Natural Pastures and Mobile Animal Husbandry Under Pressure: The Cases of Lapland and the Tibetan Plateau, 12-14 June 2002, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland. Modern wildlife conservation initiatives and the pastoralist/hunter nomads of northwestern Tibet Joseph L. Fox1, Per M athiesen2, Drolma Yangzom 3, M arius W . Næss2 & Xu Binrong3 1 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway, (joe.fox@ ib.uit.no). 2 Department of Social Anthropology, Faculty of Social Science, University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway. 3 TAR Forestry Bureau, 25 Linguo North Road, Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), China. Abstract: In 1993 the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China established the 300 000 km2 Chang Tang Nature Preserve on the northwestern Tibetan plateau, an action precipitated by rapidly diminishing populations of chiru (Tibetan antelope) and wild yak. Some 30 000 nomadic pastoralists use areas within this reserve for livestock grazing, with many having traditionally depended in part on hunting for supplementary subsistence and trade. Following a 1997 request from TAR leaders for international assistance in addressing the conservation issues associated with the creation of this reserve, the TAR Forestry Bureau and the Network for University Co-operation Tibet – Norway began a 3-year research collaboration program in 2000 to outline human-wildlife interactions and conservation priorities in the western part of the reserve. To date, four excursions (2-6 weeks each) have been made to the western Chang Tang region, and investigations of interactions between pastoralists and wildlife conservation objectives have been initiated in an area of about 5000 km2, including the 2300 km2 Aru basin located at 5000 m elevation at the northern edge of pastoralist inhabitation. The Aru site is unique in that nomads have only recently returned to this previously off-limits basin. But, as in surrounding areas, the people’s lives are undergoing changes recently influenced by the introduction of permanent winter houses, changing international trade in shahtoosh and cashmere wool, and a move towards stricter hunting regulations. The northwestern Chang Tang, with the Aru basin as a prime site, represents one of the last strongholds of the endangered chiru and wild yak, as well as home to Tibetan gazelle, kiang, Tibetan argali, blue sheep, wolf, snow leopard and brown bear. In autumn 2000, for example, with approximately 12 000 of the wild ungulates (mostly the migratory chiru) within the Aru basin along with some 8000 domestic livestock, issues of land use overlap and possible grazing competition are clear to both local nomads and reserve managers. W hereas livestock development actions elsewhere on the Tibetan plateau are promoting increased livestock production, they are doing so at the expense of wildlife, and such an approach will not be appropriate in areas where wildlife conservation is a major priority. Although some of the ongoing livestock development programs may be adapted to the western TAR, new approaches to pastoral development will have to be developed in the reserve. The ultimate goal of enhancing the nomads’ standard of living, while conserving this truly unique array of biodiversity, presents a daunting challenge. Key words: Chang Tang Nature Preserve, chiru, conservation and development, wild yak. Rangifer, Special Issue No. 15: 17-27 Introduction recently established the second largest protected In conjunction with a late 1997 visit to Europe by area in the world, the 300 000 km2 Chang Tang leaders of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), Nature Preserve, and was interested in assistance in China, interest was expressed in receiving the development of suitable management initiatives. international assistance in addressing conservation In response to this request, in 1998 the two senior issues associated with the creation of a large nature authors visited Tibet to make initial contacts with reserve in nomadic pastoral areas of the appropriate authorities, and in the spring of 1999 northwestern Tibetan plateau. The TAR had both accompanied TAR Forestry Bureau and other Rangifer, Special Issue No. 15, 2004 17 government officials on a reconnaissance survey reductions in populations of chiru or Tibetan traversing over 800 km across the central portion of antelope (Pantholops hodgsoni) and wild yak (Bos the reserve. In the spring of 2000 the TAR Forestry grunniens) (Fig. 2) throughout their ranges on the Bureau (TARFB) and the University of Tromsø, plateau, reflects a growing commitment by the TAR under the auspices of the Network for University to conservation of its natural resources. The TAR’s Co-operation Tibet – Norway, signed a 3-year initial