I. Introduction

The objectives of the conference as stated by The Center for United States China Arts Exchange are:

1. To discern the current conditions of Yunnan’s ecology, culture, economy, and society and its potential for change.
2. To discover how nature and culture conservancy can complement each other and jointly interface with economic and social development.
3. To consider strategies for comprehensive and sustainable conservancy while promoting economic growth in the region.
4. To evaluate whether Yunnan offers appropriate test sites for globally applicable strategies in view of its great ecological and cultural diversity.
5. To assess the value of establishing an international consortium in Yunnan for evolving and testing such strategies for conservancy and development.

Let us begin by introducing the YGRP, and describe how it is integrating the preservation of biodiversity and cultural diversity with economic development.

1. Background to the Project

In February 1999, the Yunnan Provincial Government and The Nature Conservancy signed an agreement to carry out the Yunnan Great Rivers Conservation and Development Action Plan.

The project area is large – about 4,900 square miles - and covers fifteen counties in four prefectures of Northwest Yunnan: Lijiang, Diqing, Nujiang, and Dali. This is about the size of the state of West Virginia or the country of Ireland. The project area roughly also coincides with an area soon to be submitted to UNESCO for inscription on their list of World Heritage sites. Although the area is extremely rich in natural and cultural resources, it is economically poor, and twelve of the fifteen counties in the project area are classified as "poor" by the Chinese government.

The area is located in the Hengduan Mountains which form the eastern end of the Himalayas. It is considered one of the world’s "hot spots" not only for its biodiversity but also for the sheer magnitude of its geological and natural beauty. At least 15,000 species of plants are found in Yunnan with about 10,000 estimated to be in the project area. This includes as many as 40% of the plants used in traditional Chinese medicine, and 75% of those used in traditional Tibetan medicine. There are more than 1,000 bird species in Eastern Asia and about half of these species either live in or migrate through the project area. Finally, at least 30 animals reported from the area are listed as endangered, including the snow leopard, clouded leopard, lesser panda, and the Yunnan golden monkey.

The population living within the project area is large – approximately 3 million. It is ethnically and culturally diverse with more than ten ethnic groups calling the area their home. These groups include: the Naxi, Bai, Tibetan, Pumi, Mosuo, Lisu, Yi, Miao (or Hmong), Nu, Dulong and even a small pocket of Tai. Each boasts a long, rich history and legacy of distinctive cultural traditions - many of which are still maintained today. Most of the groups, the Tai and Miao being notable exceptions, speak a variety of related Tibeto-Burman languages, and share a mixed economy of farming and herding.

A brief glimpse into the dominant cultures in the project area illustrates the richly textured traditions which still characterize the region. The Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, for example, is predominantly populated by the Kham sub-branch of Tibetans. The region bears the strong imprint of Tibetan Buddhist culture which is displayed in the large temple complexes replete with their regalia of sculpture, tankas, typical Tibetan utensils of worship and fluttering prayer flags. Sacred mountains punctuate the landscape, and they are unique in that their forests remain uncut. The Tibetan ritual calendar year is filled with a series of festivals, many of which are linked with Buddhism. Lijiang is home to the Naxi people. Lijiang residents are justly proud that Dayan Old Town, the former political and cultural seat of the Naxi up to 1949, was inscribed on UNESCO’s list of cultural World Heritage Sites in December 1997. Although during the past centuries the Naxi have believed in and been influenced by many traditional Chinese regions, i.e. Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, their much earlier indigenous religion, Dongba, and it’s unique pictographic writing system, remain important markers of Naxi culture and ethnicity today. Finally, the Bai, who are concentrated around Lake Erhai in Dali Prefecture, have a long history which is linked with both the Nanzhao and Dali Kingdoms (8^th – 13^th centuries). The magnificent Shibao Shan Buddhist grottos indicate that the Bai practiced a form of Chinese Mahayana Buddhism by the mid 9^th century, but even today, local Bai practice their earlier, pantheistic religion called Benzhu.

The project area is not only characterized by these living cultures, but by the physical remains of historical cultural heritage. In addition to ancient temples, there are Buddhist grottos, stele and other architectural remains. All form a distinctive part of the region’s character and need protection.

