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TRIN-GYI-PHO-NYA: Tibet's Environment & Development
Digest
Issue 6, May 6, 2004
I. Editorial: Preserving the Salween River's Natural Heritage
II. Op-Ed: A Human Rights Framework for Development in Tibet
III. More Power To Nature
IV. News-in-Brief
V. Upcoming conferences
VI. Recommended new reports online
I. Editorial: Preserving the Salween River's Natural Heritage
Premier Wen Jiabao’s unprecedented decision to suspend the 13 dams project on the Salween River (Gyalmo Ngulchu in Tibetan, Nu Jiang in Chinese) is indeed a courageous, incremental step towards sustainable development for a government that in the past has shown limited concern about the environmental and social impacts of the public works undertaken by its Ministry of Water Resources.
As the project proponents argue, the proposed 13 dams would have generated over 21,000 MW of power and brought much needed economic growth to poverty stricken local people. Yet the government has chosen to listen to concerns about the project’s impacts on the local ecology and indigenous peoples. The region, as quoted in an official Chinese news source is “home” to “virgin forests, 7,000 species of plants and 80 rare or endangered animal species,” and people of 22 different “ethnic minorities,” including Tibetans. The highest and the northern-most of the 13 dams, the 307 meter tall Song Ta Dam, that is expected to displace more than 3,600 people is planned in Tibetan inhabited areas. The project also attracted downstream international concerns, as well as from the UN -- nine of the three dams fall within the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
There are many actors responsible for this refreshing development. Our admiration goes to the selfless Chinese environmental activists, scientists and journalists who have been working with local people and authorities on the ground, in educating the government and the world about Yunnan’s diverse cultural and ecological wealth. Their innovative initiatives in educating the public about the Salween’s ecological and cultural beauty -- be it through photo exhibitions at post offices in Beijing or local sight-seeing tours for journalists -- are inspiring examples for the rest of us. These innovative and devoted people are effectively helping China’s leaders steer the country towards sustainable development.
Now that the project has been suspended, much depends on the environmental impact assessment process that is being done again under the auspices of the Beijing Institute of Surveying and Design, a hydropower engineering consultancy group. It is now critical for SEPA (China’s State Environmental Protection Agency) to ensure that the study is conducted according to the highest standards set in the new Environmental Impact Assessment Law (EIAL). SEPA's role in promoting sustainable development in China is often overlooked. In fact, it was the passage of the more stringent EIAL last year that helped stop construction of the first of the 13 dams, Liuku Dam, months before Wen Jiabao’s orders. SEPA can now ensure that the new environmental impact assessment includes the studies conducted by them last year, including the two “tribunals” of local people, experts and “concerned units.”
II. Op-Ed: A Human Rights Framework for Development in Tibet
Carole Samdup*
When the Tibetan government-in-exile (TGIE) released its new Guidelines for International Development Projects and Sustainable Development in Tibet last month [See "Recommended new reports online" for a link to the report], it emphasized a "needs-based approach" for planning and implementation of development initiatives on the high plateau. In adopting this needs approach, the TGIE has failed to take into account the current momentum within development circles for a rights-based framework for development planning, implementation and evaluation strategies.
In describing its rationale for a needs-approach, the TGIE said:
"It is time for a new approach based directly on human needs because the human needs approach is direct, observable, locally-based and not reliant on mammoth investment, grandiose visions or ideological convictions."
A needs-based approach to development in Tibet abandons the Tibetan people to the whims and discretionary policies of politicians within the various levels of government in China as well as those of Western bureaucrats and the aid agencies they control. Moreover, a needs approach does nothing to address the negative impact that sometimes results from the activities of international agencies or transnational corporations. The Tibetan people are provided neither dignity nor legal recourse should their human rights be violated as a result of inappropriate or harmful “development” practices of any type.
A rights framework for development is holistic in nature and promotes the realization of all human rights – civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. It emphasizes the interdependence between democratic governance and social progress. Far from focusing on "grandiose visions" or "ideological convictions," a rights framework places the human person at the centre of the development process and provides an internationally-recognized legal framework for meaningful individual and collective participation. This quality is particularly relevant for the Tibetan people living under Chinese rule.
The trend towards rights-based frameworks for development stems primarily from concerns about the erosion of national autonomy in the face of globalisation and, in particular, of economic liberalization and integration. It is related to the inability of national governments to create or protect national legislation designed to ensure equitable distribution of wealth and non-discriminatory provision of services within their borders. A rights-based framework also responds to the particular problems faced by a people living under the political control of another group with conflicting interests or priorities for development programming.
