At the same time, ecological improvement and environmental protection work gradually unfolded, with the aim of improving the subsistence conditions on the Tibet Plateau. The State sent forestry specialists to explore parts of the Yarlungzangbo River Valley, and carried out experiments in the cultivation of tree saplings and afforestation at the July 1 Farm in the western suburbs of Lhasa, which laid the foundation for large-scale afforestation and ecological improvement in Tibet. After the implementation of the Democratic Reform in 1959, a mass voluntary tree-planting drive using local tree species as the main breeds was launched in a big way in Tibet. Such afforestation efforts enabled the Tibetan people to achieve a qualitative leap from the centuries-old passive adaptation to natural conditions to remaking nature on their own initiative.

After the founding of the People's Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region in September 1965, ecological improvement and environmental protection were put on government agenda and thus organizationally guaranteed, along with the progress of work in all spheres achieved by the people's democratic government. In 1975, the Leading Group for Environmental Protection of the Tibet Autonomous Region and its General Office were established. In 1983, the Urban and Rural Construction and Environmental Protection Department under the government of the Autonomous Region was established. Since then, the organizational structure and administrative systems have kept improving, and ecological improvement and environmental protection work in Tibet has gradually got onto the track of sound development.

The comprehensive scientific surveys on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau have helped people to learn about Tibet's natural eco-environment in a more systematic and profound manner. As a result, ecological improvement work in Tibet began to make substantial headway. The Chinese Academy of Sciences formulated the "Comprehensive Scientific Survey Plan for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for 1973-1980." In 1972, the Academy held the "Symposium on Scientific Survey in the Mt. Qomolangma Area," the first ever, in Lanzhou. In the wake of this symposium, all types of comprehensive or specialized academic conferences in respect of the natural eco-environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were held one after the other, accompanied by a large number of academic achievements. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Comprehensive Scientific Survey Series alone contains 31 titles in 42 volumes, amounting to a grand total of some 17 million characters. These scientific achievements have provided a scientific basis for making better use of natural resources in the economic development of Tibet, and for continuous improvement of the human living environment. In 1977, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry organized for the first time an all-round survey of the forestry resources across Tibet. Since 1978, to meet the requirements of afforestation, some 50 sapling farms have been set up in various places, introducing, naturalizing and cultivating scores of tree breeds suitable for Tibet.

The State has directly invested in comprehensive agricultural development projects on the middle reaches of the "three rivers" (the Yarlungzangbo, Lhasa and Nyangqu rivers), with the emphasis on the improvement of the ecological environment, and has achieved noticeable ecological results. With regard to tree-planting and grass-growing on barren mountains, hillsides and beaches, the government has enacted a special policy featuring "the lasting and inheritable practice of whoever reclaims the land shall be entitled to operate and get benefit from it." This has encouraged local people to plant trees and grow grass, and guaranteed the rights and interests due to them in eco-environmental amelioration. Investigations on the current status of the ecological environment in the areas of land, wild fauna and flora, plant, insect and wetland resources have been successfully carried out. Eco-environment researchers have begun to monitor and trace the impact of human activities on the ecological environment, carried out various projects such as dynamic remote-sensing monitoring of the eco-environment for comprehensive agricultural development on the middle reaches of the "three rivers," overall survey of the grain pollution caused by residual organochlorine, and investigation on the sources of industrial pollution, and have proposed relevant policies and measures for pollution prevention and control.

Publicity and education concerning ecological improvement and environmental protection have been widely carried out, striking deep roots in the hearts of the people. The media, including radio, television, newspapers and the Internet, have given wide coverage to afforestation, wild animals and plants preservation, and environmental protection. Important commemorative events, such as World Wetlands Day, Arbor Day, Earth Day, World Environment Day and World Desertification and Drought Control Day have drawn the attention of people from all walks of life in Tibet. Lessons on ecological improvement and environmental protection are given in schools, and an effort to establish "green schools" is in full swing.

