Official and unofficial reports from Tibet describe how dozens of nomadic and farming families are in the process of being moved out from their traditional land in the east of Chamdo prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and adjacent areas in Sichuan to be settled with government assistance in areas in Kongpo prefecture (Chinese: Nyingtri) in the southeast of the TAR. Unlike other resettlement projects in China, it seems that this resettlement drive is not primarily motivated by state programmes for poverty alleviation. Reports suggest that the relocation of Tibetans here is linked to the drive to protect forests and develop ecosystems in the upper reaches of the Yangtse river, measures the Chinese Government was forced to implement after the devastating floods of 1999 in the Chinese lowland. Also in contrast to other resettlement projects in China, the current resettlement of nomads will not upset the local ethnic balance, since it involves the moving of Tibetans to areas within ethnic Tibetan areas. In 1999, the Dulan resettlement project in Qinghai (the province known traditionally by Tibetans as Amdo) raised particular controversy because it aimed to move non-Tibetans to areas inhabited by Tibetans, and the World Bank, the main sponsor of the project, was forced to withdraw funding in July 2000.
Officials like Legchog, then Chairman of the TAR People’s Government, stated at the beginning of 2003 that 10 villages had been constructed in Nyingtri prefecture and that nomads, farmers and agro-pastoralists (families that are seasonally nomadic and also practice farming) were being resettled there and would get job opportunities there. Tibetans from the move-out areas indicate that numbers varying from a few to many dozen per township have already been moved from some townships. The move-out areas are situated in Gonjo, Jomda and Markham in the TAR and Derge in Sichuan.
Tibetans in Kongpo reported to TIN the arrival of new settlers. A woman from Kongpo who lives close to one of the move-in villages said that the new settlers are unwilling to cultivate the land because it is worse in quality than the land in their home areas. There are also indications of social problems and distrust towards the settlers amongst the local people.
Reports are not clear as to what extent the government resorts to the use of direct force to make people move. Several testimonies received by TIN show that so far verbal persuasion and the promise of financial compensation have been used to convince people that they should move. Several sources also mention that the government facilitates the people in their resettlement. These sources also mention that people are told during meetings that they “have to” move, that if they don’t move now, they might not find good land later, and will miss the compensation promised by the government.
People from the move-out areas indicate that many people do not wish to be resettled and that there is a lot of resentment after they have been resettled in the move-in areas in Kongpo. Resettled families complain to relatives about the fact that the soil is too poor for proper farming, or that they suspect that within a few years erosion will have made the land useless because the new farmland was created artificially by putting soil on otherwise stony ground. Many of the people who had to move to Kongpo were fully or partially nomadic, continuing a tradition virtually unaltered apart from the recent construction of winter dwellings. Before moving to Kongpo they had to sell their animals such as yak and sheep upon which local livelihoods and the local economy entirely depended. There are also profound spiritual attachments to the ancestral land stemming from the worship of local deities linked to certain mountains and passes in most of these areas. Offerings to the local deities are made during religious ceremonies held at these passes and mountains, which are therefore considered to be holy places.
While China continues to relocate millions of its citizens under the umbrella of ‘poverty alleviation’, the moving of entire families out of Gonjo seems to be linked to environmental protection measures in the upper reaches of the Yangtse catchment area. China Daily recently reported that nearly 1,000 families were moved out from Jomda, Markham and Gonjo counties in Chamdo prefecture in order to “keep the forests intact” and that these “uprooted people have settled elsewhere with government assistance”. These measures not only aim at protecting existing forest and at reforesting deforested areas, but they are also intended to develop “primal vegetation and other ecosystems” in traditional nomad areas. In an article titled “Three Counties to Beautify the Hills”, China Tibet Information Centre reported today (29 July 2003) that the “overall planning and design” of “public woods” in “serious soil erosion areas” in Jomda, Markham and Gonjo counties has been carried out, with so far over 6 million tree bags planted. The article does not mention that the programme involves the relocation of large numbers of local people.
The reconstruction of ecosystems to bring back habitats long lost and to build up ecological infrastructures in heavily populated areas is an expensive trend in western countries, but it is an idea that is unlikely to be easily accepted by indigenous Tibetans, particularly since it means that they have to leave their ancestral land. Although traditional animal husbandry is known to have contributed to ecological changes in the regions in question over the past centuries, it has by no means played a role of any significance in the massive deforestation seen over the past five decades. The resettled Tibetan nomads and farmers therefore appear to pay a drastic price for ecological devastation to which their ancestral way of life contributed only marginally. Whether these measures will actually bring a solution to current ecological problems, in particular floods in mainland China, remains to be seen.
A number of Tibetans from the area have linked the current resettlements to mining, such as in the case of the Awang nomadic area in Gonjo, from where both mining as well as the moving-out of nomad families is reported. People mention being told that the land will be used for the creation of forests, but reports from the area say that mining machinery and equipment from the large Yulong copper mine in Jomda has been transferred to and from nearby areas in Gonjo. This could indicate that some of the mining activities related to this important mine are extended into Gonjo county. It is also possible that farming areas in Gonjo will be used to supply food and winter quarters for (mostly Chinese) workers working in the Yulong mining area, which is situated at a much greater altitude where the growing of vegetables is impossible.