In the case of Tibet a rights-approach would, theoretically at least, empower the Tibetan people to claim such things as the continuous improvement of living standards, non-discrimination in the provision of healthcare or education, and active participation in decision-making with regards to the use of natural resources. It would influence programming by Western agencies to prioritize activities that serve those objectives.
A rights framework for development provides a number of other distinct advantages. Primarily, it uplifts the human person to a position of dignity in that he/she claims specific inalienable rights or entitlements from government rather than accepting random benefits provided on a discretionary basis for undetermined lengths of time and under variable conditions. Moreover, the non-discrimination requirement that governs all human rights mitigates social exclusion by requiring that special emphasis is placed on the delivery of development benefits to vulnerable sectors of society, such as rural people.
Oxfam International has articulated the value-added of a rights framework for development in a recent paper entitled, International Frameworks, Policies Priorities and Implications: A Guide for NGOs:
"A rights approach assumes that there is an acknowledged duty-bearer with a responsibility to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of a legitimate claimant or rights holder. The welfare concept of beneficiary is incompatible with a rights-based approach. Further, the language of unfulfilled or denied rights, must replace the language of needs, an idea of entreaty or charity that is also incompatible with a rights-based approach".
In fact, a needs-approach may be effective in democratic states with active civil societies and freedom of expression, association and opinion. In that situation, government is generally responsive to community participation and accountable to public scrutiny of the implementation process. In Tibet, this is not the case. Development priorities are determined in Beijing, often with political objectives, and foreign development assistance is required to adopt the overarching design of that development strategy. Even if some needs are met along the way at the project level, there is no over-arching framework that addresses the structural causes of under-development.
While the substantive content of the TGIE guidelines is comprehensive and relevant, it is the framework in which it is written that fails to empower the Tibetan people to adequately lead their own development process. What is required is a fresh look at the meaning and goal of development in its broadest sense. A rights framework for the TGIE's development recommendations would build Tibetan autonomy by providing the Tibetan people with a measure of ownership over their development process.
[*Carole Samdup is a program officer at Montreal-based Rights & Democracy
and a founding member of the Canada Tibet Committee. She can be contacted
via e-mail at csamdup@ichrdd.ca]
III. More Power To Nature
By C.K. Lau.* Reprinted editorial from South China Morning
Post, May 4, 2004
In a bid to slow the growth of an overheating economy, Premier Wen Jiabao has been applying the brakes in targeted sectors, stopping the construction of steel mills, raising the reserve requirements of banks, increasing the capital requirements for investment projects in key industries and banning loans to second-home buyers.
Attracting much less attention, however, is his decision to quash hydropower projects on the Nujiang River in Yunnan province, which would have generated more than [21,000 MW] of power, surpassing that of the Three Gorges hydropower plants by three megawatts. The projects had already been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission last year. Their proponents said they would provide relief to Yunnan's energy shortage and alleviate poverty among the 22 ethnic minorities in the region.
Yet, for generations to come, instead of being remembered for reining in the economy, Mr Wen is far more likely to be commemorated for his courage in preserving one of only two rivers in China that have not been tamed by technology to satisfy human needs.
Rising in the Tanggula Mountains in Tibet, the Nujiang flows through Yunnan and Myanmar, where it is known as the Salween River, into the Indian Ocean. In its mid and lower reaches, the total drop is 1,578 metres over a distance of 742km, making the river ideal for hydroelectric plants. But the area drained by the Nujiang - literally meaning angry river, for its rapid and turbulent flows - is also home to virgin forests, 7,000 species of plants and 80 rare or endangered animal species. The hydropower projects, had they been allowed to proceed, would have led to the construction of 13 dams on the river, causing irreparable damage to the unspoiled natural environment.
Amid the nation's fervour to dam every river, the Nujiang and the Yarlung Zangbo in Tibet are the only rivers in China whose ecology has been left intact. The rare geography of the region, with the parallel flow of the Nujiang, Lancangjiang and Jinshajiang rivers from the Qinghai-Tibet plateau feeding the major waterways in the region, means it has been designated a world heritage area by the United Nations.
