Details
The
State Council Information Office published on March 10 a
white paper entitled Ecological Improvement and
Environmental Protection in Tibet. The document, divided
into six sections, reviews the progress of ecological
improvements and environmental protection work in Tibet;
presenting the status quo of this undertaking and envisaging
the prospects of sustainable development for the
future.
Preface
I. Progress of the Ecological
Improvement and Environmental Protection Work in Tibet
II. Ecological Improvement and Biodiversity
Protection
III. Ecological Improvement and
Environmental Protection amid Economic
Development
IV.Building an Ecology-Friendly Railway
Line---the Qinghai-Tibet Railway
V. The Strategic
Choice for Sustainable
Development
Preface
China's Tibet
Autonomous Region is situated on the main body of the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. With high altitude, unique
geographical features and rich wildlife, water and mineral
resources, it has been called the "Roof of the
World" and the "Third Pole of the Earth." It
is not only the "source of rivers" and the
"ecological source" for the areas in South and
Southeast Asia, but is also the "starter" and
"regulating area" of the climate of China and
indeed of the Eastern Hemisphere as a whole.
The
Chinese government attaches great importance to ecological
improvement and environmental protection in Tibet. It has
made tremendous efforts to strengthen ecological improvement
and environmental protection work in Tibet, promote the
sustainable development of its economy and society, and
improve the quality of life of the people of its various
ethnic groups. For over half a century, ecological
improvement and environmental protection in Tibet, as an
important part of the effort to modernize Tibet, has,
together with economic development, social progress and
enhancement of people's living standards, pressed forward
and made great achievements. It would help clarify some
people's misunderstanding concerning Tibet's
eco-environmental problem and enhance their understanding of
Tibet to review the progress of the ecological improvement
and environmental protection work in Tibet, to present the
status quo of this undertaking, and to envisage the
prospects of sustainable development for the
region.
I. Progress of the Ecological Improvement and
Environmental Protection Work in Tibet
The Tibet
Autonomous Region is 1.22 million sq km in area, with an
average altitude of well over 4,000 m above sea level. It
boasts a unique natural ecology and geographical
environment. The climate in Tibet turns gradually from being
warm and moist to cold and dry from its southeast toward its
northwest. Ecologically, the changes are manifested in belts
from forest, bush, meadow and steppe to desert. The complex
and varied terrains and landforms as well as the unique type
of ecological system have created a natural paradise for
biodiversity.
The old Tibet before the 1950s
had long been under the rule of feudal serfdom. The
development level of its productive forces was extremely
low, and it was, by and large, in a state of passive
adaptation to natural conditions and one-way exploitation of
natural resources. It was absolutely impossible to discuss
the objective law of the ecological environment of Tibet, or
to talk about ecological improvement and environmental
protection. From the latter half of the 19th century, some
foreign explorers and scientists conducted various surveys
and investigations on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. In the
1930s, Chinese scientists also carried out some surveys and
investigations there. But, generally speaking, their
knowledge of the unique natural eco-environment of the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was incomplete and unsystematic.
It was after the peaceful liberation of Tibet
that ecological improvement and environmental protection
started there, and began to progress along with the
modernization of Tibet.
The peaceful liberation
initiated the process of scientific understanding, voluntary
protection and active improvement of the ecological
environment in Tibet. Shortly after the peaceful liberation
of Tibet in 1951, in order to unveil the mysteries of the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and promote Tibet's social progress
and development, the Central People's Government organized
the "Tibet Work Team of the Government Administration
Council" (on the basis of which the "Tibet
Comprehensive Exploration Team of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences" was established in 1958), to explore and
assess land, forest, pastureland, water conservancy and
mineral resources in Tibet. The work team put forward a
proposal for scientific development and utilization, which
started the process of scientific understanding, utilization
and protection of the ecological environment in Tibet.
At the same time, ecological improvement and
environmental protection work gradually unfolded, with the
aim of improving the subsistence conditions on the Tibet
Plateau. The State sent forestry specialists to explore
parts of the Yarlungzangbo River Valley, and carried out
experiments in the cultivation of tree saplings and
afforestation at the July 1 Farm in the western suburbs of
Lhasa, which laid the foundation for large-scale
afforestation and ecological improvement in Tibet. After the
implementation of the Democratic Reform in 1959, a mass
voluntary tree-planting drive using local tree species as
the main breeds was launched in a big way in Tibet. Such
afforestation efforts enabled the Tibetan people to achieve
a qualitative leap from the centuries-old passive adaptation
to natural conditions to remaking nature on their own
initiative.
After the founding of the People's
Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region in September 1965,
ecological improvement and environmental protection were put
on government agenda and thus organizationally guaranteed,
along with the progress of work in all spheres achieved by
the people's democratic government. In 1975, the Leading
Group for Environmental Protection of the Tibet Autonomous
Region and its General Office were established. In 1983, the
Urban and Rural Construction and Environmental Protection
Department under the government of the Autonomous Region was
established. Since then, the organizational structure and
administrative systems have kept improving, and ecological
improvement and environmental protection work in Tibet has
gradually got onto the track of sound development.
The comprehensive scientific surveys on the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau have helped people to learn about
Tibet's natural eco-environment in a more systematic and
profound manner. As a result, ecological improvement work in
Tibet began to make substantial headway. The Chinese Academy
of Sciences formulated the "Comprehensive Scientific
Survey Plan for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for
1973-1980." In 1972, the Academy held the
"Symposium on Scientific Survey in the Mt. Qomolangma
Area," the first ever, in Lanzhou. In the wake of this
symposium, all types of comprehensive or specialized
academic conferences in respect of the natural
eco-environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were held one
after the other, accompanied by a large number of academic
achievements. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Comprehensive
Scientific Survey Series alone contains 31 titles in 42
volumes, amounting to a grand total of some 17 million
characters. These scientific achievements have provided a
scientific basis for making better use of natural resources
in the economic development of Tibet, and for continuous
improvement of the human living environment. In 1977, the
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry organized for the first
time an all-round survey of the forestry resources across
Tibet. Since 1978, to meet the requirements of
afforestation, some 50 sapling farms have been set up in
various places, introducing, naturalizing and cultivating
scores of tree breeds suitable for Tibet.
