Ecological progress on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

A train passes through a wetland in Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region on June 26, 2016. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which began service in July 2006, is the world's highest and longest plateau railroad and also the first railway connecting Tibet with other parts of China. XINHUA

V. Sci-tech Support System Is in Place

Since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, scientific research on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has developed from partial, single-subject, domestic research to integrated, comprehensive research involving international cooperation. A team of high-caliber researchers has been established, together with an ecological and environmental monitoring system. Sci-tech is playing an ever more important supporting role in socio-economic development and ecological progress on the Plateau.

Top-notch researchers and sci-tech achievements

Chinese sci-tech workers started short-term, small-scale scientific studies on part of the Plateau in the 1950s. Large-scale and comprehensive investigation work was carried out from the early 1970s to the late 1980s, generating firsthand materials totaling several million Chinese characters. Based on the materials, quite a number of books, including 43 monographs, on the Plateau research were published, making up the first Qinghai-Tibet Plateau encyclopedia. The team under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) was commended by the State Council at the commended 1978 National Conference on Science.

Comprehensive Research on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau's Rise and on Its Effects on Environment and Human Activities won the first prize of the 1987 National Award for Natural Science.

Since the 1990s, to meet the needs of socio-economic development and environmental improvement on the Plateau, the Chinese government has launched research programs on the rational development of regional resources, ecological restoration and environmental governance, and planning for socio-economic development, and carried out systematic research in related subjects on the formation, evolution, and influence of the Plateau, and some other scientific issues.

The second round of comprehensive investigation and research on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau will continue providing comprehensive sci-tech support for local ecological progress, with focus on water, ecology, and human activities, and with the goal of solving such problems as environmental carrying capacity, disaster risks, and approaches to green development.

Over the past 60 years or more, the sci-tech workers, with those from the CAS as mainstay, have made pioneering achievements in basic and applied research on the Plateau. For example, Academician Liu Dongsheng established the tectonics-climate theory based on his research on the Plateau's rise and East Asian monsoon climate change; Academician Ye Duzheng proposed that the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a thermal source in summer, and thus pioneered research on topography and thermodynamic activities and established the basics of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau meteorology theory.

These innovative achievements have driven related subjects forward, and played a supporting role in the region's socio-economic development, infrastructure construction and environmental improvement.

China now boasts a sci-tech team engaged in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau research, with accumulated experience and expertise and supported by relevant subjects.

The team has senior, middle-aged and young researchers, including more than 40 academicians of the CAS and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, more than 100 awardees of the Plan for Introducing Overseas High-level Talents (also called the Thousand Talents Plan) and the Special National Plan for High-level Talents (also called the 10,000 Talents Plan), and winners of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, and some other leading talent. Among them, Liu Dongsheng won the 2003 Highest Science and Technology Award of China, Ye Duzheng, the 2005 award, and Wu Zhengyi, the 2007 award; Sun Honglie won the Ettore Majorana-Erice Science for Peace Prize 2009; and Yao Tandong won the 2017 Vega Medal of Svenska Sällskapet för Antropologi och Geografi.

These scientists are renowned around the world for their research achievements on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

An improved eco-environmental monitoring system

To monitor eco-environmental changes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China has set up a relatively complete monitoring and early-warning system that integrates air and land networks, including a Chinese ecosystem research network, a network for monitoring and studying earth surface processes and environment in extremely cold areas of high altitude, and observation networks in environmental protection, land, agriculture, forestry, water conservancy, meteorology and some other fields.

Under the Chinese ecosystem research network, observation stations for eight different ecosystems, including forest, grassland, farmland and desert, have been set up on the Plateau and surrounding areas, offering long-term located monitoring of changes of the Plateau ecosystem and thus revealing laws for and causes of changes in the ecosystem and environmental factors.

With the network for monitoring and studying earth surface processes and environment in extremely cold areas of high altitude, researchers have performed continuous monitoring of environmental change on the Plateau surface.

During the 12th Five-year Plan period, meteorological departments set up nine new-generation weather radars, 18 aerological observation stations, 123 state-level ground meteorological observation stations, and 1,361 regional meteorological observation stations, and launched three Fengyun meteorological satellites, thereby improving the network of meteorological observation and test stations.

