China's latest white
paper on Tibet, once again highlights Beijing's absolute lack of understanding
of Tibet's History and its unwillingness to read beyond government documents.
By
Zamlha Tempa Gyaltsen
Environment Research Fellow at the Tibet Policy Institute
The paper “Democratic
Reform in Tibet – Sixty Years On,” was released on March 27, 2019 to mark the
60th year of Chinese occupation of the Tibetan plateau and suppression of
Tibetan people.
With a blatant display
of colonial arrogance, the paper includes a brief chapter on Tibet's ecology,
it says: "In old Tibet, with an extremely underdeveloped economy, people
could only adapt to the natural environment – they used whatever they could
exploit from nature." This out-rightly undermines Tibet's glorious history
and gives no credit for Tibetan people's environmental conservation efforts for
thousands of years.
In fact, it was Tibetan
people's belief in the sacredness of its natural environment coupled with their
profound wisdom and skill to co-exist harmoniously with its surrounding
environment that has helped in the conservation of the world's highest plateau
until the Chinese occupation in 1959. According to a response to a whitepaper on Tibet's ecology issued by the
Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) in December 2018, it states "Historically,
Tibetans have protected and respected their environment and have not only
successfully adapted to the ever-changing climatic conditions of the plateau
but also prospered there as a powerful civilization".
Numerous scientific
studies in recent years have affirmed the positive role of Tibetan people's
cultural beliefs in the sacredness of important ecological sites in
environmental conservation.
According to Tibetan
historical records, environmental conservation efforts were carried out on a
large scale as early as during the glorious Shang Shung period. The
conservation efforts were further strengthened in the 7th century during the
reign of King Songtsen Gompo, the 33rd emperor of Tibet. He issued edicts that
reprimanded his subjects from harming and killing of animals. The founder of the Phagmodrupa Dynasty in
Tibet, Tai Situ Changchub Gyaltsen (1302-1364), enforced an ingenious policy of
planting 200,000 trees annually and appointed a forest officer to protect the
newly-planted trees. Similarly, successive rulers in Tibet such as the 5th Dalai
Lama and the 13th Dalai Lama issued strict prohibitions on hunting and felling
of trees at important ecological sites.
But as People's
Liberation Army's (PLA) marched into Tibet from three separate Sino -Tibet
border fronts in 1950s, Tibet begins to witness unprecedented scale of
environmental destruction across the plateau. This paper will briefly focus on
three environmental issues in Tibet to give a quick glimpse into 60 years of
China's environmental destruction in Tibet.
1. Mass hunting during
and after the Chinese invasion that led to sudden decrease in wild life
The Tibetan Plateau,
with 2.5 million square kilometers of area, was perceived as 'one great
zoological garden' by early explorers to the region. Some scientists have
compared its known biodiversity to that of Amazon Rain forest.
The cultural way of
life in Tibet, which was greatly influenced by both Bon and Buddhist
traditions, strictly forbid general public from commercial hunting. Successive
rulers in Tibet issued strict edicts to ban hunting at several ecological sites
during various periods of its history. Prior to 1950s, there were innumerable
accounts of Tibetan merchants and pilgrims travelling through vast grasslands
of the northern plains, seeing large herds of wild animals.
But with the Chinese
occupation, Tibet witnessed sudden disruption in its age old tradition of
causing minimum harm to the natural environment and its wild life inhabitants.
Many elderly Tibetans in exile have been eye-witness to People's Liberation
Army (PLA) engaging in hunting practices employing machineguns to hunt herds of
wild animals during the invasion. Some PLA soldiers stationed in Tibet after
the occupation often use dynamite in rivers and lakes to instantly catch
hundreds of fish, a practice that Chinese officials followed even in 1990s
despite strong objection from local Tibetan communities.
Chinese government authorities in Tibet issued
license for commercial hunting of rare animals, and many officials engaged in
hunting for leisure. Such government attitude encouraged large scale illegal
poaching across Tibet in 1980s and early 1990s. Some emboldened poachers even
killed Sonam Dhargay and other wild-life protection volunteers in the region.
2. Excessive
deforestation in Tibet by state-logging enterprises causing massive floods
Until 1949, Tibet's the
forest cover were one of the oldest reserves in all central Asia, predominantly
found in eastern Amdo, south-eastern Kham and Kongpo region of southern Tibet.
But the invasion of Tibet opened up the region to hungry Chinese state-logging
enterprises. China has been one of the largest consumer of timber in the world,
it inflicted unprecedented scale of deforestation across the region. Tibet's
forest cover was reduced to 13.57 million hectares from 25.2 million hectares,
about 46% reduction between 1950 and 1985, with an estimate market value (2000
market estimate) of US $ 54 billion. The horrifying scale of logging in some
part of Tibet lead to the 1998 Yangtze flood and the 2010 Drukchu flood.
A. 1998 Yangtze Flood
The 1998 Yangtze Flood
in China was one of the worst flood in 44 years at the time. As per China's
official estimate, the flood killed more than 3000 people, displaced 15 million
and affected 223 million people - almost one fifth of China's then population.
A post disaster study by Chinese scientists put excessive logging in the
Yangtze valley, particularly in the Tibetan areas as one of the primary cause
of the massive flood.
Excessive deforestation
in Tibet as a primary cause was also highlighted in the Final Report by United
Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team (UNDAC) dated September 1998,
the UN report stated that the primary causes of the disaster was excessive
rainfall, melting of snow accumulated on the Tibet plateau and rampant deforestation
around the river's fountains head in eastern Tibet.