The
reform and opening-up has enabled ecological improvement and
environmental protection work in Tibet to progress in a
law-governed manner. After the reform and opening policy was
adopted some two decades ago, as Tibet has grown more
modern, greater attention has been given to the Autonomous
Region's ecological improvement and environmental
protection, which is progressing steadily in a law-governed
manner. In the 13 years from 1982 to 1994, the Standing
Committee of the People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous
Region, and the People's Government of the Tibet Autonomous
Region and its various departments enacted and implemented
more than 30 relevant local regulations, governmental
standardization documents, and departmental rules and
regulations, which formed a relatively systematic local
legal regime concerning environmental protection. As far as
the contents were concerned, they included comprehensive
regulations concerning ecological and environmental
protection, such as the "Regulations for Environmental
Protection in the Tibet Autonomous Region," as well as
special regulations for different areas of ecological and
environmental protection, such as land management, mineral
resources administration, forest protection, grassland
protection and control, water and soil conservation, wild
animals protection, nature reserves administration, and
pollution treatment. These rules and regulations covered
almost all areas in ecological and environmental protection,
so that there were laws to go by in all these spheres.
The State has directly invested in
comprehensive agricultural development projects on the
middle reaches of the "three rivers" (the
Yarlungzangbo, Lhasa and Nyangqu rivers), with the emphasis
on the improvement of the ecological environment, and has
achieved noticeable ecological results. With regard to
tree-planting and grass-growing on barren mountains,
hillsides and beaches, the government has enacted a special
policy featuring "the lasting and inheritable practice
of whoever reclaims the land shall be entitled to operate
and get benefit from it." This has encouraged local
people to plant trees and grow grass, and guaranteed the
rights and interests due to them in eco-environmental
amelioration. Investigations on the current status of the
ecological environment in the areas of land, wild fauna and
flora, plant, insect and wetland resources have been
successfully carried out. Eco-environment researchers have
begun to monitor and trace the impact of human activities on
the ecological environment, carried out various projects
such as dynamic remote-sensing monitoring of the
eco-environment for comprehensive agricultural development
on the middle reaches of the "three rivers,"
overall survey of the grain pollution caused by residual
organochlorine, and investigation on the sources of
industrial pollution, and have proposed relevant policies
and measures for pollution prevention and control.
Publicity and education concerning ecological
improvement and environmental protection have been widely
carried out, striking deep roots in the hearts of the
people. The media, including radio, television, newspapers
and the Internet, have given wide coverage to afforestation,
wild animals and plants preservation, and environmental
protection. Important commemorative events, such as World
Wetlands Day, Arbor Day, Earth Day, World Environment Day
and World Desertification and Drought Control Day have drawn
the attention of people from all walks of life in Tibet.
Lessons on ecological improvement and environmental
protection are given in schools, and an effort to establish
"green schools" is in full swing.
Concern from the Central Government and
support from people throughout the country have enabled
Tibet to embark upon a new phase in its ecological
improvement and environmental protection undertakings. The
Central Government called the Third Forum on Work in Tibet
in 1994, and made an important decision to extend the
support of the whole nation to Tibet under the care of the
Central Government, which has given a powerful impetus to
accelerating the ecological improvement and environmental
protection work there.
Since the 1990s, the
State Environmental Protection Administration has organized
environmental protection departments throughout the country
to support Tibet in enhancing its environmental protection
capability, helped build environment monitoring stations in
the Autonomous Region, in the cities of Lhasa and Xigaze and
in Qamdo Prefecture, helped train large numbers of technical
and administrative personnel in the field of environmental
protection, and helped formulate an ecological protection
and pollution control plan. In the "National Plan for
Eco-environmental Improvement" and the ?°National
Program for Eco-environmental Protection?± formulated
by the State Council respectively in 1998 and 2000, great
attention has been paid to ecological improvement and
environmental protection in Tibet, and a separate plan has
been drawn up to make the freeze thawing zone on the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau one of the country's eight major areas
for ecological improvement, complete with the proposition of
a suite of explicit tasks and principles for work in this
regard. On the basis of this, the People?ˉs Government
of the Tibet Autonomous Region formulated the
"Eco-environmental Improvement Plan of the Tibet
Autonomous Region" in 2000, which has provided an
overall program and arrangement for Tibet's
eco-environmental improvement. After the State decided to
adopt the great western development strategy, the Central
Government held the Fourth Forum on Work in Tibet in 2001,
and further increased investment in ecological improvement
projects in Tibet. From the perspective of attaining
sustainable development in Tibet, it has been expressly
stipulated that tourism and green agriculture be developed
as the pillar industries for promoting economic growth in
Tibet.
The State has increased its input in
ecological improvement and environmental protection in
Tibet, and intensified supervision on the law enforcement
connected with the ecological environment. Statistics show
that since 1996 the total investment contributed by the
Central Government in items concerning ecological
improvement in Tibet has come to RMB 368 million. At the
same time, a plethora of ecological engineering projects,
such as natural forest protection, restoration of farmland
to forest and pasture, afforestation in Lhasa and its
vicinity, wildlife protection, and nature reserves
construction, have been put into operation, which have
effectively improved the eco-environment in Tibet.
Ecological improvement and environmental
protection work, which had nothing to start with in Tibet,
has grown incessantly in the past half century or more, and
has undergone a process from voluntariness to
conscientiousness, from passiveness to activeness, and from
an unplanned to a scientific approach. According to the
bulletin on the eco-environmental situation published by the
relevant State authorities in 2000, the environmental
quality in Tibet is in a sound state, and most parts are
basically in a primordial state. Tibet is one of the best
areas in the world as far as natural environment is
concerned.
II. Ecological Improvement and
Biodiversity Protection
The positive efforts made by
the Tibet Autonomous Region for ecological improvement and
biodiversity protection in the past five decades or more
have been crowned with signal success.
