More than 60,000 Tibetan herdsmen will be relocated from an
ecologically vulnerable river source area in northwest China's Qinghai Province by the end of this year to
better protect the source area of China's most famed rivers,
including the Yangtze and Yellow River.
"By July more than 30,000 people from 6,000 households had been
displaced. Another 30,000 will be moved out from the area within
the year," said Li Xiaonan, an official in charge of ecology
preservation in Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserve said in an interview
with Xinhua.
Scientists have been repeatedly warning the situation would
continue to deteriorate because of climate change, overgrazing and
increasing human activities in Sanjiangyuan, the source area of
Yangtze River, the Yellow River and Lancang River.
Qinghai started in 2003 resettling herdsmen from Sanjiangyuan,
home to the world's highest wetlands. Two years later, the central
government initiated a 7.5 billion yuan (US$999
million)?ecological reconstruction project in the area and
relocation of herdsmen was stepped up.
Bai'ma Kangzho, 40, used to keep about 50 livestock and lived on
the grassland until three years ago. Her whole family moved to the
Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Huangnan because of the pasture
land degradation.
Right after she moved to Huangnan, agricultural technicians came
to teach her to grow vegetables in the plastic greenhouse.
"I had never grown any vegetables before I moved here. Now the
vegetables are growing well and I can sell them and earn 3,000 yuan
a year," she said.
Qinghai Province has built 35 resettlement communities and 51
more are under construction. This year a total 61,899 herdsmen from
13,305 households will be resettled.
The program is seen as China's biggest resettlement project in
terms of the population, in which 100,000 people will be relocated
from the Sanjiangyuan area by 2010 to restore the ecosystem,
according to government plans.
"The government has given every family a well-built house of 70
to 80 square meters, as well as plastic greenhouses to grow
vegetables. Investment in housing alone has exceeded 200 million
yuan," Li said.
"Each household is given a subsidy of 3,000, 6,000, or 8,000
yuan annually according to their financial circumstances," he
added.
The provincial government has earmarked funds totaling 80
million yuan to give the herdsmen technical training, such as
machine repair, cooking, and handcrafts, so that they could be more
independent financially.
"To move the herdsmen from pasture lands they have inhabited for
generations is not easy," said Deni, head of a community in Darlag
County of Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Golog. "But due to
erosion and desertification, more and more people are realizing the
benefits of resettling,"
"The government has done a lot to persuade those who are truly
reluctant to move. The relocation is in line with the will of the
herdsmen, not by force," he said, noting many herdsmen felt easier
after seeing the school, hospital, and the facilities in the
community.
Deni said a few hundred households of herdsmen in Golog are
voluntarily applying to resettle so the pasture land could recover
from over-grazing.
Li Xiaonan said the resettlement project in Sanjiangyuan is
proceeding smoothly and the preservation and displacement measures
had proven effective.
"But it would take about five years to restore the ecology and
at least 10 years to curb desertification in the region," he
said.
(Xinhua News Agency October 2, 2007)
