Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
10CHENGDU9
2010-01-11 03:44:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Chengdu
Cable title:  

TIBETAN HERDERS IN SICHUAN'S HONGYUAN COUNTY FACE UNCERTAIN

Tags:  ECON PHUM EAIR EAGR SENV SOCI CH 
pdf how-to read a cable
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DE RUEHCN #0009/01 0110344
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 110344Z JAN 10
FM AMCONSUL CHENGDU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3679
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHBJ/USDAO BEIJING
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 4400
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CHENGDU 000009 

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/CM, G/TC FOR JEANNETTE WINDON, DRL/IRF FOR EMILIE KAO
DEPT PLEASE PASS TO USAID

E.O. 12958: DECL: 1/11/2020
TAGS: ECON PHUM EAIR EAGR SENV SOCI CH
SUBJECT: TIBETAN HERDERS IN SICHUAN'S HONGYUAN COUNTY FACE UNCERTAIN
FUTURE AS COUNTY DEVELOPS

REF: A. A) CHENGDU 008

B. B) 09 CHENGDU 247

C. C) 09 CHENGDU 195

D. D) 07 CHENGDU 140

E. E) INR ASSESSMENTS (MORE TIBET WATER TO SLAKE DRAGON'S THIRST? HTTP:
//INRWEB.STATE.SGOV.GOV/IA/M061207A.HTM; TIBET: ICE BEFORE AUTONOMY HTTP://I
NRWEB.STATE.SGOV.GOV/IA/M091218A.HTM)

CLASSIFIED BY: David E. Brown, Consul General.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CHENGDU 000009

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/CM, G/TC FOR JEANNETTE WINDON, DRL/IRF FOR EMILIE KAO
DEPT PLEASE PASS TO USAID

E.O. 12958: DECL: 1/11/2020
TAGS: ECON PHUM EAIR EAGR SENV SOCI CH
SUBJECT: TIBETAN HERDERS IN SICHUAN'S HONGYUAN COUNTY FACE UNCERTAIN
FUTURE AS COUNTY DEVELOPS

REF: A. A) CHENGDU 008

B. B) 09 CHENGDU 247

C. C) 09 CHENGDU 195

D. D) 07 CHENGDU 140

E. E) INR ASSESSMENTS (MORE TIBET WATER TO SLAKE DRAGON'S THIRST? HTTP:
//INRWEB.STATE.SGOV.GOV/IA/M061207A.HTM; TIBET: ICE BEFORE AUTONOMY HTTP://I
NRWEB.STATE.SGOV.GOV/IA/M091218A.HTM)

CLASSIFIED BY: David E. Brown, Consul General.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)

1. (U) This is the second of two cables on economic development
and nomad settlement policies in Tibetan communities of Hongyuan
County, in Aba (Tibetan: Ngaba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous
Prefecture, western Sichuan, based on travel there in November
and December. See ref A for first report.


2. (SBU) Summary: Improving livelihoods and protecting the
environment are the official rationales for nomad settlement and
grasslands enclosure in nomadic Tibetan areas of Sichuan, but
real progress on these fronts remains to be seen in Hongyuan
County of Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. The
economics of herders' lives remain largely unchanged; they
continue to rely on herding for their livelihoods, and live in a
largely cash-free economy. Locals report little actual
implementation of grazing bans, and question their environmental
protection utility. Since Congen Chengdu's last visit to
Hongyuan in 2007, construction and investment in the county have
markedly increased. For example: multiple new housing
developments for nomad settlement; upgraded county roads; a
large new People's Armed Police (PAP) base; expanding mushroom
cultivation facilities; and preparations for a planned new
airport. Little or none of these developments have resulted in
significant new job opportunities for the local population;
instead, resulting jobs are mostly going to migrant Han
laborers. End Summary.

