Wildlife paradise: Changtang National Nature Reserve in Tibet

Tibet’s ecology and natural resources have frequently been exploited. Since the Chinese government invaded Tibet illegally in the 1950s, the once-independent country’s peace and harmony have rapidly declined. In a world where the environment is currently the most dangerous problem, Tibet is also experiencing significant environmental problems, but instead of receiving the necessary attention, the problems are written off as a simple territorial dispute.

The authoritarian rule of China in Tibet and their portrayal of Tibet as a part of themselves have caused the world to ignore the environmental degradation that has occurred there as well as the fact that Tibetans lack the rights to even speak out against issues affecting their own land and way of life. Tibet is currently on the verge of confronting significant environmental problems.

A Tibetan natural reserve that was controversially inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site five years ago is called for to have its status reviewed in the most recent World Heritage Watch Report by the International Campaign for Tibet.

The Hoh Xil (Achen Gangyap) nature reserve, which the Chinese government wrongly claimed to be a “no-land” man’s despite Tibetan nomads using the area, was designated a World Heritage Site in 2017. Since then, the reserve’s status has not been reassessed. Hoh Xil is situated in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the Qinghai Province.

The October edition of the 2022 World Heritage Watch report has an analysis from ICT regarding the nature reserve and how, according to the new deadlines set for UNESCO’s Third Cycle of Periodic Reporting, China is not required to submit a periodic review of Hoh Xil until 2024.

The management of infrastructure projects, tourism, and climate change continue to raise severe problems, as does the displacement of local populations. Because of increased censorship of even environmental information coming from Tibet and increased surveillance, it is becoming more challenging to keep tabs on the situation there. A thorough evaluation of the site’s management is therefore necessary.

The historical and culturally Tibetan Hoh Xil Nature Reserve is a territory the size of Switzerland that is situated in Yushu County, Qinghai Province. Its extraordinary level of endemism and natural beauty earned the site recognition as a natural heritage site. All of the plant-eating mammals in Hoh Xil, along with more than one-third of the plant species, are unique to the plateau and cannot be found anywhere else on Earth.

The wild yak, Tibetan ass, Tibetan gazelle, and Tibetan antelope are just a few of the unusual creatures. The land is essential to the survival of up to 50% of the wild yak and 40% of the Tibetan antelope in the world. Additionally, the park preserves the habitats and biological cycles that make up the Tibetan antelope’s whole life cycle. The Changtang natural reserve and Sanjiangyuan (three rivers source) national park, two bigger and better-known protected areas, are wedged between the Hoh Xil nature reserve. China announced plans to create a new national park network in 2017 that would be run by the government.

A number of protected zones have also been established on the Tibetan Plateau. Although these territories have not been unified under the national government, it appears that plans exist to establish a so-called “Third Pole National Park” made up of initially five national parks that will turn Tibet into a protected location for conservation and tourism. At least a third of the Tibetan Plateau is currently covered by protected areas inside Tibet.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) highlighted climate change, infrastructure and tourism, fencing, and pest management as risks to the heritage site at the time of Hoh Xil’s inscription. The site’s universal importance is currently under serious threat, according to the advisory group’s most recent assessment of the site’s conservation outlook for 2020.

Fencing, Pika species poisoning, and the effects of climate change on habitat were all mentioned in the IUCN evaluation’s assessment of current high-level risks.

With increasing average temperatures and precipitation resulting in additional rivers, lakes, and marshlands, climate change is specifically changing the habitat. By obstructing migration routes and calving grounds, as well as by generating new types of dust and salt pollution, these environmental changes are having an impact on animals.

Limiting traffic on the Qinghai-Tibet railway and highway corridor or evaluating alternate routes can also help to offset other concerns, such as infrastructure development and increased tourism along the Tibetan antelope’s migration route. The IUCN experts have noted that the highway has more significant effects than previously thought and significantly alters the Tibetan antelope’s migration path to and from the calving grounds.

Tourism, and the subsequent rise of traffic through the natural reserve, is a reasonable worry. It is not new for China to exploit tourism to commercialise Tibetan culture and marginalise Tibetans in their own country. In the ancient Town of Lhasa, where the UNESCO-listed Historical Ensemble of the Potala Palace has been updated and made to look more Chinese in order to serve political and commercial objectives, such tactics have been effectively used.

The site’s cultural and global worth has been lost as a result of the absence of active engagement and dialogue from local Tibetans. Given that China presently has 60 sites on the provisional list of world heritage sites, of which four are in Tibet, this trend of leveraging UNESCO’s global reputation to boost tourism in Tibet is expected to continue.

The Chinese government provided assurances that “The Chinese government has not, is not, and will not in the future perform any forceful evictions in the Hoh Xil nominated area” in response to concerns expressed by civil society groups during the inscription of the Hoh Xil site.

However, given data that suggests resettlement is a well-established practise in national parks throughout the Tibetan region, such assurances cannot be easily trusted. Pastoralists in the Hoh Xil site are gradually forced to leave their grazing lands by limiting their sources of income.

The UNESCO historic designation must not be used to support environmental policies that take land from local communities, step up population control and monitoring, and obliterate local cultures in the name of politics and profit. China has previously promoted its concept of environmental dictatorship through the UNESCO heritage designation.

This is risky since China’s authoritarian environmental governance system lacks participatory governance. Because there is minimal room for participation in policymaking, it forces individuals to accept judgments made by others and imposes uniformity over variation.

