Modernisation with Local Characteristics: Development Efforts and the Environment on the Zoige Grass and Wetlands, 1949-2005

Abstract

The Zoige grasslands (Chinese, Ruo'er gai) on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau are a wetland and grassland region composed of marshes, bogs, wet meadows and shallow lakes interspersed with low hills and sub-alpine meadows. These grass and wetlands are recognised as an important grazing zone for western China, a globally significant biodiversity hotspot and major bird flyway. Since the late 1980s, research on the region has highlighted increasing regional environmental degradation. This study is an overview of the state-led development projects and local efforts to 'improve' local conditions on the grass and wetlands since 1949 and their impact on the regional ecological and social environment. It focuses mainly on historical state-led development projects to study and alter the wetlands, as well as more recent efforts to raise environmental awareness of the importance of Chinese wetlands. Development efforts by the Chinese state have led to both positive and negative outcomes for local Tibetan residents who had little or no say in modernisation efforts until the late 1980s, but who have received most of the blame for regional environmental problems. Despite recognised problems with water use and wetland degradation, as well as administrative emphasis on fencing, settlement and official land use management in nature reserves, the Chinese state continues to dominate discourse and management of the Zoige wetlands. However, local Tibetans have played an increasing role in regional wetland management. A historical assessment, in contrast to media portrayals and official discourses of the origins of grass and wetland degradation, explains more about the processes of degradation, and with increased local participation, points a new way forward to help in the formulation of more effective policies and mitigation measures.

Disappearing reeds on Chongming Island: An environmental microhistory of Chinese eco-development

“…However, Hayes’ (2010) and Yeh’s (2009a) work on the transformation of wetlands in Western China is more immediately relevant to the present study. By investigating the environmental transformation of the Zoige grasslands on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau from 1949 to 2005, Hayes (2010) reveals how state-led development projects aiming to ‘improve’ local conditions on the grasslands and wetlands have led to both positive and negative outcomes for local Tibetan residents. Up until the 1980s, these residents had little or no say in modernisation efforts.…”

“…Conservation efforts that built nature reserves (and kept people out) were part of a political strategy and agenda, according to Yeh, that promoted China’s role as a player in ecological civilisation while at the same time legitimising sovereignty over Tibet. Both Hayes’ (2010) and Yeh’s (2009a) study reveal the impact of political–economic pursuits on the environment in a specific region and over a specified period of time, as they explore the interaction between human activities and environmental change.…”

Analysis of the land degradation pattern in Zoige Plateau Marsh Wetland Based on MODIS data

“…Many works had been carried on the analysis of landscape pattern change and its driving factors in the Zoige Plateau, especially for the wetland or marsh landscape. And the study scopes in these researches were not completely the same [8,9] . Up to now, the research on the evolution and its driving mechanism of wetland degradation in the Zoige plateau was somewhat lack.…”