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A Green Fervor Sweeps the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

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A Green Fervor Sweeps the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Farmward bound. Livestock that have grazed on these high grasslands are being moved into fenced areas, and nomadic herders are being settled in villages. their livestock would be settled in accord with on October 19, 2010 “ecological migration.” A Green Fervor Sweeps the This sweeping program has been prom- ised $227 million from the central govern- Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau ment—about half the amount initially sought. It comes on the heels of a larger con- In a controversial venture, officials plan to halt open grazing, eradicate rodents, servation effort begun in 2005 in the plateau’s restore “degraded” grasslands, improve wetlands, and plant many trees and shrubs Sanjiangyuan region, the headwaters of the Yellow, Yangtze, and Lancang (Mekong) XINING, CHINA—No detail seems too small restore the region’s crown jewel—Lake Qing- rivers. This plan covers 320,000 square kilo- www.sciencemag.org these days for officials working on environ- hai, or Qinghai Hu—and surrounding lands. meters and has been promised $1 billion in mental issues in western China’s Qinghai Embracing 30,000 square kilometers, the proj- central government funds over 6 years. Province. The chief of tree planting in the ect includes a slew of tasks: to curtail grazing Many welcome the government’s green ini- forestry bureau can attest to this. Leaving on grasslands, control rodents and insect pests tiatives. Some also have reservations. Julia the telephone, he told a recent visitor that he that damage alpine meadows, protect wet- Klein, a global change researcher from Col- had just had a surprising call: Qinghai’s gov- lands, curb desertification, plant trees and orado State University in Fort Collins who is ernor had noticed some unhealthy trees on shrubs, protect biodiversity, and construct collaborating with Chinese researchers, gives Downloaded from her way to the airport. Her office wanted small towns in which nomadic herders and a mixed review: “The protection of Lake him to investigate. Qinghai is an important endeavor,” she says. Tending to sick trees is at one end of an array “Some of the proposed actions, such as wet- of government-led initiatives here that include lands protection, are useful and practical some monumental undertakings as well. All objectives.” However, she notes that other have been deployed in the past decade in pursuit proposals, such as halting grazing, “may of a single goal. Government officials say that be ineffective or potentially harmful.” over several decades, human activities have left “Sanjiangyuan and Qinghai Hu are the grasslands of Qinghai in a “degraded” very good projects with huge investments,” condition. Rivers and lakes are declining says Zhao Xinquan, director of the Northwest as well, according to this view, and envi- Institute of Plateau Biology of the Chinese ronmental restoration is needed across the Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Xining, “but plateau, a fragile area that is the source of sev- they should be guided by science.” A pro- eral major Asian rivers and is considered an posed scientific component of the Qinghai Hu ecological resource for eastern China. The cen- project was dropped, and scientists say that so tral government has offered to share the costs, far they have had little input. which helps to explain the enthusiasm for envi- ronmental reclamation in this province. Jewel in the crown. Lake Qinghai, affected by large Better benchmarks In May, Qinghai’s governor announced the agricultural projects in the past, is the focus of an Both Chinese and U.S. scientists say more CREDITS (TOP TO BOTTOM): JULIA KLEIN/COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY; LI XIAO-YAN/BEIJING NORMAL UNIVERSITY LI XIAO-YAN/BEIJING UNIVERSITY; CREDITS (TOP TO BOTTOM): JULIA KLEIN/COLORADO STATE launch of the latest initiative, a 10-year plan to environmental remediation program. research is needed to understand the funda- www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 321 1 AUGUST 2008 633 Published by AAAS grazing on the plateau are not clear, but removal of grazing entirely, as the Qinghai Hu conservation plan calls for, may be harmful, argues Klein. Since 1997, Klein has been simulating warming and grazing to observe the effects on grasslands in field experi- ments in Haibei county north of Qinghai Hu. She and her colleagues found that warm- ing reduces plant biodiver- sity and alpine meadow bio- Unlikely villains. Experts disagree on whether mass, but grazing helps to pikas (inset) deserve the blame for creating slow down the loss of “black sands” areas within grasslands. species. When livestock are completely removed from mental changes taking place in the area culture to forests rangeland, dried grass left known as the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, or grasslands. over from the previous sometimes called the “water tower of Asia.” In 2001, 12 mili- year stunts new growth, To begin with, there are no agreed-upon