraced Region of Hunan Province[J]. Soil and Water Conservation, 2013, 33 (4): 176-179.
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Appendixes
1. Location and Boundary Maps Figure 1: Location of Hunan Province in China
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Figure 2: Location of Xinhua County in Hunan Province
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Figure3: Boundary of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces
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Appendix 2: Agricultural and Associated Biodiversity 1. Agricultural biodiversity (1) Traditional rice biodiversity Appendix Table 1. Traditional Rice Varieties in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Local Traditional Introduced Local Name Main Use Species Traditional Species Make wine and glutinous rice Baisha Glutinous rice √ cake Yunnong Glutinous √ Make wine and food rice No.1 Jing Glutinous √ Make wine and food rice MaGu red rice √ Make food Black tribute rice √ Make goods or food Black rice √ Make goods or food Purple scented rice √ Make goods or food Red rice √ Make goods or food (2) Other crop biodiversity Appendix Table 2. Other Crop Varieties in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces
Category Varieties Cereals and Finger millet*, Foxtail millet*, Tartary buckwheat* Grains Peas and beans soybean*, black bean*, rice bean*, mung bean*, broad bean* Potato*, sweet potato (including purple heart, Guangdong white potato, Tuber crops pumpkin potato, yellow heart potato etc.) Oil crops oilseed rape, tea-oil tree, peanut* Cabbage, radish, carrot, celery, squash, pepper, garlic, Onion, leek, Vegetables coriander, tomatoes, amaranth, broccoli, lettuce, green bean, eggplant chestnut, bayberry, grapes, loquat, grapefruit, cherry, watermelon, Melons muskmelon, pear, peach, plum Honeysuckle, Officinal Magnolia Bark, Eucommia ulmoides olive, Amur Grape Stem, Medicinal Evodia Fruit, Cape jasmine, ginkgo, Fragrant Solomonseal Rhizome, lily, gastrodia elata, pearl barley, Polygonatum, Medical plants Rhizoma Belamcandae, platycodon grandiflorum , Gynostemma pentaphyllum, Atractylis ovata, Rhizoma Coptidis, Indian Buead, nodakenin, herbaceous peony, chrysanthemum, Heartleaf Houttuynia Herb, Scrophularia ningpoensis Hemsl, honeysuckle *Traditional species (3) Livestock biodiversity Appendix Table 3. Livestock Varieties in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Category Varieties Chicken Yellow Hair Chicken, Barred Plymouth Rock chickens, laying hens, black-bone chicken, dwarf chicken Duck Shaoxing duck, southern egg-laying duck, Beijing ducks Pig Landrace pig, Large Yorkshire, Duroc, Xiangxi Black pig, Ningxiang pigs, DLY (Hybrids of Duroc, Landrace and Large Yorkshire ) Cattle Xiangnan Yellow cattle, Xiangxi Yellow cattle, hybrids of Angus cattle and local cattle breeds, hybirds of Lee Limousin and local cattle breeds, and 106
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hybirds of Simmental Beef Cattle and local cattle breeds Sheep black goats and Boar Goats (4) Aquatic biodiversity Appendix Table 4. Aquatic Varieties in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Category Scientific Name Ctenopharyngodon idellus Cyprinus carpio Parabramis pekinensis Parabramis pekinensis Mylopharyngodon piceus Spualiobarbus Curriculus Culter erythropterus Basilewsl Erythroculter mongolicus Erythroculter ilishaeformis Plagiognathops microlepis Xenocypris davidi Fish Magalobrame Tarminalis Bluntnose black bream Pseudorasbora parva Abbottina tungtingensis Cypriniformes Carassius auratus Hypophthalmichthys molitrix Hypophthalmichthys nobilis Cobitis taenia Misgurnus anguillicaudatus Mastacembelus aculeatus Pelteobagrus fulvidraco Brachyura Crustacean Oophana heudei Bufo bufo gargarizans Cantor Amphibian Rana nigromaculata Mollusk Pheretima Araneida Insect Muscidae Culicidae Aquatic plant Spirodela polyrrhiza (L.) Schleid.