The Main Goal of the Project

The mission of The Yunnan Great Rivers Conservation and Development Action Plan is to preserve this biological and cultural diversity found in Northwest Yunnan Province and promote the long-term economic well being of its citizens by successfully integrating conservation and economic goals through compatible development strategies.

How is the Project Organized?

How is the project structured in order to carry out this mission? Physically, the project has created a Joint Project Office, an administrative strategy which closely integrates the Yunnan government’s project staff with their partners from The Nature Conservancy. A schematic diagram looks like this:

Yunnan Provincial Government The Nature Conservancy (US)

China Project Office TNC Yunnan Project Office | |

Experts Committee - Joint Project Office – Advisory Committee

/ | | \

Biodiversity Cultural Economic Regional

Module Diversity Module Development

Module Module

Thus, we can see that the Joint Project Office (JPO) houses four modules:

• Cultural Diversity Protection
• Biodiversity Protection
• Sustainable Economic Development
• Regional Planning and Infrastructure Development

Each module is headed by a Chinese and TNC counterpart. The teams in each module are drawn from the wide range of research institutions in Kunming, combined with local experts and specialists from the four prefectures themselves.

The Goals of the Modules

What are the specific goals and objectives of the individual components, i.e. biodiversity, cultural, and economic, that constitute the project? The Biodiversity Conservation Module lies at the core of the YGRP and its specific goals are to:

• Identify areas of high biodiversity and assess the threats to this biodiversity.
• Assemble a portfolio of sites together with management strategies to protect the biodiversity.
• Investigate and assess the nine existing Nature Reserves within the project area and make recommendations for expanding them, linking them or creating new ones, and
• Produce a scientific methodology appropriate for protected area selection and management in China.

• Identify and protect the cultural heritage of the people living within the project area. This includes both physical sites such as temples, historic towns and sacred mountains, as well as the traditional living cultures of the more than ten ethnic groups living in Northwest Yunnan. Recommend protection plans.
• Explore the interface between man and nature, and in doing so:
• Develop strategies for integrating local communities into the protected area management process through the incorporation of traditional practices and beliefs.
• Make recommendations for the economic development of the area which:
• Alleviates the poverty of the area;
• Is environmentally sound, and
• Is culturally compatible and valorizes traditional culture, technologies and skills.

An essential part of the project is that the biodiversity and cultural preservation teams integrate their work and coordinate closely. In this regard, certain research sites selected for the case studies of the cultural module have been specifically chosen to coordinate with the focal areas for the Biodiversity Module.

In addition, certain training sessions will also be integrated, permitting better mutual understanding of inter-related issues and techniques important to both teams. For example, members of the cultural team participated in REA (Rapid Ecological Assessment) training provided for the scientists in late August 1999. A Rapid Ecological assessment of a terrestrial or marine environment is:

This tool has been applied and adapted by UNESCO for the important task of Cultural Resource Management (CRM), especially in managing and monitoring UNESCO Cultural World Heritage sites. In training members of the cultural team in GIS as a tool for CRM, they will not only be able to better manage the cultural resources in the project area, but will also be able to participate in the broader management process of all the resources of the protected area.

Finally, pilot sites for model projects are being formulated on the basis that they must integrate biodiversity and cultural protection within the context of sustainable economic development. Potential candidates for these pilot site projects include a community-based watershed management project at Lashi Hai (a wetlands reserve close to Dayan Lijiang Old Town); and community-based eco and cultural tourism circuits in the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain area.

Uniqueness of the Project

What makes this project different from other environmental projects in Yunnan is the decision to include cultural preservation firmly within the package of environmental preservation and local community development, as well as the concern for cultural integrity within the context of economic development.

Thus, as we saw above, the project seeks not only to identify and protect a portfolio of sites representing the rich and threatened biological diversity of the region, but will also:

• Identify and protect cultural heritage sites within the project area, and promote the continuity of traditional living cultures both inside and outside the protected areas.