tary-owned farms keeping grass yellow even at the height of standards to measure environmental degra- around Qinghai Hu were returned to local the growing season. The Tibetan Plateau “is dation, says Andrew Smith, a conservation civilian governments, and about 80% of a system that has evolved with grazing; the biologist at Arizona State University in tillage on shores developed in the 1950s has removal of grazing from the system could Tempe, who first visited Qinghai Hu in been returned to grass. have profound ecological consequences,” 1984. “Chinese officials characterize the But critics worry that simple engineer- says Klein. on October 19, 2010 plateau in broad terms,” he says, “but it is ing solutions aren’t adequate; they could Fencing off grasslands also may pose a huge—constituting 25% of the land area of lead to the same kind of brute-force, mono- threat to the critically endangered Przewal- China—and very diverse. One cannot say lithic strategies that caused trouble in the ski’s gazelle (Procapra przewalskii). This the entire plateau is degraded.” first place. Many officials who advocate species, which is endemic to China, used to Cai Yanjun, a researcher at the CAS ecological improvement, Smith asserts, “do roam the dry western grasslands but is now Institute of Earth Environment in Xi’an, no science, utter proclamations, and spend found in small populations only in the vicin- agrees that clearer benchmarks are needed. ferociously to engage in activities that are ity of Lake Qinghai, according to the Inter- But some exist: Grasslands are degraded, he totally unproven.” national Union for the Conservation of notes, “if ground vegetative cover, biomass Nature, which in 1996 put Przewalski’s www.sciencemag.org production, and quality of forage have Fencing the plateau gazelle on its Red List of Endangered decreased.” A key issue, says Cai, is to Provincial officials often cite overgrazing Species. The last population survey con- determine if alterations are the result of as a major cause of land degradation on the ducted in 2003 counted about 600 gazelles, global climate change or are caused by local Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. According to the less than half the number of wild pandas. human activities, such as overgrazing, that province’s forestry bureau, grasslands Wang Dajun, a conservationist, and his could be better regulated. around Qinghai Hu can support a maxi- grad students at Peking (Beijing) University There’s wide agreement that human mum livestock equivalent of 3.65 million have been conducting a new population sur- Downloaded from activities over half a century can be blamed sheep, but the equivalent of 6 million sheep vey since January 2008. Grad student for some of the environmental damage now graze there. The Qinghai Hu and Zhang Lu says that even though gazelles around Qinghai Hu. Under Mao Zedong, Sanjiangyuan conservation plans calls for can jump over fences separating pastures, grasslands along the shores of Lake Qing- sealing off from grazing 854,700 hectares the barriers are dangerous to young or preg- hai were plowed for crops. Mao’s govern- of grassland, resettling 881 households nant animals. Every year, there is news of a ment also sited dozens of labor camps in (4157 persons) away from the lake, and gazelle dying on a fence, says Zhang, and Qinghai, to which a quarter of a million reducing livestock by the equivalent of fences make it more difficult for gazelles to criminals and political prisoners were ban- 1 million sheep. escape predators such as wolves. ished. Later, as commerce boomed in the Resettlement has already been carried 1980s, mineral prospectors and medicinal out in the Sanjiangyuan region on a larger Taking out a keystone plant hunters gouged the area. scale, depopulating part of the plateau. The Qinghai wolves’ major food source— The pattern changed in 1999, when the Although the government provided $7000 small native mammals including plateau Beijing government pushed for environ- to $12,000 per household to build houses pikas (Ochotona curzoniae), voles (Micro- mental improvement after a 1998 Yangtze and fences, herders have found it hard to tus brandti), and zokors (Myospalax bai- River flood killed thousands of people. live on this level of support, says Zhao. leyi)—have been blamed for causing grass- Many thought deforestation upstream in Smith is concerned about the social conse- land degradation as well and are targeted for Sichuan and Qinghai contributed to the quences; he claims that the low-status jobs eradication under the conservation plans. severity of the flood. The government and crime in resettlement villages have They are thought to compete for forage with launched the “grain to green” program to caused resentment. livestock, and their burrows damage plant return farmlands not suitable for agri- The consequences of long-term over- roots. Agriculture and animal husbandry TEMPE UNIVERSITY, CREDITS: ANDREW SMITH/ARIZONA STATE 634 1 AUGUST 2008 VOL 321 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org Published by AAAS CHINA’S ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES | NEWSFOCUS agencies lump them together as rodents.
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