Even in the depths of winter, as the chill deepens, the sea buckthorn park along the banks of the Longzi River still teems with life. The seemingly endless sea buckthorn forest, its gnarled branches laden with orange-red berries, resembles countless red agates. In the evening, a stroll along the forest trails is filled with the sweet fragrance of sea buckthorn carried on a gentle breeze.
This "green Hada" stretching over 40 kilometers and covering more than 50 square kilometers is not only evidence of the continuous improvement of the ecology in Longzi County, Shannan City, but also engraves the green memories of generations of Longzi people working together, demonstrating the solid results of deeply cultivating land greening and enriching the ecological foundation.
From the days of endless yellow sand to the current ecological landscape, Longzi County has always integrated the spirit of "self-reliance and hard work" into its green development strategy, and has unswervingly followed the path of ecological priority and green development. Guided by scientific planning, driven by innovative mechanisms, and based on the participation of all citizens, it has achieved the organic unity of ecological improvement, industrial development and increased income for the masses.
"Before, the wind would blow dust everywhere in the village, and the crops would be covered in sand. Now, there are green trees everywhere, and the scenery is beautiful as soon as you step out of your door." Puci, a villager from Zhaguo Village in Longzi Town, looked at the 66 mu of green space in front of and behind his house and sighed with heartfelt emotion.
By 2025, the survival rate of greening in Zhaguo Village will reach over 95%. This achievement is not only due to the implementation of the deployment of the Party Committee and Government of the Autonomous Region on further promoting the construction of a beautiful Tibet and continuously strengthening ecological protection and restoration, and the scientific planning of "greening the whole area and implementing policies according to different regions", but also to the generational inheritance of the spirit of Liemai.
On the revolutionary dam in Liemai Township, the traces of Renzeng Wangjie leading the masses to clear land by hand and chisel through rocks with ropes to build canals are still clearly visible. Today, this spirit of struggle has long been transformed into the intrinsic motivation for the people of Longzi to plant and protect greenery.
Relying on national policies such as work-for-relief programs, Longzi County secured more than 51 million yuan in central government budgetary funds and various special funds to precisely implement a number of key projects, such as forest tending in Zhuangna Village, Zhari Town, and natural forest protection in Yumai Township. This has created a greening pattern that is "splendid in specific areas, scenic along lines, and covered in the whole area," gradually turning the "ecological vision" into a "real-life picture" right at the doorsteps of the people.
"Planting trees is not something you can do casually; every step must be strictly controlled," an official from the Forestry and Grassland Bureau of Longzi County told reporters. This rigorous approach was already established in the sea buckthorn planting practices more than half a century ago.
In 1964, Langzong, then the head of Xinba Township, went to Shanxi to learn from its experience and realized that "for Longzi to survive, the sandstorms must stop; to stop the sandstorms, more trees must be planted." He led the villagers to try planting willow, poplar, and sea buckthorn seedlings on the sandy beach of Mangcuo Village. Faced with the highly alkaline soil, the poplar and willow trees withered and died, but the sea buckthorn survived tenaciously.
To cultivate seedlings, the villagers searched for mother plants in Xuesha Township, 60 kilometers away, and carried the seedlings back on their shoulders. Sangdan was the youngest planter at that time. Now 74 years old, she still makes it a habit to patrol the forest every day and is affectionately called "Grandma Seabuckthorn" by the villagers.
Inheriting the pragmatic spirit of their predecessors, Longzi County has now established five lines of defense in advancing its greening projects. These include selecting service providers based on qualifications and performance; conducting field research to gather public opinion on design plans; implementing joint inspections of seedlings upon arrival; providing full-process supervision to ensure quality during the afforestation period; and prioritizing native varieties and promoting a balanced mix of trees, shrubs, and grasses. It is this rigorous approach that has allowed greenery to truly take root on the plateau, making Longzi's sea buckthorn forest the "world's largest contiguous artificial sea buckthorn plantation."
Planting trees has not only improved the environment but also benefited the local people right at their doorsteps. The in-depth implementation of a series of greening initiatives has brought Longzi County both ecological and livelihood benefits. In projects such as sea buckthorn cultivation and forest management, Longzi County has employed over 3,887 local residents, distributing 6.26 million yuan in wages.
Gesang Dundan, a 73-year-old man from Liemai Township, was both a participant in the reclamation of the revolutionary dam and a beneficiary of the ecological dividends. Looking at the farmland he once reclaimed that has been transformed into more than 1,700 mu of forest through the "Grain for Green" program, he said with satisfaction, "The old Party Secretary led us through hard work to ensure we had enough to eat. Now, the 'Grain for Green' program to protect the ecology is for a better life. We all agree with it."
Today, Gemingba is being developed into a comprehensive project integrating ecological experience and spiritual inheritance, while the sea buckthorn industry has become a new engine for increasing income.
The planting of American orchids and alfalfa under sea buckthorn forests has solved the problem of feed shortage for cattle and sheep. Projects such as Ganoderma lucidum cultivation, which combine ecology and industry, have also begun to enable villagers to move from "making money by planting trees" to "getting rich through ecology".
As the villagers who participated in the ecological project said, "We used to think that 'green mountains and clear waters' were far away from us, but now we know that this greenery is our 'gold and silver mountains'!"
Today, Longzi County is experiencing increasing rainfall, a significant reduction in sandstorm days, a continuous expansion of arable land, and a sustained reduction in saline-alkali land. The county's governance methods, combining trees and grass, using grass to protect forests, and using forests to stabilize sand dunes, have yielded remarkable results. Longzi County is taking firm steps to make its "green mountains and clear waters" even brighter and its "gold and silver mountains" even more substantial, continuing to write a plateau legend of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature on the northern slopes of the eastern Himalayas. (Reporter Sun Kaiyuan, China Tibet News Network)