2. Associated biodiversity (1) The main protected plants in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Appendix Table 5. List of the main protected plants in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Scientific Name Protection Category 1 Ginkgo biloba L. Class I national protected plant 2 Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu et Cheng Class I national protected plant 3 Taxus chinensis (Pilger) Rehd Class I national protected plant 4 T.mairei (Lemee et Lévl) Cheng et L.K. Fu Class I national protected plant 5 Bretschneidera sinensis Hemsl. Class I national protected plant 6 Pseudolarix amabilis (Nelson) Rehd Class II national protected plant
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7 Emmenopterys henryi Oliv Class II national protected plant 8 Cercidiphyllum japonicum Sieb.et Zucc Class II national protected plant 9 Magnolia officinalis Rehd.et Wils Class II national protected plant 10 M.officinalis ssp. biloba (Rehd. et Wils) Law Class II national protected plant 11 Ormosia henryi Prain Class II national protected plant 12 Cinnamomum camphor (L.) Presl Class II national protected plant 13 Fagopyrum dibotrys (D.Don) Hara Class II national protected plant 14 Torreya grandlis Forstex Lindl Class II national protected plant 15 Fokienia hodginsii (Dunm) Henry et Thomas Class II national protected plant 16 Eucommia ulmides Oliv Class II national protected plant 17 Tapiscia sinensis Oliv Class III national protected plant 18 Pteroceltis tatarinowii Maxim Class III national protected plant 19 Dysosma versipellis (Hance) M.Cheng Class III national protected plant 20 Gastrodia elata Bl Class III national protected plant 21 Michelia fioveolata Merr High ornamental value plant 22 M.platypetala Hand Mazz High ornamental value plant 23 Aesculus wilsonii Rehd High ornamental value plant Temstroemia gymnanthera (Wight et Arn.) High ornamental value plant 24 Spragne 25 Schima argentea Pritz High ornamental value plant 26 S.superba gardn et Champ. High ornamental value plant 27 Campsis grandiflora (Thunb. ) Loisel High ornamental value plant 28 Kalopanax septemlobus (Thunb.) Koidz High ornamental value plant 29 Sapindus mukorossi Gaertn Fruet. High ornamental value plant 30 Aibizia julibrissin Durazz. High ornamental value plant 31 A.kalkora (Roxb.) Prain High ornamental value plant 32 GyclobalanopsiS giiva (B1.) Oerst. High ornamental value plant 33 Nyssa sinensis O1iv. High ornamental value plant 34 Sassafras tsumu (Hemsl.) Hemsl High ornamental value plant 35 Dalbergia hupeana Hance High ornamental value plant 36 Decaisnea fargesii Franch. High ornamental value plant 37 Liquidambar formosana Hance High ornamental value plant 0smanthus fragrans Lour.var.aurantiacus High ornamental value plant 38 Makino Chimonobambusa quadragnulariS (Femzl.) High ornamental value plant 39 Makino 40 Phyllostachys nigra (Lodd.) Munro High ornamental value plant
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41 Lonicera japonica Thunb Important medicinal plant 42 Bletilla striata (Thunb. ) Reichb. f. Important medicinal plant 43 Aristolochia debilis Sieb.et Zucc. Important medicinal plant 44 Polygonum aviculare L. Important medicinal plant 45 Potentilla discolor Bunge Important medicinal plant 46 Rosa lavigata Michx. Important medicinal plant 47 Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb. Important medicinal plant 48 Pueraria lobata (Willd.) Ohwi Important medicinal plant 49 Polygonum cuspidatumSieb.et Zucc. Important medicinal plant 50 Polygonum cyrtonema Hua Important medicinal plant 51 P.officinale All. Important medicinal plant 52 Lilium brownii vat.Viridulum Baker Important medicinal plant Disporun bodinieri (Lavl. et Vant. ) Wang et Important medicinal plant 53 Tang 54 Scilla scilloides (Lindl. ) Druce Important medicinal plant 55 Tricyrtis bakeri Koidz Important medicinal plant 56 Smilax glabra Roxb. Important medicinal plant 57 Glechoma lonNtuba (Nakai) Kupr. Important medicinal plant 58 Piper wallichii (Mig.) Hand. 一 Mazz Important medicinal plant 59 Dioscorea bulbifexa L. Important medicinal plant 60 Dendranthema indicum (L.) Des Moul Important medicinal plant 61 Asarum forbesii Maxim. Important medicinal plant 62 A.sieboldii Miq. Important medicinal plant 63 Acorus tatarinowii Schott Important medicinal plant 64 Drynaria fortunei (Kunze) J.Smith Important medicinal plant Coix lacryma-jobi L. Var.ma-yuen (Romanet) Important medicinal plant 65 Stopf 66 Peucedanum decursivum (Miq.) Maxim. Important medicinal plant 67 Polygonum multiflorum Thunb Important medicinal plant 68 Gardenia jasminoides E11iS Important medicinal plant 69 Uncaria rhynchophy]la (Miq.) Jacks Important medicinal plant 70 Trichosanthes kirilowliMaxim Important medicinal plant 71 Mahonia fortunei (Lind) Fedde Important medicinal plant 72 Adenophora stricta Miq. Important medicinal plant 73 Trachelospermum jasminoides (Lindl.) Lem. Important medicinal plant 74 Dipsacus japonicus Miq. Important medicinal plant 75 Lindera aggreegata (Sims) Kosterm Important medicinal plant