Natural
grassland is rationally utilized and the active grassland
ecological protection is effective. Tibet contains one of
the five largest pasturelands in China. It has 82.07 million
ha of natural grassland, representing about 21 percent of
the total natural grassland of the country and 68.11 percent
of the total land area of Tibet. According to the first
national survey of grassland resources, the variety of
grassland in Tibet ranks first among all provinces and
autonomous regions. Of the 18 types of grassland in the
country, Tibet has 17. To protect the grassland ecology is
an important link in preserving a complete and orderly chain
of ecology on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Though the grassland area in Tibet is very
large, its carrying capacity is low. Grassland overload was
not significant in the old days in Tibet, because of
stagnant population growth, frequent natural calamities, and
massive human and livestock deaths in times of snowstorms
and other natural disasters. Since the peaceful liberation
of Tibet, the average life-span of the local population has
expanded remarkably, the population has kept increasing, and
as a result the issue of insufficient grass to feed the
ever-growing livestock population has begun to appear.
Consequently, to keep an ecological balance on the
pastureland has gradually become a prominent problem. To
ease the contradictions between human beings and farm
animals and between grass supply and farm animals, Tibet has
taken a succession of measures to strengthen the rational
utilization and ecological protection of natural grassland.
First, emphasis has been placed on fencing and building
water conservancy projects on natural grassland, and raising
both the output level of grassland and its carrying capacity
per unit area. Secondly, a pasture responsibility system has
been implemented. In line with the principle of limiting the
number of grazing animals by the size of the pasture,
rotation grazing periods, rotation grazing areas and
"no-grazing areas" have been designated. Efforts
have been made to increase the market availability rate of
the livestock and to effectively protect natural pastures by
strictly prohibiting over-grazing. Thirdly, man-made
grassland is being promoted so as to ease the pressure
brought to bear on natural grassland by the ever-growing
livestock population. Fourthly, efforts are being
intensified to prevent or control hazards caused by mice,
insects and poisonous weeds, and to maintain the natural
ecological balance of the grassland by utilizing scientific
means, and artificial and biological technologies. Fifthly,
to enhance grassland amelioration in the pastoral areas,
change the nomadic way of production, speed up economic
development in pastoral areas and improve herdsmen's living
standards, projects to construct grassland in the pastoral
areas, build permanent settlements for roving herdsmen, and
restore and improve natural grassland have been launched
since 2001. These measures not only have steadily raised the
income of farmers and herdsmen and enhanced their living
standards, but also ensured the sound development of the
grassland ecology.
Protecting natural forest
resources, carrying out afforestation and improving the
ecological environment. Tibet boasts 7.17 million ha of
forest, and the stocking volume has reached 2.091 billion cu
m. Tibet has the largest primitive forest in China. To
protect Tibet's ecological environment, the government
exercises a "felling by quota" policy, and
strictly controls the scale of tree-felling in forests. The
annual felling amount for commercial purpose is limited to
150,000 cu m. Simultaneously, a rotation system is in place
for lumbering bases so as to help restore vegetation. A
project for the protection of natural forest resources on
the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in Tibet, with a
total area of 31,000 sq km, has been implemented in the
three counties of Jomda, Gonjo and Markam that have a
weighty bearing on the ecology of the lower Yangtze valley.
In 28 counties along the upper reaches of the Jinsha,
Lancang and Nujiang rivers and the catchment area of the
Yarlungzangbo River, where the hazards of sandstorm and soil
erosion are serious, a project to restore farmland to forest
is being undertaken, under which 52,000 ha of cultivated
land will be restored to forest and trees planted on 53,000
ha of barren mountains and wasteland. By 2002, some 6,700 ha
of cultivated land had been restored to forest and 6,700 ha
of barren mountains and wasteland afforested. The government
is also striving to promote the development of energy
substitutes and fuel forests, and popularize solar energy in
order to protect natural bush vegetation.
It
has become the conscious action of the Tibetan people to
join afforestation efforts. The government of the Tibet
Autonomous Region has formulated the "Forestation Plan
of the Tibet Autonomous Region" and the "Opinions
on Acceleration of Afforestation." The people of the
whole region are making efforts by starting with the
improvement of their living environments, first of all by
greening their courtyards, streets and urban environment in
general, and eventually building green belts in river
catchment areas where human activities are concentrated, and
along major highways. The results have been remarkable.
According to a survey, over the past 50-plus years some
70,000 ha of land have been afforested in Tibet, 90 million
trees have been planted beside villages, houses, roads and
waterways, and 1.5 million cash trees have been grown.
Afforestation and ecological projects have
been launched steadily. Implementation of the key projects,
such as the afforestation project in Lhasa and its
outskirts, the construction of the shelter-forest system of
the Yarlungzangbo River, the pilot project of the Yangtze
River shelter-forest system in Markam and the pilot project
for controlling sand by afforestation in Xigaze, has, to a
great extent, improved the natural eco-environment of those
localities. Since 1996, the State has begun to build a
shelter-forest system along the upper and middle reaches of
the Yangtze River. By 2000, it had invested more than 3.7
million yuan in the project, actively supporting Tibet in
building man-made forests and sealing off mountainous areas
to facilitate afforestation as appropriate to local
conditions. The afforested area has topped 13,000 ha, which,
as a result, has played a positive role in improving local
residents' working and living conditions. Following
implementation of the project for the construction of the
shelter-forest system of the Yarlungzangbo River, which is
part of the key "three rivers" agricultural
development undertaking, a man-made forest belt measuring
several hundred km from Xigaze to Zetang on the upper
reaches of the Yarlungzangbo River has been formed. Now, a
new spectacular scene, the belt plays a positive role in
conserving water and topsoil along the Yarlungzangbo River.
Due to the effective protection of natural
forest resources and afforestation, the forest coverage in
Tibet has kept growing. It has grown from less than 1% in
the 1950s to 5.93% today, and has played a positive role in
improving the Autonomous Region's ecological environment.
According to reports from relevant monitoring departments,
due to the increase in man-made vegetation, the number of
sandstorm days has decreased noticeably in Tibet. Currently,
it is 32 days fewer in Lhasa, 34 days fewer in Xigaze and 32
days fewer in Zetang, than 30 years ago.
