Ecological progress on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Black-necked cranes are dancing in the nature reserve in Tibet autonomous region, which has become the world's largest wintering ground for the birds.ZHANG RUFENG/XINHUA

Editor's note: The State Council Information Office on Wednesday issued a white paper on Ecological Progress on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Following is the full text:

Contents

Preamble

I. An Improving System for Ensuring Ecological Progress

II. Prominent Progress in Ecosystem Conservation

III. Steady Improvement of Environmental Quality

IV. Steady Development of Green Industry

V. Sci-tech Support System Is in Place

VI. A Developing Culture That Values Ecological Awareness

Conclusion

Preamble

Located in Southwest China, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau covers the entire Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province, in addition to parts of Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Xinjiang. It is about 2.6 million sq km in area and most of it lies at an altitude of more than 4,000 m above sea level. Hailed as the "roof of the world", the "third pole" and the "water tower of Asia", the Plateau is a natural habitat for rare animals and a gene pool of plateau life. It is a key eco-safety barrier in China and Asia, and a focus of China's drive to promote ecological progress.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government have always valued ecological progress. Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping as its core has laid down ecological progress as a cornerstone for sustainable development of the Chinese nation, and made it one of the integral components of the development strategy for Chinese socialism together with economic, political, cultural, and social progress. China is striving to raise the awareness that "clear waters and green mountains are invaluable assets" and to put it into practice. We will value the ecological environment as we value our lives, and we will continue to pursue green development and build a beautiful China.

Ecological progress on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has a vital bearing on sustainable growth in the region and environmental protection in China and around the globe. The CPC and the Chinese government have taken ecological conservation as a top priority, and protection of the Plateau as a vital task for China's survival and development. Now a system in this regard is being improved step by step on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with solid achievements in improving ecological conservation and environment quality. Steady growth has been witnessed in the local green industry with a system of technological support in place, and an eco-culture is taking shape to showcase the Plateau's exemplary role in ecological development.

I. An Improving System for Ensuring Ecological Progress

As China advances in environmental conservation, it is also improving its ecology-related policies and regulations for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to form an increasingly complete system for ensuring ecological progress.

Ecology-related laws and regulations have been improved.

In recent years China has enacted, amended or revised the following laws:

・ Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China,

・ Atmospheric Pollution Prevention and Control Law of the People's Republic of China,

・ Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law of the People's Republic of China,

・ Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environment Pollution Caused by Solid Wastes,

・ Environmental Protection Tax Law of the People's Republic of China,

・ Law of the People's Republic of China on Environmental Impact Assessment,

・ Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Wildlife,

・ Water Law of the People's Republic of China,

・ Meteorology Law of the People's Republic of China, and

・ Grassland Law of the People's Republic of China.

The promulgation and implementation of these laws has provided a legal guarantee for protecting the ecological environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and boosting regional socio-economic development.

Two documents were issued in 2015, and they were the Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Accelerating Ecological Progress, and the General Plan for Reforming the System for Ecological Conservation, laying out the overall requirements, prospected goals, key tasks, and institutional arrangements to ensure ecological progress and reform the ecological sector, complete with a roadmap and timetable. To date, China has established a nationwide system of main functional areas and a resource-environment administration system. The central supervisory mechanism for environmental protection covers all 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, with the central environment watchdog directly overseeing the activities of environmental protection organs below provincial level, such as those commissioned for environmental monitoring, inspection, and law enforcement. It has also put in place a "river and lake chief" system－where selected local Party and government officials ensure their assigned rivers and lakes are free from pollution－and a licensing mechanism for controlling pollutant discharge. China has run pilot programs to carry out river basin-related environment monitoring and law enforcement, in order to strengthen supervision in different river basins and boost synergistic law enforcement, and to have unified planning, standards, assessment, monitoring, and law enforcement activities within the same basins. To assess the performance of officials in providing leadership to ecological conservation, China has set up an ecological goal appraisal system, and a supervisory system for auditing the natural resource assets when a relevant official leaves office. In this way, a clear-cut and rigorous liability mechanism has been put in place so that both Party and government officials take responsibility for environmental protection, and they both fulfill official duties and uphold clean governance. The state has set red lines for ecological conservation, and put in force unified registration of natural resource rights, measures for managing natural and ecological space, and guidelines on reforming paid use of natural resource assets owned by the whole people. Different regulations and measures have been integrated for simplification, and pilot programs on state parks have been rolled out. China has improved its ecological compensation mechanism, and run trials to reform the ecological damage compensation system coordinated between cross-regional environmental protection institutions.