Domestically, Mr Wen's move to reverse the decision of a government department bent on promoting development sends a very powerful message to officials to put sustainable development ahead of growth. The emphasis on sustainability is founded on the realisation that growth at all costs would eventually backfire to harm the people's welfare, whose improvement is the original and ultimate purpose of growth. Already, so much of the country has been spoiled through the by-products of indiscriminate development and industrial growth, which have ruined the ecology of many areas and affected people's health.
Two hydroelectric plants on the Lancangjiang River have also been blamed for reducing the flow of the Mekong River downstream, affecting agriculture, fishing and navigation. While a study by the Mekong River Commission has concluded that the plants' dams are not to blame because they do not divert water for irrigation or tap supply, there is much concern in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam over further plans by China to build five more dams on the river by 2020.
Leaving the Nujiang River as it is should help allay concerns that China will adopt a high-handed approach in managing its water resources. The twin policy of sustainable development and good neighbourly relations is what China needs as it seeks to progressively lift its people's standard of living and quality of life.
[*C. K. Lau is the Executive Director of the South China Morning Post.
Letters to the editor can be sent to scmplet@scmp.com]
IV. News-in-Brief (Prepared by Dolkar Tenzing*)
1. Construction Begins on Pubuguo Dam
(Source: Interfax: March 31; www.newssc.org, March 29)
Construction of the Pubuguo Hydropower station, the largest hydropower station on the Dadu River (Gyalrong Gyamo Ngulchu in Tibetan), started on April 1, 2004. The project is expected to inundate an area of 84.14 square kilometers of land that includes 20 counties and townships, 65 villages and 8457 acres of agricultural land near the southeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau (approx. 103 degrees longitude and 29 degrees latitude). The total number of displaced people is expected to reach 100,894. Recent media reports express concern over the submergence of Hanyuan County as an area of cultural and historic importance. Hanyuan County is home to people of 17 different “minority nationalities,” including Tibetans.
The construction of the Pubuguo Dam marks the beginning of the exploitation of the Dadu River by Guodian Group, one of five major power companies in China. According to Interfax, investment on the project is calculated at RMB 16.651 billion (USD 2.01 billion) with a total installed capacity of 3.3 million KW and a capacity to produce 14.58 billion KW of electricity annually upon completion in 2011. The multi-purpose project is designed to generate electricity and prevent flooding and silt flow into downstream dams such as the Three Gorges Dam. According to a senior official with the Guodian Dadu River Hydropower Station, the Dadu River will be “sealed up” by December this year to “ensure that the first unit in the project will go into operation in 2008.”
2. China and India Aim for Free Trade Agreement
(Source: Tibet Information Network. Direct quote from March 26 Tibet News
Digest)
The Press Trust of India (PTI) reports that India and China have formally launched talks to study the feasibility of signing a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as well as a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) to cement their commercial ties, according to official sources in Beijing. Senior officials from the two sides discussed the possibility of signing a FTA and CECA during the first meeting of the Sino-Indian Joint Study Group (JSG) on trade and economic cooperation in Beijing, the sources said. The JSG held a "working meeting" from 22-23 March and discussed the framework, work contents and other aspects of the functioning of the JSG. The first meeting of the JSG was jointly chaired by the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Rakesh Mohan, and ChineseVice-Minister of Commerce An Min.
3. China Applies to Put Guge on UNESCO List
(Source: Tibet Information Network. Direct quote from March 23 Tibet News
Digest)
Xinhua reports that China is preparing to file an application to add the ruins of the ancient Tibetan kingdom of Guge to the world cultural and natural heritage list of the United Nations Education, Culture and Science Organization (UNESCO). Preparatory work is underway on registering the 'Zhada Clay Forest' and the Guge Kingdom ruins in Ngari Prefecture, in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), according to the region's cultural authorities. The ruins are famous for more than 1,000 square metres of murals, sculptures and stone inscriptions.
4. Shangjiangkou Dam to Start Construction in 2006
(Source: www.chinariver.org, March 9)
Construction of the 1,800,000 KW Shuangjiangkou Dam in Ngawa Tibetan Prefecture is expected to begin in 2006. One of 22 planned dams on the Dadu River (Gyalrong Gyamo Ngulchu in Tibetan), the dam is an important component of Xidiandongsong (West-East Power Transfer Project). Shuangjiangkou (“confluence of two rivers” in Chinese) will be built near the confluence of Barkham County’s Kyomkyo River (Jiao-Muzu in Chinese) and Chuchen County’s Trokyab River (Chuosi-Jia in Chinese). The dam will serve as an upstream regulatory dam for the planned dams downstream. Several of the 22 dams will be built in Tibetan areas of Trokyab, Tsodun, Drakpar, Kyomkyo, and Dampa in Chuchen and Barkham Counties in the Ngawa Tibet Autonomous Prefecture. According to sources, local Tibetans who have been ordered to move away to make way for dams are “hopeful for compensations” and are “ambivalent” about their fate.
