In
a glen a short distance from the left bank
of the Lhasa River, there is a village called
Dangdong. Moving further on for half an hour,
you will come upon a green valley overgrown
with all sorts of trees and with a stream
running through it. Now and then you could
spot a deer, fox, lynx, hare or pheasant here
and there.
Four years ago, a woman People's Congress
delegate proposed that a nature reserve be
established here. Her proposal was promptly
accepted by the Lhasa Municipal Government.
In the last four years, as a result of the
protective measures, ecology in this small
area has been getting better and better. There
are now more trees and more birds and animals;
the once dried up springs now are running
again and the streams along the bottom of
the valley help irrigate lots of the rice
fields under the mountain. Dangdong villagers
now taste for themselves the advantages of
environmental protection.
That is one of the three small nature reserves
under the Lhasa Municipality. Besides them,
one fourth of the 1. 2 million square kilometers
of Tibet has been demarcated as nature reserves
of the autonomous-region or Slate grade.
Tibetan fauna and flora are characterized
by variety and abundance. At present, 164
species are listed as protected rare and precious
animals or plants of State grade, 16 of them
as of autonomous - region grade. More than
40 species of the animals and plants cannot
be found anywhere else in the world except
on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Himalayas.
How to keep the all but primeval ecology of
Tibet intact? Nature reserve is the logical
modern choice, the chief way out for Tibetan
environmental protection. In 1970s, Tibet
started to demarcate areas in which hunting
and felling of rare and precious animals and
plants were banned. In 1980s, Tibet set about
establishing nature reserves.
In September, 1985, the People's Government
of the Tibetan Autonomous Region approved
the establishment of six nature reserves of
autonomous-region grade aimed at the protection
of the ecological system of forests and the
protection of the rare and precious wild animals
and plants, i.e., Metog, Rdzayul, Bome Gang,
Nyingchi, Paggi, Nyalam Zham, Gyirong Village
nature reserves. In November, 1988, the Mount
Qomolangma Nature Reserve was set up, which
is of State grade and boats the highest altitude
in the world, known as the "natural museum.
Later, five more nature reserves were set
up chiefly for the protection of rare and
precious animals, of which the Qiangtang Nature
Reserve, with an area of more than 240,000
square kilometres, is the largest in the world
with the largest number of wild land animals
in the world. The Mangkam Cakalho Nature Reserve,
the world's largest dwelling area of Yunnan
golden monkeys. These 12 nature reserves total
325, 300 square kilometres in area, accounting
for 27.1 per cent of Tibet's territory or
the size of Poland or Finland. And now the
nature reserves in the Tibet Autonomous Region
covers 38.19 million hectares, making up one
third of the total area in Tibet. The Yarlung
Zangbo Great Canyon and Qomolangma are the
typical ones in Tibet. The Lalu wetland reserve
is the largest natural urban wetland in China.
The region has applied to build another six
nature reserves to bring the total area to
400,000 sq.km. and build a forest park in
Nyingchi Prefecture. |
