Table of Contents (All Chapters)
Table of Contents (Chapter One)
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction: Biodiversity and Sustainable Development in Qinghai Province, People’s Republic of China
The end-goal of this dissertation is simple: to protect the unique biodiversity of the Tibetan plateau. “Biodiversity is the variety of life and its processes. It includes the variety of living organisms, the genetic differences among them, the communities and ecosystems in which they occur, and the ecological and evolutionary processes that keep them functioning, yet ever changing and adapting” (Noss and Cooperrider 1994). Conservation biology, on the other hand, is the investigation of human impacts on biodiversity, in its broadest sense, and the development of practical approaches to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem integrity (Miller 1996).
“Practical approaches” imply that proposed solutions must be reasonable, relevant, and useful in the real life contexts of the ecosystem or region where conservation is to be promoted. The contexts of the Tibetan plateau, and of Qinghai’s alpine grasslands in particular (which comprise over one-third of the Tibetan plateau rangelands), are complex and in a process of rapid transition. In particular, the evolving socio-political, ecological, and economic situations in the Tibetan plateau region (and in China as a whole) are directly relevant to – and to some degree even determinant of – the success or failure of biodiversity conservation efforts. Thus much more than the purely biological must be considered and studied when planning for success (Ives and Messerli 1989, McNeely 1996a, Carpenter 1998, Margoluis and Salafsky 1998, Schaller 1998).
There are many parts to this dissertation. The primary reason for this is that although a number of studies already have examined the biology of several key species of concern in the Tibetan plateau region (i.e., internationally endangered species; see, e.g., Kaji 1985, Schaller and Ren 1988, Schaller et al. 1988, Harris 1991, Schaller et al. 1991, Harris and Cai 1993, Jiang et al. 1994, Miller and Jackson 1994, Yang 1994, Harris and Miller 1995, Jackson and Hunter 1996, Oli 1996, Schaller and Liu 1996, Schaller 1997, 1998, Harris et al. 1998, Harris et al. 1999), no study has been published – at least none originating in the environmental or conservation circles – that draws together the many interrelated strands, or pieces of the puzzle, that impact biodiversity conservation in western China. In particular, no study has yet comprehensively brought together the issues of grassland ecology, natural resource management, socio-economic development, and biodiversity conservation in this part of the world, along with a practical and innovative case study of grassroots participatory conservation and development in a remote nomad (pastoral) community of the Tibetan plateau.
All these topics will be integrated in the following chapters with the goal of biodiversity preservation in Qinghai’s alpine grasslands, a very unique and special habitat of the world (see Foggin 1998a, 1999a, China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development 1999a, Upper Yangtze Organization 1999). As such, this dissertation purposes to provide a basic analytical framework for future integrated conservation and development work in the alpine grassland regions of western China.
This first chapter provides a brief overview of the environment and current development trends in Qinghai and the Tibetan plateau, including a glimpse of the people affected most by any conservation or development effort, the Tibetan pastoralists. Chapters 2 and 3 then provide more in-depth background information and preliminary analyses pertinent to conservation in China. The thematic topics reviewed include grasslands, pastoralism, sustainability, and biodiversity; and the four different geographic areas (scales) analyzed in this work are the nation as a whole, the Tibetan plateau region, Qinghai province, and most specifically Qinghai’s alpine grasslands. The overview of the main development priorities in China’s pastoral (animal husbandry) areas is especially noteworthy. The specific natural and cultural landscapes of the Qinghai Lake area then are studied in Chapter 4. Next, some of the ecological impacts of fencing and associated changes in livestock grazing patterns on grassland vegetation are examined in Chapter 5. The impacts of several other socio-economic factors on grassland quality and on mammalian biodiversity also are analyzed at a regional (provincial) level in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 provides detailed information on the wildlife that I observed in Qinghai between 1994-1999, as well as a brief discussion on the historic abundances and distribution of native wildlife species and main causes of their decline. Finally, in Chapter 8, I provide a detailed case study of a current grassroots conservation effort in the source area of the Yangtze River. This last chapter also lists some of the key lessons learned from integrated conservation and development projects around the world, and summarizes the recent development and potential role of civil society in China for environmental protection and sustainable development. Based on the real life practical experience gained thus far (cf. the case study in Chapter 8), the critical roles of local ownership and community participation in conservation efforts and the need to integrate the meeting of basic human needs with longer-term environmental needs are particularly noted. In this latter context, the potential role of ecotourism as a means to generate community funds for conservation and development is discussed, and a locally developed regional land management plan is described.