Herding Remains Main Source of Livelihood;
Many Uncertain Regarding Future

--------------


3. (SBU) Despite profound changes underway in nomadic Tibetan
areas (ref A),the economics of herders' lives remain largely
unchanged in Hongyuan. In every settlement we visited, locals
said that virtually all families continue to rely on herding for
their livelihood. Even those with larger herds, thus considered
more well-off, have no regular cash income, though some earn
small amounts by selling yak milk and butter. When cash is
needed, they typically sell off part of their herd, often to
Chinese buyers from elsewhere in Sichuan, but sometimes to other
herders. One young herder told us that although his family has
a herd of about 200 yaks, they live with virtually no cash
income. Asked about how he purchased the motorbike he was
riding, he said that he raised the 6,000 RMB (USD 882) purchase
price through selling some of his herd. (Motorbikes, mostly red
Wuyang-Hondas, appear to be replacing horses as the main mode of
transportation for many nomadic herders.)


4. (SBU) Note: For Tibetan herders, their herd functions as
their bank account, and their measure of wealth. None of the
villages appear to have any permanent banking presence. We came
across one sign for a Rural Credit Cooperative in Anqu (Tib:
Amchok),about an hour south of Hongyuan's county seat, but it
appeared closed and non-operational. Some locals reported that
they have been able to access low-interest government loans to
cover about 20 percent of the cost of new settlement homes, but
these seem to have been distributed via government offices
rather than banking institutions. End note.


5. (SBU) Most locals with whom we spoke expressed the
expectation that the next generation will continue to be herders
like them, although some hoped for different futures for their
children. In a settlement on the outskirts of the Hongyuan
county seat, a couple whose two children were enrolled in school
said they hoped their education would enable them to leave the
herding life behind, but doubted it was possible, saying that
"children of herders don't get jobs." Overall, local Tibetans
expressed confusion regarding the implications of the ongoing
transformation of their lives and great uncertainty about the
future, many saying, "We don't know if what is happening now
will bring anything good in the future." (Note: We did not
discuss the new program to send thousands of Tibetan middle
school graduates per year from Aba, Ganzi, and Liangshan to
vocational and academic high schools in ethnic Han areas of
Sichuan. It is likely this will also have a dramatic affect on
Hongyuan communities' futures. See ref C. End note.)

Few Job Opportunities for Tibetans
--------------


6. (SBU) While officials have often have said that Tibetans are
encouraged to shift to work as laborers in order to relieve
pressure on the land (ref D),we saw no evidence that realistic
job opportunities have materialized for any significant part of

CHENGDU 00000009 002 OF 003


the Tibetan population in Hongyuan County. During a guided tour
in November, an official touted a newly established seed
production facility as a source of jobs for the herders whose
land had been "contracted" for its use. But when queried
further, he reported that the facility required a total of only
10 full-time employees. The biggest demand for labor now comes
from the builders of the new herder settlement villages.
However, according to locals' accounts, the contracts for home
building in each village we visited during December travel had
all gone to Chinese companies from inland Sichuan. Moreover,
local Tibetans in each village all reported that the building
work was done by migrant Han labor, an assessment confirmed by
our own observations -- we did not come across any local
Tibetans among the construction workers where buildings were in
progress. Likewise, other developments described below bring in
migrant Han laborers rather than hiring locally.


7. (SBU) Note: As part of Sichuan's nomad resettlement policies,
cities in the province have been "partnered" with Tibetan
counties to help implement the program. According to Chinese
media, Zigong, a city of over three million located 200
kilometers south of Chengdu, has been "partnered" with Hongyuan
and Dzorge counties. The reports note that Zigong is to assist
with the building of a total of 65 settlement sites, 31 of which
are in Hongyuan. It is highly likely that most -- or even all
-- of the contracts for these building projects are going to
Zigong-based developers, who are also bringing in their own
workers. End Note.

Hongyuan Developments:
Transportation Infrastructure and a Large New PAP Presence
-------------- --------------


8. (SBU) Driving from the Jiuzhaigou airport to Hongyuan's
county seat, we found that the county-level two-lane road had
been mostly paved since the last Congen Chengdu travel to the
area in 2007 (ref D). (Neither of Aba Prefectures two stretches
of national highway (gaosu gonglu) pass through Hongyuan
County.) The improved road continues out of Hongyuan toward the
prefecture capital of Barkam. Most other roads in Hongyuan
County remain rough, with long stretches either unpaved or with
old unmaintained pavement, although several road improvement/
construction projects were underway.


