Tibetan Land Use and Change Near Khawa Karpo, Eastern Himalayas 1
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TIBETAN LAND USE AND CHANGE NEAR KHAWA KARPO, EASTERN HIMALAYAS 1 JAN SALICK, YANG YONGPING, AND ANTHONY AMEND Jan Salick, Yang Yongping, and Anthony Amend (Curator of Ethnobotany, Missouri Botanical Garden, PO Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299, e-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]). Collaborating Authors: Bee Gunn, Wayne Law, George Yatskievych, Wu Sugong, Fang Zhendong, Ma Jian, Wang Yuhua, Andrew Willson, Peng Shengjing, Zhang Chuanling, Sun Hongyan, Meng Zhengui, Liu Lin, Senam Dorji, Ana, Liqing Wangcuo, Sila Cili, Adu, Naji, Amu, Sila Cimu, Sila Lamu, Lurong Pingding, Zhima Yongzong, Loangbao, Bianma Cimu, Gerong Cili, Wang Kai, Sila Pingchu, Axima, and Benjamin Staver. TIBETAN LAND USE AND CHANGE NEAR KHAWA KARPO, EASTERN HIMALAYAS. Economic Botany 59(4):312-325, 2005. Tibetan land use near Khawa Karpo, Northwest Yunnan, China, incorpo- rates indigenous forest management, gathering, pastoralism, and agriculture. With field-based GIS, repeat photography, and Participatory Rural Appraisal we quantitatively compare land use between higher and lower villages, and between villages with and without roads. Households in higher elevation (>3,000 meters) villages cultivate more farmland (z = -5.387, P <- 0.001), a greater diversity of major crops (z = -5.760, P < 0.001), a higher percentage of traditional crops, and fewer cash crops (z = -2.430, P = 0.015) than those in lower elevation villages (<2,500 meters). Villages with roads grow significantly more cash crops (z = -6.794, P <- 0.001). Both lower villages and villages with roads travel farther to access common property resources. Historical analyses indicate agricultural intensification in valleys, an increase in hous- es, new crop introduction, hillside aforestation, cessation of hunting, glacial retreat, and timber- line advance within the past century. We suggest that Tibetan land use reveals trade-offs between high, remote villages and lower villages near roads. Higher villages offer abundant land and access to natural resources but short growing seasons and little market access; in contrast, lower villages have road and market access, an extended growing season, and modern technology, but limited access to land and many other natural resources. Key Words: Northwest Yunnan; Tibet; land use; agriculture; non-timber forest products; geo- graphic information systems; participatory rural appraisal; verticality. Studies of Tibetan land use are few and often lysts fomenting their change, are complex and concentrate on renowned patterns of nomad pas- fit poorly with simple explanations (Lambin, toralism on the high plateau (Ekvall 1983; Ning Geist, and Lepers 2003; Lambin et al. 2001). and Richard 1999). Less studied are Tibetan Recent land use change is often attributed to farming (but see Goldstein et al. 2003) and gath- globalization in many forms (Ausubel 1996; ering (but see Xu and Wilkes 2004; Zhang, Grau et al. 2003; Lambin et al. 2001). Though Wang, and Geng 2000). Nonetheless, in well- many factors affect Tibetan subsistence activi- watered regions of the plateau and especially the ties, including rainfall (Winkler 1988), politics monsoonal areas of the eastern Himalayas, ag- (Goldstein 1973; Goldstein and Beall 2002), and riculture, forestry, and gathering are important sanctity (Anderson et al. 2004; Guo 2000; Mose- traditional activities central to Tibetan liveli- ley 2003), this study examines two variables in hoods. Tibetan resource management reflects a particular: elevation and road access. sustained human presence since 20,000 B.P. (AI- There is a vast literature on relations among denderfer and Zhang 2004). road access, market accessibility, and economic Land use patterns, and particularly the cata- growth (Chomitz and Gray 1996; Wilkie et al. 2000; Windle and Cramb 1997). Roads often cause agricultural change, deforestation, and hab- ~Received 13 June 2005; accepted 11 September itat fragmentation (Cropper, Puri, and Griffiths 2005. 2001; Forman 1998; Hamlin and Salick 2003; Economic Botany 59(4) pp. 312-325. 2005 92005 by The New York Botanical Garden Press, Bronx, NY 10458-5126 U.S.A. 2005] SALICK ET AL.: TIBETAN LAND USE 313 Fig. 1. KhawaKarpo located in Deqin County, Northwest Yunnan, China. Windle and Cramb 1997). Road building is a and tropical floras of Asia merge (Fig. 1). Kha- modem priority in China (Litzinger 2004; Wang wa Karpo has a steep elevational gradient from et al. 2003) with a sprawling network extending about 2,000 meters (m) at the Mekong River to to the most remote regions. So, we investigate the its peak (6,740 m) over only 10 kilometers (km) affects of roads on Tibetan land use. with ecotypes ranging from subtropical scrub in Verticality in subsistence production has been the arid river valleys through oak, humid mixed, well documented in mountain cultures of the and coniferous forests, to alpine meadows, Andes (Mayer 1985; Murra 