Comprehensive control of soil erosion has
brought noticeable achievements. The Tibet Plateau belongs
to the alpine cold meadow and steppe landscape, which is
characterized by poor water and soil conservation and
vulnerability to serious soil erosion. Over the past 50
years, soil erosion has been effectively controlled by
afforestation and construction of water conservancy
projects. In recent years in particular, the State and the
Tibet Autonomous Region have increased their investment in
soil erosion control, which has yielded highly desirable
results. By the end of 2001, the State had invested more
than 36.8 million yuan in Tibet, built 53,000 ha of forests
to conserve water and topsoil, grown grass on 67,000 ha,
harnessed soil erosion on 1,166 sq km, and launched a
comprehensive control project in the Radoigou small
catchment area in Quxu County, Lhasa, and implemented
comprehensive control projects for conserving water and
topsoil in Gyangze and Nyemo counties. Simultaneously, the
Tibet Autonomous Region has formulated the "Plan for
Conservation of Water and Topsoil in Tibet" and several
other plans in respect of water and soil conservation and
soil erosion control, promulgated the "Measures of
Administration for Water and Soil Conservation Projects in
the Tibet Autonomous Region," and made prevention,
supervision and protection the top priority of the water and
soil conservation work, in order to prevent new soil erosion
caused by human activities. To enable the comprehensive
control of soil erosion to be carried out in a more
scientific way, the Tibet Autonomous Region launched, in
2001, the construction of a water and soil conservation
monitoring network with an investment of more than 60
million yuan to provide overall monitoring for soil erosion
across Tibet.
Achievements have been made in
desertification prevention and control. Sandstorms have
afflicted Tibet throughout its history. Now, as a result of
the expansion of the hole in the ozone layer caused by
global warming, Tibet has been facing problems of rising
snowlines, dried-up lakes, and deteriorated grassland in
recent years. In some areas in Tibet, pastureland has
suffered a natural deterioration, and some of it has been
reduced to sand and stone. To control pastureland
deterioration and desertification, Tibet has begun to
improve the environment of its rivers, with the emphasis on
improving small river valleys and the desertification of
deteriorated pastureland. With the goal of establishing a
relatively good ecological system of forestry and grassland,
Tibet has adopted measures consisting of afforestation,
aerial sowing and closing off hillsides to facilitate
afforestation. It has planted trees, bushes and grass on a
large scale near rivers and in areas that have been hit most
seriously by pastureland deterioration and desertification.
Projects to protect the natural forests and wetlands, and to
reconvert farmland into forest or pasture have been carried
out on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. In 2002, the
goal was to reconvert some 13,000 ha of farmland into
forest. The Central Government provided 10 million yuan as
subsidy for seedlings, and 15 million kg of grain and two
million yuan as allowance for families of farmers and
herdsmen whose farmland had been restored to forest. Trees
were planted in the vicinity of Lhasa, and in important
agricultural areas forest shelter belts were built around
the fields to reduce soil erosion by sand. These measures
have brought the ever-expanding desertification threat under
control.
Great progress has been made in
protection of biodiversity. Tibet is one of the most
typically biodiverse regions in the world. It is an
important gene pool for the biodiversity of the globe. At
present, there are over 9,600 wild plants in Tibet, 39 of
which are listed in the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and are under
special State protection as rare and endangered species.
There are 798 species of vertebrates and nearly 4,000
species of insects in Tibet, 125 of which are under special
State protection, accounting for more than one third of the
wild animals under special State protection. Approximately
600 species of higher plants and more than 200 species of
terrestrial vertebrates are endemic to the Qinghai-Tibet
Plateau.
Over the past 50-plus years, the
Central Government and the Tibetan local government have
conducted extensive surveys on Tibet's biological resources.
They have worked out scientific plans and programs for the
protection of wild animals and plants. They have also
adopted a sequence of measures for effective protection of
the rare and endangered species. In accordance with the
relevant State laws and regulations, the Tibet Autonomous
Region has established forest law enforcement organs and the
Tibet Armed Police Forestry Contingent. They have conducted
the "Hohxil Action Number One" and other special
campaigns in the border areas of Qinghai, Xinjiang and Tibet
to protect the Tibetan antelope and other rare animals.
These campaigns have dealt a heavy blow to poachers and
curbed law-violation activities that have done damage to
wild animal resources. Meanwhile, the State has invested
millions of yuan each year in infrastructure facilities for
forest security and forest fire prevention in Tibet. In
2002, the State set aside 3.66 million yuan from its
national debt revenue for a special project aimed at
cracking down on poachers of Tibetan antelopes. It has also
strengthened publicity on the protection of wild animals.
Now people in Tibet are highly conscious of the importance
of protecting wild animals, and the once rampant hunting of
Tibetan antelopes has been brought under control.
Over the past 50 years or more, not one species in
Tibet has suffered extinction. Biodiversity is effectively
maintained, and biological types are continuously enriched.
Red deer, generally considered by the international animal
research community to have vanished in the 20th century,
were discovered again in Tibet in the 1990s, and their
numbers are increasing. As Tibet opens wider to the outside
world, non-native creatures such as carp, crucian carp, eel
and loach, high-productivity and quality cattle, sheep,
pigs, chicken, ducks, as well as corn, watermelons and
vegetables have been introduced from the inland areas to
Tibet, where they are thriving today.
Great
achievements have been made in the establishment of nature
reserves. Establishing nature reserves is an important
method used by Tibet to strengthen ecological improvement
and environmental protection work and implement the strategy
of sustainable development. Since the 1980s, Tibet has
established more than 70 nature reserves of different types.
Of these, three are on the national level (four more
national-level nature reserves are being planned) and 15 are
on the autonomous region (provincial) level. The total area
of the 18 nature reserves is 401,000 sq km, accounting for
33.4% of the land area of Tibet and 30.8% of the total area
of China's nature reserves. In addition, prefectures and
prefecture-level cities in Tibet have established over 50
nature reserves of the corresponding level. A rationally
distributed nature protection network of different types is
basically in place. In light of the general program and
requirements of the State, the People's Government of the
Tibet Autonomous Region is carrying out the
"Development Plan for Nature Reserves in the Tibet
Autonomous Region for 1996-2010." It is expected that
28 new nature reserves at or above the autonomous region
level will be established before 2010. By then, all types of
nature reserves other than sea and seashore ecosystem ones
will be found in Tibet.
