To protect the ecological environment is to protect the natural value and increase the value of natural capital, and to protect the potential and stamina of economic and social development

When visiting the exhibition hall of returning farmland to forests in Wuqi County, Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province, the commentator mentioned a small episode: several years ago, a photography enthusiast accidentally took a picture of a "big black bird", which was later verified by the Forestry Bureau as a national first-class protected animal, the black stork, which made many people happy. The local people said: "The environment is good or not, just look at the birds." The black stork "came" to Wuqi, and cast a real vote of approval for the ecological environment here.

Take a bus to travel between the mountains and rivers of Wuqi, and see the continuous green. It is hard to imagine that more than 20 years ago, here was a scene of ravines crisscrossing and loess slopes full of soil and water. What followed was that we could not afford food, planted widely and harvested poorly every year, and we were trapped in a cycle of "more and more poor, more and more poor, more and more grazing, more and more grazing". "In sunny days, yellow sand fills the sky, and in rainy days, yellow water fills the mountains" and "planting a slope in spring and harvesting a bag of grain in autumn" are true portraits of the ecological environment and agricultural production.

If you are sleepy, you will want to change. How to solve the problem of wide planting and low harvest? How to alleviate the situation of sandstorms? The old way of overdrafting and sacrificing the environment must not go any further. "The lifeblood of mountains is in the soil, and the lifeblood of soil is in the trees." Local cadres and masses learned from the bitter experience and decided to close the mountains and prohibit grazing. They would withdraw the land with weak ecological bearing capacity that is not suitable for farming. They would raise goats with "a pair of scissors in the mouth and four shovels in the hooves", and replace "people retreat" with "forest advance" and "grass advance". The revolutionary spirit condensed in the war years has been transformed into the practical work and responsibility of jointly building a better homeland and creating a better future. In just a few years, people in Wuqi have planted more than 400 million trees, and nearly 4000 trees per capita, which has become a miracle in the history of afforestation.

During his visit to Shaanxi, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that "people will not fail green mountains, and green mountains will not fail people. Green water and green mountains are both natural wealth and economic wealth." Today, the coverage of forest and grass in Wuqi County has increased from 19.2% in 1997 to 72.9%, realizing a historic change from yellow to green. On the latest satellite remote sensing map, the green color of Wuqi County is impressive. In recent years, the local government has explored the ecological poverty alleviation model according to local conditions, and launched a series of measures such as preferential poverty alleviation of forestry projects, priority poverty alleviation of labor forestation, help poverty alleviation with ecological compensation, and support for forest protection management and protection. From planting economic forests to developing ecological agriculture and leisure tourism, many people have become rich by eating "ecological food". The per capita disposable income of farmers in the county has increased from 887 yuan in 1997 to 13045 yuan in 2020, creating a new way for the mutual promotion of ecological civilization construction and poverty alleviation. It can be said that the change of Wuqi is the best proof that "green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains" from the greening of the earth, the ecological beauty to the prosperity of the people.

Looking around, Wuqi is just a small piece of China's green puzzle. From "mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes and grasses are a community of life", to the integration of green development concepts into production and life, and to the realization of benign interaction between economic development and ecological improvement, green has spread one by one, witnessing the transformation of development ideas and development methods. Facts have proved that protecting the ecological environment means protecting natural value and increasing natural capital, and protecting the potential and stamina of economic and social development. Only in this way can green water and green mountains continue to bring into play ecological benefits and economic and social benefits.

The construction of ecological civilization contributes to the present and benefits the future. Whether it is to promote high-quality development or to do a good job in rural revitalization, the construction of ecological civilization should be included in the topic. If we persevere and work hard for a long time, balance and handle the relationship between development and protection, we will be able to protect the motherland's green waters and mountains, and build a beautiful home with blue sky, green earth and clear water.

(The author is the editor of the Review Department of this newspaper)

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