21 November 2006, Beijing, China - Communities living on the arid mountains bordering Guizhou, Sichuan and Yunnan may soon be able to use the seeds of a locally grown tree for bio-fuel production to increase their energy supply, through a 4-year United Nations project aiming to alleviate poverty in western China.

Jointly established by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in China and the Chinese government, the US$ 8.585 million project was launched today in Beijing, aiming to use green technologies to reduce poverty and improve fragile ecosystems in western China, where the number of the total poor is growing.

Entitled “Green Poverty Reduction in China”, the project prioritizes communities of ethnic minorities living in ecologically fragile and remote regions of China. The aim is to create new sources of sustenance and to develop green energy for those areas involved in the project.

“Fostering the potential of green industries and energy sources in remote mountain areas and deserts is an important vehicle which can generate income and employment opportunities, while protecting the environment," said Alessandra Tisot, UNDP Senior Deputy Resident Representative in China.

Through bio-diesel production in Guizhou, Sichuan and Yunnan, the project aims to create a market for the oil-rich seed of the Jatropha Curcas L tree. The tree grows wild in the mountainous regions of western China and is currently used on farms as hedging and to prevent desertification. Its wide-spread cultivation would hopefully lead to more fertile land in an area where soil erosion and aridity create difficulties for agriculture and the ecosystem.

Along with the production of bio-diesel, the project will develop Jarrah Dayun production in Xinjiang which is used as raw material for traditional medicine, and provide small-scale wind turbines to poor herdsmen in Inner Mongolia. Best practice and lessons gained through these pilot sites will be disseminated as the initiative aims to be extended across the country.

This initiative is jointly established between UNDP, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and the China International Center For Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE) under the Ministry of Commerce.