In the 1990s, the Diqing Xiaozhongdian Forest Farm was the logging base of a local timber company. He Shaoyou and his colleagues at the company cut trees every year and sold them for money. Back then, there were 1,447 loggers in Diqing Prefecture.

With the rapid depletion of timber resources, the mountain became barren and soil erosion was a serious issue. In 1998, after an unprecedented flood in the Yangtze River, the Chinese government decided to ban the logging of natural forests in the upper reaches of the Jinsha and Lancang rivers. In the same year, Diqing Prefecture stopped allocating forest areas, banned commercial timber harvesting, took stock of forest areas and confiscated logging tools. It was then that the 1,447 loggers became forest rangers. The change of identity caused great changes in the life of He Shaoyou and his colleagues. Their work now was to plant trees in spring and summer, and patrols the forests in winter when the risk of fire is high.

In the past two decades, the forest rangers have closed hillsides to facilitate reforestation over an area of 104,400 mu in Xiaozhongdian, and conducted aerial seeding over an area of 17,059 mu. They have renewed 54,000 mu of natural forests, planted 68,017.65 mu of forests, restored 2,900 mu of forest vegetation and tended 47,500 mu of forest. Through a series of effective forest ecology projects, the forest resources in Xiaozhongdian have continuously increased and the ecological environment has been significantly improved. Today, Diqing Prefecture has increased its forest stock from the past 227 million cubic meters to the present 273 million cubic meters, and its forest coverage rate from 65.4 percent to 75.03 percent.