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

博士论文研究：退牧还草：国家对西藏牧区生计和草原生态系统的干预

• 批准号: 0903049
• 负责人: Emily Yeh
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-06-01 至 2011-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0903049&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Converting; Pastures

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.

该研究项目调查了2003年启动的一项重要政府计划，即放牧清除项目，该项目要求从西藏大面积的牧场上清除放牧，以恢复据称退化的牧场。该项目的工作方式是建立围栏区，每年禁止放牧几个月到十年。研究生Yundan Nima在博士生导师艾米丽叶博士的指导下，将调查这个放牧移除项目的基本原理。具体而言，本研究探讨了中国中央政府为何在西藏牧区启动了放牧移除项目，以及中央政府打算在何种程度上由地方政府和地方政府实施？牧民如何接受、拒绝、修改或适应项目，为什么？传统形式的草原管理系统和西藏牧民的当地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？分析放牧拆除项目作为一个国家干预的框架是由政治生态学，一种方法，分析的方式，环境问题和他们提出的解决方案是由政治经济，社会和文化因素，在多个尺度上形成的。实地研究将采用多种方法，包括详细的家庭调查、深入的半结构化访谈、口述历史、样带行走和参与观察。接受访谈的个人包括牧民和各级政府官员（从中央政府到乡村）。将在那曲的两个村庄进行密集的人种学研究。通过调查放牧移除项目的实地实施情况及其目标认同或拒绝的方式，该项目有助于理解国家发展和环境项目，包括其社会和环境后果以及它们可能产生新身份的方式。该项目有助于政治生态，通过多标量分析如何制定国家干预到牧民生计，转化为实施，并有争议。该项目还对畜牧业研究作出了重大贡献，有助于了解快速变化和政府干预如何影响发展中国家的牧场管理模式和生计。通过该项目，西藏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，以及他们对自己当前和未来生计条件的评估。