Research On The Sustainability Of The Small Hydropower Substitutes Fuel Project In Fujiang, Guizhou Province

Small hydropower substitutes fuel (SHSF) is a public-benefit project which aims at ecological protection. Based on providing cheap electricity to reduce Chinese peasants’ dependency on traditional biomass energy, such as firewood, coal, etc., the target of SHSF is protecting forest resources, securing the achievements of ecological construction projects and improving regional ecological environment. Since Chinese government launched pilot projects in 2003, this project has aroused widespread concern and acquired several achievements. However, there is few studies on whether this project could realize its ultimate goal which is protecting forest resources, improving ecological environment and peasants’ working and living conditions, whether the achievements could keep a long-term and whether the project itself is sustainable.In this article, we took a SHSF project in Majiang County in Guizhou Province as as research object, from the point of forests protection and life changing, we made researches on each benefit of this project and analyzed the sustainability of it by using methods such as survey on fixed sample plots, experimental analysis and household questionnaire survey. The main research achievements were as follows:(1) Based on fixed sample plots survey and experimental analysis, we made researches on the impact of this project on forest biomass and carbon stock by choosing typical forest stands in project area and control check stands out of study area. It showed that this project has protected forest biomass as 3160.18t, 4839.90t and 7017.69t respectively from 2013 to 2015, while the annual average increased rate was 49.07%. In the meantime, there was 10802.86t,11860.62t and 13780.88t of carbon stock protected by this project during the period, of which annual average increased rate was 12.99%. In addition, the biomass and carbon stock of forests in study area has increased owing to the protection of this project. The annual average increased rate of biomass and carbon stock in masson pine plantation was 6.93% and 2.96% respectively, in wepping cypress plantation was 21.63% and 6.20% respectively. From this point of view, this project has ecological sustainability to some extent.(2) Our research used difference-in-difference estimation method to study the influence of this project on peasants’ income. The data were collected from questionnaire survey. Results showed that this project had significant positive impact on the peasants’ annual total income and off-farm income (p< 0.05), as well as it had non-significant positive impact on animal husbandry income. Besides, this project had tiny negative impact on peasants’ annual crop income.(3) Questionnaire results showed that 90.08% of households believed that it was very necessary to implement this project, and 82.65% of households thought that this project has protectd local environment, which means the project has a positive social influence. Questionnaire results also showed that this project has obviously reduced peasants’ dependency on traditional biomass energy such as firewood and stalk. Study on electricity expenditure showed that it was in an acceptable range of peasants who took participated in this projectIn conclusion, the implementation of Fujiang SHSF project has protected local forest vegetation and enhanced peasants’ income level. Furthermore, this project also provided an affordable electricity price, and peasants have high enthusiasm to take part in this project. It can thus be seen that Fujiang SHSF project has an optimistic sustainable prospect.