西双版纳橡胶园 经济驱动与生态思维

JINGHONG, China — In the farming village of Tuanjie, in the hills above Jinghong, in southwest Yunnan Province, nearly every family lives in a two- or three-story concrete house, testament to a prosperity built during the boom years for natural rubber production.

中国景洪——在中国西南地区云南省景洪市的山丘上，有一座务农的村庄叫团结村，村里几乎每户人家都住在两三层高的水泥楼房里。这一栋栋房屋见证了当年因出产天然橡胶而带来的繁荣景象。

Sitting in a gleaming new kitchen larger than the thatched hut that once stood on the same spot, Wang Guiying, 51, recalled hunting wild animals to survive and growing cotton to make her own clothes in the days before her family in 1983 became the first in the village to plant rubber trees. “Our lives then just got better and better,” she said.

51岁的王桂英（Wang Guiying，音）坐在亮堂堂的簇新厨房里。想当年，她家的整幢茅草屋还没有如今这间厨房大。当时不但得猎杀野味谋生，还得自己种植棉花制衣，直到1983年，她们家在村里率先种起橡胶树。“从此以后，日子过得越来越好，”她说。

By 2011, the Wangs were earning nearly $13,000 a year from their four-acre farm, while neighbors with larger plots earned close to six-figure incomes. Family members built their two-story home, bought a car and a flat screen television and went on group tours to distant Beijing and nearby Vietnam.

到了2011年，王家每年可从自家的4英亩田里赚8万元人民币，而有地较多的邻居甚至能赚进六位数字。当地人家开始建造两层楼房、购买汽车和平面电视，并参加去北京的长途旅行团，或是到邻近的越南游玩。

This year, because of the drop in oil prices, which set the price for natural as well as synthetic rubber, they predict they will make only about $1,600.

然而今年油价跌落，与之挂钩的天然橡胶和合成橡胶的价格也应声下降。王家预计今年只能挣到1万元人民币。

“We don’t know why the price went down, but we have nothing else to depend on,” said Ms. Wang’s son-in-law, Jie Er, 32.

“我们也不明白怎么会跌价，但除了橡胶，我们没有别的指望了，”王桂英32岁的女婿介洱（Jie Er，音）说。

Recognizing that, environmental officials just outside Jinghong, the region’s major city, have been testing a plantation model that they hope will become the blueprint for a more sustainable and economically stable rubber industry.

鉴于橡胶价格的下跌，该地区中心城市景洪城郊的环境官员测试起全新的开垦模式，希望借此打造出能够持续发展且经济效益更为稳定的橡胶产业。

On approximately 165 acres of land, workers have interspersed the rubber trees with cacao, coffee and macadamia trees, as well as high-value timber species. The mix, promoted as “environmentally friendly rubber,” is intended to decrease soil erosion, improve water quality and increase biodiversity, among other benefits.

在占地约165英亩的田地上，农民们交错种上了橡胶、可可、咖啡和澳大利亚坚果，以及具备高经济价值的木材树种。官方将这种间作方式称为“环境友好型橡胶种植”，目的在于减少水土流失、改善水质并提升生物多样性等。

Rubber plantations first appeared in this tropical region in the mid-1950s as state farms run by the centrally planned economy. Mile after mile, the uniform rows of rubber trees fan out across the valleys where Asian elephants and white-cheeked gibbons once roamed. From afar, they meld into an unnaturally even carpet of single-shade green, a stark contrast to patches of remaining natural forest.

橡胶种植最早于上世纪50年代中期以国营农场的形式出现在云南。这片热带地区原先是亚洲象及白颊长臂猿的栖息地。当时中国推行中央计划经济，整齐划一的橡胶树在山谷间绵延不绝地生长。从远处望过来，这片绿色的橡胶林地呈现人工的单一色块，和邻近的原始森林形成强烈对比。

The transition to a free-market economy combined with rising rubber prices led to the rapid expansion of plantations beginning in the late 1990s. These days, over a fifth of all land in the Xishuangbanna prefecture of Yunnan Province is devoted to rubber production, an area of cultivation that tripled in size between 2002 and 2010. Natural forest coverage, in turn, has fallen to less than 50 percent in 2003 from nearly 70 percent in the late 1970s, snuffing out wildlife in a corner of China renowned as one of its most biologically diverse.

到了90年代晚期，中国向自由市场经济转型，又恰逢橡胶价格上扬，因此种植规模开始迅速扩张。到了现在，西双版纳州超过五分之一的土地都用来出产橡胶，仅是2002至2010年间的种植面积就增长了两倍。在70年代晚期，云南仍保有将近70%的原始森林，而到了2003年，原始森林的覆盖率跌落至不及50%的水平。这里是全中国生物多样性最丰富的地区之一，如今野生动物日渐稀少。

Li Qingyou, director of the Bio-Industrial Crops Office, the governmental body that is seeking to convert nearly a fourth of the region’s rubber-growing areas to this new more eco-friendly model by 2020, stood next to his Jeep facing a view of new high-rises and the Mekong River beyond, feet planted on the slope separating a row of coffee trees from rubber trees.

州政府旗下的发展生物产业办公室希望，在2020年以前，把该地区近四分之一的橡胶林地，变为更有助于生态发展的这种新种植模式。发展生物产业办公室主任李庆友站在吉普车旁，眺望新的高楼及远方的澜沧江，脚下的斜坡将一排咖啡树和其他的橡胶树分隔开来。

“We used to be so focused on developing the economy that we planted rubber and ignored the environmental impact,” he said, “but now we realize that this isn’t good for us, and it isn’t good for the economy either.”

