Investigation Report on Perception and Adaptation to Climate Changes for Herders in Tibetan Plateau

Investigation Report on Perception and Adaptation to Climate Changes for Herders in Tibetan Plateau 1 mainly takes the following aspects into 1. Background considerations: Firstly, Tibetan Plateau region is of significant ecological value. It is a region Improving the adaptive capacity in with relatively high fragility in ecological climate changes is an important content of system and it is also one of the regions which 2015 Paris Agreement, which enhanced the suffer the most obvious impact of climate United Nations Framework Convention on changes worldwide. As the “Asian Water Climate Change, and the researches, policies Tower”, it has over 1,500 lakes large and and practices on the adaptation to the climate small in Tibetan Plateau, accounting for about changes are increasingly raising the attentions one third of the total area of the national lakes; of the scholars, policy makers and civil society. in addition, in Tibetan Plateau region, there In the National Strategy of Climate Change are over 350 endorheic rivers and exorheic Adaptation released in 2013 and the National rivers, wherein the exoreic rivers are the Plan on Climate Change (2014-2020) released Jinsha River and Lancang River forming the in 2014, China proposed the national strategy Pacific drainage as well as the Yarlung of comprehensively adapting to the climate Zangbo River and Nujiang River forming the changes, including improving the adaptive Indian Ocean drainage. These rivers are the capacity of the urban and rural infrastructures, passages connecting the oceans and highland enhancing the water resource management and glacier and affected adversely by the climate facility construction, boosting the adaptive changes. The research shows that, the climate capacity of the agriculture and forestry, ocean warming has already made over 40,000 and coastal zone, eco-fragile region, human glaciers melted and receded to different health and other fields and strengthening the extents as a whole. The unstable precipitation construction of the disaster prevention and and degradation of the frozen earth lead to reduction system. The country has invested different levels of disasters such as floods, lots of financial and human resources to shrinking wetlands, abnormal river flows, execute the policies in the aspect of adaptive fluctuated lakes or debris flows. As one of the capacity from top to bottom, but there are still natural resource treasuries with the richest some problems. For example, polices from top biological resources and the most peculiar to bottom may become endemic during ecological environment on the earth, wild specific implementation and thus it is difficult species inhabiting Tibetan Plateau are also to improve the adaptive capacity of the affected in different degrees. Taking the climate change for the grass roots. Secondly, flagship endangered species snow leopard in there is a lack of both research and practice on the Tibetan Plateau region as an example, it is the adaption of the grass roots, especially the well-known that the snow leopard inhabits in response of ecology and social sciences, mountains of northern and central Asia with which calls for interdisciplinary cooperation. tree line below 5,000 meters, but not the forest In addition, the civil society does not region. Thus, the move up of the tree line in participate much in the adaptation work of the the mountainous area will cause the decrease communities in China, and it can make greater of the habitat for the snow leopard. The contributions to the construction of the scientist Jessica Forrest from WWF (World technological and governance capacity in Wide Fund for Nature) published her district level. researches in 2012, in which she applied the In this paper, it selects the herders in statistical method to evaluate the possible Tibetan Plateau as the object of study and it 2 impact of climate changes on the tree line of observed the impact of climate changes on the Himalaya on the basis of the situations of livelihood of local residents in the course of three types of greenhouse gas emissions work. To study the impact of climate changes offered by IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on on local community and the community Climate Change) (Forrest, 2012). The research adaption more systematically, since 2016, shows that, the continuous increase of SHANSHUI Conservation Center organized to greenhouse gas emission will cause the tree make a series of household investigations on line of the Himalaya to move up and thus lead multiple areas of Tibetan Plateau and hoped to to the habitat loss of 30% for snow leopards. make one evaluation on the perception, impact Therefore, in the Tibetan Plateau region, snow and adaptability of the herders in climate leopards that have lost their habitats will live changes. Through investigation on the in places which are closer to the activity area adaption