Ecological Change on the Tibetan Plateau and the Human Interface

Pastoralists as Agents and Victims of Environmental Impact

Abstract

Alpine regions, high plateaus, and arid lands are highly fragile ecological systems. Historically, they were largely brought into use by pastoralists who, in order to survive in such environments, needed to adapt well by developing strategies involving a high degree of mobility. Pastoralists were thus compelled to utilize what nature offered them in a sustainable way. Exemplified by pastoralists from Qinghai's Yushu region, this paper sets out to explore different perspectives of human existence in the area.

Due to the complexity of the interrelationship between people, their actions, the climate, the biosphere and even “global markets,” reactions to individual problems identified as “causers” of ecological deterioration carry their own consequences for the environment. This chapter focuses on local stakeholders impacted by such changes, on how they react and how they also, eventually, contribute to such changes, either deliberately or involuntarily.

This chapter attempts to adopt the perspective of Tibetan pastoralists and their efforts to organize their livelihoods according to the given conditions of the natural, socio-economic and political environment. Taking the recent changes and transformations into consideration, it will attempt to analyze aspects of the pastoralists’ actions with regard to their social, demographic and economic situation in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province.