Tibet: A Human Development and Environment Report, 2007
10 December 2007
Press Statement
Contacts: Mr. Thubten Samphel
Ms. Chokyi
Tel: +91-1892-222510
+91-1892-222457
+91-1892-224662
Environment and Development Desk of the Department of Information and
International Relations, Central Tibetan Administration is happy to
launch its third comprehensive report in its series, titled “Tibet: A Human Development and Environment Report, 2007”.
This report offers a broad perspective on contemporary Tibet. The
well-being of the Tibetan people, and well-being of the land, are
assessed, making use of all available information.
The findings of this report are disturbing in many ways. There
is widespread degradation of grasslands. Nomadic livelihoods are
constricted by increasing bureaucratic regulation and exclusion.
Tibetans suffer from high level of illiteracy and social exclusion from
modern skills. Tibetans also suffer from chronic marginalisation,
unemployment and under-employment. Tibetans suffer from lack of basic
services, even drinkable water in the countryside. Tibetans are
overwhelmed by flood of tourists and subsidised immigration.
Taken together this is a long list of serious impacts on both land and
people. The result is that Tibet is far from attaining the Millennium
Development Goals, now or by 2015. The official goals of the Chinese
central leaders, for five decades, have been development, pillar
industries, economic take-off, productivity and prosperity. The actual
result is enclaves of wealth surrounded by a neglected, eroding
countryside; islands of privilege in a grassy sea of deprivation,
illiteracy and exclusion. The pillar industries failed to materialise,
inequality has become extreme, economic take-off never happened. Tibet
remains one of the poorest of subsistence societies, its Human
Development Indicators equivalent to some of the poorest countries on
earth.
Human development and environmental impacts are the two frameworks of
this report, enabling the reader to look at land and people together.
This is how Tibetans see the world, with humans as one among myriad
mind-possessing species, but with special responsibilities of care and
stewardship. The combination of land and people, environment and human
development, throughout this report, is a reminder that solutions to
the problems of past policy mistakes require the active involvement of
the Tibetan people, not their exclusion.
We can look to the future with hope, because examples from many places
show us new ways of building sustainable livelihoods, sustainable
biodiversity and environments. Past mistakes can be rectified by
adopting more advanced and inclusive methods of repairing the degraded
grasslands as a partnership between leaders and the people. Skilful
advanced methods of co-management are possible, with local communities
as equal partners. This begins with listening to the farmers and
pastoral nomads of Tibet, respecting their intimate knowledge of
landscapes and how to effectively care for them. This is what has been
missing, for 50 years, in the statist, top-down approach to
development, with its emphasis on heavy infrastructure. Tibetan civil
society can be empowered, its modern skills enhanced. The popular
Tibetan willingness to participate as equals in ecological repair can
be a key to watershed protection and successful reforestation.
Tibet, the source of most of Asias rivers, and driver of the Asian
monsoons, is a key part of an interdependent world. The future human
development of Tibet, biodiversity conservation, grassland repair and
watershed protection can be achieved. This will involve skilful new
participatory methods, and assistance from organisations around the
world that can demonstrate advanced methods of enhancing human
capabilities. This report is particularly addressed to the development
agencies and environmental organisations, inviting them to bring their
best practice standards to Tibet, to show in practice how local
communities can ensure appropriate results. To assist them, this report
concludes with Guidelines that articulate what Tibetans need and seek,
from international agencies and investors who come to Tibet.
This report offers a balance of alarm and hope; failures and new
possibilities; unintended consequences and fresh opportunities; past
damage and specific case studies of skilful new directions. The purpose
is to look ahead, to a future in which Tibetan voices are no longer
ignored and excluded, not only for the sake of Tibet, but also for the
sake of a world that needs the many environmental services Tibet
provides. Future provision of those precious services is guaranteed
only if Tibetan environments are sustainable, and not exploited
excessively. The world has an interest in the long-term sustainability
of the environmental benefits that come from Tibet. China has especial
reason to carefully reconsider how to skilfully reforest Tibet,
conserve watersheds and win the respect of the people, by adopting
advanced methods. This report is an invitation to a new beginning.
The Department of Information and International Relations’ first
environment and development report was released in 1992 at the Rio
Earth Summit. The second report was released in 2000. Together these
three reports constitute a wake-up call for people in Asia to discover
what China is up to in Tibet.
Issued by:
Environment and Development Desk,
Department of Information and International Relations,
Central Tibetan Administration, Dharamsala