The State of Tibet's Environment

Tibet is the prime source of Asia's great rivers. It also has the earth's loftiest mountains as well as the world's most extensive and highest plateau, ancient forests, and many deep valleys untouched by human disturbances.

Traditional Tibetan economic and religious value systems led to the evolution of successful environmental protection practices. Their belief in the Buddhist teaching of Right Livelihood leads to understanding the importance of "contentment", and discourages over-consumption. It also frowns upon over-exploitation of the earth's natural resources as this is perceived to harm other living beings and their habitat. As early as 1642, the Fifth Dalai Lama issued a Decree for the Protection of Animals and the Environment. Since then, such decrees have been issued annually.

With the colonization of Tibet by Communist China, Tibet's traditional environmental protection system has given way to an "ecocide" of appalling proportions. The effects of this are especially notable on the grassland areas, the cropland areas, the forests, the water resources and the wildlife.

Grassland, cropland and Chinese agricultural policies

Tibet is seventy percent grassland. Grasslands form the backbone of the country's animal husbandry-dominated agrarian economy. The domestic animal population is as big as seventy million and supports nearly a million herdsmen. Tibet's nomads have traditionally adapted themselves well to the needs of their fragile grasslands. Annual records of pasture use, systematic migrations of their herds of dri and yak, sheep and goats, and responsibility for sustainable use at the individual and community levels are traditional habits.

Over the last four decades there has been widespread degradation of these vital pastures. The conversion of marginal lands to agriculture for Chinese settlers has become the greatest threat to Tibet's grasslands. This has led to extensive desertification, rendering the land unusable for agriculture or grazing. This problem has especially devastated the vast grasslands in Amdo.

The situation is made worse by the fencing of grasslands which has restricted Tibetan nomads to ever smaller areas and disrupted their traditional migration practice. In Machu district of Amdo alone, one-third of the total area of over 10,000 square kilometres has been fenced for the horses, sheep and cattle of the Chinese army. Similarly, most of the better pasture lands in Ngapa, Golok and "Qinghai" have been reserved for the Chinese.

Traditionally, the principal croplands are arable niches along the river valleys of Kham, the Tsangpo valley in U-Tsang, and the Machu valley in Amdo. The staple crop is barley, grown with other cereals and legumes. The traditional agricultural system has organic principles, crop rotation, mixed crops, and periodic failures which are sustainable and appropriate to a fragile mountain environment. Grain yields in Tibet average 2,000 kg/ha in U-Tsang and higher still in the lower valleys of Amdo and Kham. This exceeds yields in comparable climates such as in Russia (1,700 kg/ha) and Canada (1,800 kg/ha).

The need to feed the ever-increasing number of Chinese military and civil personnel and settlers, and the export of agricultural produce, has led to the extension of farmland onto steep and marginal terrain, an increase in the area under wheat (which the Chinese prefer to the Tibetan staple, barley) and the introduction of hybrid seeds, pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Disease has been regularly attacking new wheat varieties, and in 1979 destroyed the entire wheat crop. Prior to the influx of millions of Chinese settlers, Tibetans had no need to increase production so drastically.

Forests and deforestation

In 1949 Tibet's ancient forests covered 221,800 square kilometres. By 1985 they stood at 134,000 square kilometres - almost half. Most forests grow on steep, isolated slopes in the river valleys of Tibet's low-lying southeastern region. The principal types are tropical montane and subtropical montane coniferous forest, with spruce, fir, pine, larch, cypress, birch, and oak among the main species. The tree line varies from 3,800 metres in the region's moist south to 4,300 metres in the semi-dry north.

Tibet's forests are primarily old growth, with trees over two hundred years old predominating. The average stock density is 272 cubic metres/ha, but U-Tsang's old growth areas reach 2,300 cubic metres/ha - the world's highest stock density for conifers.

As new roads penetrate remote areas of Tibet the rate of deforestation increases. All roads, it should be noted, are built or aided by People's Liberation Army or China's Forestry Ministry teams of engineers and their costs are counted as expenditure to "develop" Tibet. Once roads open up, and pristine forest areas are reached, the most common method of cutting is clear felling, which has led to the denudation of vast hillsides. Timber extraction up to 1985 totalled 2,442 million cubic metres, or forty percent of the 1949 forest stock; this is worth US$54 billion.

