Tough Times for Tibetan Nomads in Western China: Snowstorms, Settling Down, Fences and the Demise of Traditional Nomadic Pastoralism

Abstract

Rangelands of the Tibetan Plateau in western China encompass about 168 million hectares, 42 per cent of China's total rangeland area, and support an estimated two million nomadic pastoralists. As such, the Tibetan nomadic pastoral area, a sub-region of the Tibetan Plateau, is one of the world's largest pastoral areas. The fact that this area has supported nomadic pastoralism for millennia while sustaining a unique flora and fauna indicates the existence of a remarkable pastoral ecosystem. Nomadic pastoralism on the Tibetan Plateau is distinct from pastoralism in most other regions of the world, except perhaps the mountainous areas of Mongolia. On the Tibetan Plateau, the key distinguishing factors that separate pastoral areas from cultivated areas are elevation and temperature, in contrast to most other pastoral areas where the key factor is usually lack of water. Tibetan pastoralism is found at elevations of 3,500 to 5,400 m in environments too cold for crop cultivation. Yet, at these elevations, some of the highest inhabited areas of the world, there are extensive, productive rangelands and nomads continue to thrive (Goldstein and Beali 1990, Barfield 1993, Miller 1998a). Tibetan nomadic pastoralism is also characterised by a unique animal, the yak {Bos grunniens ), which is superbly adapted to the high-elevation, cold environment (Miller 1997b). One important reason Tibetan nomads continue to flourish is this high-elevation and inhospitable landscape is that they have not had to compete with the conversion of their rangelands to cropland. The Tibetan Plateau has a bitter continental climate. Heavy livestock losses are often experienced as a result of heavy snowfalls and severe cold weather (Goldstein et al. 1990, Cincotta et al. 1991, Miller 1998a, Schaller 1998). The winter of 1997-1998 was one of the worst in recent history across much of the Tibetan nomadic pastoral area (Miller 1998d). Unusually heavy snowfall in September was followed by severe cold weather and additional snowstorms throughout the fall and winter. By the spring of 1998, an estimated three million head of livestock had died in the Tibetan Autonomous Region. In some townships, 70 per cent of the livestock was lost. Almost one quarter of a million nomads were affected and hundreds of nomad families lost all their animals.