Since the 1990s, the State Environmental Protection Administration has organized environmental protection departments throughout the country to support Tibet in enhancing its environmental protection capability, helped build environment monitoring stations in the Autonomous Region, in the cities of Lhasa and Xigaze and in Qamdo Prefecture, helped train large numbers of technical and administrative personnel in the field of environmental protection, and helped formulate an ecological protection and pollution control plan. In the "National Plan for Eco-environmental Improvement" and the "National Program for Eco-environmental Protection" formulated by the State Council respectively in 1998 and 2000, great attention has been paid to ecological improvement and environmental protection in Tibet, and a separate plan has been drawn up to make the freeze thawing zone on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau one of the country's eight major areas for ecological improvement, complete with the proposition of a suite of explicit tasks and principles for work in this regard. On the basis of this, the People's Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region formulated the "Eco-environmental Improvement Plan of the Tibet Autonomous Region" in 2000, which has provided an overall program and arrangement for Tibet's eco-environmental improvement. After the State decided to adopt the great western development strategy, the Central Government held the Fourth Forum on Work in Tibet in 2001, and further increased investment in ecological improvement projects in Tibet. From the perspective of attaining sustainable development in Tibet, it has been expressly stipulated that tourism and green agriculture be developed as the pillar industries for promoting economic growth in Tibet.

The State has increased its input in ecological improvement and environmental protection in Tibet, and intensified supervision on the law enforcement connected with the ecological environment. Statistics show that since 1996 the total investment contributed by the Central Government in items concerning ecological improvement in Tibet has come to RMB 368 million. At the same time, a plethora of ecological engineering projects, such as natural forest protection, restoration of farmland to forest and pasture, afforestation in Lhasa and its vicinity, wildlife protection, and nature reserves construction, have been put into operation, which have effectively improved the eco-environment in Tibet.

Ecological improvement and environmental protection work, which had nothing to start with in Tibet, has grown incessantly in the past half century or more, and has undergone a process from voluntariness to conscientiousness, from passiveness to activeness, and from an unplanned to a scientific approach. According to the bulletin on the eco-environmental situation published by the relevant State authorities in 2000, the environmental quality in Tibet is in a sound state, and most parts are basically in a primordial state. Tibet is one of the best areas in the world as far as natural environment is concerned.

II. Ecological Improvement and Biodiversity Protection

The positive efforts made by the Tibet Autonomous Region for ecological improvement and biodiversity protection in the past five decades or more have been crowned with signal success.

Though the grassland area in Tibet is very large, its carrying capacity is low. Grassland overload was not significant in the old days in Tibet, because of stagnant population growth, frequent natural calamities, and massive human and livestock deaths in times of snowstorms and other natural disasters. Since the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the average life-span of the local population has expanded remarkably, the population has kept increasing, and as a result the issue of insufficient grass to feed the ever-growing livestock population has begun to appear. Consequently, to keep an ecological balance on the pastureland has gradually become a prominent problem. To ease the contradictions between human beings and farm animals and between grass supply and farm animals, Tibet has taken a succession of measures to strengthen the rational utilization and ecological protection of natural grassland. First, emphasis has been placed on fencing and building water conservancy projects on natural grassland, and raising both the output level of grassland and its carrying capacity per unit area. Secondly, a pasture responsibility system has been implemented. In line with the principle of limiting the number of grazing animals by the size of the pasture, rotation grazing periods, rotation grazing areas and "no-grazing areas" have been designated. Efforts have been made to increase the market availability rate of the livestock and to effectively protect natural pastures by strictly prohibiting over-grazing. Thirdly, man-made grassland is being promoted so as to ease the pressure brought to bear on natural grassland by the ever-growing livestock population. Fourthly, efforts are being intensified to prevent or control hazards caused by mice, insects and poisonous weeds, and to maintain the natural ecological balance of the grassland by utilizing scientific means, and artificial and biological technologies. Fifthly, to enhance grassland amelioration in the pastoral areas, change the nomadic way of production, speed up economic development in pastoral areas and improve herdsmen's living standards, projects to construct grassland in the pastoral areas, build permanent settlements for roving herdsmen, and restore and improve natural grassland have been launched since 2001. These measures not only have steadily raised the income of farmers and herdsmen and enhanced their living standards, but also ensured the sound development of the grassland ecology.

It has become the conscious action of the Tibetan people to join afforestation efforts. The government of the Tibet Autonomous Region has formulated the "Forestation Plan of the Tibet Autonomous Region" and the "Opinions on Acceleration of Afforestation." The people of the whole region are making efforts by starting with the improvement of their living environments, first of all by greening their courtyards, streets and urban environment in general, and eventually building green belts in river catchment areas where human activities are concentrated, and along major highways. The results have been remarkable. According to a survey, over the past 50-plus years some 70,000 ha of land have been afforested in Tibet, 90 million trees have been planted beside villages, houses, roads and waterways, and 1.5 million cash trees have been grown.

