CHINA-TIBET: ENVIRONMENT

The South China Morning Post reported on April 22, 2017, that China is considering turning the entire Tibetan plateau and surrounding mountains into a huge 2.5 million sq km park national park to protect “the last piece of pure land”. Dubbed the Third Pole National Park because the plateau and mountains, including the Himalayas, have a natural environment that in many ways resembles polar regions, it would be the world’s biggest national park. This summer, the Chinese government will launch the biggest scientific survey of the Tibetan plateau, with a large number of scientists from China taking part, accompanied for the first time by others from neighbouring countries such as Nepal and Pakistan. The researchers will be assisted by advanced research equipment including drones and new earth-observation satellites. One important mission of the survey will be to help draw the boundary of the new national park, according to some researchers preparing for expeditions.

However, Professor Liu Jingshi, researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ (CAS) Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, said the Third Pole National Park, if established as proposed, would be difficult to manage due to its unprecedented size. He said it "It is too big for a park,” and the Tibetan plateau is home to cities, towns and nomadic tribes, with native Tibetan population estimated at 7.8 million. Professor Yi Chaolu, another researcher with the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, said “Some people will lose their jobs. The lives of many may be affected. To establish the park or not may go beyond science. It is also a political issue.” The Tibetan plateau is home to some of China’s largest copper reserves and significant deposits of other minerals including chromium, iron, lithium and gold. State-owned energy companies, who have been prospecting the region for decades, have found promising oil and natural gas reserves. There are also nearly 500 salt lakes in the region, which contain industrial and agricultural raw materials such as borate and potassium salt.

At a meeting with leading scientists studying Tibet in Beijing late last month, CAS vice-president Liu Weiping passed on an instruction which he said came directly from Xi Jinping, saying they must contribute to the “guarding and keeping of the last piece of pure land”. Liu said the CCP, led by Xi Jinping had an “urge” to protect the Tibetan plateau and regarded it as an environmental and ecological imperative. Dr Wang Weicai, a researcher involved with the Third Pole Environment program, said turning the Tibetan plateau into a national park would help ease the water supply concerns of neighboring countries that had been prompted by economic development in Tibet. “It will also help the implementation of ‘One Belt, One Road’.” Professor Wang Shiping, a researcher with the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research and a member of China’s natural reserve review committee, said the national park would not only save plants, animals and people currently living on the roof of the world, but also benefit future generations. With about a third of Tibet already in designated protection zones, the government is building more rail lines, roads and airports for tourists. Tibet Airlines plans to treble its fleet in three years to fly more tourists from Nepal to Lhasa, Tibet’s regional capital. More than 20 million tourists visited Tibet last year, but Luosang said most of those were Chinese and there was enormous room for growth. “The foreign markets, especially the European and American markets, have huge potential,” he said. “We only had about 300,000 foreign tourists last year.”

India, which has border disputes with China in the region, has refused to participate in the plateau survey or the Third Pole Environment program.





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