Each taking into account their local geographical conditions, Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan have formulated their own regulations and measures regarding ecological conservation. The Tibet Autonomous Region issued the Opinions on Building an Important National Barrier for Ecological Security and Accelerating Ecological Progress, Opinions on Building a Beautiful Tibet, and Measures of Tibet Autonomous Region on Environmental Conservation Appraisal. Qinghai Province released the General Plan of Qinghai Province on Developing a System for Ecological Progress, Regulations of Qinghai Province on Promoting Ecological Progress, and Action Plan of Qinghai Province on Pioneering an Ecological Model. Sichuan issued the Regulations of Sichuan Province on the Management of Nature Reserves; Gansu, the Regulations on the Management of Qilian Mountain State Nature Reserve; and Yunnan, the Plan on the Protection of the Two Rivers Ecological Barrier in Deqen Prefecture and Action Plan on the Protection of Biodiversity in Northwest Yunnan. Through these efforts a system has been established in all relevant provinces and autonomous regions to ensure ecological progress on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

A system of protected natural areas has been set up.

The system of protected natural areas is an important means of management to protect biodiversity, preserve natural capital, maintain ecosystem services, and safeguard the wellbeing of Chinese people and the peoples of the world. Currently the protected natural areas on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are more and more composed of national parks than of nature reserves.

In 1963, the Plateau delineated its first state nature reserve (now the Baishuijiang State Nature Reserve). The Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Nature Reserves, promulgated in 1994, defined the ranking system, the management structure and the function zones of nature reserves, ushering in a period of rapid development of nature reserves on the Plateau. To date, the Plateau has established in total 155 nature reserves at all levels (41 state and 64 provincial ones), covering a total area of 822,400 sq km. This is equivalent to 31.63 percent of the Plateau's landmass and represents 57.56 percent of China's land nature reserve areas. Basically, all of the Plateau's unique and fragile ecosystems and rare species can be found in these reserves.

As China reforms its system for ecological progress, the government has issued a directive to establish a system of protected natural areas, with state parks as the main element. In 2016, the state ratified the Plan for the Trial Run of the State Park at Sanjiangyuan (literally, source of three large rivers), the first pilot reform program to introduce state parks in China. The core aim is to make sure that the ecological resources of the Sanjiangyuan area, where the headwaters of the Yangtze River, Yellow River and Lancang River converge, are owned by the state, shared by the people, and passed down to future generations. The Regulations of Sanjiangyuan State Park (Trial), issued by Qinghai Province, defines clear provisions on the parks' management in terms of background survey, targets of protection, ownership structure, assets and liabilities, biodiversity preservation, environmental monitoring, cultural legacy protection, ecological compensation, disaster prevention and reduction, and inspection and quarantine. In January 2018, the National Development and Reform Commission released the Overall Plan of Sanjiangyuan State Park, which further clarified the principles of running the park, its layout, functions, and management targets. The park will serve as a role model to guide green development on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and in surrounding areas.

An ecological compensation mechanism is in place.

The ecological compensation mechanism is an important step taken by the state to protect the environment. In the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region, China has initiated a series of ecological compensation mechanisms, including transfer payments to key ecological function zones, forest ecological benefit compensation, grassland ecological protection subsidy and reward, and wetland ecological benefit compensation. In 2008-2017, the central government made transfer payments of RMB16.29 billion and RMB8.35 billion to the key ecological function zones in Qinghai and Tibet, covering 77 key counties and all areas prohibited to development by the state.

Since the 10th Five-year Plan period (2001-2005), Tibet Autonomous Region has received RMB31.6 billion in ecological compensation for its forests, grasslands, wetlands, and key ecological function zones. During the 12th Five-year Plan period (2011-2015), the state paid a total of RMB10.9 billion to Tibet in grassland conservation subsidy and rewards. Since 2015, the autonomous region has been experimenting with a compensation program for damage caused by wildlife, mitigating herdsmen's losses to a total amount of RMB85 million.