threats on herders in of humans for survival. Then snow leopards Three-river-source region when facing the will hunt more domestic animals. Thus, there climate changes, the adaptive measures they will be a vicious circulation of revenge have taken and the adaptation level and hunting of snow leopards by humans. verification on which factors and measures are Secondly, existing researches on the the most favourable to affect the adaptation impact of climate changes and the adaptation effect, then the SHANSHUI Conservation to the climate changes in the community level Center proposes helpful suggestions to the are mainly conducted in the planting industry adaptation work of future climate changes. areas. It is to explore the losses caused by climate changes to the planting industry, the change in the types, planting technologies and 1.1. Impact of Climate Changes cropping system of the crops under the background of climate changes as well as the on Ecology in Tibetan action logic, action structure and other related aspects of the community on the climate Plateau changes. However, the researches conducted in typical grassland farming area are very limited. Such vacancy in the researches may The Fifth Assessment Report on Climate be due to limited impact caused by climate Changes released by the Intergovernmental changes on the grassland farming community, Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows that, but it still embodies the marginalized status of the climate changes taking climate warming as the grassland farming area and grassland the main feature has become a global fact. farming community for a long time. Therefore, From 1880 to 2012, the global mean surface o o the typical grassland farming area needs more air temperature had risen by 0.65 C-1.06 C. It o o attentions from non-government institutions. expects to rise by 0.3 C -0.7 C during the o o period from 2016 to 2035 and 0.3 C-4.8 C SHANSHUI Conservation Center has during the period from 2081 to 2100. The conducted the community protection project in climate warming will affect the global Qinghai Three-river-source region for a long resources and environment deeply. For the time. It discovered the special culture, past three successive 10 years, it was much organization method and social capital of local warmer than any other 10 years before since grassland farming community and also 1850. The period from 1983 to 2012 was the hottest 30 years since 1400. The year 2015 3 was the year with the highest mean surface meteorological record. temperature since there was related Figure 1 Annual mean temperature change of Yushu from 1951 to 2012 As the “third pole”, Tibetan Plateau is increase. For example, the debris flow, rapid one of the areas with the biggest climate flood, etc. may become more frequent in high changes in the globe and is also one of the altitude area, while the low altitude area will areas with the biggest impact of potential suffer more floods. The obvious fluctuations climate changes. The impact of the climate on the aspect of ice and snow melting also changes on Tibetan Plateau is in multiple may lead to excessive water in a short term aspects. In the aspect of temperature, IPCC and less water supply for a long term (Xu, report predicts that the land of the whole Asia 2009). will rise by about 3oC by 2050s and about 5oC The climate changes make the structure by 2080. In the last few decades, the great and function of the ecosystem change and Himalayas region had experienced the rising cause degeneration of the function of the and decreasing rainfall trends (Shrestha et al. fragile ecosystem. Since the 1960s, the 2000). grassland and wetland in the Yangtze-Yellow From the perspective of glacier, if the rivers source region within Tibetan Plateau current warning trend remains, the glacier in have been suffering the regional recession, Tibetan Plateau may decrease from 500,000 and the phenomena such as evolving from square kilometres to 100,000 square meadow to desert and alpine-cold marshy kilometres (Cruz et al. 2007; Ye & Yao 2008). meadow grassland to high-cold steppe and The impact of the ice and snow melting on the alpine-cold meadow grassland (Yan Zuoliang, river is in multiple aspects. In the beginning, 2003); Qinghai belongs to an arid and the increasingly melting glacier may cause the semiarid area. Its climate warming accelerates water level of the river to rise high. However, the impairment on the growth of the grass and when the glaciers all are melted, it will cause makes the yield of herbages decrease. water depletion of river. The Himalaya region Meanwhile, the proportion of good herbages affects 10 rivers, wherein the Yangtze River in in the grassland reduces, the quantity and China is one of most affected rivers. proportion of the forb rise, and the grassland The disasters due to water also may evolves to the adverse direction in a receding 4 tendency; and over nearly 30 years for the 1.2.

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