Deforestation is a major employer in Tibet; in the fertile Kongpo area of the "TAR" alone, over 20,000 Chinese soldiers and Tibetan prisoners are involved in tree felling and transportation of timber.

In 1949 Ngapa, Amdo, had 2.20 million hectares of land under forest cover. Its timber reserve then stood at 340 million cubic metres. In the 1980s it was reduced to 1.17 million hectares, with a timber reserve of only 180 million cubic metres. [Ngapa Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Publishing House, 1985, p.149-154]. Similarly, during thirty years till 1985, China extracted 6.44 million cubic metres of timber from "Ganlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture". Cut into logs measuring thirty centimetres wide and three metres long, and layed from end to end, this would encircle the globe twice. [Ganlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu People's Publishing House, 1987, p.145].

The growing degradation and desertification of the Tibetan Plateau - unique on earth and the planet's most extensive high land form - is continuing. This area influences atmospheric circulation and jet stream wind patterns over Asia and, according to scientists, may be related to the destabilization of weather patterns over the northern hemisphere.

Regeneration and afforestation have been minimal due to the extreme degree of land slope, soil and moisture, including high diurnal temperature variations and high soil surface temperatures. With such natural conditions, the destructive effects of clear-felling are irreversible.

Water resources and hydropower

Tibet is Asia's principal watershed and the source of its major rivers. A substantial proportion of river flows in Tibet are stable or base flows coming from ground water and glacial sources. This is in marked contrast to river flows in most neighbouring countries, which are determined by seasonal rainfall patterns.

Ninety percent of Tibet's river run off flows down across its borders, internal use accounting for less than one percent of total river run off. Today Tibet's rivers have developed extremely high sediment rates: the Machu (Huang Ho, or Yellow River), the Tsangpo (Brahmaputra), the Drichu (Yangtze), and the Senge Khabab (Indus) are among the five most heavily-silted rivers in the world. The total area irrigated by these rivers, from the Machu basin in the east to the Senge Khabab in the west, supports forty seven per cent of the earth's human population. Tibet also has over two thousand natural lakes - some of which are sacred or otherwise play a special role in the people's culture - with a combined area of more than 35,000 square kilometres.

Steep slopes and abundant river flows give Tibet an exploitable hydropower potential of 250,000 megawatts, the highest of any country in the world. The "TAR" alone has a potential of 200,000 megawatts.

Tibet possesses the world's highest solar energy potential per unit after the Sahara, an estimated annual average of 200 kilocalorie/cm, as well as significant geothermal resources.

Despite such abundant potential from small, environmentally-benign sources, the Chinese have built huge dams, such as Longyang Xia, and are continuing to do so, such as the hydro-power station at Yamdrok Yutso.

Many of these projects are designed to tap Tibet's hydro potential to provide power and other benefits to the Chinese population and industries both in Tibet and China. But the environmental, human and cultural toll of these hydro-electricity projects will be borne only by Tibetans. While the Tibetans are displaced from their homes and lands, tens of thousands of Chinese workers are brought in from China to construct and maintain these dams.

These dams have very little benefit for local Tibetans who have no say over them. Take the case of Yamdrok Yutso hydro-power project. The Chinese claim that this project will greatly benefit Tibetans.

Tibetan people in general, and particularly the late Panchen Lama and Ngapo Ngawang Jigme, opposed and effectively delayed its construction for several years. The Chinese, nevertheless, went ahead with the construction and today more than one thousand five hundred PLA troops are guarding the construction area and no civilians are allowed near it.

Minerals and mining

According to official Chinese sources, Tibet has proven deposits of a hundred and twenty six minerals, with a significant share of the world's reserves of uranium, lithium, chromite, copper, borax, and iron. Amdo's oil fields produce over one million tons of crude oil per year.

The network of roads and communications built by the Chinese in Tibet mirrors the locations of forests and mineral reserves indiscriminately exploited by the Chinese Government. With seven of China's fifteen key minerals due to run out within this decade, and major non-ferrous minerals virtually exhausted, the rate of mineral extraction from Tibet is rapidly increasing. It is believed that China plans to shift its major mining operations into Tibet by the end of this century.

Environmental safeguards are virtually non-existent in Tibet's mines. Particularly in fragile terrain, this is leading to slope destabilization, land degradation, and hazards to human health and life.