In order to restore the
natural ecosystem, human activities such as economic
development are strictly limited in the established nature
reserves. As a result, the ecological environment in most of
the nature reserves has become stable and the prospects are
quite good. Breeding grounds, habitats and important
ecosystems for rare and endangered species, important
wetlands for migratory birds, as well as the natural
landscapes, geological sites and biological sites of
scientific importance are now well protected. All the 125
wild animals, 39 wild plants and typical geological features
in Tibet that are on the State protection list are well
preserved in the established nature reserves. The Tibet
Autonomous Region has more than six million ha of wetland,
accounting for about 4.9% of Tibet's total land area and
ranking first in China. Its alpine wetlands are unique in
the world. According to monitoring by the relevant
departments, the number of both wild animals and plants in
the nature reserves is obviously increasing, and the total
reserves of wild animal resources have increased by upwards
of 30%. Rare animals that had not been seen for many years
have returned to their habitats. In the Changtang Nature
Reserve, monitoring in the past few years has revealed that
the numbers of wild animals such as Tibetan wild donkey,
argali and antelope have increased to differing degrees. The
number of Tibetan antelopes has reached 40,000 to 50,000 in
the Nyima central reserve. After a nature reserve for
black-necked cranes was established on the middle reaches of
the Yarlungzangbo River, the number of black-necked cranes
wintering there has increased each year, accounting for
about 80% of the earth's total number of black-necked
cranes.
III. Ecological Improvement and
Environmental Protection amid Economic Development
The ecosystem in Tibet is extremely fragile, and the
ability to resist disturbance and regenerate is weak. Once
the ecosystem is damaged, it is hard to restore it for a
long period of time. For more than 50 years Tibet has
adhered to the strategy of sustainable development, ensuring
the close combination and coordinated development of
ecological improvement, environmental protection and
economic construction. While the economy develops rapidly
and the people's living standards are constantly rising, the
ecological environment is being effectively protected. In
accordance with the latest monitoring findings, the
environment of water and the atmosphere in Tibet are
basically unpolluted. The average annual concentration of
suspended particles in the atmosphere of Tibet's cities is
between 193 and 268 per cu m. No major environmental
pollution accident has occurred in Tibet, and most of its
major rivers and lakes are in a primordial state.
Environmental protection and ecological improvement
are synchronized with agricultural production and
development. In Tibet, the natural conditions for
agriculture are poor, infrastructure is weak, grain
productivity is low and the capability to withstand natural
disasters is low. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen
agricultural infrastructure construction, transform low- and
medium-yield fields and improve the level of the
agricultural ecosystem for agricultural production and
development. With this aim in mind, the government of the
Tibet Autonomous Region has endeavored to raise grain yield
by improving the eco-environment for agricultural
development. The government is helping farmers change their
traditional cultivation habits of letting land lie idle
after harvest - a centuries-old practice known as
"white fallow," which is detrimental to water and
soil conservation. Rotation of grain and grass is adopted to
increase the fertility of the soil and its ability to
conserve water. While attention is paid to farmland water
conservancy construction, a forest shelter network is being
built to protect farmland from being eroded by sandstorms.
As a result of persistent efforts, the rate of land usage in
the major agricultural producers in central Tibet has
increased greatly, and the level of soil erosion has
declined markedly. Natural conditions like water and heat,
which are fundamental to the growth of farm produce, have
been improved. In 2000, surveys by experts found that the
comprehensive eco-environment appraisal index of this area
has gone up by 1.5 percentage points from 10 years ago. The
improvement of the ecological environment has steadily
increased agricultural productivity. By 2001, agriculture in
Tibet had had bumper harvests for 14 years in a row. The
total grain output had reached 982,500 tons, enough to make
Tibet basically self-sufficient.
The State has
invested a large sum of money on a series of comprehensive
agricultural development projects in Tibet. It is making
sure that while land areas are expanded, the ecological
environment is improved at the same time. In the major
construction projects, such as the comprehensive
agricultural development project on the middle reaches of
the "three rivers" with an investment of 1.2
billion yuan from the Central Government, environmental
protection and ecological improvement are made key parts of
the projects. Monitoring of the ecological environment in
comprehensive agricultural development in the "three
rivers" area in the past 10 years indicates that, due
to an organic combination of biological and engineering
measures, both the types and rate of land utilization and
the acreage of man-made vegetation in the area have
increased markedly. Desertification and soil erosion have
been effectively checked, and the comprehensive index of the
eco-environment quality has been raised by one to three
grades. Comprehensive agricultural development has not only
reaped significant economic benefits, but also resulted in
good social and ecological benefits.
Industrial projects are selected carefully,
and pollution prevention and control are strengthened.
Industry was not developed at all in Tibet until after the
region's peaceful liberation. Even today, there are few
industrial enterprises in Tibet, and so industrial pollution
is not much of a problem. In order to reduce the bad effects
caused to the ecological environment by industrial
development, the government of the Tibet Autonomous Region
has adhered to the principle of placing equal emphasis on
both industrial development and environmental protection. As
industries are developed in the region, Tibet has made every
effort to ensure that while they bring about economic
profits they have social and environmental benefits as well.
No industrial project is to be launched just because of its
envisaged economic benefit or just because it will fill a
gap in the field. To effectively combat pollution, the
government has adopted a series of pollution-prevention
measures to ensure that the development of modern industry
does not damage the ecological environment. First,
industrial pollution is dealt with through industrial
restructuring, product-mix adjustment and technological
transformation. For instance, the Lhasa Leather Factory has
imported environmental-protection facilities along with
advanced technologies and equipment from Germany. The Lhasa
Brewery, which used to be a big polluter, has spent more
than four million yuan on equipment to treat industrial
sewage as part of its technological transformation efforts.
As a result, its sewage discharge has met the specified
standard. Second, supervision and management of the
environment has been tightened. Rectification has been
carried out in respect of enterprises that fail to meet the
requirements for pollutant discharge. In accordance with the
guiding principle of "opening big enterprises and
shutting down small ones" for industrial restructuring,
six vertical-kiln cement production lines in Lhasa proper,
which used to be serious polluters, have been shut down.