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76 Ardisia japonica (Hornsted) B1. Important medicinal plant 77 Va]eriana officinalis L. Important medicinal plant 78 Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.) Iljinsk. Important medicinal plant 79 Magnolia denudata Desr. Important medicinal plant 80 Saururus chinensis(Laur)Baill. Important medicinal plant 81 Illicium lanceolatum A.C.Smith Important medicinal plant 82 Sarcococca ruscifolia Stapf Important medicinal plant 83 Stachyurus chircensis Franch. Important medicinal plant 84 S.himataicus Hook f.et Arn. Important medicinal plant 85 Lysimachia Paridiformis Franch Important medicinal plant 86 Solanum lyratum Thunb. Important medicinal plant 87 Corydalis decumbens (Thunb.) Pers. Important medicinal plant 88 Astilbe chinensis Franch. etSav. Important medicinal plant 89 Phyllanthus urinaria. L Important medicinal plant Panax pseudo-ginseng Wall. var. japonicus Important medicinal plant 90 (C.A.Mey.) Hoo et Tseng Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook. Main timber forest, economic forest tree 91 species Pinus massoniana Lamb. Main timber forest, economic forest tree 92 species Cupressus funebris Endl Main timber forest, economic forest tree 93 species Toonasinensis (A. Jass) Roem Main timber forest, economic forest tree 94 species Paulownia fortunei Hemsl Main timber forest, economic forest tree 95 species Toxicodendron vernicifluum (Stokes) F.A.Barkl Main timber forest, economic forest tree 96 species Vernia fordii (Hemsl) Airy-Shaw Main timber forest, economic forest tree 97 species Camellia oleifera Abel Main timber forest, economic forest tree 98 species Citrus reticulata Blance Main timber forest, economic forest tree 99 species Txachycarpus fortumei H. Wenall Main timber forest, economic forest tree 100 species 101 Phyllostachys pubescens Mazelex H. Delehaie Main timber forest, economic forest tree
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species
(2) The main protected animals in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Appendix Table 6. List of the main protected animals in the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces Scientific Name Protection Category 1 Neofelis nebulose Griffith Class I national protected animal 2 Python molurus Class I national protected animal 3 Macaca mulatta Zimmermann Class II national protected animal 4 Manis pentadacty la Linnaeus Class II national protected animal 5 Lutra luhtra Linnaeus Class II national protected animal 6 Uiverra zibetha Linnaeus Class II national protected animal 7 Moschus moscehiferus Linnaeus Class II national protected animal 8 Paguma Larvata Hamilton Smith Class II national protected animal 9 Capricornis bumatraensis Bechstein Class II national protected animal 10 Meqalobatrachus danidianus Blanchard Class II national protected animal 11 Rana tigrina rugulosa Wiegmann Class II national protected animal 12 Chrysolophas pictus Linne Class II national protected animal 13 Chrysolophus awcherstice Loadbeeter Class II national protected animal 14 Lophura nycthemera Linnaeus Class II national protected animal 15 Tragopan temminckii Gray Class II national protected animal 16 Vulapes V. hole Class III national protected animal 17 Mustela sibirica davidiana Class III national protected animal 18 Martes f. flavigula Class III national protected animal 19 Hystrix hodgsoni subcristata Class III national protected animal 20 Bambusicola t. thoracica Class III national protected animal 21 Phasianus colchicus torquatus Class III national protected animal 22 Streptopelia O. oientalis Class III national protected animal 23 Leiothrix l. 1utea Class III national protected animal 24 Porzana fusca Linncous Class III national protected animal 25 Ardeola bachus Bonaparte Class III national protected animal 26 Lepus S. sinensis Class III national protected animal 27 Dinodon septentrionalis Guenther Class III national protected animal 28 Lycodon ruhstrati Fischer Class III national protected animal 29 Natrix aequifasciata Barbour Class III national protected animal 30 Netrix stolata Linnaeus Class III national protected animal 31 Opheodrys major Gantor Class III national protected animal 32 Zaocys dhumnades Gantor Class III national protected animal 33 Naja naja Linnaeus Class III national protected animal 34 Trimeresurus mucrosquamatus Class III national protected animal 35 Trimerosurus S. strjnegeri Class III national protected animal 36 Bufo B. gargarizans Class III national protected animal 37 Rana boulenger Class III national protected animal 38 Rana limnochariS Class III national protected animal 39 Rana margnratae Class III national protected animal 40 Rana nigromaculata Class III national protected animal 41 Rana tempoorariachens1nensis Class III national protected animal
