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

3.2 Rangel<strong>and</strong>s for nature conservation
Considering the global extent of distribution, rangel<strong>and</strong>s are important habitats
of biodiversity, ranging from genetic to l<strong>and</strong>scape levels. Especially, in HKH,
Tibet Plateau <strong>and</strong> Pamirs, alpine meadows constitute the bulk of rangel<strong>and</strong>
resources in many places. These alpine meadows, due to its isolated habitats, are
especially rich in endemic species. From HKH to Pamirs, there are at least four
globally significant biodiversity hotspots (Conservation International 2007).
As mentioned previously, rangel<strong>and</strong>s are mostly in arid, semi-arid or cold
regions where rangel<strong>and</strong>s play a critical role in conserving water <strong>and</strong> soil <strong>and</strong>
maintaining the ecological stability. In HKH <strong>and</strong> Tibet Plateau, rangel<strong>and</strong>s are
the source areas of over ten major rivers in Asia such as Yangtze, Mekong <strong>and</strong>
Ganges <strong>and</strong> therefore the proper functioning of these rangel<strong>and</strong> ecosystems
will have great impacts on the hydrological process of regions far beyond the
boundaries of rangel<strong>and</strong>s.
To conserve the rich biodiversity resources <strong>and</strong> enhance the ecological functions
of the ecosystems, over 1.6 million sq. km or 39 % of the total area of HKH
has been designated by the national governments as protected areas. Some of
the world’s largest nature reserves or protected areas are in the rangel<strong>and</strong>s areas
such as the San Jiang Yuan Nature Reserve <strong>and</strong> Changthang Nature Reserve
in China (Table 4).
Table 4: Some of the large protected areas covering the rangel<strong>and</strong>s of HKH
Name Size (ha) Source
A Er Jin Shan Nature Reserve
(Xinjiang, China)
4,500,000 Du (2004)
San Jiang Yuan Nature Reserve
(Qinghai, China)
36,300,000 Baidu
(2010a)
Qiangtang Nature Reserve (Tibet, China) 29,800,000 ICIMOD(2010)
Kekexili Nature Reserve (Qinghai, China) 4,500,000 Baidu(2010b)
Korakoram Sanctuary (India) 500,000 ICIMOD(2010)
Annapurna Conservation Area
(Mustang, Nepal)
762,900 ICIMOD(2010)
The importance of rangel<strong>and</strong>s in soil preservation <strong>and</strong> water conservancy is of
particular relevance to China. The Chinese mainl<strong>and</strong> tilts from northwest to
southeast. A virtual line more less corresponding to the Hu’s Line (Baidu 2010c;
Sen 1989) extending from northeast to southwest divides Chinese territory into
two distinct parts: pastoral region in the west where natural rangel<strong>and</strong>s are the
main l<strong>and</strong>scape <strong>and</strong> farming area in the east that was dominated by cultivated
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> > > 3. Eco-tourism <strong>and</strong> Nature Protection in Relation to <strong>Pastoralism</strong> <strong>and</strong> Rangel<strong>and</strong> <strong>Management</strong>