Background

My name is Shiyin Siou, I am the program director for Kham Aid Foundation's reforestion project in Oro (Orlong) village in SiChuan, China. In June, 2000, I was given the opportunity to run this project. At the time the plan was to recruit volunteers from outside China to join forces with the local people in tree planting activities. 

The tree planting site for this project is located at Oro Village, in Bajiaolou Township, Yajiang (Nyachuka) County, where slopes were devastated by fire in 1993. In a typical Chinese Catch-22, once a forest has burned down, the Forestry Bureau no longer has anything to do with it, so there are no government funds for replanting here. Kham Aid Foundation has been involved in many local community works, and so the people of Oro have asked for our help. That's why we're involved. 

In early October,2000 I finally set foot in Orlong village myself with a few other members of Kham Aid Foundation, including president Ms Pamela Logan, and board member, Dana Isherwood. I was able to see the future tree planting sites, and talked to village people face to face seriously about how to run this project.

Pilot program

After I visited the tree planting site in fall 2000, and talked to the local people, I began to reconsider the idea of recruiting foreign volunteers as the main part of this project. There are two reasons: One, the amount of physical work involved is tremendous, many outsiders will be impaired by the high altitude (about 3600 meter above sea level), and that will make it difficult to carry out heavy work such as climbing up and down the steep slope. Second, the amount of people involved is in the range of 50-60s even for a very small land area, far more than the 10-20 foreign volunteers we are planning on recruiting and are capable of hosting. What the local people need is money to buy trees seeds and pay for labor, there is no shortage of workers.

Our pilot program was held in April, 2001.  It helped us perfect our system for planting, hiring workers, bringing in supplies, and cooperating with local agencies. In future years the program will expand. I foresee five years of involvement. There are many, many sites needing such help in western Sichuan; I hope that we can come up with a workable model as reference for ourselves and other similar organization/local communities to follow in the future.

 Reforestation is a long term commitment. It is my belief that we not only need to come up with funding to start the activity, most importantly, we need to work out a system that is both beneficial to the environment and the local community. Only then we can see the system start circulating and expanding: forestation benefit local communities, and local communities spend more money to expand forest. Only then I would call this a successful reforestation project.

I have hired Mr. Zhang Heping, a Kangding-based forester, to examine the area and plan the planting. He led the initial activities, has compiled data, and is training the local people. In the initial pilot program we planted 20,000 trees. Our initial estimate was one tree per U.S. dollar to cover all cost including labor and seeds, but we exceeded that by a factor of more than four! All data collected during 2001 will be used to prepare for future plantings. All funding raised for this project will be used 100% for the forest; we will keep administration cost on this project to the minimal. (For example, as a program director, I have been paying all travel expenses out of own pocket.)

You can help

For those who care about regenerating the once-great forests of Kham, we at Kham Aid Foundation sincerely ask for your kind donation to support hire of local workers and purchase of trees. $10 or $1000 donation alike all show that you care. We thank you with our full heart for your contribution. Please see this page on how to donate.

Contact

I will update this website frequently with information, articles and news, so please check back. If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email, planttrees@khamaid.org  If you prefer to talk to me directly, please call me at 1-408-373-7226 (Santa Clara, CA USA)