Enterprises causing serious pollution are barred from
production, and outdated technologies and equipment
prohibited by the State have been winnowed out.
Strengthening evaluation and management of the impact
of resources development and major infrastructure
construction projects on the ecological environment. A
policy is implemented ensuring that no new construction,
reconstruction and expansion projects shall be authorized
unless an evaluation of their impact on the environment has
been conducted. This policy and the system of the
"three simultaneouses" (pollution prevention
facilities are designed, built and commissioned
simultaneously with the main project) are strictly enforced.
More than 80% of medium-sized and large construction
projects have gone through evaluation of their impact on the
ecological environment. The Norbusa and Shangkasam chromite
mining projects include eco-environmental protection as a
key task in resources development. With respect to the
hydropower station at Yamzhoyumco Lake, which has attracted
the attention of the world, full consideration was given to
the protection of the ecological environment, starting from
the decision to build the station to its design and
construction. Since this hydropower station was put into
operation, electricity generation has not caused the water
level in the lake to drop, which would have harmed the
natural eco-environment of the lake.
Much
attention has been paid to the comprehensive treatment of
the ecological environment in urban areas in order to
improve people's living environment in areas with dense
population.?The comprehensive management of the ecological
environment in cities and towns has always been stressed in
ecological improvement and environmental protection work in
Tibet. To guarantee the quality of the atmospheric
environment, Tibet is actively popularizing the use of
non-polluting energy sources in cities and towns, and
phasing out fuels such as faggot, ox dung, coal and oil
currently being commonly used by local residents. It
encourages people to adopt natural gas as fuel for daily
use. By 2001, the number of liquefied petroleum gas users in
Lhasa and Xigaze had increased to 44,600 households,
accounting for 83% of their combined total. At the same
time, Tibet is actively using clean energy sources like
water, geothermal, solar and wind energies. A pattern
featuring water energy as the main energy source
complemented by other types of energies has initially been
formed, and has been a great help to the protection of the
ecological environment. The amount of solar energy used in
Tibet each year is equivalent to that provided by 130,000
tons of standard coal. In Lhasa and Xigaze, 1,693.6 ha of
land are covered by trees or grass, and 47.48 ha are public
green areas. The rate of green coverage in established
districts is 23.5%. Construction of plumbing and treatment
of sewage have been pushed ahead in urban areas, and 679,460
m of water supply pipes and 392,770 m of sewage pipes have
been laid. The government has invested 51.2794 million yuan
in building Lhasa's garbage disposal plants, and garbage
disposal facilities for other cities are being actively
planned.
Devoting major efforts to the
development of tourism and other specialty industries that
are beneficial to the protection of the ecological
environment. Developing specialty industries with relatively
little impact on the ecological environment has always been
an important policy in accelerating the economic development
of Tibet. With its unique natural geographical and cultural
environments, Tibet enjoys a nature-endowed advantage in
developing tourism and other tertiary industries. In 1996,
the People's Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region
adopted the "Decision on Speeding Up the Development of
Tourism," and put tourism - one of the Autonomous
Region's pillar industries - in a prominent place and
develop it vigorously. In 2001, Tibet played host to 686,100
domestic and foreign tourists, its earnings from tourism
totaling 750 million yuan and its earning of foreign
exchange reaching 46.38 million US dollars. Some 6,506
people are directly involved in the tourist industry, while
more than 30,000 people are indirectly involved. The status
of tourism in Tibet's economy is rising. Although tourism
pollutes the environment to only a very small extent, the
local government has paid much attention to problems arising
from the damage to the ecosystem and from environmental
pollution in the development of tourism. Tourism and
environmental protection departments are actively taking
measures to collect, classify and dispose of garbage left in
scenic spots to prevent pollution of the eco-environment.
Garbage bins have even been set up at the harsh Mt.
Qomolangma mountaineering headquarters. Garbage left by
climbers and tourists is collected, removed and disposed of
periodically.
IV. Building an
Ecology-Friendly Railway Line --- the Qinghai-Tibet Railway
There was no highway in Tibet before its peaceful
liberation. Economic and social contacts in Tibet and its
contacts with the outside world depended solely on human
power and draft animals, as well as post roads. Now, a
transportation network consisting of 24,000 km of highways,
a dozen air routes and more than 1,000 km of pipelines has
been completed. Still, Tibet remains the only autonomous
region (province) in China inaccessible by rail.
Transportation has long been a bottleneck holding back the
economic and social development of Tibet and hindering the
improvement of the people's living standards. Building the
Qinghai-Tibet Railway has been the long-cherished wish of
people of all ethnic groups in Tibet. It is not only
essential for strengthening links between Tibet and the
hinterland, accelerating the economic and social development
of Tibet and improving the local people's material and
cultural well-being, but is also of great significance for
enhancing ethnic unity and common prosperity.
On June 29, 2001, with the approval of the
Central Government, construction of the section between
Golmud and Lhasa began as part of the second phase of the
Qinghai-Tibet Railway project. This railway line will be
1,142 km long, and will involve an investment of 26.21
billion yuan. It will take six years to complete. Making the
Qinghai-Tibet Railway an ecology-friendly railway line was
the goal set at the time the project was appraised.
During the initial research period, an
appraisal of the impact of the railway line on the
environment was carefully conducted. In the initial period
of the project, relevant departments chose several aspects
that would affect the ecological environment, and conducted
intensive research. On the basis of this research and with
arrangement by the Chinese government, specialists from
various fields carried out in-depth on-the-spot
investigations, and conducted a sound scientific appraisal
of the impact of the railway building on Tibet's ecology and
environment in light of the requirements of the
environmental protection, water and soil conservation, and
wild animals protection laws, and those of the
"National Plan for Eco-environmental Improvement,"
and the "National Program for Eco-environmental
Protection." They compiled a report and some other
documents, offering their appraisals of the environmental
impacts, together with proposals for protection of the
ecological environment. In light of the requirements of the
appraisal, a guideline for the construction of the project
was worked out, i.e., "giving priority to prevention
and protection and attaching equal importance to both
development and protection." The result of the
appraisal of the ecological environment was used to guide
the designing and construction of the railway line and its
environmental management. Some 1.2 billion yuan will be
spent on environmental protection facilities for the
Qinghai-Tibet Railway, a record sum in this aspect for rail
construction in China.