Between 1949 and 1998,
the forests of eastern Kham generated US $241 million in taxes and profits for
the Chinese state-logging enterprises. The extensive and unsustainable
industrial logging continued until the disastrous 1998 Yangtze flood, but large
scale deforestation still continues in many parts of Kongpo. This might have
led to some of recent floods and landslides in the region. Tree logging was a
major employer in Tibet, for instance in the Kongpo region alone, over 20,000
Chinese soldiers and Tibetan prisoners were involved in tree felling and
transport.
The Research
and Markets (January 2019) reported that the
consumption of timber in China increased by nearly 18% to 192.5
million cubic meters from 2013 to 2017.
B. 2010 Drukchu Flood
On 8 August, 2010,
landslides and mud-rock flow brought about by heavy rains occurred in Drukchu
area of Amdo in north-eastern Tibet. As per a Chinese official report, the
mud-rock flow leveled an area of about 5 km long, 300 meters wide and 5 meters
deep in the county seat with more than 2 million cubic meters of mud and rocks
flowing down the valley. This severely damaged the power, telecommunication and
water supply in the region. The mudslides destroyed more than 300 homes and
damaged another 700.
Local Tibetans have
blamed excessive logging along the river valley carried out by local Chinese
authorities as part of a new policy issued in 2005 to clear the forest to
exploit the Druchu River, thus setting up 156 hydropower stations along the
river valley in the region.
A similar conclusion
was also echoed in a publication (Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres,
AGU Publication 2014) which stated that the massive Drukchu landslide of August
2010 was caused by an extreme precipitation, magnified by the Wenchuan
earthquake of May 2008, and the severe loss of vegetation cover in the Drukchu
region.
3. River water
Pollution from toxic mine waste
Systematic and large
scale mining in Tibet began in the 1960s with the expansion of Chinese presence
in Tibet. China began surveying for mineral deposits in Tibet from the very
onset of its occupation. Much of China's infrastructure development in Tibet is
aimed at speeding up of large- scale resource extraction in Tibet. The
destructive and unethical methods of China’s mining practices has led to
protests and disharmony across Tibet. Since 2009, there have been more than 30
known large-scale public protests against mining in Tibet as Chines mining
companies continue to destroy grassland and pollute rivers.
A. Mingyak Lhagang
water pollution
A lithium mining
company called Ronda Lithium Co Ltd released toxic mine waste into a local
river called Lichu in Minyak Lhagang in
eastern Tibet, causing serious water pollution and mass death of fish. This brought hundreds of
local Tibetans out on the street on May 4, 2016, protesting against the mining
company. The local government informed the protestors that it had temporarily
halted the mining activities, but locals Tibetans soon realized that the
government has lied to them as continued operation at the mine were
reported. This was not the first time
or an isolated case of river water pollution. In 2013, the same river had been
polluted with lithium mine waste, causing death of aquatic animals and
threatening local drinking water.
B. Dolkar Village Water
pollution
In a similar case on
September 23, 2014, in Dokar and Zibuk villages of Lhundrup County near Lhasa,
the Tibet's capital city, more than 1,000 local Tibetans protested against the
poisoning of their river by the Gyama Copper Poly-metallic mine. The mine is
located close to a river that locals use for drinking water, irrigation and
feeding animals. Predictably, local officials declared that the water pollution
in the river was caused by natural factors and not by the mining company. But
according to an article in 2010, it says “Environmental impact of mining
activity on the surface water quality in Tibet: Gyama valley.” Xiang, a Chinese scientist firmly stated that
many mining and processing sites in the valley pose a great environmental
concerns as the deposits contain large amount of heavy metals, such as lead,
copper, zinc and manganese etc. Further stating that the deposits are prone to
leak its contaminants through seepage water and erosion of particulates, and
therefore posing a future risk for the local environment and a potential threat
to the downstream water quality.
A local resident of the
village told Radio Free Asia (September 2014), “In the past, our rivers
were crisp and clean, the mountains and valleys were known for their natural
beauty. But now the rivers are polluted with poisonous waste from the
mines". Clearly describing the rapid destruction of the local environment.
Conclusion
As China's white paper
derides Tibetans for their inability to exploit the natural environment before
the Chinese occupation, Tibetans are deeply hurt by Chinese government's lack
of ethical wisdom by wreaking havoc on Tibet's natural environment.
China claims that they
are spending millions in environmental conservation projects in recent years,
but they have earned billions more from mining and other resource extraction
activities in Tibet. For example, a 2019 Production and Operating outlook
released by China Gold International, it states "Copper production from
the Jiama Mine increased by 54% to 55,025 Tonne (approximately 121.3 million
pounds) from 35,844 Tonne (approximately 79.0 million pounds) for the same
period in 2017. Gold produced was 70,262
ounces compared to 47,710 ounces for the same period in 2017."
The Chinese Geological Survey in 2007 estimated that the Tibetan
Plateau holds about 30-40 million tons of copper reserves, 40 million tons of
zinc, and several billion tons of iron. The proven reserve of more than 7.8
million tons of copper at the Yulong Copper Mine makes it the largest in China
and the second largest in Asia.
While the Chinese
state-owned companies continue to make billions from mining, damming, logging
and tourism activities across Tibet, the scale of environmental destruction on
the Tibetan plateau in the past 60 years have been unprecedented in its long
history.
