Climate Change on the Tibetan Plateau Detrimental for Asia's Future
TWA releases a book on Tibet's water and a music video on Tibetan nomads
view and download the book here
Dharamsala, January 7, 2011: The recent round of leaked cables from Wikileaks has revealed that His Holiness the Dalai Lama urged Timothy Roemer, US ambassador to India, that "the international community to should shift its focus to climate change on the Tibetan plateau." The Women's Environment and Development Desk (WEDD) of Tibetan Women's Association (TWA) is releasing a digital version of a book on Tibet's water and a music video on Tibetan nomads, now made available on the Tibet Third Pole website (www.tibet3rdpole.org). The book contains information about Tibet's water and related environmental issues linked to climate change and Tibet. It also provides insight on China's dam-building projects across the Tibetan Plateau. The short music video titled 'Achi Drokmo'- (in English- a nomadic woman -4 minutes and 38 seconds) features a nomadic woman singing in solitude and grieving over her lost home and herds.
Since the 1999-release of the so-called Western Development Strategy, Chinese leaders have been vigorously implementing policies of nomad re-settlement, land confiscation and fencing of pastoral areas in Tibet, thus causing detrimental effects for the Tibetan nomadic culture that has sustained itself on Tibet's pastureland for millennia. Under the pretext of providing 'comfortable housing program', and in an effort to undo decades of Beijing's failed rangeland and ecosystem management policies across Tibet, the Chinese government has begun to resettle hundreds of thousands of Tibetan nomads into permanent dwellings.
The international community is well aware that the Chinese leadership's aim of presenting a more modern face for Tibet is mere window dressing. Indeed, the policy violates nomads' human rights, most recently seen through the lens of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, warning of consequences to nomad settlement. We therefore call on the Chinese government to immediately halt this resettlement project as scientists have demonstrated that having nomads on pastureland is essential to preserve the grasslands in the age of climate crisis.
Last month, Tenzin Woebum, head of TWA's WEDD, took part in the conference 'Global Gathering of Women Pastoralists' in Ahemdabad, India. This conference saw the gathering of Pastoral women from 32 countries including Tibet. The representatives from pastoral communities from across the world came together to strengthen alliances and forward practical solutions to issues that affect their pastoral life. As an outcome of this conference, the conference participants presented a 23-point declaration as a guiding political document to inform and support the development of pastoralist policies.
The mission of TWA's WEDD is to raise awareness about the impacts of climate change upon Tibet's unique ecosystem and upon the plight of Tibetan women. WEDD is committed to disseminating timely and useful information that highlights to the international community the critical issue of climate change in Tibet and engaging in proactive measures and campaigns to combat the policies and the destructive impact that the policies hinges on the social lives of the Tibetan people.