Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Thursday 14 November 2019
China aims to build its own Yellowstone on Tibetan plateau

By CHRISTINA LARSON able agricultural fields or
EMILY WANG access to other livelihoods.
Associated Press But in developing the na-
XINING, China (AP) — tional parks, the govern-
There's a building boom on ment is giving conserva-
the Tibetan plateau, one tion-related jobs to at least
of the world's last remote a swath of people living
places. Mountains long in the Qinghai pilot park
crowned by garlands of — called Sanjiangyuan —
fluttering prayer flags are to stay and work on their
newly topped with sprawl- land. The "One Family, One
ing steel power lines. At Ranger" program hires one
night, the illuminated signs person per family for 1,800
of Sinopec gas stations cast yuan a month ($255) to
a red glow over newly built perform such tasks as col-
highways. lecting trash and monitor-
Ringed by the world's tall- ing for poaching.
est mountain ranges, the Kunchok Jangtse is a Ti-
region long known as "the betan herder who earns
rooftop of the world" is now money cleaning up rubbish
in the crosshairs of China's through the program. He
latest modernization push, has an additional volunteer
marked by multiplying sky- Peaks reach toward the sky in Angsai, an area inside the Sanjiangyuan region in western China's position installing and main-
scrapers and expanding Qinghai province on Sunday, Aug. 25, 2019. taining motion-activated
high-speed rail lines. Associated Press camera traps, which help
But there's a difference: This scientists monitor endan-
time, the Chinese govern- ing to include conserving unified park system repre- of China's national parks is gered species in Qinghai.
ment wants to set limits on the country's key natural sents "a new and serious that they have local peo- "Our religion is connected
the region's growth in or- resources. effort to safeguard China's ple living either inside or with wild animals, because
der to implement its own "It's quite urgent as soon biodiversity and natural nearby." wild animals have a con-
version of one of the U.S.'s as possible to identify the heritage," Duke University Yellowstone is widely con- sciousness and can feel
proudest legacies — a na- places, the ecosystems ecologist Stuart Pimm says. sidered the world's first love and compassion," he
tional park system. and other natural features" One of the first pilot parks will national park. After it was says.
In August, policymakers to protect, Zhu says. be in Qinghai, a vast region created in 1872, the U.S. From his main work rais-
and scientists from China, Among other goals, China in western China abutting government forced the Na- ing livestock and collect-
the United States and other aims to build Its own Yel- Tibet and sharing much of tive Americans who lived ing caterpillar fungus for
countries convened in Xin- lowstone on the Tibetan its cultural legacy. The area in the area to resettle out- folk medicines, Kunchok
ing, capital of the country's plateau. also is home to such iconic side the park boundaries, in Jangtse says he can make
Qinghai province, to dis- Zhu serves on an advisory and threatened species as keeping with 19th-century about 20,000 yuan ($2,830)
cuss China's plans to cre- committee providing input the snow leopard and Chi- notions of wilderness pro- annually. He is grateful for
ate a unified system with on the development of Chi- nese mountain cat, and tection. But countries that the additional income from
clear standards for limiting na's nascent national park encompasses the headwa- establish park systems in the ranger program, but
development and protect- system, expected to be ters of three of Asia's great the 21st century now must hopes his main livelihood
ing ecosystems. officially unveiled in 2020. waterways: the Yangtze, consider how best to in- won't be impeded — and
Zhu Chunquan, the China Chinese officials also have Yellow and Mekong rivers. clude local populations in that he won't eventually be
representative of the Inter- visited U.S. national parks, "This is one of the most spe- their planning. forced to leave.
national Union for the Con- including Yellowstone and cial regions in China, in the China has previously un- "I'm not a highly educat-
servation of Nature, a Swit- Yosemite, and sought input world," says Lu Zhi, a Peking dertaken vast resettlement ed person, and I am very
zerland-based scientific from varied organizations, University conservation bi- programs to clear land for concerned it may bring
group, notes that the coun- including the Chicago- ologist who has worked in large infrastructure projects many difficulties in my life if
try's economy has boomed based Paulson Institute and Qinghai for two decades. such as Three Gorges Dam, I would switch my job and
over the past 40 years. But the Nature Conservancy. While construction con- which left many farmers in move to another place,"
priorities are now expand- The ambition to create a tinues at a frenzied pace new homes without suit- he says.q
elsewhere on the Tibetan
plateau, the government
already has stopped issu-
ing mining and hydropow-
er permits in this region.
But a key question looms
over the project: Can
China marry the goals of
conservation and tourism,
while safeguarding the
livelihoods and culture of
the approximately 128,000
people who live within or
near the park's boundaries,
many of them Tibetan?
The Milky Way glows behind a yak in Angsai, an area inside "China has a dense popu-
the Sanjiangyuan region in western China's Qinghai province lation and a long history," Visitors climb Tianyou peak in Wuyishan in eastern China's
on Monday, Aug. 26, 2019. Zhu says. Fujian province on Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2019.
Associated Press "One of the unique features Associated Press