As part of the process of achieving this goal, one sub-team within the Cultural Module team is carrying out cultural resource mapping. This work is being coordinated with that already carried out by the US-China Arts Exchange, and is providing technical assistance to the researchers who collected data for the Center. Essentially it is helping them to:

• Map their existing data onto a format compatible with that being used by the Biodiversity, Economic, and Regional Planning Modules,
• Organize their own existing data and additional secondary data onto spreadsheets which are then linked to the maps,
• Integrate new data collected by themselves and other members of the Cultural Module during the YGRP’s fieldwork phase, and
• Learn basic GIS tools and skills in order to use the integrated maps and spreadsheets for making plans to manage and protect the region’s cultural resources.

Let us consider more carefully the question of integrating cultural heritage protection within the context of economic development. As we saw above, the project will emphasize cultural preservation within the economic development of local communities. However, it is not sufficient to generate ways to increase economic income in an environmentally sustainable way. Economic development should also provide ways to strengthen and "valorize" traditional cultures and values.

One example is a small project earmarked for the village cluster of Shu He. She He is the traditional name given to a group of thirteen villages located about four kilometers outside of Lijiang Old Town. These villages belong to Long Quan Administrative Village unit.

For centuries Shu He was famous for its leathermakers who produced products designed to meet the needs of the Tibetan populations to the north of Lijiang in Diqing Prefecture and Tibet. The leather products which formed part of this lucrative trade were either distributed to these markets, or sold locally to Tibetans who regularly came to Lijiang as part of the centuries old Tea and Horse Caravan trade. The products included both horse trappings such as saddles, saddle blankets, saddlebags, as well as items of daily use for people, for example, boots, capes, tobacco pouches, and cushions.

After Liberation, leather making was discouraged because it was regarded as capitalistic, and during that time families ceased production. During the 1980’s, when China began to open up economically, a few families renewed their craft as a way of generating needed income. In 1997, UNESCO funded a small study to assess the feasibility of re-invigorating this traditional craft. The response was overwhelming yes, and several artisans stand ready to train apprentices.

Because the tanning process used by Shu He leather makers is not environmentally polluting, this small-scale traditional industry has the potential to serve as a model for generating income on the community level which is both environmentally sound and valorizes traditional culture. Before full restoration of this household-based industry can begin, a market feasibility study is needed to determine the scope and scale of the both the domestic and international markets.

1. Integrating People and Culture within Environmental Strategies

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The YGRP focuses strongly on the needs of local communities living within and around the protected areas. In this regard, an important part of the project is to assess the impact, both positive and negative, traditional cultural practices have on the environment. Traditional land use does not necessarily damage the environment. Indigenous peoples have, over the centuries, developed their own systems of land management and patterns of resource use which reflect their understanding of their land and ecology. Although not always 100% sustainable, these traditional systems have often been successful over the years. Stan Stevens notes in the introduction to his edited volume entitled Conservation Through Cultural Survival:

"Indigenous peoples’ knowledge, conservation beliefs and values, environmentally adaptive and sensitive land use, resource management practices, and determined defense of territory and natural resources have enabled many of them to inhabit their homelands for centuries without devastating their ecosystems and biodiversity" (Stevens 1997:2).

Consequently, in the past few years, both international conservationists and a number of indigenous peoples have begun to realize the value of new alliances and partnerships. More recent and innovative environmental strategies and policies not only create ways to keep local communities on their traditional lands, but also permit limited traditional land use practices.

It has been pointed out that some practices not only do not damage the environment, but even enhance it. Nepal is one such example. For hundreds of years certain grasses were harvested annually by local communities in lowland areas in Nepal to provide materials for local wattle and housing thatch. The cutting and burning of these tall grasses belonging to the riverine grasslands had long been part of ecosystem management in these areas, creating grasslands and maintaining them against forest encroachment. These grasslands also provide important habitat for rhinoceros and other species. After the creation of the Royal Chitwan National Park, Royal Bardia National Park and the Kosi Tappu Wildlife Refuge, officials initially banned this activity. After much local protest, local officials realized the importance of these practices, not only to the lives of the local people, but for maintaining the habitat of the rhinoceros. Consequently, they changed their thinking, and in 1976, the park was opened for grass cutting for twenty (now reduced to fifteen) days per year each January. Villagers, paying a one-time nominal fee can remove as much grass as they can cut and carry (Stevens 1997:68-69).

