Tibet Environmental Watch

Development

China to Build Nature Reserve Park on the Source of Tsangpo River:

Source: Xinhua (Chinese government-owned), June 4, 2003.

In the race to build nature reserve parks in Tibet, China has announced its plans to establish yet another ecological protection zone, this time at the source of the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) River. In the last two decades, China has established more than 70 nature reserve parks inside the Tibet Autonomous Region. The announcement was made at a press conference on the status of Tibet's environment in Lhasa on June 4, 2003. According to Chen Xianshun, the Director of the Tibetan Environment Protection Bureau, " [the] ecological protection zone would forbid all human activities which may harm the ecological system." The irony of these conservation efforts is that Tibetan nomads and pastoralists, who have sustained the ecosystem of the Tibetan Plateau for centuries, are increasingly viewed as threats to the local ecosystems.