One success factor in achieving sustainable livelihood is community participation in managing community affairs. An irrigation channel or a clinic can be built easily, but if there is no proper management undertaken by the community, the impact can hardly be sustained.

In the counties of Linyun and Fengshan in west Guangxi Province, PCD is working with the School of Agriculture of Guangxi University to build up the capacity of villagers in managing their own community affairs. In these two project sites, there are altogether 7 project communities, with1,500 villagers. One common problem confronting the communities is the serious degradation of the natural environment. There are hardly any trees on the surrounding hills, and villagers have to walk miles and miles for their firewood. The fertility as well as the productivity of the farmland is low due to the people’s extended use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

The long term goal of this three-year integrated development programme is to restore the natural environment. When the programme began in 2004, we started with community organizing through the construction of small-scale infrastructure, including a village road, irrigation channels,

bio-gas, and the improvement of pig sties. We facilitated the villagers to come together to discuss the work plan and the division of labour.

A community-based micro-credit project was also designed to meet villagers’ needs in buying production inputs. The credit is both a learning platform for self management, and a way in which the women in particular can participate and share the benefits.

While the immediate impact of these infrastructure projects can help motivate villagers to further organize and participate, villagers have developed a kind of dependency on the programme. It took a lot of effort for farmers to understand that they should be the owners of the programme, not passive recipients. Exposure visits were organized for farmers to see how farmers in other rural communities are managing their own affairs. The themes of these exposure visits have included the management of micro-credit, natural resources and organic farming.

During the visits, the farmers were very quick in seeing the idea of community organizing and self-management. Upon return, they convened frequent village meeting to discuss how community affairs should be managed. Their drive for improvement in life and community participation has become stronger.

In the second year, we began more community education and training on environmental protection and organic farming. The strategies in restoring the environment include tree planting, reducing the numbers of goats, introducing practices of organic farming, promoting bio-gas and energy-saving stoves, and establishing community regulations on forest management.

After almost three years of community organizing and awareness building, there are now several community regulations, established by the villagers themselves, in managing the micro-credit, the village road, the irrigation channels and the forest. Behind these regulations is the commitment of villagers in managing their own affairs and in living in harmony with their natural environment.