For the Blang people of Jingmai Mountain in southwest China's Yunnan Province, the forest is their most valuable asset. Their practice of growing tea within ancient ecosystems instead of cleared terraces produces a premium product and demonstrates the dialectical unity between ecology and the economy.
There was a period in the 1990s when the shift to terrace plantations boosted yield but sacrificed quality and ecological harmony. Guided by forward-thinking policies that respected local conditions, the community returned to its traditional ways.
This restoration of balance also restored the tea's exquisite flavor and its market value. Today, Jingmai's under-forest tea can fetch over $1,000 per kilogram, a powerful testament that ecological preservation and economic prosperity can thrive together, proving that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets."
Jing Mai Mountain, a name intrinsically tied to Pu-erh, some of the most luxurious tea in the world.
Tea is the world's most consumed drink, after water, cultivated across continents.
In most places, vast terraces of monoculture tea reshape the land.
But here lies an ancient forest of tea trees.
The Blang people cultivate tea within the living forest, where tea gardens and rich biodiversity are one and the same.
But this unique method comes with a cost, lower yields.
It's only during the 90s that in Yunnan people started planting massively conventional tea plantations, terraced tea plantations.
High yields and low quality burst the bubble, bankrupting many in 2007.
When rebuilding began, government placed limits on plantation densities and pesticide use in key regions.
Following the traditional natural method, smaller harvests of better tea brought higher prices.
And suddenly you've got people who come from Guangzhou, from Beijing, from Shanghai and ask for the tea and are ready to pay a lot of money for that.
The price of tea can go like from $2 a kilo in very intensive plantation to over $1,000 a kilo.
You even see like young people doing their TikTok live streaming now.
