Doctoral Dissertation Research: Converting Pastures to Grasslands: State Interventions into Pastoral Livelihoods and Grassland Ecosystems of Tibet

本研究项目调查了2003年启动的一项重大政府计划，即撤除放牧项目，该项目要求从西藏的大片牧场撤除放牧，以恢复据称退化的牧场。该项目的工作原理是建立围栏区域，每年有几个月到十年禁止放牧。研究生Yundan Nima将在博士生导师Emily Yeh博士的指导下，调查这项放牧移除计划的基本原理。具体而言，本研究提出了以下问题：中国中央政府为什么要在西藏牧区启动“退牧”项目？中央政府在多大程度上实施了“退牧”项目？牧民如何接受、拒绝、修改或适应该项目，为什么？传统形式的草原管理系统和藏族牧民的地方知识在多大程度上与非平衡生态系统的预期相吻合？这如何影响牧民对项目的反应？政治生态学是一种在多个尺度上分析环境问题及其提出的解决方案是由政治、经济、社会和文化因素形成的方法。实地调查将使用多种方法，包括详细的家庭调查、深入的半结构化访谈、口述历史、样带步行和参与观察。访谈对象包括牧民和各级政府官员（从中央政府到村庄）。将在那曲的两个村庄进行深入的民族志研究。通过调查放牧清除项目的实地实施情况，以及其目标认同或拒绝它的方式，该项目有助于理解国家发展和环境项目，包括它们的社会和环境后果，以及它们可能产生新身份的方式。该项目通过对国家对牧民生计的干预是如何制定、转化为实施和争议的多尺度分析，为政治生态做出了贡献。该项目还为畜牧业研究做出了重大贡献，提供了关于快速变化和政府干预如何影响发展中国家牧场管理模式和生计的知识。通过该项目，藏族牧民将有机会表达他们对政府环境和发展政策的经验和看法，以及他们对自己目前和未来生计状况的评估。

This research project investigates a major government program launched in 2003, the grazing removal project, which calls for the removal of grazing from large areas of rangeland in Tibet for the purpose of restoring purportedly degraded pastures. The project works by creating fenced zones in which grazing is to be banned for several months annually to ten years. Graduate student Yundan Nima, under the supervision of PhD advisor Dr. Emily Yeh, will investigate the rationales for this grazing removal project. Specifically, this research asks why has the Chinese central government initiated the grazing removal project in pastoral Tibet and to what extent is it being implemented by sub-national and local governments as intended by the central government?; how are pastoralists accepting, rejecting, modifying or adapting to the project, and why?; to what extent do traditional forms of grassland management system and Tibetan pastoralists' local knowledge articulate with what would be expected for non-equilibrium ecosystems and how does this affect pastoralists' response to the project? The framework for analyzing the grazing removal project as a state intervention is informed broadly by political ecology, an approach that analyzes the ways in which environmental problems and their proposed solutions are shaped by political-economic, social, and cultural factors, at multiple scales. Field research will use a mix of methods that include detailed household surveys, in-depth, semi-structured interviews, oral histories, transect walks, and participation observation. Individuals to be interviewed include herders and governmental officials at all levels (from central government down to village). Intensive ethnographic study will be conducted in two villages in Nagchu. By investigating the on-the-ground implementation of the grazing removal project and the ways in which its targets come to identify with or reject it, the project contributes to understandings of state development and environmental projects, including their social and environmental consequences as well as the ways in which they may produce new identities. This project contributes to political ecology through a multi-scalar analysis of how state interventions into pastoral livelihoods are formulated, translated into implementation, and contested. The project also makes a substantial contribution to studies of pastoralism, contributing knowledge about how rapid change and government interventions are affecting range management patterns and livelihoods in developing countries. Through the project Tibetan herders will have an opportunity to express their experiences with and perceptions of government environment and development policies, as well as their assessments of their own current and future livelihood conditions.