Talk Programme by Dr Andreas Gruschke, University of Leipzig, Germany on Rangelands, Nomads and the State in China
Start Date:
Thu, 2011-02-17 12:15 - 13:00
Venue:
Seminar Hall, Central Department of Botany, TU
Rangelands, Nomads and the State.
State Interventions and Pasture Management in China’s Tibetan Areas
Dr. Andreas Gruschke
University of Leipzig/ Special Collaborative Research Center SF 586
The Tibetan Highland is the largest plateau in the world. Due to its exposition at high altitude and thus to extreme climatic features, it mainly developed an alpine vegetation of which the largest parts may only be used extensively by mobile pastoralism. For millenia Tibetan nomads have managed to survive on herding with yaks and sheep as their main livestock. Since the 1950s the Tibetan society has undergone many transformations, and now more and more global processes affect the environment of the plateau. To solve resulting problems, the Chinese state reacts with a variety of interventions the aim of which is often seen as replacing traditional management systems. The nature of such interventions is not well understood since their basic objectives are not taken into consideration. An introduction to the Chinese Grassland Policy is meant to explain the complex situation today, further exemplified by the scheme of the establishment of the huge Sanjiangyuan Nature Park in „Three Rivers’ Sources Region”. To conclude, a case study depicts a recent conflict in the pastureland and how it enatiled (new) institutions of controlling access to a unique grassland resource: Yartsagumbu. The latter example represents the pastoralists’ possibilities of creating new forms of rangeland management positively sanctioned by the state.
