The Kunming Programme Office is located in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province. Yunnan province is one of China’s most biologically diverse provinces and contains a long stretch of the upper segment of the Mekong River, which is one of WWF’s 19 global priority conservations areas. Starting in 2009, the Kunming Programme Office will be concentrating its efforts as a key office for WWF China’s Upper Mekong Programme.
Although WWF had been conducting some project work in Yunnan’s Baima Snow Mountain area since the mid 1990’s, the Kunming Programme office was not established until 2000. After 2000 the office built upon its earlier work in Baima Snow Mountain with a series of highly successful integrated conservation and development projects in northwestern Yunnan.
The integrated conservation and development project areas would grow to cover some 70 communities in Baima Snow Mountain Nature Reserve and surrounding areas. The projects achieved real success in helping achieve the goal of simultaneously protecting forest resources and raising standards of living. One example of how this was accomplished includes the introduction of new wood stoves into homes that are vastly more efficient than traditional styles. This means that as the family cooks and heats its home, it uses much less wood and family members (usually the women) have to haul less wood.
Another major accomplishment was the establishment of system that acted as something like a Matsutake mushroom cooperative, wherein WWF encouraged local villagers to develop sustainable practices for this lucrative species of mushroom, which is almost entirely exported to Japan.
On the basis of these and other sustainability successes, the WWF Kunming Programme Office launched the “Poverty and the Environment” project in 2001. This project was more broad-based and started to look at issues from not only a local perspective, but also from the perspective of regional and national legislation.
Part of this project included WWF selecting six pilot counties and monitoring government departments’ implementation of anti-poverty guidelines and providing first-hand information for making poverty guidelines more sustainable and conservation-oriented.
During the period from 2000 to 2009, WWF also carried out numerous educational and capacity-building projects throughout Yunnan province, many of which came with the support of WWF’s Education for Nature (EFN) Programme. These projects have included important work on subjects such as wetland conservation, collective forest tenure reform, sediment control in road construction, corporate social responsibility, green hydropower, and green mining.
Looking ahead, the Kunming Programme Office will continue its recent shift of focus to concentrate on supporting WWF China’s Upper Mekong Programme. This work will include large amounts of collaboration with the Greater Mekong Programme, as WWF tries to comprehensively address the health of the whole length of the Mekong River. During the next five years, the Upper Mekong Programme hopes to achieve greater cooperation between China and other Southeast Asian nations, as well as greater cooperation and information sharing on Mekong river issues within China.
Director, WWF Beijing Office-Kunming Programme Office
WWF Upper Mekong Programme Coordinator
2 North Cuihu Road, Kunming, Yunnan, 650091
Tel: 0871-5039066
Fax: 0871-5031665
Email: wuyusong@wwfchina.org
The integrated conservation and development project areas would grow to cover some 70 communities in Baima Snow Mountain Nature Reserve and surrounding areas. The projects achieved real success in helping achieve the goal of simultaneously protecting forest resources and raising standards of living. One example of how this was accomplished includes the introduction of new wood stoves into homes that are vastly more efficient than traditional styles. This means that as the family cooks and heats its home, it uses much less wood and family members (usually the women) have to haul less wood.
Another major accomplishment was the establishment of system that acted as something like a Matsutake mushroom cooperative, wherein WWF encouraged local villagers to develop sustainable practices for this lucrative species of mushroom, which is almost entirely exported to Japan.
On the basis of these and other sustainability successes, the WWF Kunming Programme Office launched the “Poverty and the Environment” project in 2001. This project was more broad-based and started to look at issues from not only a local perspective, but also from the perspective of regional and national legislation.
Part of this project included WWF selecting six pilot counties and monitoring government departments’ implementation of anti-poverty guidelines and providing first-hand information for making poverty guidelines more sustainable and conservation-oriented.
During the period from 2000 to 2009, WWF also carried out numerous educational and capacity-building projects throughout Yunnan province, many of which came with the support of WWF’s Education for Nature (EFN) Programme. These projects have included important work on subjects such as wetland conservation, collective forest tenure reform, sediment control in road construction, corporate social responsibility, green hydropower, and green mining.
Looking ahead, the Kunming Programme Office will continue its recent shift of focus to concentrate on supporting WWF China’s Upper Mekong Programme. This work will include large amounts of collaboration with the Greater Mekong Programme, as WWF tries to comprehensively address the health of the whole length of the Mekong River. During the next five years, the Upper Mekong Programme hopes to achieve greater cooperation between China and other Southeast Asian nations, as well as greater cooperation and information sharing on Mekong river issues within China.
Contact:
Wu Yusong,Director, WWF Beijing Office-Kunming Programme Office
WWF Upper Mekong Programme Coordinator
2 North Cuihu Road, Kunming, Yunnan, 650091
Tel: 0871-5039066
Fax: 0871-5031665
Email: wuyusong@wwfchina.org