Afforestation and ecological projects have been launched steadily. Implementation of the key projects, such as the afforestation project in Lhasa and its outskirts, the construction of the shelter-forest system of the Yarlungzangbo River, the pilot project of the Yangtze River shelter-forest system in Markam and the pilot project for controlling sand by afforestation in Xigaze, has, to a great extent, improved the natural eco-environment of those localities. Since 1996, the State has begun to build a shelter-forest system along the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River. By 2000, it had invested more than 3.7 million yuan in the project, actively supporting Tibet in building man-made forests and sealing off mountainous areas to facilitate afforestation as appropriate to local conditions. The afforested area has topped 13,000 ha, which, as a result, has played a positive role in improving local residents' working and living conditions. Following implementation of the project for the construction of the shelter-forest system of the Yarlungzangbo River, which is part of the key "three rivers" agricultural development undertaking, a man-made forest belt measuring several hundred km from Xigaze to Zetang on the upper reaches of the Yarlungzangbo River has been formed. Now, a new spectacular scene, the belt plays a positive role in conserving water and topsoil along the Yarlungzangbo River.

Due to the effective protection of natural forest resources and afforestation, the forest coverage in Tibet has kept growing. It has grown from less than 1% in the 1950s to 5.93% today, and has played a positive role in improving the Autonomous Region's ecological environment. According to reports from relevant monitoring departments, due to the increase in man-made vegetation, the number of sandstorm days has decreased noticeably in Tibet. Currently, it is 32 days fewer in Lhasa, 34 days fewer in Xigaze and 32 days fewer in Zetang, than 30 years ago.

Over the past 50-plus years, the Central Government and the Tibetan local government have conducted extensive surveys on Tibet's biological resources. They have worked out scientific plans and programs for the protection of wild animals and plants. They have also adopted a sequence of measures for effective protection of the rare and endangered species. In accordance with the relevant State laws and regulations, the Tibet Autonomous Region has established forest law enforcement organs and the Tibet Armed Police Forestry Contingent. They have conducted the "Hohxil Action Number One" and other special campaigns in the border areas of Qinghai, Xinjiang and Tibet to protect the Tibetan antelope and other rare animals. These campaigns have dealt a heavy blow to poachers and curbed law-violation activities that have done damage to wild animal resources. Meanwhile, the State has invested millions of yuan each year in infrastructure facilities for forest security and forest fire prevention in Tibet. In 2002, the State set aside 3.66 million yuan from its national debt revenue for a special project aimed at cracking down on poachers of Tibetan antelopes. It has also strengthened publicity on the protection of wild animals. Now people in Tibet are highly conscious of the importance of protecting wild animals, and the once rampant hunting of Tibetan antelopes has been brought under control.

Over the past 50 years or more, not one species in Tibet has suffered extinction. Biodiversity is effectively maintained, and biological types are continuously enriched. Red deer, generally considered by the international animal research community to have vanished in the 20th century, were discovered again in Tibet in the 1990s, and their numbers are increasing. As Tibet opens wider to the outside world, non-native creatures such as carp, crucian carp, eel and loach, high-productivity and quality cattle, sheep, pigs, chicken, ducks, as well as corn, watermelons and vegetables have been introduced from the inland areas to Tibet, where they are thriving today.

In order to restore the natural ecosystem, human activities such as economic development are strictly limited in the established nature reserves. As a result, the ecological environment in most of the nature reserves has become stable and the prospects are quite good. Breeding grounds, habitats and important ecosystems for rare and endangered species, important wetlands for migratory birds, as well as the natural landscapes, geological sites and biological sites of scientific importance are now well protected. All the 125 wild animals, 39 wild plants and typical geological features in Tibet that are on the State protection list are well preserved in the established nature reserves. The Tibet Autonomous Region has more than six million ha of wetland, accounting for about 4.9% of Tibet's total land area and ranking first in China. Its alpine wetlands are unique in the world. According to monitoring by the relevant departments, the number of both wild animals and plants in the nature reserves is obviously increasing, and the total reserves of wild animal resources have increased by upwards of 30%. Rare animals that had not been seen for many years have returned to their habitats. In the Changtang Nature Reserve, monitoring in the past few years has revealed that the numbers of wild animals such as Tibetan wild donkey, argali and antelope have increased to differing degrees. The number of Tibetan antelopes has reached 40,000 to 50,000 in the Nyima central reserve. After a nature reserve for black-necked cranes was established on the middle reaches of the Yarlungzangbo River, the number of black-necked cranes wintering there has increased each year, accounting for about 80% of the earth's total number of black-necked cranes.