Tibet autonomous region has set up 22 state-level surface water inspection sections and 18 state-controlled air quality monitoring stations; the corresponding figures for Qinghai province are 19 and 11. In some key areas, for example Sanjiangyuan, relevant departments have established a satellite-aircraft-earth integrated, stereoscopic monitoring and evaluation system, and a high-quality database spanning the longest time period and containing the most data items in this area.

With improved ecological and environmental monitoring networks and enhanced data quality, environmental governance has improved greatly in terms of capability and efficiency.

Sci-tech-supported green development

Sci-tech is playing a more obvious supporting role in socio-economic development and ecological progress on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway is a landmark project, demonstrating the guidance given by sci-tech innovation to green development. The Golmud-Lhasa section extends 1,142 kilometers, and construction workers were confronted with three extreme engineering problems: melting permafrost, hypoxia at high altitude, and a vulnerable ecology. As the section runs through permafrost regions for almost 546.4 km, sci-tech personnel designed and adopted such measures as replacing surface routes with viaducts, rubble ventilated embankments, ventiduct roadbeds, gravel and rubble revetments, heat conducting poles, insulation boards, and integrated waterproof and drainage systems.

These were based on a great volume of observation data and previous technological achievements, ensuring the successful completion of this section.

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway also runs through some national nature reserves, including Hoh Xil, Sanjiangyuan and Siling Co. To protect the living environment of Tibetan antelopes and other wild animals, 33 special passageways were added along the railway; to protect the ecological environment, a series of measures were taken, including sand hazard control, grass planting, and turf transplanting. Since the railway was brought into operation, the permafrost has been stable, and the ecology along the line is recovering, with some areas approaching or even surpassing the level of their surroundings. The achievements of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway have earned international acclaim.

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated in its fourth and fifth assessment reports, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway offers a successful example for other countries and regions in building "green" railways adapted to climate change.

Science magazine in the United States published an article on April 27, 2007, pointing out that the railway will "ultimately promote the sustainable ecological, social, and economic development of western China", describing it as not only an engineering accomplishment, but also "an ecological miracle".

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway Project won the special award of the 2008 National Award for Scientific and Technological Progress.

Sci-tech has played a strong supporting role in controlling the ecosystem degradation of the Sanjiangyuan region. A technical system for restoring degraded alpine meadows (Heitutan, or black soil land) has achieved big breakthroughs in relevant researches, and the achievements won a Class-II prize in the National Award for Scientific and Technological Progress.

A technique for cultivating breeder seeds of forage grass has provided high-quality seeds for controlling typical degraded pastures and artificial grass planting.

Traditional Tibetan medicine is a precious health treasure for people living on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and a major resource strength for the Plateau to develop a local specialty economy.

To develop Tibetan medicine in a standard, modern and industrialized way, sci-tech departments have promoted research on and demonstration of key techniques, such as artificial planting and wild tending of Tibetan medicinal materials.

They have carried out basic and applied research on Tibetan medicine, and kept improving the standards and the inspection and monitoring system of Tibetan medicine.

They have fostered a group of innovative enterprises in prevention and treatment of diseases, research and development of drugs, and health preservation, and created a series of branded Tibetan medicine products.

VI. A Developing Culture That Values Ecological Awareness

With advances in ecological conservation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, there has been a profound change in how people think and live. It has become widely recognized that protecting the environment means protecting our common home, with growing confidence in our eco-culture.

Ecological awareness is taking root.

To promote ecological progress on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the relevant provinces and autonomous regions have taken active measures to increase public awareness of eco-conservation, such as strengthening public campaigns on environmental protection, building cultural infrastructure, organizing education and training sessions, encouraging public participation, rewarding role models, and introducing eco-themed holidays.

In the past, people would exhaust their natural environment for food and wealth, but now they are beginning to understand that green mountains and clear water, and even snow and ice, are valuable assets that represent our true wealth. The idea of respecting nature, following nature's law, and protecting nature has become popular.

