The new “Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Ecological Protection Law”, gives Beijing expanded legal grounds for designating Tibetan areas as nature reserves area and removal of Tibetan nomads from their land in the name of conservation. However, the mining companies can continue to exploit the resources if they follow the so-called “ecological protection requirement”.
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Ecological Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China is a new law formulated by the Standing Committee of the Fourteenth National People’s Congress in Beijing on April 26, 2023. This law comes into effect from 1st September 2023. It has seven chapters, including general provisions, ecological security layout, ecological protection and restoration, ecological risk prevention and control, guarantee and supervision, legal responsibilities, and supplementary provisions, with a total of 63 articles. This law applies to the whole of Tibet and Xinjiang.
Figure 1. Qinghai-Tibet Ecological Protection Law
The implementation of this law will have immense social and ecological impact and it is deeply worrying. Article 16 of the law specifies that “The state supports the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet nature reserves system”[2]. I do acknowledge that the Tibetan plateau with its rich biodiversity, needs such protection and conservation and the nature reserves are considered as the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation. However Tibetan people shouldn’t be the ones to pay for the conservation effort.
The construction of nature reserves on the Tibetan Plateau began in 1963, since then there are 155 nature reserves of various types were constructed on the Tibetan Plateau with an area of 822,400km2, accounting for 31.97% of the plateau’s land area.[3]
To make a way for nature reserves, the Chinese government has been implementing policies of resettlement, land confiscation, herding size limit, and fencing of pastoral areas inhabited primarily by Tibetans dramatically curtailing their livelihood. These resettlement policies in Tibet are usually carried out without free, prior, and informed consent in violation of international mandates and principles.[4] Local Tibetan people have no right to challenge them or refuse to participate.
According to the International Campaign for Tibet, almost 2 million Tibetan nomads have been systematically stripped of their ancestral lands and relegating them to smaller plots of marginal land.[5]To make room for wildlife, tourism, and industry, the Chinese government is using nature reserves as a pretext to drive the world last great nomadic societies away from the lands and animals they have lived with for generations. Designating Tibetan nomadic areas as nature reserves carries a heavy human cost with many Tibetan people facing arrest and beating, harassment, and being forced to leave their grassland.
China’s rush to designate many nature reserves in Tibet can be attributed in part to China’s desire to win global recognition as well as they can get grab their lands and relocate them to the colonies where they can kept under tight surveillance.
José Francisco CalíTzay, The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in her reports, she highlighted multiple human rights violations in protected areas ranging from “denied their rights to land and resources, self-determination and autonomy and cultural heritage and suffer from forced eviction, killings, physical violence and abusive persecution”. [6]
The article 33 of the law says that it “It is prohibited by law to engage in sand mining and mining activities that do not comply with ecological protection control requirements in the nature reserves at the source of rivers such as the Yangtze River, Yellow River, Lancang River, Yarlung Zangbo River, and Nu River”. The unclear rendering of the term “ecological protection requirement” is likely deliberate and it can open up a Pandora’s Box of mining activities in the future. This shows that the mining can still be conducted in the nature park but with some restrictions. While not entirely forbidding mineral resource exploitation, the law requires such activities to be “strictly limited”.
The Chinese central or provincial government can adjust the border of the reserve to make a way for the mining companies to mine without any consequences.[7]Is this conservation or something more akin to bullying the weak and exploitation of the land in the interests of the powerful?
Articles 9 and 10 of the law call the relevant department of the state Council and local people’s government at all levels to support and encourage individuals or groups who contribute to the ecological protection of the Tibetan plateau. However, in reality, there is an increasing attack and the criminalization of environmental defenders. It is a clear violation of the environmental rule of law and an affront to the rights, roles, and contributions of Tibetan individuals and groups protecting our environment. The law doesn’t cover the respect for human rights for the sustainability of our environment. Between 2010 and 2019, nine Tibetan human rights defenders- Anya Sengdra, DorjeeDaktal, KelsangChoklang, Dhongye, RinchenNamdol, TsultrimGonpo, JangchupNgodup, SogruAbhu and Namesy – were arrested after they protested against illegal mining activities at the sacred mountains and exposed the hunting of endangered species in Qinghai Province, Sichuan Province and the Tibetan Autonomous Province.[8]
Emily Yeh has rightly called most of the so-called protected areas in China “paper parks” which look good on paper but lack addressing the conservation efforts.[9]What is the point of conservation, if these protected areas are lacking in staff, management and funding and being overrun by mining companies?
Figure 2. Location of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and the distribution of NRs and their functional zones.
Long-standing agenda
Nothing is surprising in implementing this new environmental law covering the whole of Tibet. They are keeping with the trend of putting forward new concepts, new ideas, new strategies and as soon as Xi Jinping became the president of China.
As per the new law, the law was formulated to build a national ecological civilization highland. Ecological civilization is an axiom of Xi Jinping’s thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, commonly known as Xi Jinping’s thought.[11]This phrase was enshrined in the Chinese communist party constitution in 2012. The CPC Central Committee and the state council attach great importance to the development of ecological civilization. One of the many policies and plans that have been unveiled in this regard is expanding the nature reserves system.[12]According to the Global Times, state-backed media outlet, China is going to build the world’s largest national park system. “There were 49 candidate areas across the country. Among them, 13 are located on the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau with a total area of about 777,000 square kilometers, accounting for 70 percent of the total coverage of national parks”[13]Upon completion, China will have the largest-scale national park protection zone in the world.