5. New Nepal-Tibet Highway
(Source: Press Trust of India, April 7; Xinhua, April 8)
A 19-member study team from the China Tibet Communications Highway Survey and Design Institute arrived in Kathmandu on April 1, 2004 to start a three-month study and design of a highway project. The project was approved in May 2001, during then Chinese premier Zhu Rongji's visit to Nepal. Plans are to link the Kathmandu-Syabrubesi road with a 22 km long highway to Kyirong county (Jilong xian in Chinese) in southern Tibet. The goals of the highway are to “strengthen trade, tourism and mutual cooperation between Nepal and China.”
6. PVC Plant in Golmud, Amdo
(Source: SinoCast China Business News. Courtesy of Gabriel Lafitte)
Qinghai Salt Lake Potash Co. Ltd. (QSLPC), China’s largest maker and seller of potash, plans to set up a PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) plant in Golmud (Geermu in Chinese), Qinghai Province. PVC is a chlorinated hydrocarbon polymer that is made into a variety of products such as extruded pipes and sections for use in building and films and sheets for use in packaging. Located in the Tsaidam Basin, Golmud is often dubbed as a “treasure basin” as it contains a wealth of natural resources, including raw materials for PVC such as potassium carbonate. According to Xinhua, the city government is reportedly planning to turn Golmud into a city comparable to Salt Lake City in the United States with “a series of core industries involving salt lake chemicals, the petrochemical and gas industry, commerce and trade, and logistics, relying on its plentiful resources.” Golmud is also the connecting station for the controversial railway to Lhasa.
In February, in order to help reduce pressure on sale, QSLPC signed a 500 million yuan (US$60.41 million) contract to supply a total of 500,000 tons of potassium chloride products to Sinochem International Fetilizer Trading Corp (or CITIC, a leading financial conglomerate headquartered in Beijing) at the lowest price by the end of the year. Currently, QSLPC is undertaking a feasibility study of the project that is expected to have an annual productive capacity of 100,000 tons.
7. Special Rapporteur Continues to Highlight the State of Education in
Tibet
(Source: International Campaign for Tibet)
Reporting to the 60th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) on May 30, 2004, Ms. Katarina Tomasevski, the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, expressed her dismay at the state of education in Tibet. Responding to the Chinese delegation’s statement that her findings were “groundless” and “irresponsible,” Ms. Tomasevski told the UNCHR that the illiteracy situation in Tibet was "horrendous" and lagging far behind in comparison with the situation in the rest of the PRC.
A key criticism of China’s education policy in Tibet appears to be the political and ideological nature of curricula, especially those that are imposed on “minorities” like the Tibetan people. In an earlier report to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, the Special Rapporteur stated that the “key questions regarding education are qualitative rather than quantitative, revolving around what is being taught, how, and why. Although there is an affirmation that minority languages can be taught, there is no similar tolerance of religion: no religion is allowed to disrupt education and no one is allowed to make use of religion to oppose the socialist system or to undermine the unification of the country” (See: http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/).
8. Poaching Continues in Nepal Despite Arrests
(Source: Tibet Information Network. Direct quote from April 14 Tibet News
Digest)
OneWorld reports that despite the arrests of 100 poachers in Nepal in the past year, poaching remains rampant across the country, hindering efforts at wildlife conservation and threatening endangered species. According to figures released by The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) at least 28 rhinos died in 2003, 14 of whom were killed by poachers, who export the horns. In 2002, 37 rhinos were killed, and at least five tigers were reportedly killed by poachers in the past two years. Rhinos' horns and tigers' skin, bones and organs are illegally transported via Tibet and marketed to places like China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, where they are used as traditional medicines. According to Dr. Tirtha Man Maskey, director general of the DNPWC, "despite a stiff penalty for wildlife crimes, middlemen and illegal traders often manage to lure locals with easy money. Though, on a positive note, with a change in strategy and anti-poaching operations, a number of gangs of poachers have been busted in the last few months."
9. World Heritage Site Recognition for Ghang Rinpoche
(Source: Tibet Initiative Deutschand e.V.)
