While protecting the environment and being green are widely promoted today, some people face challenges trying to do so. Questions remain over how to balance environmental protection and regional economic growth. CGTN's Wu Lei talks to some farmers about what can be done.

Qiu Ruikang and his family recently built a new garden and redecorated their house. The family, from Waitongwu village of Hangzhou city, now has more disposable income. Most of Qiu's money comes in from the better quality and sales of this West Lake Longjing tea. Qiu says in the past his family could only make around 100 thousand yuan per year, or 14.5 thousand USD, out of the tea they grow. But now that number has doubled.

QIU RUIKANG WAITONGWU VILLAGER, HANGZHOU "Because the environment here has been better protected, it enables the land to produce better quality Longjing tea. And more tourists and visitors come all the way to buy tea here."

WU LEI HANGZHOU "Local farmers used to grow tea while neglecting the importance of environmental protection. Today, after benefitting a lot from balanced growth, most of them have decided to keep following this green concept and pass it onto next generations."

Hundreds of kilometers away, there are some remote villages in the Wuyanling National nature reserve in Wenzhou city. As a forest ranger for 37 years, He Zhenhong has a different story to tell. To better protect nature, around 200 farmers in these remote villages are not allowed to do anything that could damage the ecology.

HE ZHENHONG, FOREST RANGER WUYANLING NATIONAL NATURE RESERVE, WENZHOU CITY "Without proper farming, it seems hard for these farmers to survive. I hope there will be some policies to help these villagers relocate somewhere."

Experts believe, after all, nature protection should not compromise people's quality of life.

QIAN WENRONG, ASSOCIATE DEAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY "When the environment can't create enough market value, authorities should make certain ecological compensation to help local villagers solve the problems."

Most local villagers or enterprises prefer to focus on short term impacts, but experts say the key is to take further measures and communicate more for longer-term support.

QIAN WENRONG, ASSOCIATE DEAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY "Once these farmers believe environmental protection will become a main channel for increasing their income, that will be a perfect balance. With a better environment, more tourists will come which will boost catering and other services' growth."

All of China's provinces highly value ecological and environmental protection, which will further boost other industries' sustainable growth, but different regions are expected to take appropriate measures to meet locals' growing demand of quality life. WL, CGTN, HZ.