At the design stage of
this railway line, protection of the ecological environment
was the deciding factor in the plan for the project.
Protection of the ecological environment has been an
essential concern in the design of the Qinghai-Tibet
Railway. The routes were selected so that they would keep
away from the major habitats of wild animals. The original
design of the railway would have it passing through the
black-necked crane nature reserve on the middle reaches of
the Yarlungzangbo River. After many discussions, the
designers decided to select a circuitous route via
Yangbajain, to avoid disturbing the birds. But if avoidance
was impossible, such as the section cutting through the
Hohxil, Qumar and Soga nature reserves, the planners would
compare several designs, and put forward protection measures
to minimize disturbance to the nature reserves. Based on the
investigations and studies of the habits and migration
patterns of the wildlife along the railway line, the
planners established 25 passageways for wild creatures at
different sections of the line. In designing bridges and
tunnels, the designers gave full consideration to the needs
of wildlife crossing the railway line. At many spots,
special bridges were planned to provide passageways for
migrating wildlife so that the normal life of these animals
would be guaranteed as far as possible. Hohxil is one of the
habitats of the Tibetan antelope, which faces the danger of
extinction and is under the State's first-grade protection.
In June and July each year, they form groups and travel long
distances to Zhoine and Taiyang lakes to breed. The builders
of the railway line stopped work for four days, withdrew
workers and equipment from the construction site and removed
the colored flags that would alert and frighten the Tibetan
antelopes. The animals eventually passed through the
construction site without being disturbed. To prevent damage
to grasslands and wetlands, the planners designed many
special bridges. The total length of bridges built for this
railway line in Tibet alone would reach 13 km.
When
completed, the stations along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway will
use environment-friendly energy sources such as electricity,
solar energy and wind energy for heating. Garbage at the
stations will be collected for batch treatment. Domestic
sewage, after being treated to meet the State's discharge
standard, will be used, whenever possible, to water green
spaces. The passenger cars will be sealed. Garbage on the
trains will be collected in plastic bags which will be
handed over to stations along the plateau for batch
treatment. To suit the characteristics of the plateau, the
central station management mode will be adopted, with seven
central stations established along the line. Each of these
stations will be totally responsible for the trains' running
and maintenance in an area within a radius of 80 km.
Wherever possible, remote automatic control and mechanized
maintenance will be adopted to reduce the number of both the
organizations and their staff on the plateau, thereby giving
maximum protection to the natural eco-environment of the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Reducing the adverse
impact of the railway construction on the ecological
environment to the minimum. To achieve this goal, all the
construction units have signed a responsibility pledge for
eco-environmental protection with the Qinghai-Tibet Railway
Construction Planning Office. The Office also requires all
construction units to formulate or improve rules and
regulations for protecting the ecological environment, and
establish environmental protection sections run by full-time
or part-time administrators. It is also imperative for the
construction units to take specific scientific measures to
protect the ecological environment; and their construction
plans must meet the requirements for environmental
protection. Competent governmental administration
departments of land, environmental protection and water
conservancy and relevant units responsible for design,
supervision and construction must work together to decide on
the sites for taking and discharging dirt and placing
building materials such as sand and stone. They should
determine, according to the availability of sunlight and
hardness of ice, the appropriate distance between those
sites and the railway roadbeds, as well as the traffic
routes for workers and vehicles. Construction and relevant
activities should be done within the designated areas to
keep the permafrost stable. The headwaters and wetlands
along the railway line are to be specially protected to
avoid desertification in the headwaters areas, shrinkage of
wetlands, deterioration of grasslands and water pollution
that might be caused by the construction. Attention is to be
paid to the protection and regeneration of ground
vegetation. In places difficult for plants to grow and on
the construction sites and transportation routes, the turf
should be preserved and replanted in other places section by
section, to be moved back to cover the slopes of the
roadbeds and construction sites, so as to minimize the loss
of ground vegetation. Where natural conditions are
relatively good, grass seeds suitable for plateau areas
should be carefully selected and planted with appropriate
means of cultivation to restore as much as possible the
ground vegetation that existed before the railway
construction. Where the natural conditions are good enough,
turf to be cultivated by manpower should be tried out,
supported by the techniques of spray sowing and plastic film
mulching. In the Tuotuo River area, where the Yangtze River
originates, test-planting of grass on plateau roadbeds has
been successful in the first stage. The railway builders
will take all measures to meet the environmental
requirements of the railway construction.
A key point
in building the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is to protect the
ecological environment along the railway line. All units
involved in the construction are making great efforts in
this respect. The China Railway No. 14 Engineering Bureau,
for instance, has 13 key technical problems now undergoing
scientific research, of which half concern environmental
protection. There are six supervisors in this bureau who are
in charge of eco-environmental protection on the railway
construction sites. They are responsible for ensuring that
the camp sites, work-site access roads and passageways,
quarries, and sites for supplying dirt and digging trenches
take up as little space as possible. They are also
responsible for supervising accommodation facilities to
ensure that the delicate plateau vegetation is properly
protected.
Taking effective measures to
minimize the pollution that the railway construction might
cause to the plateau's ecological environment. To achieve
this goal, the construction units have tried to use
high-efficiency, low-noise and low-pollution equipment. They
have tried to adopt more mechanized ways of construction and
use as few administrators and workers as possible on the
work sites. Whenever possible, prefabricated concrete
components are carried to the construction sites and
assembled there. In order to avoid the pollution caused by
slurry around bridge-building sites, they use dry-boring by
rotary drills where possible. The Office requires that all
waste water from construction and camp sites be processed to
meet the corresponding sewage treatment standard before
discharge. Solid waste from construction sites and trash
from camp sites must be sorted out and recycled whenever
possible. Waste and trash that cannot be degraded should be
moved to appropriate places for batch treatment.