Funds to encourage ecological progress in Qinghai Province have been increased. Since 2013, the central government has allotted a total of RMB16.4 billion in ecological compensation for grasslands, forests and wetlands in Qinghai. To integrate conservation and poverty reduction, Qinghai has initiated a public ranger program to monitor the environment, with an annual subsidy of RMB880 million. Since the 12th Five-year Plan period the state has helped 622,300 farming and herding households in Qinghai to obtain better housing, provided clean drinking water to 1.6 million people, and ensured reliable power access to 650,000 people. This represents a considerable improvement of quality of life. In Deqen Prefecture of Yunnan Province, an ecological compensation mechanism for public benefit forests has been in place since 2009, receiving a total of RMB1.1 billion in state subsidies by 2017. In 2017, Ganzi Prefecture of Sichuan Province had 1,282,300 ha of public benefit forests under effective protection and received RMB284 million in ecological compensation; the corresponding figures for Aba Prefecture were 696,000 ha and RMB154 million.

II. Prominent Progress in Ecosystem Conservation

Since the 1960s, and especially over the last three decades, the Chinese government has put in place various ecosystem conservation projects, including wildlife protection and nature reserve development, the construction of key shelter forests, natural forest conservation, returning farmland to forest and grassland, restoring grazing land to grassland, water and soil conservation, and wetland conservation and restoration. The Tibet Autonomous Region has implemented a project for the protection and construction of an eco-safety barrier, and a project for afforestation in the basins of the Yarlung Tsangpo, Nujiang, Lhasa, Nyangchu, Yalong, and Shiquan rivers. Qinghai Province implemented a project for the conservation and restoration of the Qilian Mountain ecosystem, composed of mountains, rivers, forest, farmland, lakes, and grassland, a project for the conservation and comprehensive improvement of the Qinghai Lake ecosystem, and a project for the ecological conservation and construction of Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserve. In 2011, the Chinese government issued and implemented the Plan for Regional Ecological Construction and Environmental Protection on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (2011-2030). A number of eco-projects have been implemented, achieving positive results in ecosystem conservation, bringing under control the degradation of the local ecosystem, restoring the biodiversity, and the ecological functions of several regions where key eco-projects were implemented have been comprehensively improved.

Ecological degradation is under control.

Alpine grassland is a major ecosystem on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, playing an important role as an eco-safety barrier, and serving as the basis of highland animal husbandry. Climate change, overgrazing and some other reasons caused continuous degradation of alpine grasslands. By the mid-1980s, the grassland area in Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province had been reduced to 820,000 sq km in total. Later, due to the implementation by the government of such policies as issuance of allowances for restoring grazing land to grassland and protecting the grassland ecosystem, and the undertaking of a number of grassland ecological conservation projects, such as pest and rodent prevention and control, progress was made in grassland ecosystem conservation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. According to research, from 1982 to 2009 the grassland coverage rate of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and its net primary productivity (NPP) showed an overall increase, with newly-added grassland coverage accounting for 47 percent of the total, and the area with a dramatic NPP increase reaching more than 32 percent of the total. In the recent decade, the local grassland ecosystem has maintained steady and positive improvement.

The forests on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are mainly distributed in northwest Yunnan, southeast Tibet, west Sichuan, south Gansu, and east Qinghai. Since the 1950s, great changes have taken place in terms of coverage, reserve, type, and spatial distribution of the forests. According to the results of the Ninth National Forest Resource Survey in 2016, in Tibet, the area of forested land was 17.98 million ha, that of forests was 14.91 million ha, the forest coverage rate was 12.14 percent, and the total stock of timber reached 2.3 billion cu m. Compared with the results of the Eighth National Forest Resource Survey conducted in 2011, in Tibet, the area of forested land and that of forests had increased by 147,500 ha and 198,700 ha respectively, the rate of forest coverage went up by 0.16 percentage point, and the stock of timber by 20.47 million cu m, an increase in both forest area and timber stock.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau boasts the most and largest area of wetlands in China. In 1990, the total area of wetlands on the Plateau was about 134,500 sq km. From 1990 to 2006, local wetlands suffered continuous degradation at an annual rate of 0.13 percent. In this period, the total area of wetlands had been reduced by 3,000 sq km. Since 2006, due to efforts in conservation and natural environmental factors, the area of wetlands have picked up obviously. By 2011, the wetland area in Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province alone had reached 146,700 sq km, and the trend of wetland degradation had generally been contained. By 2014, the wetland area in Qinghai had reached 81,400 sq km. In recent years, as China has intensified efforts in conservation, further improvement has been witnessed in the local wetland ecosystem.

