(Photo: China Daily)

    Also collapsed is the traditional farming system, Duan says. As the farmers are preoccupied with receiving tourists, from whom they earn far more than from rice growing, there is a lack of field management.

    "Local villages used to have people tending the ditches blocking the surface runoff when there is rainfall," she says. "Now those ditches are deserted with little tending of them. When a storm hits, the surface runoff easily runs wild into torrents to destroy the fields."

    Local officials turned to land authorities for help and the Regional Department of Land and Resources of Guangxi has incorporated the preservation of Longsheng terraced fields into its land consolidation program.

    The program aims to consolidate fragmented and underused land, reclaim wasteland or land damaged by mining or natural disasters, and develop unused land resources with the prerequisite of guarding against desertification and soil erosion.

    "We are obliged to preserve farmland," says Cao Guosheng, deputy director of the department. "We are even more obliged to preserve a farming legacy like the Longsheng terraced fields."

    He adds that the department plans to put in 30 million yuan ($3.96 million) for the Longsheng project, which involves a total area of 795 hectares of terraced fields.

    That is how Duan and her colleagues came in, and produced a plan for the consolidation of the terraced fields after a year's work.

    But Duan has found the challenge "more formidable" than she could imagine at the beginning. "It's not a big deal to do the engineering work, to repair the fields, build roads, restore the vegetation on top of the hills, dig the ditches and rejuvenate the reservoirs," she says. "But the tough question is how to sustain it."

    If the farmers continue to prioritize tourism and neglect farming, she wonders if the terraced fields can be preserved.

    Deputy Director Cao also felt that the project is unprecedented. "While trying to preserve the farmland," he says. "You have to preserve the terraced farming culture as well."

    This, says Luo Ming, chief engineer with the Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Center under the Ministry of Land and Resources, is actually "the most creative and brilliant spot of this project."

    The nationwide land consolidation program, initiated in the late 1990s, is to "preserve the country's 120 million hectares of farmland," says Luo. "But fundamentally speaking, farming is a culture. You cannot preserve a land without preserving the culture that has been integrated with the land."

    In this sense, she says, Guangxi is leading the country in displaying the essence of land consolidation.

    Cai Yunlong, professor of land management from Beijing University, agrees that the project must proceed from preserving a legacy and culture. He suggests that efforts be made to draw local farmers' attention back to the terraced fields. "Terraced farming used to and will continue to be their fundamental means of subsistence," Cai says. "To survive they created the magnificent terraced fields, which are now attracting people from near and afar to enjoy. They still benefit from the terraced fields even if their direct income from farming is dwindling. For their sustainability they can never ignore their tie with the land."

    Jeffrey Soule, director of the American Planning Association's outreach and international programs, regards the challenge as "one of heritage preservation in the context of globalization".

    Soule says that as the preservation targets not only a scenic attraction but a culture of humanity, a key element to the success of the project is the level of public participation. People have to be clear about who will benefit from the preservation, he says.

    (Source: China Daily)