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3: Action Plan 1. Protection of Agriculture Ecosystem Implementing Period Measures Action Plan Responsible Departments 2015-2017 2018-2020 2020-2025 Forestry Bureau of Biodiversity survey of terrace and forest systems ● Xinhua County Forestry Bureau of Construction of law enforcement team of ecological protection ● Protection of Xinhua County Biodiversity Ecological resources property right registration (cultivated Land and Resources ● ● lands, forest lands and creeks) Bureau of Xinhua County Strengthen protection of endangered species of wild fauna and Forestry Bureau of ● ● ● flora Xinhua County Catch of frogs, snakes and fish with electric devices are Bureau of Agriculture of ● prohibited Xinhua County Promotion of compound ecological agricultural farming and Ecological protection Bureau of Agriculture of breeding patterns(duck farming and fish breeding in paddy ● ● of cultivated lands Xinhua County fields) Strengthen protection and maintenance of farmland water Water Conservancy ● ● ● system Bureau of Xinhua County Forestry Bureau of Establishing biodiversity archive of forest vegetation ● Xinhua County Ecological protection Register the forest resources property right and clear the Forestry Bureau of ● ● of forests forestry property rights Xinhua County Establish and divide soil and water conservation forest, Bureau of Agriculture of ● ● ecological forest and functional forest area, and set up the Xinhua County
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signs
Strengthen the construction of biogas to improve utilization, Ecological and Bureau of Agriculture of make sure human and animal waste put into biogas digester ● ● environmental Xinhua County and to be converted into clean energy protection of rural Water Conservancy areas Protection of drinking water sources in rural areas ● Bureau of Xinhua County Bureau of Agriculture of Establish ecological observatory in core area of heritage site ● Xinhua County Establish a flash floods and other geological disasters and Monitoring of Weather Bureau of major meteorological disasters monitoring and early warning ● agriculture ecosystem Xinhua County system in core area of heritage site protection Establish and improve the crop ecological safety monitoring Bureau of Agriculture of system, and set up agricultural ecological protection ● ● Xinhua County monitoring liaisons in each village and group 2. Protection of Agricultural Culture Implementing Period Measures Action Plan Responsible Departments 2015-2017 2018-2020 2020-2025 Establish special investigation team to widely collect traditional Department of Culture, Filing and proverb, traditional poetic couplet, traditional tillage and Radio, Film, TV, Press ● ● organization of the cultivation methods and other knowledge and skill of terraced and Publication of materials of traditional fields Xinhua County farming knowledge Establish a specialized system of classification and to form Department and skill special recording materials of words, images and video recording ● ● of Culture, Radio, Film,
materials TV, Press and Publication
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
of Xinhua County
Collect hoe, palladium, windmills, water wheel, squared barrel, Department of Culture, Collection of material shotguns, beast clip, iron ruler, steel or iron plates used for Radio, Film, TV, Press objects of traditional ● ● engraving orcarving, palladium used in traditional farming and Publication of farming tools instruments Xinhua County Department Collect and sort related data and literature records of Nuo opera, of Culture, Radio, Film, Nuo dance, Nuo Mask Lion Dance, traditional festivals, ● ● TV, Press and traditional customs and other traditional folk customs and Organization of the Publication of Xinhua traditional arts materials of traditional County folk art Department of Culture, To form the corresponding audio, video and other data through Radio, Film, TV, Press ● ● modern digital methods and Publication of Xinhua County Department of Culture, To understand and document traditional dishes production Radio, Film, TV, methods, processes and recipes of traditional snacks, traditional ● ● Press and Publication of Collection of tea, traditional drink and wine, etc. Xinhua County traditional food and Department of Culture, drink materials Form the corresponding recording data such as video and photos, Radio, Film, TV, Press ● ● as well as text materials and Publication of Xinhua County Establishment of Establish traditional knowledge museum of terrace cultivation Department of Culture, farming culture and to exhibit and display relevant material objects, video and ● ● Radio, Film, TV, Press
