Dharamsala, January 6 – 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.”
Today, The Women’s Environment and Development Desk (WEDD) of Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA) released a digital version of a book on Tibet’s water, now made available on the Tibet Third Pole website. 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.
“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,” the TWA said in a statement.
The TWA alleged that the Chinese government has begun to resettle hundreds of thousands of Tibetan nomads into permanent dwellings “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 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,” the statement said.
The TWA called 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 Ahmedabad, 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.
TWA’s WEDD is also launching a Music Video titled ‘Achi Drokmo’- (in English- a nomadic woman). The short video (4 minutes and 38 seconds) features a nomadic woman singing in solitude and grieving over her lost home and herds.
