Ecosystem management to alleviate poverty on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau

中国的草原处于生态危机状态。例如，在欧亚大陆最大的草原单元青藏高原上，约33%的草原退化，其中约15%的草原严重退化，仅剩0-40%的原始植被覆盖。草原退化具有重要的经济和环境后果。中国约80%的农村贫困人口生活在草原生态系统中，这种脆弱的生态环境的任何进一步退化，以及与之相关的生态系统服务的损失，都将加速他们的贫困。拟议的伙伴关系和项目开发(PPD)赠款的总体目标是制定一项全面的提案，其目的是：(A)确定生态系统属性/过程与这些草原生态系统中关键商品和服务的提供之间的关系；(B)开发工具，帮助在气候变化的情况下保护这些草原的特定生态系统服务或效益；以及(C)加强决策选择，并将这种知识转让给农村贫困人口、商业部门以及地区和国家政府。PPD赠款将使我们能够审查中国草原管理和扶贫的相关政策和法规，编制制定完整提案所需的所有主要利益攸关方群体的清单，组织区域研讨会和实地考察青藏高原哈北试验站，并以参与式方式编写赠款提案，让所有财团成员以及相关利益攸关方参与其中。

The grasslands in China are in a state of ecological crisis. For example, about 33% of the grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, the largest grassland unit on the Eurasian continent, are degraded, and about 15% of those are severely degraded with only 0-40 % of the original vegetation cover left. Grassland degradation has important economic and environmental consequences. About 80% of the rural poor in China live in grassland ecosystems and any further degradation of this fragile ecological environment, with an associated loss of ecosystem services, will accelerate their poverty. The overall goal of the proposed Partnership and Project Development (PPD) Grant is to develop a full proposal that has the aims of: (a) identifying the relationship between ecosystem properties/processes and the provision of critical goods and services in these grassland ecosystems; (b) developing tools that help to conserve particular ecosystem services or benefits of these grasslands in a changing climate; and (c) strengthening decision-making options and transferring this knowledge to the rural poor, to the commercial sector, and to regional and national governments. The PPD Grant will allow us to review relevant policies and regulations on grassland management and poverty alleviation in China, to compile a list of all major stakeholder groups required for developing the full proposal, to organize a regional workshop as well as a field excursion to the Habei experimental field station on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, and to write the grant proposal with a participatory approach involving all the consortium members as well as relevant stakeholders.