Local Herdsmen with a Yak in Yunnan province of China

In a roadside ranch on the way from Shangri-La to the Pulang copper mine, the local herdsmen are tending a new-born yak. Most people in the village make a living by planting barley and raising yaks. As a traditional industry in the Diqing, herding has brought great troubles to the forest protection, which poses a major threat to stability and growth of the forest ecosystems. After the implementation of the natural forest protection project, “farmland to forest” policy and the reform of collective forest right systems, herdsmen have developed a more balanced relationship between herding and forest protection.