museums photos and other information collected and Publication of
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Xinhua County
Department of Culture, Set up specialized personnel and funds safeguard mechanism and Radio, Film, TV, Press to promote the long-term and effective conduction of the ● ● and Publication of protection work Xinhua County Provide digital display and network transmission of traditional Department of Culture, Establishment of farming knowledge, technology and equipment as well as folk Radio, Film, TV, Press digital protection arts and to establish special research and development and ● ● and Publication of mechanism technical safeguard mechanism to promote the sustainable and Xinhua County digitalized inheritance of heritage culture To set up training mechanism constituted of propaganda and Department of Culture, training mechanism at County, township and village levels and to Radio, Film, TV, Press carry out the knowledge training of traditional farming ● ● and Publication of knowledge, farming technique and traditional folk cultural Xinhua County heritage on a regular basis Construction of To Help the general public to learn more about, pay more long-term publicity attention to and more willing to protect Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces and education though seminars, skills training, publicity pictures, literacy Department of Culture, mechanism books, legal Q &A concerning protection regulations agricultural Radio, Film, TV, Press ● ● culture, the local rules or regulations quizzes and a variety of and Publication of other folk ways and means to strengthen the transmission and Xinhua County inheritance of traditional farming techniques and farming knowledge Promotion of the Compile and write specialized teaching material about terraced Education Bureau of ● ● ● education of local rice cultivation culture in Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces and to Xinhua County
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
traditional culture establish related cognitive and practical teaching plan in order to actively carry out the cultural heritage education for primary and middle school students about traditional agricultural culture of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces 3. Protection of Agricultural Landscape Implementing Period Responsible Departments Measures Action Plan 2015-2017 2018-2020 2020-2025
To protect plants on the top of mountains and to strictly prohibit Forestry Bureau of ● ● ● deforestation Xinhua County To implement the projects of afforestation to increase the forest Forestry Bureau of ● ● coverage Xinhua County Protection of forest To increase the energy construction of rural areas in terraced Forestry Bureau of vegetation region to solve the obstacles of ecological protection brought by ● ● Xinhua County the rural livelihoods difficulties To strengthen the special protection of ancient and famous trees Forestry Bureau of and to conduct labelling, filing and special care for ancient and ● Xinhua County famous trees To speed up the repair of seriously damages irrigation and water Water Conservancy conservancy facilities and to repair ridge on the basis of ● ● Bureau of Xinhua County ecological environment protection Protection of To set up a stable special funds and engineering personnel team Water Conservancy ● ● irrigation systems for water conservancy facilities maintenance Bureau of Xinhua County To systematically summarize the principles behind the natural Water Conservancy gravity irrigation and its scientific water usage and management ● ● Bureau of Xinhua County system
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
To conduct training, teaching and learning of knowledge and Water Conservancy skills of young farmers and to restore the traditional water ● ● Bureau of Xinhua County management personnel system To speed up the recovery of abandoned terraced fields and dry Bureau of Agriculture of lands transformed from paddy fields and to ensure maximized ● ● Xinhua County terraced field areas of rice cultivation under the condition of
sufficient water resources Protection of terrace To build a special ecological compensation mechanism for Bureau of Agriculture of landscapes paddy fields in heritage sites and to establish a special protection ● ● Xinhua County