Significant achievements have been made in biodiversity protection.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is one of the regions with the richest biodiversity in the world. The Qiangtang-Sanjiangyuan area, the area extending from the Minshan Mountain to the northern range of Hengduan Mountains, the area southeast of the Himalayas, and the southern range of Hengduan Mountains are key biodiversity conservation zones in China. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has about 3,760 distinctive spermatophyte species, 280 distinctive vertebrate species, 300 rare and endangered species of higher plants, and 120 species of rare and endangered animals. The nature reserves established have effectively protected the rare and endangered wildlife unique to the Plateau as well as their habitats.

The restoration and expansion of rare and endangered species is obvious evidence of success in biodiversity conservation. According to research, the numbers of black-necked crane (Grus nigricollis), Tibetan antelope (Pantholopshodgsonii), Przewalski's gazelle (Procapraprze walskii), wild yak (Bosmutus), red deer (Cervuselaphus), and Yunnan snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopi thecusbieti), have increased steadily. Since the establishment of the Black-necked Crane National Nature Reserve on the Middle Reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet Autonomous Region in 1993, the number of overwintering black-necked crane has increased year by year, accounting for 80 percent of the world's total, and the nature reserve has become the world's largest wintering ground for black-necked cranes. The number of Tibetan antelope on the Qiangtang Plateau in Tibet Autonomous Region increased from about 60,000 in 2000 to over 200,000 in 2016. And the number of wild yak in this area increased from 6,000 before it was included for protection to 10,000 in 2016. At the Baima Snow Mountain National Nature Reserve in Yunnan Province, the number of Yunnan snubnosed monkeys increased from about 2,000 in 1988, when the nature reserve was established, to about 2,500 in 2014. Additionally, new populations of rare and endangered species have been found at several localities. The Tibet red deer, which had been considered extinct, was rediscovered in Sangri County, Tibetan Autonomous Region in 1995, and its number is increasing. The Burmese snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopith ecusstrykeri), one of the most endangered species, was found at the Gaoligong Mountain National Nature Reserve in Yunnan Province. The Sichuan Jay (Perisoreus internigrans) was found at the Gahai-Zecha National Nature Reserve in Gansu Province.

Improvement of the wildlife habitats is the basis for protecting biodiversity. The improvement of vegetation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has improved the environmental quality of local wildlife habitats. From 1998 to 2009, marked improvement had been observed in the vegetation of core areas of the Mount Qomolangma National Nature Reserve in Tibet Autonomous Region. Since 2005, at the Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve in Qinghai Province, desertification has been contained, the area of wetlands has been increased, vegetation has improved, wildlife habitat fragmentation has been slowed, and the eco-environment has notably improved. In the Gahai-Zecha National Nature Reserve in Qinghai Province, the area of the Gahai Lake increased from 480 ha in 2003 to 2,354 ha in 2013, and has maintained a coverage in excess of 2,000 ha in recent years; this increase in the water surface area has helped water fowl to survive and multiply.

Key eco-projects have produced preliminary results.

In 2009, the state approved the Plan for the Protection and Construction of the Eco-safety Barrier in Tibet (2008-2030). By the end of 2017, 10 projects concerning ecological conservation, construction, and support had been implemented, with a total investment of RMB9.6 billion. The first-stage project (2008-2014) completed the framework of Tibet's eco-projects; several key projects have begun to yield notable ecological effects; local ecosystem service functions improved steadily; and the functions of the ecological barrier remained stable and showed continuous improvement.

In 2005, China launched a project for the ecological conservation and construction of Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve. By the end of 2017, the total investment amounted to RMB8 billion. By the end of the first-stage of the project in 2013, grassland degradation had been contained, water and wetland ecosystems had been restored, and water conservation and water supply capacity in river basins had improved. Compared with 2004, the Yangtze River, Yellow River, and Lancang River provided their lower reaches with additional 5.8 billion cu m of quality water annually on the average－a forceful support for regional social and economic development.