Coronavirus: living on the edge of China’s new relationship with nature

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Residents in Mandian village in Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture under pressure to change traditional habits. Photo: Reuters

Published: 6:30am, 17 Mar 2021Updated: 6:30am, 17 Mar 2021

In the border district of Xishuangbanna in southwest China’s Yunnan province, the global pandemic has put residents of the small ethnic minority village of Mandian under pressure to change old habits.

Behind a traditional homestead with a small garden of medicinal herbs and a veranda lined with beehives, a sign posted on the edge of the forest says, “Do not enter the protected zone without authorisation”.

“Because of environmental protection, we aren’t allowed to go in any more,” said resident Yu Yao.

She said inspectors came and visited every month to ensure the new restrictions were being enforced, adding that permission was needed even to fell a tree.

A sign warns people to keep out of a nature protection zone in Mandian village. Photo: Reuters

Home to around half the country’s protected animal and plant species, Yunnan is on the front line of China’s efforts to redefine its relationship with nature and reduce health risks.

Believed by many to be the source of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, the province aims to build a “southwest ecological security barrier for the motherland,” vice-governor Qiu Jiang said at the annual meeting of the national legislature on March 6.

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