This is Changkou Village in Sanming City, southern China. Three years ago, it made headlines by securing the country's first forest carbon credit stamp with locals earning money from the scheme.

SUN GUIYING Villager from Changkou Sanming, Fujian Province "We each received 150 yuan from the sale."

YANG LIYI Vice Director, Changkou Village Sanming, Fujian Province "Everyone found it incredible and amazing that even air could be sold."

The sale wasn't exactly of air, but the net carbon sequestration of trees over a five year period. Unlike typical carbon trading schemes in China and elsewhere, which focus on newly planted forests, Sanming's innovation credits existing trees. The Sanming Forestry Bureau spearheaded the initiative.

PENG XIAOYONG Director, Afforestation Division Sanming Forestry Bureau, Fujian Province "On the twenty-third of March, 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited Sanming for an inspection tour and proposed the need to explore and improve mechanisms for realizing the value of ecological products. That was a catalyst."

Just two months after President Xi's visit, in May 2021, the bureau issued its first forest carbon credit stamps. Since then, nearly fifty such projects have been launched in villages under Sanming City's jurisdiction, generating 2.3 million yuan, or 330,000 U.S. dollars in carbon trade. The extra income aims to better protect local forests and raise awareness about their ecological value.

PENG XIAOYONG Director, Afforestation Division Sanming Forestry Bureau, Fujian Province "Carbon sinks are actually one of the most environmentally friendly, cost-effective, and practical measures."

YANG LIYI Vice Director, Changkou Village Sanming, Fujian Province "People's attitudes and perceptions about this idea are changing, and the shift is growing. By protecting our forests, we can gain even greater economic value from them."

A local afforestation company compared a well-managed forest plot with one that has not been fertilized and weeded.

JIANG QINENG Deputy Manager Fujian Jinsen Carbon Sequestration Technology Co. "The total timber volume here is 14 cubic meters per mu, while the adjacent area only reaches seven to eight cubic meters per mu, which is about a 40-percent difference."

The managed plot grew at a faster rate, therefore absorbing more carbon.

Other provinces have begun issuing their own forest carbon credit stamps. But one challenge is the lack of wider recognition for these stamps. They don't count as China's Certified Emission Reductions, known as CCER. This means the stamps cannot be used by major emitters to meet their carbon caps.

Still, planners hope a national standard will be established to give the stamps wider tradability. Changkou has become a monument in China's ecological campaigns. In 1997, then provincial deputy secretary Xi Jinping remarked here that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets."

This slogan, etched in stone at the village center, serves as a guiding principle that economic growth and environmental preservation must go hand in hand. Chen Mengfei, CGTN, Changkou Village, Jiangle County, Sanming City, Fujian Province.