Ecosystem management to alleviate poverty on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau

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.