III. Ecological Improvement and Environmental Protection amid Economic Development

The ecosystem in Tibet is extremely fragile, and the ability to resist disturbance and regenerate is weak. Once the ecosystem is damaged, it is hard to restore it for a long period of time. For more than 50 years Tibet has adhered to the strategy of sustainable development, ensuring the close combination and coordinated development of ecological improvement, environmental protection and economic construction. While the economy develops rapidly and the people's living standards are constantly rising, the ecological environment is being effectively protected. In accordance with the latest monitoring findings, the environment of water and the atmosphere in Tibet are basically unpolluted. The average annual concentration of suspended particles in the atmosphere of Tibet's cities is between 193 and 268 per cu m. No major environmental pollution accident has occurred in Tibet, and most of its major rivers and lakes are in a primordial state.

The State has invested a large sum of money on a series of comprehensive agricultural development projects in Tibet. It is making sure that while land areas are expanded, the ecological environment is improved at the same time. In the major construction projects, such as the comprehensive agricultural development project on the middle reaches of the "three rivers" with an investment of 1.2 billion yuan from the Central Government, environmental protection and ecological improvement are made key parts of the projects. Monitoring of the ecological environment in comprehensive agricultural development in the "three rivers" area in the past 10 years indicates that, due to an organic combination of biological and engineering measures, both the types and rate of land utilization and the acreage of man-made vegetation in the area have increased markedly. Desertification and soil erosion have been effectively checked, and the comprehensive index of the eco-environment quality has been raised by one to three grades. Comprehensive agricultural development has not only reaped significant economic benefits, but also resulted in good social and ecological benefits.

IV. Building an Ecology-Friendly Railway Line  the Qinghai-Tibet Railway

There was no highway in Tibet before its peaceful liberation. Economic and social contacts in Tibet and its contacts with the outside world depended solely on human power and draft animals, as well as post roads. Now, a transportation network consisting of 24,000 km of highways, a dozen air routes and more than 1,000 km of pipelines has been completed. Still, Tibet remains the only autonomous region (province) in China inaccessible by rail. Transportation has long been a bottleneck holding back the economic and social development of Tibet and hindering the improvement of the people's living standards. Building the Qinghai-Tibet Railway has been the long-cherished wish of people of all ethnic groups in Tibet. It is not only essential for strengthening links between Tibet and the hinterland, accelerating the economic and social development of Tibet and improving the local people's material and cultural well-being, but is also of great significance for enhancing ethnic unity and common prosperity.

On June 29, 2001, with the approval of the Central Government, construction of the section between Golmud and Lhasa began as part of the second phase of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway project. This railway line will be 1,142 km long, and will involve an investment of 26.21 billion yuan. It will take six years to complete. Making the Qinghai-Tibet Railway an ecology-friendly railway line was the goal set at the time the project was appraised.

When completed, the stations along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway will use environment-friendly energy sources such as electricity, solar energy and wind energy for heating. Garbage at the stations will be collected for batch treatment. Domestic sewage, after being treated to meet the State's discharge standard, will be used, whenever possible, to water green spaces. The passenger cars will be sealed. Garbage on the trains will be collected in plastic bags which will be handed over to stations along the plateau for batch treatment. To suit the characteristics of the plateau, the central station management mode will be adopted, with seven central stations established along the line. Each of these stations will be totally responsible for the trains' running and maintenance in an area within a radius of 80 km. Wherever possible, remote automatic control and mechanized maintenance will be adopted to reduce the number of both the organizations and their staff on the plateau, thereby giving maximum protection to the natural eco-environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

A key point in building the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is to protect the ecological environment along the railway line. All units involved in the construction are making great efforts in this respect. The China Railway No. 14 Engineering Bureau, for instance, has 13 key technical problems now undergoing scientific research, of which half concern environmental protection. There are six supervisors in this bureau who are in charge of eco-environmental protection on the railway construction sites. They are responsible for ensuring that the camp sites, work-site access roads and passageways, quarries, and sites for supplying dirt and digging trenches take up as little space as possible. They are also responsible for supervising accommodation facilities to ensure that the delicate plateau vegetation is properly protected.

With the concerted efforts of all concerned it is justifiable to believe that the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, as a plateau railway up to the environmental protection standard, will truly benefit the people of all ethnic groups in Tibet.

V. The Strategic Choice for Sustainable Development

For the past 50 years or so, benefiting from the concern of the Central Government and support from the whole nation, people of all ethnic groups in Tibet have pulled their full weight to give an earth-shaking new look to Tibet, and have made achievements in ecological improvement and environmental protection that have attracted attention worldwide. Tibetan people today live and work in peace not only with a booming economy and developing society, but also with their landscape kept beautiful, their rivers kept clean, their animal species kept diversified, and their vegetation kept lush. Tibet has truly become a "Shangri-la."

