Study on Community Co-management Model of San Jiangyuan Nature Reserves

Abstract

In order to solve contradiction between protection and development of Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserves, community co-management project was first one introduced in village of Cuochi in 2007. This paper intends to illustrate superiority of developing community co-management based on ecological compensation. It explains from two aspects: necessity of implementing community co-management and improvement of relevant supporting measures in Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserves. Index Terms - Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserves, Community Co-management, Ecological Compensation Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserves is located in hinterland of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with a total area of 15.23×104km 2 , and is largest area breeding many major rivers of Eurasia. It is a treasure trove of biodiversity resources, and is also a development area of wetland ecological resources, so is called the third quarter of Earth. As located in alpine zone which has harsh natural conditions, and primitive and fragile ecological environment, ecological degradation is severe in recent years. In order to curb deteriorating ecological environment, initial ecological compensation measures and policies are established by State in favor of ecological protection and construction of Sanjiangyuan region, such as returning grazing land to grassland, protection of natural forests, mineral resources taxes and compensation fees, and implementation of fiscal transfer payments and tax policy. SanJiangyuan region is included in scope of national natural reserves, and clearly 7.507 billion yuan will be invested in region for ecological protection and construction like returning grazing land to grassland, and enhancing ecological compensation of forest resources and grassland resources. Up to July 2006, about 1.028 billion yuan had been invested to major projects of ecological protection and construction in Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserves by State. However, establishment of nature reserves has reduced income and assets and limited opportunities for development of local farmers and herdsmen, which deprived of their rights to use natural resources reasonably in a large extent, and existing ecological compensation fees are far insufficient to cover their loss, thus contradictions between local farmers and herdsmen and nature reserves are intensifying. To solve this problem, in 2007, Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserves Soga-Quma River protection sub-area Cuochi village agreement protect project was started in Cuochi, Qumalai County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. This was first time to implement community co-management in ecological protection project by Saniiangyuan Nature Reserves Administration, Qinghai Province. 1. The Concept of Community Co-Management Community co-management system dates back to western countries, first application was in management of nature reserves by government of Canada to coordinate relationship between aboriginal and national parks (1). The so-called community condominium refers to participating in decision-making, implementation and evaluation process of management program of reserves. It usually refers to that local community has certain specific duties for planning and using natural resources, and also refers to that community agrees with sustainably use for resources without conflicting with overall goal of protecting biodiversity, and its main goal is to combine biodiversity conservation with sustainable community development. (2)