Pastoralism and Rangeland Management on the Tibetan Plateau in ...

6. We have accelerated the pace of building the new countryside <strong>and</strong>
significantly improved the looks of the rural area.
Since 2006, the TAR party committee <strong>and</strong> government have made the housing
projects in the pastoral area a starting point of building the new countryside.
We have spared no efforts to promote the pastoralist resettlement programme,
which also involves poverty alleviation <strong>and</strong> reconstruction of rural housing,
greatly improving the living <strong>and</strong> housing conditions for farmers <strong>and</strong> pastoralists.
By the end of 2009, a total 230,000 households of 1.2 million farmers <strong>and</strong>
herdsmen have moved into their new <strong>and</strong> more comfortable houses. At the
same time, we have strengthened construction of supporting facilities in these
housing projects, putting in place an integrated network of water, electricity,
roads, telecommunications, gas, etc. The rural l<strong>and</strong>scape is moving from local
improvement to overall advancement. The past ten years have witnessed 85 %
of the masses getting safe drinking water, 114,000 households using biogas
<strong>and</strong> 395,000 farmers <strong>and</strong> herdsmen families being provided with solar cookers
by the government. All towns <strong>and</strong> 80 % of villages have become accessible by
road. 70 % of the population in agricultural <strong>and</strong> pastoral areas has access to
electricity. 85 % of villages are connected by phone lines <strong>and</strong> 80 % of towns by
post. We have basically realized the development goals of “cable to the county
<strong>and</strong> telephone/fax to the town”.
7. Solid progress has been made in poverty alleviation <strong>and</strong> poverty rate has
been greatly reduced.
The TAR party committee <strong>and</strong> government’s strategy of reducing poverty by
development has targeted the enhancement of the poor people’s development
ability. We have consistently increased investment in poverty alleviation <strong>and</strong>
development, building more safe houses for poor or relocated families <strong>and</strong>
evacuating people from places infected by epidemics. We have promoted
poverty reduction by targeting the entire towns, developing niche industries,
<strong>and</strong> advancing science <strong>and</strong> technology. With a variety of poverty alleviation
projects functioning, we have seen poverty declining <strong>and</strong> people’s capacity for
development growing. Through years of unremitting efforts, the key poverty
population in Tibet has decreased from 1.48 million in 2001 to 203,000 at
the end of 2009. The number of rural poor <strong>and</strong> low-income population has
declined sharply, effectively promoting harmony, stability <strong>and</strong> betterment of
living <strong>and</strong> working conditions in agricultural <strong>and</strong> pastoral areas.
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> > > 6. Achievements <strong>and</strong> Visions of Agricultural <strong>and</strong> Pastoral Development in the Tibet Autonomous Region