When China’s first railway line into Tibet opened in 2006, Tibetans outside Tibet, and their supporters, condemned it, for many reasons. It would only intensify Han Chinese emigration to Tibet, they warned, would disrupt migratory wild animals seeking safe, wolf-free remote pastures to give birth, would cause erosion and degradation, and other disasters as well. […]
ANNOUNCEMENT: RUKOR SUMMER SCHOOL Skills training for Tibetans and their friends in Europe, in researching and analysing China’s plans for Tibet. Have you wondered how the Rukor blog obtains information and assesses China’s plans to transform Tibet? How does Rukor find its’ stories, verify and document China’s agenda for the future of Tibet? This European […]
UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE THREE PARALLEL RIVERS PROTECTED AREA UNDER THREAT Blog one of three This 2019 moment uncannily echoes 2004, when Chinese environmentalists and an investigative newspaper revealed Tiger Leaping Gorge, on the southeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, was about to be dammed, stilling a mountain river famed for its untamed wildness and spectacular […]
UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE THREE PARALLEL RIVERS PROTECTED AREA UNDER THREAT Blog two of three HOW TO UNDO A WIN FOR THE ENVIRONMENT What has changed since 2007? Why are the Longpan/Tiger Leaping Gorge dam construction plans now again high on the infrastructure construction agenda? Much has changed, tilting the playing field in favour of the […]
UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE THREE PARALLEL RIVERS PROTECTED AREA UNDER THREAT Blog three of three MINING PERSISTS INSIDE WORLD HERITAGE PROTECTED AREA Other industries, within UNESCO’s World Heritage protected area, have drawn expressions of concern from UNESCO, notably mining. Yunnan is known for its copper deposits, for which demand grows as the power grids sending hydropower […]
Blog one of three updating Achen Gangyab/Hoh Xil: problematic UNESCO World Heritage IN LOVE WITH ICONIC TIBETAN SPECIES Now that UNESCO has bestowed its prestigious World Heritage badging to a remote portion of the Tibetan Plateau, China is figuring out what to do with this jewel of alpine desert, even though very few lowland Han […]
TIBET’S UNIQUE WILDLIFE ENRICHES CHINA’S UNIQUENESS Blog two of three updating Achen Gangyab/Hoh Xil: problematic UNESCO World Heritage China embraced science a century ago, as the way out of China’s weakness and vulnerability. Now China is strong, and more convinced than ever that science is the key. All aspects of life must have “Chinese characteristics”, […]
ENTER HOX IL THROUGH THE EXPRESSWAY, EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP Blog three of three updating Achen Gangyab/Hoh Xil: problematic UNESCO World Heritage As the conservation biologists on the ground in Hoh Xil well know, the most pressing managerial decisions are to do with the new human presence, the Han presence, in the form of […]