During the 12th Five-year Plan period, Tibet autonomous region built a series of key public cultural facilities, and initiated such programs as cultural and sports facilities, movie circuits, village libraries, sharing village-level broadcasting resource, upgrading village clinic equipment, and solar lighting for public use.

During the period, 1,616 cultural plazas were opened in Tibet, which now boasts an extensive network of cultural facilities, including public arts galleries at the prefecture/city level, cultural centers at the county/district level, Xinhua bookstores, township cultural stations, and village libraries.

The autonomous region has also carried out "energy-conserving week" and "low-carbon day" campaigns to enhance the public's awareness of environmental protection, which has also become an important basis for evaluating the performance of villages, towns, and cities when selecting role models in this regard.

Emphasizing the importance of the environment, Lhasa City is striving to improve its urban environment; it encourages the public, with families as units, to take part in related community activities, and organizes volunteers to clean the streets and protect the natural ecology.

Similar campaigns have also been rolled out in farming and pastoral areas, where villagers and residents are grouped as volunteers to keep their villages clean, plant trees, and protect water sources and wildlife.

Gannan prefecture in Gansu province is working to be a model area of ecological conservation by enacting strict measures on water source protection, damage compensation and accountability.

Much is being done to improve the environmental management and ecological remediation systems, and strengthen the guiding role of ecological progress.

To enhance public awareness of environmental protection, the prefecture has included eco-education in the online study materials for its officials.

It has also compiled various eco-education readings to distribute to elementary and secondary school students, Party and government officials, and farmers and herdsmen, opened a website on ecological education, aired eco-themed public-service advertisements, pushed text messages to mobile phones, and held writing contests on conservation.

Qinghai province has issued the Opinions on Promoting Green Lifestyles in Qinghai, and held major campaigns to clean the Sanjiangyuan area and protect the environment of Qinghai Lake.

The government encourages the public to abandon outdated habits and embrace new and green lifestyles, enhance ecological awareness, and correctly understand the interdependent relationship between good ecology and sound development.

Green lifestyle is bedding in.

As ecological awareness spreads on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, fewer farmers and herdsmen keep livestock in their houses or burn firewood and dung for heating. Green housing, green energy, living on clean energy, and green travel have become increasingly popular lifestyle habits.

On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, new energy is being used for a diversity of purposes. Solar energy and other new energy have been widely applied in heating, cooking, lighting, irrigation, telecommunications, and other areas of daily life and work.

In Tibet, passive solar housing is one of the first solar technologies introduced－it first appeared in Ali, Naqu and Lhasa in the 1980s. In addition to providing heating in winter, solar housing offers a better home environment and raises people's living standards. Energy conservation and environmental protection have become important factors for farmers and herdsmen on the Plateau to consider when they build houses.

By the end of 2017 clean energy－mainly water power, solar energy and biogas－contributed 87 percent of the total installed capacity of electricity in Tibet autonomous region.

There were more than 400,000 solar stoves in use, with solar water heating systems covering 450,000 sq m of floor space and passive solar housing some 420,000 sq m. All of this is reducing the public's reliance on traditional fuels.

In Qinghai, provincial-level programs have been initiated in farming and pastoral areas to promote passive solar housing, solar stoves, solar water heaters, solar batteries, and household wind turbines, and to replace the burning of coal and dung with electricity for heating.

By the end of 2017, support from the province had resulted in the use of 102,200 solar stoves, 12,800 solar water heaters, and 9,200 sets of solar batteries; 13,100 passive solar housing units had been built as demonstration projects, totaling 1,305,000 sq m.

Electric and photovoltaic heating have gradually replaced dung and coal-burning, contributing to reduced pollutant emissions, a better home environment, and higher living standards. This has also reined in excess exploitation of grasslands, beneficial to the remediation and improvement of the grassland ecosystem.