Tibet’s ecology and natural resources have frequently been exploited. Since the Chinese government invaded Tibet illegally in the 1950s, the once-independent country’s peace and harmony have rapidly declined. In a world where the environment is currently the most dangerous problem, Tibet is also experiencing significant environmental problems, but instead of receiving the necessary attention, the problems are written off as a simple territorial dispute.

The authoritarian rule of China in Tibet and their portrayal of Tibet as a part of themselves have caused the world to ignore the environmental degradation that has occurred there as well as the fact that Tibetans lack the rights to even speak out against issues affecting their own land and way of life. Tibet is currently on the verge of confronting significant environmental problems.

A Tibetan natural reserve that was controversially inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site five years ago is called for to have its status reviewed in the most recent World Heritage Watch Report by the International Campaign for Tibet. The Hoh Xil (Achen Gangyap) nature reserve, which the Chinese government wrongly claimed to be a “no-land” man’s despite Tibetan nomads using the area, was designated a World Heritage Site in 2017.

Since then, the reserve’s status has not been reassessed. Hoh Xil is situated in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the Qinghai Province. The October edition of the 2022 World Heritage Watch report has an analysis from ICT regarding the nature reserve and how, according to the new deadlines set for UNESCO’s Third Cycle of Periodic Reporting, China is not required to submit a periodic review of Hoh Xil until 2024. The management of infrastructure projects, tourism, and climate change continue to raise severe problems, as does the displacement of local populations.

Because of increased censorship of even environmental information coming from Tibet and increased surveillance, it is becoming more challenging to keep tabs on the situation there. A thorough evaluation of the site’s management is therefore necessary. The historical and culturally Tibetan Hoh Xil Nature Reserve is a territory the size of Switzerland that is situated in Yushu County, Qinghai Province.

Its extraordinary level of endemism and natural beauty earned the site recognition as a natural heritage site. All of the plant-eating mammals in Hoh Xil, along with more than one-third of the plant species, are unique to the plateau and cannot be found anywhere else on Earth.

The wild yak, Tibetan ass, Tibetan gazelle, and Tibetan antelope are just a few of the unusual creatures. The land is essential to the survival of up to 50% of the wild yak and 40% of the Tibetan antelope in the world. Additionally, the park preserves the habitats and biological cycles that make up the Tibetan antelope’s whole life cycle. The Changtang natural reserve and Sanjiangyuan (three rivers source) national park, two bigger and better-known protected areas, are wedged between the Hoh Xil nature reserve.

China announced plans to create a new national park network in 2017 that would be run by the government. A number of protected zones have also been established on the Tibetan Plateau. Although these territories have not been unified under the national government, it appears that plans exist to establish a so-called “Third Pole National Park” made up of initially five national parks that will turn Tibet into a protected location for conservation and tourism. At least a third of the Tibetan Plateau is currently covered by protected areas inside Tibet.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) highlighted climate change, infrastructure and tourism, fencing, and pest management as risks to the heritage site at the time of Hoh Xil’s inscription. The site’s universal importance is currently under serious threat, according to the advisory group’s most recent assessment of the site’s conservation outlook for 2020. Fencing, Pika species poisoning, and the effects of climate change on habitat were all mentioned in the IUCN evaluation’s assessment of current high-level risks.

With increasing average temperatures and precipitation resulting in additional rivers, lakes, and marshlands, climate change is specifically changing the habitat. By obstructing migration routes and calving grounds, as well as by generating new types of dust and salt pollution, these environmental changes are having an impact on animals.

Limiting traffic on the Qinghai-Tibet railway and highway corridor or evaluating alternate routes can also help to offset other concerns, such as infrastructure development and increased tourism along the Tibetan antelope’s migration route.

The IUCN experts have noted that the highway has more significant effects than previously thought and significantly alters the Tibetan antelope’s migration path to and from the calving grounds. Tourism, and the subsequent rise of traffic through the natural reserve, is a reasonable worry. It is not new for China to exploit tourism to commercialise Tibetan culture and marginalise Tibetans in their own country.

In the ancient Town of Lhasa, where the UNESCO-listed Historical Ensemble of the Potala Palace has been updated and made to look more Chinese in order to serve political and commercial objectives, such tactics have been effectively used. The site’s cultural and global worth has been lost as a result of the absence of active engagement and dialogue from local Tibetans.

Given that China presently has 60 sites on the provisional list of world heritage sites, of which four are in Tibet, this trend of leveraging UNESCO’s global reputation to boost tourism in Tibet is expected to continue. The Chinese government provided assurances that “The Chinese government has not, is not, and will not in the future perform any forceful evictions in the Hoh Xil nominated area” in response to concerns expressed by civil society groups during the inscription of the Hoh Xil site.

However, given data that suggests resettlement is a well-established practise in national parks throughout the Tibetan region, such assurances cannot be easily trusted. Pastoralists in the Hoh Xil site are gradually forced to leave their grazing lands by limiting their sources of income. The UNESCO historic designation must not be used to support environmental policies that take land from local communities, step up population control and monitoring, and obliterate local cultures in the name of politics and profit. China has previously promoted its concept of environmental dictatorship through the UNESCO heritage designation.

This is risky since China’s authoritarian environmental governance system lacks participatory governance. Because there is minimal room for participation in policymaking, it forces individuals to accept judgments made by others and imposes uniformity over variation.

Source: Tibet Press