Despite being shrouded in trees, the mountain was dotted with stumps.

That is how Liu Zhilong remembers his hometown in Beishan forest in Huzhu Tu autonomous county, Qinghai province.

As one of those who once depended on felling trees for a living, Liu became a logger when he was 19.

Though they didn't have chain-saws, it wasn't uncommon for loggers to fell 10, or even 20 trees a day, he said.

Now, instead of chopping trees down, the 48-year-old has become a forest ranger, and his job is to eliminate hazards that may damage the forest.

"Now if you want to find a stump, it's not so easy," he said, smiling as he stood in the shadow of the forest he protects.

The changes have happened thanks to a forest conservation project launched in the area in 1998, said Zhao Changhong, head of Beishan's managing authority.

Previously, 40 to 50 percent of residents were engaged in felling trees and although it takes 80 to 120 years for trees to mature in the area, loggers would often chop them down after just 30.

Zhao said Liu is one of 610 forest rangers responsible for safeguarding the forest in Beishan, many of whom used to be loggers, and added that full-time rangers can make about 2,500 yuan ($390) a month.

Years of effort to conserve the forest, which covers an area of 1,127 hectares, have paid off. Currently, Beishan's forest coverage rate stands at almost 79 percent, compared to 62.6 percent twenty years ago.

Moreover, the increasingly robust ecosystem is attracting more and more species to return and make their homes there. In November, for example, an infrared camera captured a family of three snow leopards.

Snow leopards are covered by China's highest national level of protection, and the species is listed as 'vulnerable' by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Snow leopards mainly inhabit the mountainous areas in Central Asia, living between altitudes of 2,500 to 4,500 meters.

Some local residents had heard of the animal they called the "big cat", but had never found signs that they lived in the area before, Zhao said.

"Beishan is just a microcosm of the efforts to promote ecological civilization in Qinghai," he said, smiling.

The concept advocates balanced, sustainable development and without it, Zhao said that he thinks the forest would already have disappeared, especially if the previous scale of logging had continued.