1968; Zimmerer scree, and glaciers on a single mountain slope 1999) and the Himalayas (Maikhuri, Rao, and (Salick et al. 2004). The Hengduan Mountains, Semwal 2001; Sinclair and Ham 2000; Zimmer- in which Khawa Karpo is among the highest er 1999). On Khawa Karpo, its steep gradient peaks, are exceptionally diverse and considered enhances resource richness (Salick et al. 2004). a "hotspot" (Mittermeier et al. 1998). For all So, we study elevation as a key environmental these reasons and because of major conservation variable of Tibetan land use. efforts of The Nature Conservancy, we chose Thus, we address the neglected aspects of Ti- Khawa Karpo as our study site. betan land use--agriculture, forestry, and gath- Six ethnic Tibetan villages were selected for ering-as well as pastoralism and change af- this study based on elevation (two are higher fected by two common agents, one environmen- than 3,000 m, four are lower than 2,500 m; see tal (elevation) and one socio-economic (roads). Table 1), access to roads (three are with roads, three are without), and their depictions in Joseph STUDY SITE Rock's photos from the early 1900s. While roads Khawa Karpo, the earthly image of the Ti- facilitate transportation to Deqin, the principle betan warrior god, is one of the most sacred market town in the area, none are completely mountains to Tibetans. It lies on the border of paved and frequent landslides block traffic. In Yunnan and Tibet in the easternmost Himalayas, the absence of roads, villagers rely on their between the upper Mekong and Salween Rivers, backs, horses, mules, and yaks to transport and within the region where the major temperate goods by trail. 314 ECONOMIC BOTANY [VOL. 59 TABLE 1. TIBETAN VILLAGES NEAR KHAWA KARPO WERE SELECTED FOR ROAD ACCESS (1, 2, 3 W1TH ROAD; 4, 5, 6 WITHOUT ROAD), FOR ELEVATION (1, 2, 3, 5 < 2,500 METERS; 4, 6 > 3,000 METERS), AND FOR THE HISTORICAL PICUTURES TAKEN OF THEM BY JOSEPH ROCK IN THE EARLY 1900S. Distance to road Total cultivated land Village (in meters) Elevation (in meters) Number of households (in square meters) 1 0 2,490 127 623,242 2 0 2,388 24 148,706 3 0 2,068 31 228,311 4 2,550 3,095 15 185,839 5 4,645 2,170 91 404,053 6 5,630 3,100 17 150,385 METHODS ture boundaries and points of gardens, buildings, During May 2004, field research was con- and other structures were mapped onto the im- ducted within each of six villages by a team con- ages using a Garmin etrex GPS unit attached to sisting of a botanist, a GIS technician, a Partic- the PDA. Alternatively, these polygons and ipatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) facilitator, two points were traced by hand over the satellite im- Chinese graduate students, two Tibetan doctors, ages. Information about the polygons and points two village participants (one man and one wom- also were entered into the PDA. Field and pas- an), and one translator. Three such teams spent ture polygons attribute information included the five days each in two villages. following: associated household or common PRA mapping was popular among Tibetan property status, crops, crop variety, seed source, villagers, who sketched their local surroundings chemical and organic inputs, and crop rotation on large sheets of paper, highlighting major data; for gardens only household and crops were landmarks (mountains, rivers, sacred sites, recorded; for houses information included the roads, trails, pastures, fields, buildings, etc.) and household name, the number of occupants, and locations of key resources (forests, fuelwood, the date of construction; for other buildings and medicinal plants, mushrooms, etc.). These maps structures the information was identity, house- were then transferred to GIS maps in order to hold or common property, date of construction. identify landmarks and measure distances to re- Since Chinese law regulates the use of carto- sources. Other PRA activities included semi- graphic equipment, Chinese citizens conducted structured and informal interviews on land use GIS fieldwork. Polygon area was calculated us- (with GIS below) and historical change. Joseph ing a script (Zhou 2001) in ArcView GIS 3.2 Rock took photographs in most of the villages (ESRI 1992-1999). Resource distance was cal- early in the twentieth century; these photos were culated using ARCMap 9.0 (ESRI 2004). shown and used to discuss historical change Before and since collectivization of lands with village elders who could remember this (1960s-1980s), a Tibetan household--all inhab- earlier period (Fig. 2). In each village, between itants of a given house sharing economic and one and five elders were engaged in the semi- natural resources and considered a single entity structured interviews based on the photos and by the village's governing body--is the basic their recollection of land use history, including unit of agricultural production. The household is number of households, amount of land farmed, used as the basis of most of our analyses unless crops grown, resources collected, pastures, ani- otherwise stated.