China is a country with vast mountainous areas stretching from west to east. Out of the 1500 mountainous counties, 60 percent are distributed in the western region with the highlands taking up as much as 69 percent of the total land area nationwide. Mountain population constitutes 56 percent of the country's total, and more than 80 percent of the minority groups inhabit the mountainous areas and enjoy a rich cultural diversity. Mountain development is the key activity for the Great Development of West China. The mountain population in China has, for many years, followed the principles of harmonized development of both ecology and economy. Management measures have been used to optimize the economic structure and improve the people's living standards in mountainous areas. As a result, this has led to an active exploration of an integrated management and development strategy for ecosystem improvement and sustainable development, and is also one important component for the Great Development of West China. Those pilot counties selected for integrated mountain development have continuously explored creative development mechanisms and models. Mountain forestry is community forestry, and is the key component for mountain community development. The basic feature is that it is owned, managed, administrated and benefited by the people. The adoption of participatory approach in integrated mountain development has speeded up mountain development pace and provided useful experiences and models in the application of community forestry in mountain development. This is particularly so where farmers are regarded as the main implementers, ownership system reform is the core issue, farmer's indigenous knowledge is respected, and a system of natural resources management is established.
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