In villages on the Plateau, a number of measures have been taken to improve the environment. By building modern-standard toilets, livestock pens, and housing, and undertaking domestic garbage collection and disposal, domestic wastewater collection and treatment, drinking water source protection, efficient crop stalk utilization, noise abatement, and human and livestock feces pollution control, the local governments have effectively addressed such problems as random dumping of garbage, illegal construction or extension of houses, unauthorized mining, and open-air burning of crop stalks. People on the Plateau now enjoy better housing, drinking water and transport, and a clean environment and convenient facilities.

In 2017, shared bicycle services entered Lhasa. These bicycles quickly became a favored choice for the locals when they needed to go somewhere, adding flavor to the city's charms.

In Lhasa, Xining and other high-altitude cities, the number of new-energy vehicles keeps increasing; in core protection areas such as the Qomolangma (also known as Mount Everest in the West) and Napa Lake transport services are provided by new-energy vehicles. Green transport and tourism have become the preferred options of the public.

Confidence in the ecological culture is getting enhanced.

The beauty of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, its sound ecological base, and the progress made in conservation have significantly boosted local people's confidence in their ecological culture.

Eco-themed public campaigns in villages, on campus and in communities have breathed fresh air into the people's lives and lifted their spirit. People are increasingly active in joining ecological efforts, and are more content with life and have a greater sense of gain. They are proud of the ice and snow as much as the green mountains and clear water.

By 2017, 10 counties, 173 towns and townships, and 1,924 villages in Tibet had been designated as models of eco-preservation at the provincial level. Bayi District in Nyingchi City became one of the first state-level model counties for ecological progress.

In Qinghai, 1,200 villages were honored "beautiful plateau villages", and Xining became a state-level forest city. In Aba prefecture, Sichuan province, one county was selected as the provincial eco-progress model, 16 towns were commended as eco-progress models at state level, 50 towns and 30 villages at provincial level. In Deqen prefecture of Yunnan, 45 eco-progress villages have been selected as eco-progress models at prefectural level. In Gannan prefecture of Gansu province, the figures were two towns and 14 villages at national level, and 14 towns and 11 villages at provincial level. These achievements have not only improved people's living conditions and daily life, but also enhanced their commitment to safeguarding the serenity of the Plateau.

In 2017, at the 41st session of the World Heritage Committee, Hoh Xil of Qinghai province was included in UNESCO's World Heritage List, making it China's largest and highest natural heritage site.

In its assessment report, the World Conservation Union took note of Hoh Xil's expansive natural beauty－free of human activity－describing it as "an amazing scene to behold".

Hoh Xil's inclusion in the World Heritage List has succeeded in raising public awareness of nature and wildlife, further boosting their sense of responsibility and pride in ecological conservation.

Conclusion

Through years of rigorous effort, marked progress has been made in ecological conservation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The function of the Plateau as an eco-safety barrier has been further consolidated, with increased levels of regional sustainability and public well-being.

That said, the Plateau still faces many ecological challenges. The main ones are glacier retreat, melting permafrost, and other growing disaster risks due to global warming, and prominent contradictions between protection and development in the course of economic growth. We still face an arduous task in consolidating and furthering our ecological achievements.

In the future, China will continue to work on the following measures:

・ reform its environmental monitoring system,

・ promote institutional reform in ecological conservation,

・ efficiently control human activity,

・ restore the ecology and environment through major programs,

・ improve the eco-safety barrier system,

・ strive to solve pressing ecological and environmental problems,

・ refine the low-carbon and circular economy and safe and efficient energy system,

・ transform the approach to daily life and work,

・ promote green development,

・ improve the functions of the plateau eco-culture platform, and

・ spread the idea of ecological conservation.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a wealth endowed by nature to the Chinese people and humanity as a whole. It is the Chinese people's responsibility to protect the ecology of the Plateau.

At the 19th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping pointed out: "The modernization that we pursue is one characterized by harmonious coexistence between man and nature. In addition to creating more material and cultural wealth to meet people's ever-increasing expectation of a better life, we need also to provide more quality ecological goods to meet people's ever-growing demands for a beautiful environment."

Ecological progress on the Plateau in the new era is an important component of the Beautiful China initiative. The Chinese people are committed to making the Plateau an even more beautiful place, and to realizing harmonious coexistence between man and nature.