Yet not all customary practices are sustainable, and there are certainly limitations of indigenous peoples’ conservation practice. In those instances where traditional practices do constitute a threat, local authorities will be encouraged to work with communities to resolve the conflicts.

Examples from the Project Area

We can find many examples in the ethnographic literature of how people living in northwest Yunnan have used their environmental resources in careful and sustainable ways for centuries, and how their traditional belief systems served to foster and strengthen environmental protection.

The Naxi are one of the best examples of people whose traditional culture serves to protect nature. Among their ancestral myths is one which links man and nature as brothers. In the myth they have the same father but different mothers. According to the myth, Shu, the Naxi god of water, took two wives. The first wife bore all the world’s living creatures, whereas the second gave birth to man. In time, man abused his brother, nature, by killing too many animals and damaging the environment around him. Shu punished man for these wanton acts, and as a result, man learned to live in harmony with nature.

This harmony is reflected in several traditional Dongba texts which extol man to preserve nature and their environment. In practice, the Naxi traditionally refrained from hunting during the summer months when the animals reproduced. Nor did they cut down the trees on their sacred mountains. Water was also especially important, and, in the past, the Naxi carefully maintained their watersheds. Accompanying the breakdown of traditional society has come the breakdown of these traditional practices. Most Naxi villages are no longer the models of environmental preservation they once were.

In their villages, especially in Dayan Lijiang Old Town and the villages scattered in the Lijiang plain, the Naxi paid particular attention to the purity of the water which ran through them. Customary law dictated the times during the day when the water was to be used for drinking, washing vegetables and washing clothes. Detergent was not used to wash clothes. Instead, a local foaming nut was used to rub the clothes clean (personal comm.from local Lijiang resident). Neither dirty water nor garbage was thrown into the rivers which flowed through the towns and villages. All of these customs have broken down in recent years.

Religious belief in Tibetan culture dictated that their sacred mountains remain untouched. There are very important sacred mountains, such as Mt. Kawagabo in Deqin County located near the Yunnan border with Tibet, which should not even be climbed. Pilgrimages circumambulating the mountain are carried out regularly, but woe to those who attempt to scale its peaks. This lesson was learned the hard way by a small expedition of Japanese mountaineers a few years ago. They were killed in an avalanche shortly after they began their ascent (Professors Yang Fuquan & Guo Jing pers. comm.) In addition, each Tibetan villages in Zhongdian has a designated sacred mountain, or part of a series of hills or mountains, usually located to the rear of the village. The sacred mountain stands out among the others because it still has dense clusters of trees. The lucrative logging industry has gradually destroyed much of the area’s primary forests, but even with the temptations of the logging industry, the sacred mountains remain untouched.

Traditional Tibetan herding practices, like those in Nepal, were also regulated carefully in order to avoid over-grazing. Nonetheless, with increasing population pressures, both human and animal, the balance between land and animals has broken down in many meadows.

Thus, ideally, after documenting the traditional land use practices and resource use patterns, the project will see if it is possible to re-invigorate those patterns and practices which helped to preserve the environment and local ecosystems, and at the same time develop ways to incorporate them into new management plans. By incorporating local indigenous people into the management process, indigenous people will be able to continue to live on and work their traditional lands.

Why Integrate People and Culture into Environmental Strategies?

We might ask ourselves at this time, why is integrating people and

culture into environmental strategies an important issue? The answer is simply that if you do not include people and culture, the management process does not work, and there frequently is long-term conflict with local, indigenous people who will sabotage the protected area.