request for assistance noted that ”... wildlife research collaboration program designed to study have high economical values, in order to prohibit human-wildlife interactions and their conservation catching and killing, preserve ecological balance, it consequences in the western part of the nature is imperatively important to set up a wildlife nature reserve. Field research was initiated in summer of reserve”. At the time, chiru populations were being 2000 with a month-long excursion to the site decimated over much of the Tibetan plateau, selected for intensive study, the remote Aru basin precipitated by a spectacular jump in pelt prices to (Fig. 1), and has continued with 6-week excursions supply an increasing international market for to the area in autumn of 2000 and 2002, and early ”shahtoosh” garments woven from the chiru’s fine summer of 2001. In addition to TARFB wool (Kumar & W right, 1998; Schaller, 1998). participation, the fieldwork has been conducted in Although much of the chiru’s slaughter has been co-operation with the Tibet Academy of Social carried out by organised poachers, smaller-scale but Sciences, the Biology Department of Tibet increased hunting and trapping by nomads has University, and the Tibet Agriculture and Animal exacerbated the species’ decline. In fact, many Husbandry College. nomad families in what is now the reserve probably substantially increased their cash flows in the early 1990’s as chiru pelt prices rose (Næss et al., 2004), Chang Tang Nature Preserve and many were able to purchase trucks or other The Chang Tang Nature Preserve was established vehicles for the first time (Fig. 3). in 1993. This action, brought about by recent Fig. 1. The Chang Tang Nature Preserve, showing the location of the primary study area within the catchments of Aru and Memar lakes, the major travel routes to the basin, and the routes of our cross-reserve traverses. 18 Rangifer, Special Issue No. 15, 2004 Fig. 2. Chiru (Tibetan antelope) and wild yak in the Aru basin. Some 30 000 nomadic pastoralists depend on development advantages of some changes are rangelands within the reserve for livestock grazing, debatable (Goldstein, 1996; Miller, 1998). But and those in areas with significant wildlife density unlike the traditional pastoralism that co-existed have traditionally depended in part on hunting for with abundant populations of large wild herbivores, supplementary subsistence and trade (in part for these development actions have the potential to shahtoosh). W ith rapid changes in wildlife markets, fully utilise the productivity of the rangeland, and government subsidised modernisation of exclude wildlife. In its retention of the traditional, pastoralism, and concerns over preserving Tibet’s common ownership of pasture land, the Tibet wildlife populations, the establishment of the nature Autonomous Region (TAR) has taken a somewhat preserve has brought into sharp focus conflicting different approach to livestock development, aspects of these various factors. The TAR’s 1997 although similar investments to increase livestock request for assistance focussed on development aid productivity are also being introduced and are likely associated with the creation of the reserve; our to greatly alter the scope of pastoralism in the TAR. project aims to provide baseline information upon The Chang Tang Nature Preserve represents the which management of wildlife and livestock can be first instance of a large-scale effort to combine developed to ensure the continued presence of wildlife protection with pastoral development in threatened wildlife as well as a better standard of western China, and the application of development living for nomads in the reserve. initiatives currently promoted elsewhere on the The northwestern TAR is one of the least plateau will require objective re-evaluation in productive and poorest parts of the region. At an relation to wildlife conservation goals. average elevation of over 4500 m it is too high to In any case, the effects of development actions on support any cropping, and nomadic pastoralism the plateau should be evaluated within the context remains the primary livelihood for most residents. of this unique high elevation rangeland ecosystem. W hereas other parts of the Tibetan plateau in the One of the most dramatic aspects of traditional TAR and Qinghai Province have seen significant pastoralism on the Tibetan plateau is the potentially livestock and community development activity, the devastating effect of snowstorms on the survival of northwest has yet to see much, and officials are livestock. Large-scale losses are rare, but they do admittedly looking to financial advantages happen, for example during the winter of 1997- associated with nature preserve designation as one 1998 over 3 million head of livestock