Forest is Forest and Meadows are Meadows

Cultural Landscapes and Bureaucratic Landscapes in Jiuzhaigou County, Sichuan

  • Stevan Harrell
  • Yang Qingxia
  • Sara Jo Viraldo
  • R. Keala Hagmann
  • Amanda H. Schmidt
  • Thomas Hinckley
DOI: https://doi.org/10.47979/aror.j.84.3.595-623
Keywords: landscape plasticity, bureaucracy, Jiuzhaigou, Landscapes, Tibet

Abstract

Present-day landscapes are shaped by historical forces that combine natural change (generated by climate, geological processes etc.) with anthropogenic change (locally generated in interaction with larger political and economic forces). In the Jiuzhaigou region of Northern Sichuan, humans have shaped landscapes to their needs for at least 3,500 years. In recent centuries, landscape change has probably accelerated, particularly in response to changes in the political economy of the region since the late 19th century. At present, Amdo and Baima Tibetan communities in the region are faced with generally similar but locally differing political and economic pressures, including economic development, tourism, and policies of conservation and reforestation. The communities have reacted to these pressures in diverse ways that produce different landscape outcomes, demonstrating that neither local cultural landscape ideals alone nor policy prescriptions alone can explain current landscape configurations or predict the precise future impact of policies. However, constraints imposed by bureaucratic planning may lead to landscapes with diminished biodiversity and reduced adaptive capacity.

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Author Biographies

Stevan Harrell

STEVAN HARRELL is Professor of Anthropology and of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington. He has conducted research in Taiwan and in Southwest China, on topics ranging from family, gender, and demography to ethnic relations to material culture to elementary education. Since the late 1990s, his research has been focused on human-environment relations, primarily in Southwest China, and has become more interdisciplinary, including earth sciences as well as social sciences. He is co-founder and president of Cool Mountain Education Fund, a small public charity that gives scholarships to high school and college students who have graduated from Yangjuan Primary School in the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture.

Yang Qingxia

YANG QINGXIA is Deputy Director, Science Department, Jiuzhaigou National Nature Reserve. A native of Jiuzhaigou, she holds a master’s degree in development studies from Massey University, New Zealand, and is also a Ph.D. student in Tibetan History, Economy, and Social Development at Sichuan University in Chengdu. Since 2005, she has collaborated with faculty members from several international universities to conduct research change on traditional cultural resources, socioeconomic change and development, environmental change and traditional ecological knowledge in the face of rapid tourism development.

Sara Jo Viraldo

SARA JO VIRALDO is a researcher with a BS in forest resources and a Master of Public Administration degree from Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Washington. Since 2008 she has conducted  research in Southwest China and the United States on topics such as forest management policies, cost benefit anaylsis of solar energy facilities, and climate change risk communication. Her work is focused on using rigorous analysis to inform policy decisions that are effective, equitable, and sustainable.

R. Keala Hagmann

R. KEALA HAGMANN is a forest ecologist and an associate with Applegate Forestry, LLC in Oregon, USA. Her primary focus is on developing and applying the unique historical records of forest conditions, re-discovered during graduate work at the University of Washington-Seattle, to contemporary management questions in fire-prone environments. Keala transitioned from a career in graphic design to ecology and enjoys working with interdisciplinary teams to explore tradeoffs between complementary and conflicting objectives in dynamic socio-ecosystems.

Amanda H. Schmidt

AMANDA H. SCHMIDT is an assistant professor of geology at Oberlin College. She and her undergraduate research students use geographic information systems, remote sensing, field work, and radioisotope fingerprinting techniques to quantify human changes to the environment, with a particular focus on the effects of people on erosion and a regional focus on southwest China. Her graduate work at the University of Washington included traditional training in geology as well as interdisciplinary training to work with teams on complex environmental problems.

Thomas Hinckley

THOMAS HINCKLEY has an undergraduate degree from Carleton College and a graduate degree from the University of Washington. He has been a faculty member at the University of Missouri-Columbia, the University of Washington-Seattle, and the Agricultural University of Vienna, Austria. From 1966 to 2004, his research and academic interests were almost entirely devoted to tree and shrub water relations, photosynthesis, growth and ecophysiological modeling. In May 2001, an arsonist fire destroyed the building in which he had his office. This turned out to be transformative in very positive ways. From 2004 to the present, his teaching and research endeavors have broadened and have become much more interdisciplinary in nature. Currently, he is interested in cultural and political history and current status on issues of natural resource stewardship, sustainability and human health.

Published
2016-12-16
How to Cite
Harrell, S., Qingxia, Y., Viraldo, S. J., Hagmann, R. K., Schmidt, A. H., & Hinckley, T. (2016). Forest is Forest and Meadows are Meadows: Cultural Landscapes and Bureaucratic Landscapes in Jiuzhaigou County, Sichuan. Archiv orientální, 84(3), 595-623. https://doi.org/10.47979/aror.j.84.3.595-623
Issue
Vol. 84 No. 3 (2016)
Section
Research Article

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