Environmental Conservation in the Tibetan Plateau Region: Lessons for China’s Belt and Road Initiative in the Mountains of Central Asia

Abstract

Environmental conservation has developed significantly in China over the past 20 years, including more collaborative approaches and recent advances in establishing a national parks system. This study reviews the development of protected areas in the headwaters of the Yangtze River, drawing lessons from experiences of community development and co-management approaches. Community engagement and participation in developing localized plans for natural resource utilization and conservation have been critical features of successful ventures. Government programs and policies, the emergence of grassroots civil society, and the development of herders' cooperatives and protected areas, are all tracked, each pointing towards the significant value of inclusive biodiversity conservation approaches for meeting broadly agreed development agendas, such as achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Observations from the vast, high, arid, and semi-arid lands of the Tibetan Plateau are then considered in light of China's Belt and Road Initiative, which is bringing vast financial and technical resources to the world. Special attention is given to applying the lessons that have been learned in China to the mountains of Central Asia, globally recognized as a biodiversity hotspot and a water tower for large downstream populations. Keeping local people at the heart of conservation is deemed fundamentally important.

Recent responses of grassland net primary productivity to climatic and anthropogenic factors in Kyrgyzstan

“…To achieve more sustainable strategies for grassland restoration and management, ecological, economic, and social issues must be integrated into a comprehensive framework (Jiang, Han, & Wu, 2006). to ensure grazing pressure is relieved seasonally from some grasslands (Davies & Hagelberg, 2014;Foggin, 2018). Seasonal livestock mobility contributes to maintain a sustainable semiarid grazing ecosystem and enable natural pasture to recover (Fetzel, Havlik, Herrero, & Erb, 2017).…”

Understanding and minimizing environmental impacts of the Belt and Road Initiative

“…Thereby, I sought to determine where most biodiversity could be lost and how loss might be managed, mitigated, or avoided. Management is especially crucial in relatively undisturbed areas (e.g., northern areas relatively pristine) (Foggin ; Lechner et al. ).…”

Drivers of Change to Mountain Sustainability in the Hindu Kush Himalaya

“…Some scholars feel that it is likely due to a failure of development agencies to consider interventions from a "mountain perspective" (Ives 2013; Price 2015) especially in regard to inaccessibility, marginality, fragility, diversity or heterogeneity, niche or comparative advantage, and human adaptation mechanisms (Jodha 2000(Jodha , 2005. The autonomy and flexibility of decentralized traditional institutions at the community/local level in the HKH, as well as natural resource endowments, have helped communities adapt to changes in the past, and these attributes should therefore be preserved and strengthened into the future (Foggin 2018).…”