Strengthening supervision and inspection of
environmental protection to meet the protection
requirements. An environmental protection supervision system
for a whole railway line was first adopted for the
Qinghai-Tibet Railway. The Office entrusted a third party to
supervise the environmental protection work all along the
line during the whole period of the railway construction. To
strengthen such supervision and inspection work, the State
Environmental Protection Administration and the Ministry of
Railways jointly issued the "Notification on
Strengthening the Supervision and Management of the
Eco-environment in the Building of the Qinghai-Tibet
Railway," setting out specific requirements for the
environmental protection and supervision work during the
construction period. The State Environmental Protection
Administration, the Ministry of Railways and other
government departments concerned have repeatedly sent
inspection groups to supervise the implementation of these
environmental protection measures. Any violation of the
environmental protection regulations is severely punished.
With the concerted efforts of all concerned it
is justifiable to believe that the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, as
a plateau railway up to the environmental protection
standard, will truly benefit the people of all ethnic groups
in Tibet.
V. The Strategic Choice for
Sustainable Development
For the past 50 years or so,
benefiting from the concern of the Central Government and
support from the whole nation, people of all ethnic groups
in Tibet have pulled their full weight to give an
earth-shaking new look to Tibet, and have made achievements
in ecological improvement and environmental protection that
have attracted attention worldwide. Tibetan people today
live and work in peace not only with a booming economy and
developing society, but also with their landscape kept
beautiful, their rivers kept clean, their animal species
kept diversified, and their vegetation kept lush. Tibet has
truly become a "Shangri-la."
Rapidly
shaking off its traditional backwardness and quickening its
steps toward modernization are the natural requirements for
the progress and development of Tibetan society and the
fervent wish of all the ethnic groups in Tibet. Located on
the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Tibet has a peculiar geographical
environment and a fragile ecosystem. Therefore, it is an
important part of Tibet's progress to modernization and a
strategic choice for sustainable development that Tibet
should protect the regenerative capacity of its natural
resources, improve the quality of its ecological
environment, preserve the integrity and self-adjustment
ability of its natural ecosystem, and ensure the safety of
the ecosystem and the harmonious unity and coordinated
development of Tibet's economy, society and ecosystem.
Ecological improvement and environmental
protection in Tibet cannot be achieved if development steps
falter, but nor should we attain short-term economic
development at the cost of the ecological environment. We
can only follow the law of social development, attach equal
importance to both economic development and
eco-environmental protection, giving attention to protection
in the process of development and seeking development in the
process of protection, and implement the strategy of
sustainable development. Ecological improvement and
environmental protection should be done in an active,
thrusting and dynamic manner, and not in a passive,
conservative and closed-door way. We cannot refuse any
interaction between man and natural eco-environment on the
excuse of preserving the fragile primitive natural state,
because this will hamper the economic and social development
and the improvement of people's living standard in Tibet.
The relationship between the exploration and
utilization of natural resources and eco-environmental
protection must be handled properly in the course of the
modernization of Tibet, so as to promote changes in the mode
of economic growth. It is clear from past experience in
Tibet that the exploration and utilization of natural
resources must follow the laws of nature, taking both
long-term and overall interests into consideration, so as to
avoid being too eager for quick success and instant benefits
to the extent of over-burdening the ecological environment.
A scientific attitude and methodology must be adopted in
exploring natural resources and protecting the ecological
environment. Natural resources that are not to be explored
and used should be strictly protected, while the exploration
and utilization of needed resources should be done
scientifically with a definite goal, to prevent any unwanted
impact on the ecological functions. Only in this way can the
natural resources in Tibet be utilized rationally and
scientifically, and can economic development and
eco-environmental improvement be achieved simultaneously.
Tibet's ecological improvement and environmental
protection, just as its economic and social development,
have a vital bearing not only on the fundamental interests
of the people of all ethnic groups in Tibet but also on the
common interests of the whole nation. People of all ethnic
groups in Tibet are the major motivators and direct
participants in the ecological improvement and environmental
protection work in Tibet. They are also the main
beneficiaries of a well-preserved ecological environment.
Carrying forward such work will benefit both the State and
the people for generations to come. Starting from the
fundamental interests of the Tibetan people and the
fundamental demand of the people of all ethnic groups across
China for common prosperity, over the past five decades and
more the Chinese Central Government and the local government
of Tibet, in a spirit of being highly responsible for
posterity and the world as a whole, have made tremendous
efforts to promote and develop the ecological improvement
and environmental protection work in Tibet, and have made
achievements that have captured worldwide attention.
The Dalai clique and the international anti-China
forces shut their eyes to the progress in the ecological
improvement and environmental protection work in Tibet. They
have spread rumors all over the world that the Chinese
government is "destroying Tibet's ecological
environment," "plundering Tibet's natural
resources" and "depriving the Tibetan people of
their right to subsistence," and so on and so forth, in
order to mislead world public opinion and deface the image
of China. Camouflaging themselves with pretensions of
concern about eco-environmental protection in Tibet, they
want really nothing but to hamper the social progress and
modernization of Tibet and to prepare public opinion for
their political aim of restoring the backward feudal serfdom
in Tibet and splitting the Chinese nation.
It
is true that there are still many problems in Tibet's
ecological improvement and environmental protection efforts.
As the whole global ecosystem is deteriorating, the fragile
ecology in Tibet is particularly affected. Mud-rock flows,
landslides, soil erosion, snowstorms and other natural
calamities occur frequently in Tibet and desertification is
threatening the region's eco-environment, compounded by
man-made damage to the ecological environment as Tibet's
economy develops. All these things have attracted much
attention from the Central Government and the local
government of Tibet. In order to ensure the permanent
stability of the ecological environment and natural
resources and to guard against possible new threats to them,
the Tibetan local government, supported by the Central
Government, has set up and put into practice since 2001 a
mammoth plan for ecological improvement and environmental
protection. From now until the mid-21st century, more than
22 billion yuan will be invested in over 160
eco-environmental protection projects aimed at steadily
improving the ecosystem in Tibet. There is no doubt that the
people in Tibet will create an even more beautiful
environment and an even better life for themselves in the
course of their future development.
(End)
White Paper on Ecological Improvement and Environmental Protection in Tibet
2004-06-09 17:00