Wildlife

Many wild animals and birds have vanished through destruction of their habitat or have been slaughtered by indiscriminate hunting for sport and to furbish China's illicit trade in wildlife products. There have been numerous and continuing reports of Chinese soldiers using automatic weapons to wipe out herds of wild yak and wild asses for sport.

Unrestricted hunting of wildlife continues to take place. Hunting "tours" organized for wealthy foreign clients - for trophies of endangered species - appear in the official Chinese news media regularly. For instance, "hunting tours" are being organized for wealthy sportsmen from the United States of America and Western Europe. These "hunters" can bag trophies of endangered species such as the Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsoni) and the Argali sheep (Ovis ammon hodgsoni), species supposedly accorded the highest level of official protection. The hunts cost up to US$35,000 for a Tibetan antelope, $23,000 for an Argali, $13,000 for a white-lipped deer (Cervus albirostris), $7,900 for a blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur), and $3,500 for a red deer (Cerrus elaphus).

The present scenario is likely to result in the irrevocable loss of countless Tibetan species even before they have been discovered and studied. Also, it constitutes a known threat to the very survival of species treasured in Tibetan culture and of immeasurable value to the world.

China's White Paper does admit that a number of animals are "on the verge of extinction". In confirmation, the International Union for Conservation of Nature's 1990 Red List of Endangered Animal Species mentions thirty Tibetan animals.

Chinese conservation measures for Tibet, except for areas now merged into Chinese provinces, were initiated long after similar efforts in China itself. Declared protected areas were said to cover 310,000 sq.km. or approximately twelve percent of Tibet by 1991 end. The effectiveness of protection cannot be measured because of China's strictly limited access, plus secrecy concerning actual data.

Nuclear and other toxic wastes

China is reported to have stationed approximately ninety nuclear warheads in Tibet. The Ninth Academy, China's North-west Nuclear Weapons Research and Design Academy in Tibet's north-eastern area of Amdo, is reported to have dumped an unknown quantity of radioactive waste on the Tibetan plateau.

According to a report released by International Campaign for Tibet, a Wastington, DC-based organization: "Waste disposal methods were reported to be casual in the extreme. Initially, waste was put in shallow, unlined landfills ... The nature and quantity of radioactive waste generated by the Ninth Academy is still unknown... During the 1960s and 1970s, nuclear waste from the facility was disposed of in a roughshod and haphazard manner. Nuclear waste from the Academy would have taken a variety of forms - liquid slurry, as well as solid and gaseous waste. Liquid or solid waste would have been in adjacent land or water sites." [Nuclear Tibet, Washington, DC, p.18].

Official Chinese pronouncements have confirmed the existence in Tibet of the biggest uranium reserves in the world. Reports say that uranium is processed in Tibet itself and that many local Tibetans died after drinking contaminated water near a uranium mine in Ngapa, Amdo. The local Tibetans have also reported the birth of deformed humans and animals.

In 1991 Greenpeace exposed plans to ship toxic municipal sludge from the USA to China for use as "fertilizer" in Tibet. The use of similar toxic waste as fertilizer in the USA has been linked to outbreaks of diseases.

Conclusion

Tibet's complex environmental problems cannot be addressed by cosmetic changes like designating swathes of land as nature reserves or making laws for the people when the real perpetrator of environmental damage is the government itself. There should be political will on the part of the Chinese leadership to restore rights over the environment to the Tibetan people and allow them to follow their traditional conservationist practices.

In keeping with the vision of the Dalai Lama, all of Tibet should be transformed into a zone of peace where humans and nature can dwell in harmonious coexistence. Such a Tibet, as the Dalai Lama said, should be completely demilitarized and must have a democratic form of government and an economic system that ensures the sustainable use of the country's natural resources to provide a decent standard of living for its people.

Ultimately, this is in the long-term interests of all the neighbouring countries as environmental conditions in Tibet have major transboundary effects, notably in India, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Nearly half of the global population, particularly in these four countries, depend on the rivers of Tibet for their sustenance. Some of the major floods in these countries during the last decade have been attributed to deforestation-related siltation of Tibet's rivers. The destructive potential of these rivers increases each year as China continues its deforestation and uranium-related activities on the Roof of the World.

Unless urgent action is taken now to stop this, the rivers of Tibet - which traditionally brought joy and sustenance - may one day bring death and destruction.