This policy is purely ornamental and it is just to cover their main intention of removing Tibetan nomads who have preserved Tibetan culture and tradition for generations. China encourages Tibetan nomads to abandon their traditional nomadic lifestyle in favor of settling down in settlement to pursue income-generating activities. Such government practice will lead to the loss of traditional knowledge of the Tibetan people.
This will also further attract a large number of mining companies to exploit Tibet’s resources and bring more Chinese migrant workers to Tibet. It will also allow ecotourism projects to come up as Nature Park while further weakening the power of local Tibetans in deciding the future of their grassland.
Failure to protect Tibet’s environment
According to the People’s Daily News, there are more than 30 laws concerning the ecological and environmental protection as well as over 100 administrative regulations in China and over 1,000 local laws and regulations putting various natural resources — including mountains, waters, forests, fields, lakes, grasses, deserts, glaciers and Snow Mountains — under sound legal protection.[14]
Although there is a dramatic growth in laws to protect the environment, China has failed to protect Tibet’s fragile environment. There is a continuous degradation of the grassland and desertification, retreating glaciers and permafrost degradation persist. The United Nations Environment Programme’s Scientific Assessment of the Third Pole Environment, published in April 2022, found that an intensifying water cycle was leading to more frequent glacial lake outburst floods and ice collapses. By the end of the century, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau will be warmer and wetter, possibly causing yet more disasters.[15]
What should worry us even more is that on top of global warming, there will be more mining and the relocation of Tibetan nomads with more nature parks with the implementation of this new law. The implications are frightening to imagine.
The main drivers of biodiversity decline such as climate change, pollution, changes in land use, and overconsumption must be addressed. Simply expanding nature reserves without forcefully relocating Tibetan peoples who are dependent on those areas is not the solution.
A way forward to protect Tibet’s fragile biodiversity is to engage with local communities. Tibetan nomadic way of life and knowledge need to be preserved and protected, together with the lands that they inhabit. The Chinese government should respect the rights of the Tibetan people by not excluding them from their territories in the name of conservation. It will ultimately benefit Tibet, China, and the whole planet.
[1]Xinhuanet, There is a law to protect the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau ecology, April 26, 2023
http://env.people.com.cn/n1/2023/0426/c1010-32673998.html
[2]中华人民共和国青藏高原生态保护法
(Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Ecological Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China), NPC Observer,
https://npcobserver.com/legislation/qinghai-tibet-plateau-ecological-conservation-law/
[3]Zhang Yili,WuXue,QiWei,LiShicheng,BaiWanqi. Characteristics and protection effectiveness of nature reserves on the Tibetan Plateau,China [J].Resources Science, 2015, 37(7): 1455-1464.
[4]Nyima Y, Yeh E. The Construction of Consent for High-altitude Resettlement in Tibet. The China Quarterly. 2023; 254:429-447. doi:10.1017/S0305741023000206
[5] International Campaign for Tibet, Mass relocations continue: 17,000 Tibetans to leave homes by august. July 5, 2022. https://savetibet.org/mass-relocations-continue-17000-tibetans-to-leave-homes-by-august/#:~:text=This%20has%20led%20to%20the,their%20livelihood%2C%20poverty%20and%20marginalization.
[6]José Francisco Calí Tzay,Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, , Protected areas and indigenous peoples’ rights: the obligations of States and international organizations .
https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N22/431/62/PDF/N2243162.pdf?OpenElement
[7] Shi Yi, Tibetan nature reserves shrunk to make way for mines, august12, 2014. The Third Pole, https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/energy/tibetan-nature-reserve-shrunk-to-make-way-for-mines/
[8] International Campaign for Tibet, ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS OF TIBET CHINA’S PERSECUTION OF TIBETAN ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS, June 2022, https://savetibet.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2205-ICFT-Report_V8.pdf
[9] Emily Yeh, Do china’s nature reserves only exist on paper?February 3, 2014. https://chinadialogue.net/en/nature/6696-do-china-s-nature-reserves-only-exist-on-paper/
[10]Jiang, Mingjun, Xinfei Zhao, Run Wang, Le Yin, and Baolei Zhang. 2023. “Assessment of Conservation Effectiveness of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau Nature Reserves from a Human Footprint Perspective with Global Lessons” Land 12, no. 4: 869. https://doi.org/10.3390/land12040869
[11] Patrick Greenfield and Vincent Ni, ‘Ecological civilization’ an empty slogan or will china act on the environment? The Guardian, October 16, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/16/ecological-civilisation-empty-slogan-cop15-or-will-china-act-on-environment-aoe
[12]Wang, Shaohan, Shuang Song, Mengxi Shi, Shanshan Hu, Shuhan Xing, He Bai, and DaweiXu. 2023. “China’s National Park Construction Contributes to Carbon Peaking and Neutrality Goals” Land 12, no. 7: 1402. https://doi.org/10.3390/land12071402.
[13]Global Times, China to build world’s largest national park system, selecting 49 spots including 13 on Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, Dec 30, 2022. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202212/1282951.shtml
[14] Xinhua, China passess landmark law to protect Qinghai-Tibet Plateau ecosystem, People’s Daily Online, April 27, 2023.http://en.people.cn/n3/2023/0426/c90000-20011582.html
[15]Yang Yong, Expedition notes: Warming shocks the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, July 4, 2023. China Dialogue
https://chinadialogue.net/en/climate/expedition-notes-warming-threatens-the-qinghai-tibet-plateau/