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dam-l LS: New reserve in Tibet covers source of Asia's Largest Rivers
New Reserve Covers Sources of Asia's Largest Rivers
BEIJING, China, May 23, 2000 (ENS) - China will establish a national nature
reservation zone high on the Tibetan plateau encompassing the sources of
three of Asia's largest rivers - the Jinsha Jiang (Yangtze River), the
Huang He (Yellow River) and the Lancang Jiang (Upper Mekong) River. The new
reserve was announced this month by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
The Upper Mekong River travels through five downstream countries after
leaving the Chinese province of Yunnan - Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos,
Cambodia and Vietnam. The other two rivers travel through China.
The headwaters of the Yangtze and the Yellow rivers lie high on the
northeastern Tibetan plateau. Downstream 1.25 billion Chinese depend on
their flows to supply four fifths of China's water.
Referred to by the ministry as "China's water bank," the source area for
all three rivers is full of streams and lakes. It has a wetland area of
10,000 square kilometres (3,861 square miles), which makes it "the largest
wetland of highest elevation and most concentrated biodiversity in the
world," the ministry claims.
The new reserve is being established to combat deterioration of
pastureland, accelerated soil erosion and sedimentation of the waterways.
River and lake water levels have been declining, the ministry said.
"Excessive herding, illegal poaching, irrational gold mining and medical
herb digging have accelerated the shrinkage of water resources and caused
damages to biodiversity."
The ministry called the three river source area "a very sensitive and
vulnerable ecological system," which would be difficult to recover once
damaged.
"It will not only have serious implications on the river sources themselves
but also on east China as a whole," the ministry said in a statement.
Critics of China's environmental policies agree.
A report on the state of Tibet's environment released by the Dalai Lama's
government in exile on April 26, says, "China has already suffered the
devastating results of its interference in the Yangtze and Yellow River
headwater regions. Now, with mining nominated as one of Beijing's "Four
Pillar" industries in the Tibet Autonomous Region, South and East Asia's
Indus, Salween, Brahmaputra and Mekong rivers will face pollution from
toxic mining wastes infiltrating soil and so contaminating downstream flows."
Lakes cover 25,000 square kilometres of the plateau - many of them held
sacred, the Tibetan government report says. "Yamdrok Tso in U-Tsang has
special spiritual significance. Yet its pristine ecology is being destroyed
by a pumped-storage plant to supply Lhasa's electricity needs - a project
whose design is now judged to be faulty and leading to lowering water
levels, increased salinity, and habitat loss for the diverse and rich
wildlife including birds and fish."
The new nature conservation zone covers an area of 236,000 square
kilometres (91,120 square miles). It is home to an estimated 262,000 people.
The Ministry of Science and Technology says the conservation zone is still
inhabited by rare wildlife species including Tibetan wild donkeys, yaks,
Tibetan antelopes known locally as chiru, Tibetan foxes, goa, snow panthers
and Himalayan marmots.
"Tibet’s biodiversity has been compared to the Amazon Rainforest," says
environment specialist Catherine Moore with the Canada-Tibet Committee,
"but it is being lost at a phenomenal rate. The Tibetan Plateau provides
the headwaters for ten major Asian rivers, which supply freshwater to 47
percent of humanity. The diversion, damming, and degradation of these
waters has far reaching consequences. Changes in its hydrology and
vegetation cover will inevitably echo through weather patterns worldwide,"
Moore said.
The new nature reserve will be divided into a core section, a buffer
section and an experimental section, the ministry said.
The core section - an area over 100 square miles which includes the three
major river sources as well as lakes, wetlands, and some of the wildlife
habitats - will be closed to all human activities.
Outside the core section, the buffer section will allow limited animal
husbandry "according to the bearing capacity of pastures" and relevant
scientific research activities, the ministry said.
The experimental populated section including towns, farmland and cultural
relics will host eco-tourism and research activities.
In another environmentally related move, China's State Bureau of
Environmental Protection has listed Yanqing County of Beijing and other 32
prefectures and counties as national ecological demonstration zones.
These zones are the first of their kind in the country approved by
authorities to demonstrate Chinese sustainable development strategies.
The 33 ecological demonstration zones were selected from 154 candidate
areas to be the role models for the coordinated economic, social and
environmental development, said Zhu Guangyao, deputy administrator of
environmental protection.
China has worked out 19 strict standards and targets for the demonstration
zones. These include amount of forest coverage, utilization of new energy,
control of deteriorated land, decreasing rate of chemical fertilizers and
pesticides applications, recycling rate for thin plastic film, water and
air quality and comprehensive utilization of solid wastes.
Social development targets include control of the population growth rate,
education and number of technicians per 10,000 inhabitants.