fund of terrace To establish a system of reward to encourage the traditional rice Bureau of Agriculture of production and to scientifically design reward standard and ● ● Xinhua County scope of implementation To set up a special fund of the protection of traditional folk Housing and Construction houses and to speed up the repair and restoration of traditional ● ● Bureau of Xinhua County folk houses in heritage sites Focus on the key repair, maintenance and protective development of Zhenglong Village as the “Traditional Chinese Department of Culture, Protection of Village” and Louxia Village as the “Famous Historical and Radio, Film, TV, Press ● ● traditional villages Cultural Village in Hunan Province” and to actively carry out and Publication of Xinhua the declaration of Louxia Village as the "national historic and County cultural village" To strengthen management of living environment and the road Environmental Protection repair of rural villages and to improve the level of living garbage ● ● ● Bureau of Xinhua County disposal
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
4. Development of Eco-Agriculture Implementing Period Measures Action Plan Responsible Departments 2015-2017 2018-2020 2020-2025 Bureau of Agriculture of Survey of traditional rice varieties, coarse grain crop Xinhua County ● varieties Science & Technology Survey of traditional Bureau of Xinhua County varieties of farming Bureau of Agriculture of Xinhua County Germplasm repository construction ● Science & Technology Bureau of Xinhua County Bureau of Agriculture of To establish technique operation procedures for cultivation Xinhua County ● of traditional crops and other rice varieties Bureau of Agriculture of Xinhua County Popularization of To promote the cultivation of traditional rice varieties in core traditional farming Bureau of Agriculture of reserve areas and to realize the cultivation area of traditional ● ● technology Xinhua County rice varieties reach 30% by 2017 and more than 50% in 2020 Promotion of traditional farming technologies and the Bureau of Agriculture of compound farming and breeding technologies such as duck ● ● ● Xinhua County farming and fish breeding in paddy fields Bureau of Agriculture of Ecological agriculture To set up layout of traditional rice production areas in the Xinhua County ● ● layout optimization core reserved areas Urban and Rural Planning Bureau of Xinhua County
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
To optimize layout of high quality rice production base, Bureau of Agriculture of high-quality tea plantation base, demonstration base of Xinhua County Chinese high-yield herbal medicine, small grains production ● ● Urban and Rural Planning base, duck, cattle and other ecological breeding and Bureau of Xinhua County production base in general reserved areas Establish measures for usage of agricultural and cultural Bureau of Agriculture of ● heritage signs Xinhua County To conduct certification of pollution-free agricultural Production and products, green food and organic agricultural products and Related enterprises and certification of geographical indication product certification and to realize ● ● ● farmers ecological products the area of green food production area accounts for 50% of the core area before 2017, and reach 80% before 2020 Related enterprises and International organic product certification ● ● farmers To foster the development of agricultural products processing enterprises and the number of agricultural products processing enterprises in core reserved area is to Bureau of Agriculture of ● ● Deep processing of reach 12 in the year 2017, and to reach 16 by 2020; and the Xinhua County agricultural products farm products processing industry will gradually become the and functional food dominant industry of this region development Bureau of Agriculture of To develop functional foods and to improve scientific and Xinhua County ● ● technological innovation capacity of enterprises Related enterprises
Product promotion and Establish a display and sales platform for series of Bureau of Agriculture of ● ● brand building agricultural products in Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, such as, Xinhua County
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