Inge Reuter of Tibet Initiative Deutschand e.V., a Tibet support group based in Germany, said they will work on getting World Heritage Site recognition to the Mount Kailash area. Earlier, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs had confirmed that the Kailash road construction has been cancelled, according to an official Beijing statement.
10. Himalayan Glaciers Feeding Indian Rivers may be Wiped out in 40 Years
(Source: www.newkerala.com, April 28. Courtesy of Tsering Yangchen)
Glaciers in Tibet feeding the Ganga, Yamuna, Indus and the Brahmaputra rivers may be wiped out in 40 years, impacting the economic, cultural and spiritual life of India, warns the first report on melting glaciers and their impacts -- “Sagarmatha - the Snow and Glacier Aspects of Water Resources Management in the Himalaya.” Commissioned by Britain's Department for International Development, the report gives a decade-by-decade analysis for Indian rivers over the next 100 years. The study warns that global warming will result in increased glacial waters in the next 40 years - and then the shortfall of the precious resource will begin.
11. Thai Parliamentarians Protest Chinese Dam Projects on Mekong
(Probe International, April 18; Bangkok Post, May 4)
Concerned about China’s dam construction and rock blasting activities on the upper Mekong, members of Thailand’s Senate Foreign Affairs Committee are asking China to halt all further damming of the upper Mekong River (Zachu in Tibetan). Committee chairman Kraisak Choonhavan said his panel will submit a letter to Beijing calling for talks on the impact of China's construction of dams on the Mekong. Mr. Kraisak said the problems were mentioned during his meeting last week with his Vietnamese counterpart. They would be raised again for discussions during the next ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) parliamentary meeting.
“Extensive damming operations by the Chinese government oblivious to seasonal variations in the ecological cycle had lead to the rapid erosion of river banks and a consequent loss of farm land, while blasting rapids had left fish without breeding grounds and lead to a massive reduction in the river's fish population ... Most importantly, the Chinese operations had served to change the course of the river; thus, affecting the already contested border separating Thailand from Laos ... The Mekong River Commission, which China has refused to join, recently warned that the 3,000-metre long river, which flows from the Tibetan Plateau through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, is now at its lowest level in recorded history.”
[Dolkar Tenzing is an intern with Tibet Justice Center's Environment and Development Program. She can be contacted via email.]
V. Upcoming conferences
International Symposium on Transboundary Water and Ecological Cooperation
The Asian International Rivers Center in cooperation with the United Nations University and the Universities Partnership for Transboundary Waters will present the International Symposium on Transboundary Water and Ecological Cooperation in Kunming, China from July 18-20, 2004.
Proposed activities include workshops on the hydrological and transboundary environmental security issues of the Mekong and Brahmaputra Rivers. Identified focal issues of discussion include: equitable allocation and reasonable utilization, understanding basin water cycles, regional cooperation and ecological security, coordinated management and mutual benefits, common struggles and experiences, and needs for further training and capacity building. The symposium is geared toward reviewing past experiences related to transboundary water issues, stimulating dialogue, and developing actions to better link upstream and the downstream communities.
For more information, please see the conference website.
VI. Recommended new reports online
1. Revised Guidelines for International Development Projects and Sustainable Development in Tibet from the Tibetan Government in Exile offers practical suggestions for carrying out development that respects the natural environment and fulfills the basic needs of Tibetans.
2. Yunnan Hydropower Expansion: Update on China's energy industry reforms and the Nu, Lancang and Jinsha hydropower dams by J. Dore and Yu Xiaogang. The report provides a brief update on happenings in Yunnan, within the wider context of China's energy policy, energy industry reforms and changing political economy.
3. Millenium Development Goals: China’s Progress 2003 and a Concept Note for China Human Development Report 2004 are published by the United Nations Development Program. They address issues such as literacy, health, poverty, etc. and measures necessary to alleviate poverty and inequality.
4. “Economic Dimensions of Autonomy and the Right to Development in Tibet” by Andrew M. Fischer discusses how China has been exemplary in its application of the “right to development” and “ownership of development” process at the national level as a matter of effective and substantive development policy. It then examines the dilemmas of polarized growth in the Tibetan areas and the consequent outcomes of social exclusion and disempowerment, and suggests that part of the solution lies in the application of the same principles of the right to development and ownership at the sub-national ethnic level. The paper concludes by tying these issues to Canada's potential role in promoting dialogue between Beijing and the Tibetan exile leadership. Published by Montreal-based Rights & Democracy, the report is available here.
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