Rapidly shaking off its traditional backwardness and quickening its steps toward modernization are the natural requirements for the progress and development of Tibetan society and the fervent wish of all the ethnic groups in Tibet. Located on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Tibet has a peculiar geographical environment and a fragile ecosystem. Therefore, it is an important part of Tibet's progress to modernization and a strategic choice for sustainable development that Tibet should protect the regenerative capacity of its natural resources, improve the quality of its ecological environment, preserve the integrity and self-adjustment ability of its natural ecosystem, and ensure the safety of the ecosystem and the harmonious unity and coordinated development of Tibet's economy, society and ecosystem.

Ecological improvement and environmental protection in Tibet cannot be achieved if development steps falter, but nor should we attain short-term economic development at the cost of the ecological environment. We can only follow the law of social development, attach equal importance to both economic development and eco-environmental protection, giving attention to protection in the process of development and seeking development in the process of protection, and implement the strategy of sustainable development. Ecological improvement and environmental protection should be done in an active, thrusting and dynamic manner, and not in a passive, conservative and closed-door way. We cannot refuse any interaction between man and natural eco-environment on the excuse of preserving the fragile primitive natural state, because this will hamper the economic and social development and the improvement of people's living standard in Tibet.

The relationship between the exploration and utilization of natural resources and eco-environmental protection must be handled properly in the course of the modernization of Tibet, so as to promote changes in the mode of economic growth. It is clear from past experience in Tibet that the exploration and utilization of natural resources must follow the laws of nature, taking both long-term and overall interests into consideration, so as to avoid being too eager for quick success and instant benefits to the extent of over-burdening the ecological environment. A scientific attitude and methodology must be adopted in exploring natural resources and protecting the ecological environment. Natural resources that are not to be explored and used should be strictly protected, while the exploration and utilization of needed resources should be done scientifically with a definite goal, to prevent any unwanted impact on the ecological functions. Only in this way can the natural resources in Tibet be utilized rationally and scientifically, and can economic development and eco-environmental improvement be achieved simultaneously.

Tibet's ecological improvement and environmental protection, just as its economic and social development, have a vital bearing not only on the fundamental interests of the people of all ethnic groups in Tibet but also on the common interests of the whole nation. People of all ethnic groups in Tibet are the major motivators and direct participants in the ecological improvement and environmental protection work in Tibet. They are also the main beneficiaries of a well-preserved ecological environment. Carrying forward such work will benefit both the State and the people for generations to come. Starting from the fundamental interests of the Tibetan people and the fundamental demand of the people of all ethnic groups across China for common prosperity, over the past five decades and more the Chinese Central Government and the local government of Tibet, in a spirit of being highly responsible for posterity and the world as a whole, have made tremendous efforts to promote and develop the ecological improvement and environmental protection work in Tibet, and have made achievements that have captured worldwide attention.

The Dalai clique and the international anti-China forces shut their eyes to the progress in the ecological improvement and environmental protection work in Tibet. They have spread rumors all over the world that the Chinese government is "destroying Tibet's ecological environment," "plundering Tibet's natural resources" and "depriving the Tibetan people of their right to subsistence," and so on and so forth, in order to mislead world public opinion and deface the image of China. Camouflaging themselves with pretensions of concern about eco-environmental protection in Tibet, they want really nothing but to hamper the social progress and modernization of Tibet and to prepare public opinion for their political aim of restoring the backward feudal serfdom in Tibet and splitting the Chinese nation.

It is true that there are still many problems in Tibet's ecological improvement and environmental protection efforts. As the whole global ecosystem is deteriorating, the fragile ecology in Tibet is particularly affected. Mud-rock flows, landslides, soil erosion, snowstorms and other natural calamities occur frequently in Tibet and desertification is threatening the region's eco-environment, compounded by man-made damage to the ecological environment as Tibet's economy develops. All these things have attracted much attention from the Central Government and the local government of Tibet. In order to ensure the permanent stability of the ecological environment and natural resources and to guard against possible new threats to them, the Tibetan local government, supported by the Central Government, has set up and put into practice since 2001 a mammoth plan for ecological improvement and environmental protection. From now until the mid-21st century, more than 22 billion yuan will be invested in over 160 eco-environmental protection projects aimed at steadily improving the ecosystem in Tibet. There is no doubt that the people in Tibet will create an even more beautiful environment and an even better life for themselves in the course of their future development.

(China.org.cn March 10, 2003)