Qinghai province is situated in northwest China and comprises much of the northeastern part of the Tibetan plateau. The region is one of the main grassland areas of China, and also one of the most important nomadic pastoral areas of the Tibetan plateau (Hu et al. 1992, Smith 1996). According to one classification, 26 of Qinghai’s 44 counties are pastoral, and 4 are semi-pastoral (Liu 1993). The province has a total population of around 4.5 million people and over 20 million head of livestock (mostly sheep and yak). Pastoralists graze their livestock on the 385,873 km2 of grassland in the province (or around 54 percent of the total provincial land area; Jing 1986).
The larger biogeographical context of Qinghai’s vast grasslands is the Tibetan plateau, the highest and most extensive alpine region in the world. The Tibetan plateau is a generally arid landmass confined by several mountain ranges to the east, the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges to the south and west, and the very arid continental Central Asian deserts to the north. With average elevations of 4,000-5,000 m and with many mountain ranges rising to elevations over 7,000 m, the climate generally is too severe for agriculture (except in some borderlands and lower valleys), and is favorable only to nomadic pastoralism (Hu et al. 1992). The Tibetan plateau includes virtually all of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, most of Qinghai province, and southeastern Gansu, western Sichuan, and northwestern Yunnan provinces.
The Tibetan plateau is home not only to a unique wildlife assemblage (biodiversity), but also to a uniquely adapted nomadic pastoral society. The long interaction between Tibetan culture and the biological resources of the plateau is a special feature of this environment. In the words of Miller and Jackson (1994), “the fact that viable pastoral cultures and wildlife remain to this day bears witness to the remarkable diversity and resilience of this highly unique ecosystem, as well as the sustainability of its resources if wisely used.” However, if biodiversity is to be maintained outside of protected areas (i.e., in the broader landscape) and if the Tibetan plateau’s montane and grassland systems are to be kept from further degradation, then unsustainable forms of resource utilization must be eliminated (see, e.g., Smil 1993). Although this may be difficult in the face of current social, economic, and political changes occurring in China, many recent trends, especially at the national level, give grounds for hope (Administrative Centre for China’s Agenda 21, 1994, Edmonds 1994, Maxey and Lutz 1994, Carey 1996, Drake 1997).
Finally, a special note should be made here about the people considered most extensively in this dissertation, the local Tibetan pastoralists. Robert Ekvall lived for many years among Amdo Tibetan nomads – the “high pasturage ones” (Ekvall 1968) – in the 1920s and 1930s, and he describes their environment and their ethos well.
“As a result of the interaction of topography and the extreme oscillation of temperature, the Tibetan nomadic pastoralist lives and carries on his subsistence technique while being battered by windstorms, sandstorms, rainstorms, hailstorms, and snowstorms of awesome dimensions and intensity. It is a constant attack to which he must react with action if he is to survive, and make his way of living supply him with the affluence [livestock] which is his proudest boast. …
The routines of herding are not patterns of behavior by rote, but ad hoc responses to exigencies: a continuous exercise of vigilance, calculation, decision-making, and mastery in the control, by a variety of means, of animals which in themselves are unpredictable in situations which change from moment to moment. …
[Despite these hardships, Tibetan nomadic pastoralists] simply assume that their way of life is vastly superior to the way of life of the sedentary tillers of the soil” (Ekvall 1974).
It is such pastoralists that today are heading up a grassroots conservation movement in a critical part of the Tibetan plateau, the alpine grasslands in the source area of the Yangtze River. Devoted to the protection of their local natural resources, the community leaders now recognize the enduring links between biodiversity and sustainability, and hence the necessity to integrate conservation activities with meeting the short- and long-term socio-economic development needs and aspirations of the local population. With the experiences of such a grassroots model of integrated conservation and development to learn from, as well as the numerous demonstration projects that are planned for Qinghai’s alpine grasslands within the context of China’s newest nature reserve (see ‘China plans…’ 2000, ‘New reserve…’ 2000), soon it will be possible to experiment even more in the development of ecologically sound and culturally appropriate ways to protect the native biodiversity of the Tibetan plateau. In the meantime, this dissertation provides an initial framework for biodiversity conservation work in one area of China, it pursues several specific lines of discussion on current development trends and environmental protection in China, and it reports on a unique case study of participatory, community-based conservation.
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Introduction: Biodiversity and Sustainable Development in Qinghai
Province, People’s Republic of China
1.1. Overview and Summary
1.2. Qinghai’s Grasslands at a Glance