When it became known in 1974 that the government intended to establish Sagarmatha National Park in the Mount Everest area of Nepal, the local Sherpas panicked. The only information they had about national parks was based on what they had observed as guides in Royal Chitwan national park where the local people had been moved out by force and management rules were strictly enforced. Although their customary law carefully regulated tree cutting and grazing rights, and their religion prohibited killing animals, the initial reaction of the Sherpas was to cut down as many trees as possible before the park was officially established (Sherpa 1993:46). The Nepalese government, however, became among the first to recognize the need to create a new kind of national park – a park which permitted controlled forest resource use, drew upon traditional indigenous management practices, and integrated local communities into the management process (Stevens 1997: 74-76). Despite mistakes and problems, Nepal has become one of the innovators in the establishment of indigenously inhabited and co-managed protected areas (Stevens 1997:63)

There are additional numerous examples of other protected area designations in Africa, Latin America and Asia whose governments believed that in order for the land to be protected, human use and habitation had to be severely restricted. This policy has always resulted in conflict.

Many governments, in the quest to create protected areas and national parks, simply re-locate – i.e. forcibly move - the people out of the park areas. They are moved to locations outside the protected areas where they could "do no environmental harm" to the land, that is to say, they could not cut down trees to use for firewood or timber for their houses, hunt animals for their food, nor clear fields to grow food. However, experience has shown that this is an expensive non-solution. Removing people from their traditional lands not only creates anger, but can hasten the social and physical breakdown of the local people. Numerous recent examples from Laos illustrate this problem.

There is one other factor in the human and nature interface which is sometimes overlooked. Most land in the world today has been touched and essentially formed by some kind of human activity. For example, the form that many alpine meadows in the project area take today represents the result of hundreds of years of grazing activity, fire management, and so forth. This fact re-inforces the importance of maintaining traditional peoples in their traditional locations continuing their traditional land use practices.

Thus, in conclusion, it is essential to guarantee that local people and communities are part of environmental protection strategies. There may be disagreement, however, as to the extent local communities participate in or are consulted about the management process, and the degree to which they actually participate in the management. Nonetheless, it is generally agreed that local communities should participate in the process to create new policies and regulations and that they should benefit economically from the changes.

2. Current Status of the Project

 

Since the signing of the agreement between TNC and the Yunnan

Provincial Government in February 1999, the project has made steady progress. The Joint Project Office has been set up, staffed and is functioning. The most important preliminary work, the creation of the teams of researchers to assemble and collect data on the area’s biodiversity and cultural diversity was completed by July 1999.

These teams have undergone specific training before going into the field. For example, TNC provided Rapid Environmental Appraisal (REA) training for 60 people in late August. The participants included not only members of the Biodiversity team but local Yunnan officials and members of the culture team. The twenty-five member biodiversity team has just completed its first phase of fieldwork.

Training in participatory techniques which emphasize a grass-roots approach and community involvement (PAR) was provided for members of the cultural team and some local officials in November in both Zhongdian and Lijiang. The different teams of researchers are currently in the midst of their first phase of fieldwork.

 

3. Expected Outcomes of the First Phase of the Project

In the process of completing the masterplan, the following products will be created:

• A series of maps which include data from the biodiversity, cultural heritage, economic development and regional planning modules;
• An initial plan to address the training and capacity building needs of the local stakeholders in ways which enhance local capacity and involvement to contribute to the preparation
• A preliminary list of pilot projects at sites with significant natural resources which integrates natural and cultural resource protection and combines them with compatible economic development.

Acknowledgements

The author draws upon data and information collected by the staff of the TNC Yunnan Project Office and herself as part of the YGRP during the past two years. The author also thanks the numerous scholars at the Yunnan Academy of Social Science (YASS) and the Yunnan Institute of Nationalities (YIN) who have also generously shared their knowledge and expertise about the ethnic groups living within the project area with the author. Noteworthy among them are: Professors He Yao Hua, Yang Fuquan, Guo Jing, Wang Qinghua, Deng Qiyao, all from YASS, and Professor Yang Guocai from YIN.
 
 

References

Box, Paul

1. GIS and Cultural Resource Management: a Manual for Heritage Managers. UNESCO/PROAP: Bangkok

1. The Law of the Mother. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books

1. "Grass Roots in a Himalayan Kingdom", in The Law of the Mother, edited by Elizabeth Kemf. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, pp. 46-51.