Economic development of local communities and biodiversity conservation: a case study from Shennongjia National Nature Reserve, China

Age structure, educational level and economic situation of farmers living in Shennongjia National Nature Reserve, Central China, were analyzed. Results showed that the population will increase steadily in the future and that the educational level is very low on the whole. Among people above the school entrance age (seven years old), only 36% had the opportunity to receive highschool education and those who received college education occupied just about 1%. The income of the local farmers was far below the national average number, which was only 1044.4 RMB (RMB: Chinese Currency, 8.3 RMB=1 US$) per capita in 2001, which is only 44.1% of farmers' or 15.1% of citizens' nationwide. Some measures, such as developing featured economies and popularizing effective energy utilization methods, have been proved as successful ways for income growth and environment protection. To cope with the conflicts between community economy development and biodiversity conservation, effective mechanisms, such as Public Compensation, and Community Co-management should be introduced. Sharing favorable policies and reasonably taking advantage of natural resources, the goal of sustainable development of local community economy can be achieved along with the biodiversity conservation.