microblog and Wechat accounts will be set up to develop agricultural e-commerce 3 to 5 cities annually for the promotion fairs of agricultural Bureau of Agriculture of products from Xinhua County and to use media channels like Xinhua County ● ● ● television, newspapers, radio and other media channels to Commercial Bureau of enhance publicity Xinhua County Bureau of Agriculture of To enhance brand creation and construction and to provide Xinhua County relevant capital, technological and policy supports for ● ● Finance Bureau of Xinhua agricultural enterprises County Bureau of Agriculture of To develop farmer households specialized in large scale Xinhua County production of traditional varieties, family agriculture ● ● Finance Bureau of Xinhua (livestock) field and cooperatives Cultivation of County traditional agricultural To innovate traditional management mode of agricultural operators and business products, and to strengthen the joint and cooperation of model innovation farmers, to encourage enterprises in the construction of Bureau of Agriculture of ● ● production base, to give play to the leading role of Xinhua County enterprises and cooperatives to farmers, and to establish the benefit sharing mechanism 5. Development of Recreational Agriculture Implementing Period Measures Action Plan Responsible Departments 2015-2017 2018-2020 2020-2025 The design of To construct the development layout of recreational Travel and Tourism ● ● recreational agriculture in Xinhua County that constituted with “one Administration of Xinhua
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
agriculture tour line center, three zones and six clusters ” County To form a set of recreational agriculture development systems integrated agricultural production, cultural experiences, Travel and Tourism ecological protection, product processing and leisure ● ● ● Administration of Xinhua recreation featuring rich types of industries and distinctive County characteristics To optimize the regional layout and focus on the construction Travel and Tourism of ecological agriculture demonstration area, rice culture ● ● Administration of Xinhua demonstration zone, the recreational and health keeping County demonstration zone and creative agriculture park To use modern science and technology and to display the long Travel and Tourism farming culture, farming technology, folk culture, etc. of the ● ● Administration of Xinhua
terrace through the use of digital technology County The design of To design development related tourist souvenirs from the Travel and Tourism recreational aspects of antique art, folk custom products and agricultural Administration of Xinhua agriculture product ● ● ● products with the aim to deliver compact, practical, attractive County and related line products enterprises Travel and Tourism To design different tourism themes in different seasons, such ● ● Administration of Xinhua as sightseeing, picking, festival participation and spa leisure County To set up promotion and sales sites of agricultural products of Travel and Tourism the agricultural cultural heritage sites with unified logo, which ● ● Administration of Xinhua
can promote ecological agricultural products as souvenirs County To perfect recreational Travel and Tourism To strengthen the construction of roads and improve the road agriculture ● ● Administration of Xinhua network infrastructure: County
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
To improve sanitation facilities through the rational design of Travel and Tourism the public toilets and the construction of some toilet for the ● ● Administration of Xinhua disabled people and setting of dump and garbage collection County point To strengthen the construction of Xinhua County level tourist Travel and Tourism service center and to strengthen the tourism information ● ● Administration of Xinhua
service County To design of leisure agriculture culture identification system Travel and Tourism that demonstrate the features of recreational agriculture and to ● ● Administration of Xinhua upgrade existing hotels and restaurants so as to improve County tourist reception capacity Travel and Tourism To optimize the governmental functions and clarify the To improve the ● ● Administration of Xinhua orientation and functions of related governmental department management County mechanism of To guide the development of tourism enterprises and to give Travel and Tourism recreational preferential measures in the capital, talent, market, policy, etc. Administration of Xinhua ● ● ● agriculture to improve the management level and management ability of County and related tourism enterprises enterprises
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
4: Action Plan Related Maps Figure 4: Location of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Figure 5: Function Areas of Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Figure 6: Protection of Agriculture Ecosystem
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Figure 7: Protection of Agricultural Culture
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Figure 8: Protection of Agricultural Landscape
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Figure 9: Development of Eco-agriculture
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GIAHS Proposal Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces, China
Figure 10: Development of Recreational Agriculture
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