9. (SBU) About an hour's drive from the county seat, we visited
the site of a planned new airport. No airport construction was
yet visible along the large flat grassland areas flanking the
road. However, less than a mile further, equipment was set up
in a large area for collecting sand, used as the main raw
material for cement production. We were told that an ethnic Han
business man from Heishui (about five hours drive south and then
east) was the main investor, and that the area would be the
primary sand source for development of the airport and ongoing
road building projects. (Note: Sichuan provincial planning
authorities plan three new airports in the province by 2012,
bringing the province's total to 14. Two of the new airports,
Hongyuan and Yading in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, are
in Tibetan areas. The third is planned for Leshan, south of
Chengdu. End Note.)


10. (C) The downtown area of the Hongyuan county seat itself
appears to have seen little recent development -- it remains
mostly unpaved, and with few street lights at night, and the few
hotels in town mostly shut down for the winter. However, new
buildings such as a high school and a new nomad settlement
village have gone up on the town's edge. Most notable among
these was a large new PAP base, which locals told us was built
within the last year. According to their estimates, there are
about 2,000 PAP soldiers newly assigned there. We observed one
five-man PAP patrol in town and a few guards at the front
entrance.

Tibetan Don't Want to Work at "Poisonous" Mushroom Base
-------------- --------------


11. (SBU) Just down the street from new PAP base and the new
high school, and immediately adjacent to a new Tibetan nomad
settlement village, we saw a complex of about 100 mushroom
cultivation facilities, each a few thousand square meters.
Residents of the neighboring settlement village told us that Han
Chinese investors started contracting for the land and setting
up the facilities several years ago, and have been steadily
acquiring new land use rights to expand the investment since.
All the staff are ethnic Han, mostly migrants from other areas
of Sichuan, they said, adding "they don't hire Tibetans."
However, they also reported little local interest in these jobs
- they had heard that the facilities are "very poisonous,"
utilizing large volumes of chemicals to grow the mushrooms

CHENGDU 00000009 003 OF 003


quickly, and adversely affecting the respiratory systems of the
workers. According to their estimates, each individual facility
can produce enough mushrooms to earn 200,000 RMB (USD 29,412) a
year. (Note: According to Chinese media reports, there are now
five such mushroom cultivation centers in Hongyuan, employing
about 2000 people and producing approximately 8 million RMB (USD
1,176,470) of revenue in 2009. The mushrooms are sold to
markets around the country such as Chengdu, Beijing, Harbin,
Zhuhai and Chongqing. End Note.)

Little Evidence of Environmental Protection Observed
-------------- --------------


12. (SBU) Environmental recovery and preservation are often
identified as a priority by provincial and local officials, and
are a primary rationale for land contracting and nomad
settlement policies. However, we saw little evidence of
implementation on this front. During the officially-guided trip
in November, officials showed us one herder's land, explaining
that they had been working with the family to counter severe
desertification through a combination of seed planting and
grazing bans, and pointing to a fenced off grassy area they said
had been recovered as a result. However, when traveling without
official guides in December, most locals were unfamiliar with
any grassland recovery policies. The few who were described
implementation as extremely limited, and none knew of any land
where grazing was completely banned as stipulated in the
"converting pastures to grasslands" (tuimuhuancao),policy
launched in 2005. One herder pointed out a patch of fenced-off
land, saying it was a designated as a "no grazing" area.
However, herders still cut grass from the area when they need it
and are also allowed to let weaker animals directly graze there,
he said.


13. (SBU) Comment: One impediment to implementing the
"converting pastures to grasslands" policy may well be
resistance by Tibetan herders to being defined as the main cause
of grassland degradation. End Comment. One source remarked
that it is the government's land division and fencing policies
that should be blamed for degradation, as they force herds to
graze repeatedly in the same area. Traditional rotational
herding practices, on the other hand, provide greater
flexibility to adjust to conditions and allow grassland recovery
as needed, he said.


14. (SBU) Note: Chinese scientific studies since the 1980s have
often cited overgrazing and grassland rodents (voles) as the
main causes of desertification. Recently Chinese scientists and
officials are increasingly identifying global climate change as
a main factor in desertification on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau.
See also refs D and E. End note.
BROWN