In Chengdu, cyclists and joggers who take the magnificent 100-kilometer cycle path around the capital of Sichuan in southwest China have witnessed a strange spectacle for several months. Everywhere, dozens of retired farmers who pay pittance are stoning the surrounding land. Likewise, some trees are being felled and bulldozers are destroying the wild gardens that make up the charm of this green belt. Not that the promoters took control of these areas. Here bamboo, shrubs and wildflowers have to give way to huge areas of corn and rice. They are indicated on a board “Five Forbidden”. Firstly, it is forbidden to plant trees and grow fruit.

To the northwest of the city, the same phenomenon is happening: part of the pretty city park “des deux rivières”, bordering a golf course and opulent mansions, is upside down. “Return to the Agricultural State”reads a sign. “The state needs land for food”explains a pensioner before he quickly makes off.

When China attended the Bonn Climate Change Conference in 1999, it pledged to promote reforestation, particularly through the conversion of farmland to forests, under a program dubbed Grain for Green. With success: from 1990 to 2020, the forest area increased from 157 million to 220 million hectares.

Today we are witnessing the opposite phenomenon. All over the country we clear forests to plant crops. A few dozen kilometers north of Chengdu, in the village of Panlong, a backhoe uprooted the last of the bushes in mid-June. The bamboos are already on the ground. Corn appears all around. The village manager is hurriedly called by local residents who are afraid of seeing a stranger taking pictures and explains to us: “Bamboo brings nothing. Corn pays off. » The excavator driver is in a hurry. A little higher up, he still has more than half a hectare to clear.

“Notorious”

“Officials recently came to visit my parents. They had ascertained by satellite that part of their land was uncultivated. They forced them to plant corn.”says a young woman living in Cifeng, the neighboring village, on condition of anonymity.

In April, a farmer from Hongwa, a village north of Chengdu, complained to Message Board for Leaders, an official website that allows Chinese people to challenge the authorities: “I have some Mu [unité de superficie équivalente à 0,06 hectare] fragrant olive trees and ginkgoes. They have been cut. I was promised 3,000 yuan [environ 383 euros] by mu. But I haven’t received anything. » In the same place, a farmer from Tianpeng County said: “I had some land for fruit trees. But the village told me to cut them off. Even if they give me 3,000 yuan per mu, I think it’s a shame. Is this policy – ​​going from green to granular – really mandatory? »

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