Chapter 6 Role of Rural Regulations in Environmental Protection and Green Development
Findings from Wendou Village in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Minority Autonomous Prefecture Pinghe County Hekou Township in Guizhou Province
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Abstract
The widespread involvement in social action involving environmental protection, green development and sustainable development by means of people-oriented rural regulations in Wendou Village in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Minority Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou Province is unique, and is in keeping with the basic spirit of the Declaration on the Right to Development. Wendou has long been known to cherish the tradition of making rural regulations to govern the village and protect the environment. At the entrance to Wendou there is a stone stele showing “Stele of Six Points for Prohibition” and another stele recording management of forestry resources set up twelve years after the first one. The prohibitory regulations on the steles gradually became customary law in the form of rural regulations, which have had a significant role in environmental protection in Wendou Village. Adhering to those self-governing traditions, Wendou villagers enacted the Villagers’ Self-Governance Agreement on September 10, 2015, which stipulated the villagers’ and the village committee’s obligations in environmental protection both directly and indirectly. The green development mechanism and system set up in Wendou Village severely punishes environmental destruction. Wendou’s experiences show that rural regulations have a positive effect on environmental protection.