“以往为了全力发展经济而种植橡胶，却忽略了对环境造成的影响，”他表示，“如今我们了解到这对我们不利，也无益于经济发展。”

Last year, the prefecture-level government spent $1.6 million to convert nearly 21,500 acres of existing rubber plantations into environmentally balanced ones. According to officials, an additional 16,000 or so acres are in the pipeline for this year. With rubber prices at a 10-year low and farmers panicked over sinking incomes, officials say they have a rare opportunity to promote their ideas, which include introducing new products that make farmers less dependent on a single revenue stream.

去年，州政府花费千万元人民币来将近2.15万英亩的既有橡胶林改造为生态平衡林地。根据官员的说法，今年还将把1.6万英亩左右的林地纳入规划。由于橡胶价格创10年新低，农民也因收入下跌而恐慌，官员表示他们有难得的机会推行这个理念，其中也包括引进新物产，让农户不至于太依赖单一收入来源。

“When rubber prices were very high, it simply wasn’t easy to get anything done,” said Pan Yuwen, 48, a technical adviser in a government department specially created to assist farmers with following the new practices.

“橡胶价格还很高的时候，根本推行不了任何事情，”政府部门的技术顾问、58岁的潘育文（Pan Yuwen，音）表示。这个部门的创建，就是为了协助农民学习新的栽种模式。

There is no official consensus as to what exactly “environmentally friendly rubber” ought to be; researchers are divided as to what intercropping species and planting practices would best balance economic needs against purely environmental concerns.

对于“环境友好型橡胶种植”的定义，目前并没有一致的权威说法。科研人员在间作作物的种类与栽种方法上存在分歧，争论的内容是何者能够在经济需求与单纯的环境关怀之间达到平衡。

The current program includes measures like the distribution of free seedlings — some 500,000 in 2014 — and the discouragement of planting rubber trees on steep slopes or in areas over 2,600 feet in elevation, where soil erosion and other environmental damage are much worse and yields proportionately lower.

目前的计划包括发放免费幼苗——在2014年发放了50万株——之类的措施，以及阻止农民在陡坡或海拔超过800米的地方种植橡胶树，因为那么做会造成更严重的土壤侵蚀等环境损害，并相应减少产量。

Though rubber farmers typically engage in intercropping while the trees are still young and have not yet developed full canopies, it is uncommon for farmers to integrate other species into mature plantations. Yet, tea, cacao, coffee and a number of Chinese medicinal plants can grow even in the midst of a rubber forest, as can valuable, slow-growing trees like teak.

胶农通常在橡胶树较为年幼、尚未长成完整的树冠时进行间作，在已成熟的橡胶林之间整合其他作物的做法并不常见。不过，茶、可可、咖啡与几样中药药草可以在橡胶树之间存活，还有一些价值高但成长缓慢的树种亦是如此，例如柚木。

Mr. Jie said he was intrigued by the seedling distribution program, though he would never cut down his rubber trees, which take seven years to mature. “We’re wondering if we should also start planting macadamia nuts or Aquilaria trees,” tall evergreens that produce resinous agarwood, which is used in perfumes and is one of the world’s most expensive raw materials.

介洱说他对分发幼苗的计划感到好奇，但他不会砍掉自家那些需要七年才能长成的橡胶树。“我们在想，要不要也种些澳大利亚坚果或是沉香树。”沉香树是一种高大的常绿乔木，可以生产富含树脂的沉香木，用于生产香水，是世界上最昂贵的原材料之一。

Many others in Tuanjie spoke of plans to leave and take jobs as day laborers in Jinghong to make ends meet.

团结村还有许多人谈到，要为了生计离开此地，到景洪市打短工。

Critics of the government’s rubber program say it lacks clear environmental standards as well as incentives that could get local farmers to participate. And the vast majority of rubber plantations now belong to individual small holders like the Wang family who own long-term rights to use of the land and make their own economic decisions.

批评政府橡胶计划的人指出，该计划缺乏明确的环境标准，也缺乏明确的奖励措施吸引当地农民参与。绝大多数的橡胶树农是像王家这样拥有长期土地使用权、并可以自己做出经济决策的个体小农。

“The government has no power to effectively push this program out, because at a policy level they have no way to stop villagers with no idea of what it means to be environmentally friendly from doing whatever they want,” said Chen Jin, director of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden Research Center, which helped develop the Jinghong model site. The process of educating villagers would be slow, he added, “like brewing tea with cold water.”

“政府没有力量有效推广这个计划，因为在政策层面上，他们无法阻止不懂环境保护意义的村民为所欲为，”西双版纳热带植物园主任陈进表示。该机构曾协助开发了景洪市的示范区。他还说，教导村民的进展很慢，“就像用冷水泡茶。”

He dismissed the government’s progress indicators and targets as inflated to the point of being “simply impossible.”

他不认同政府的进度指标与目标，认为它们被夸大到了“根本不可能”达到的程度。

Mr. Li of the Bio-Industrial Crops Office acknowledged that the targets were somewhat fanciful but said they were devised to show just how serious the government is about changing the status quo. “Otherwise, people will lack enthusiasm,” he said.

发展生物产业办公室的李主任承认目标有些不现实，但表示设置这些目标是为了显示政府有改变现状的决心。他说，“否则，民众会缺乏热情。”