Southern Tibet Human Activities: Ecological Footprint Analysis of

Nyingchi Region

Chaohui Li

1,2

, Xudong Wu

1,3

, Kuang Chen

, Dan Lo

, Junxian Dai

, Dongxue Xia

Ciren Yangzong

6,†

and Guoqian Chen

1,*

Laboratory of Systems Ecology and Sustainability Science, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871,

China

Yenching Academy, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China

Cheshire Academy, Cheshire, Connecticut 06410, U.S.A.

Institute of Tibetology, Tibet University, Lhasa 850012, Tibet, China

Urban Resource Department, College of Science, Tibet University, Lhasa 850012, Tibet, China

ciy@utibet.edu.cn,

gqchen@pku.edu.cn

Keywords: Tibetan Plateau, Carbon emissions, Human footprint, Nyingchi.

Abstract: The Tibetan Plateau has experienced a series of environmental changes in the last century due to climate

change and anthropogenic activities. Extensive studies have examined the effect of anthropogenic activity

disturbances such as grazing and transhumant pastoralism on the ecosystem of the TP. However, there remains

much to learn about the impacts of forest economies in the less studied Southern TP region. This paper intends

to evaluate the impacts of human actives in the forest region on the TP by focusing on a village (Nyingchi) in

the above-mentioned region. Our study aims to carry out a full set of human footprint analysis that includes

carbon, water, energy, and land-use footprint of the region through fieldwork, interviews, and onsite

monitoring. The current paper presents a research plan with preliminary results that includes fieldwork

analysis and preliminary calculations. Our current analysis indicates the need for future research on human

footprint analysis in the southern TP region, with special attention to mapping the region's spatiotemporal

patterns from high-resolution data by using bottom-up analysis.

1 INTRODUCTION

The Tibetan Plateau is the world’s largest land unit

with the highest elevation. As the world’s “Third

Pole”, it plays central roles in mediating climate

change as well as other important ecological services,

such as water reservoir, regional climate regulation,

promoting rich biodiversity (Jiang et al., 2020). In

recent decades, however, the Tibetan Plateau has

experienced a series of significant environmental

changes such as degrading grassland, melting

glaciers increasing precipitation (Duan & Wu, 2006).

It has been acknowledged that these environmental

changes in the Tibetan region in the last few centuries

have been altered by not only climate change, but

also human activities, such as grazing, felling,

†

Contributing equally with the corresponding author

farming, urbanization (Gao et al., 2013). As the

fragile ecosystem of the Tibetan region is extremely

vulnerable to disturbances, minor anthropogenic

disruption can have a serious environmental influence

on the region.

Extensive studies have been carried out

examining the effect of anthropogenic activity

disturbances such as grazing and transhumant

pastoralism on the ecosystem of the alpine grassland

region of the Tibetan Plateau (Fan et al., 2015; Zhao

et al., 2015). These abundant studies have

demonstrated the high interest of the academic

community in the TP region. However, compared

with the attention directed to pastoral activities on the

TP, other forms of anthropogenic activities and

economy types have been largely neglected and

Li, C., Wu, X., Chen, K., Lo, D., Dai, J., Xia, D., Yangzong, C. and Chen, G.

Southern Tibet Human Activities: Ecological Footprint Analysis of Nyingchi Region.

DOI: 10.5220/0011358700003355

In Proceedings of the 1st International Joint Conference on Energy and Environmental Engineering (CoEEE 2021), pages 94-99

ISBN: 978-989-758-599-9

discussed much less extensively in existing studies,

such as the subsistence forestry economy in

Southeastern Tibet. While the alpine forest landscape

and forest economy are much less typical and

dominant in the TP region, the Southern TP forest

region plays crucial roles in carbon sequestering,

water reserving, as well as represents one of the most

bio-diversified area in the world (Shen et al., 2015).

Human activities in this region largely scatter

across the shrubland and forest area along the middle

and lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River

Valley. Historically, this area has been one of the

most isolated regions in the world, with villagers

living in almost primitive states until the late

twentieth century. However, in recent decades, as

urbanization and tourism brought alteration to the

human-environment dynamic in the TP region, this

region has experienced major socio-economic

changes, characterized by the increase of population,

increased income, booming tourism, and more active

residential migration (Sheehy et al., 2006). This

proportionally small region has now become

important economically important in the TP region,

therefore, more studies are necessary to further our

understanding of the human impact in this region

which exhibits both significant environmental and

socio-economic changes.

The aim of this study is to map out the human

footprint in subsistence forestry economies in the

southern TP region by focusing on a village

(Nyingchi) in this area. This study intends to collect

data from onsite monitoring of greenhouse gas

emissions, including CO2, CH4, and N2O fluxes in

the soil and air, as well as water, energy, and land use

data. A detailed inventory list of assets and

expenditures is projected to be obtained through

semi-structured interviews of the local inhabitants.

After these data are obtained, a unified set of

accounting frameworks will be adopted to calculate

the living footprint of the region, including input-

output analysis, life cycle analysis, systems process

analysis, etc. This paper presents the research plan as

well as preliminary results of the present project. The

rest of this paper is organized as follows: Section 2

presents the methodology and study area of this

project; Section 3 presents the preliminary fieldwork

results, Section 4 presents preliminary calculation

results, and the last section presents discussions and

conclusions.

2 METHODOLOGY

2.1 Accounting Framework

A full set of accounting frameworks will be used to

calculate the living footprints of the region, including

top-down approach such as systems input-output

analysis, bottom-up approach such as life cycle

analysis, and systems process analysis. For these

assessments, we first track the inputs of a production

unit in a step-by-step manner to a level where the

input items match the sectors in the input-output

tables, after which match the results with the intensity

databases that are generated from systems input-

output analysis. The assessments require systematic

accounting framework that allows for coherent

processing of large amount of data, as well as detailed

inventory data to an extremely high resolution of

family units. Details for these series of accounting

methods can be found in our previous studies (Chen

et al., 2013, 2019; Wu et al., 2021).

2.2 Fieldwork

The project intends to conduct field monitoring of

greenhouse gas emissions, water, energy, and land use

in the region so as to build a resource use inventory.

Multiple sampling points will be set up in the

region. Static camera obscura-gas chromatography as

well as standard sampling boxes (50cm × 50cm ×

50cm for the tank and extended box and 20cm × 50cm

× 50cm for the chassis) will be used to collect fluxes

of gas. After the gases are collected, they will be

shipped to laboratory for examination using Agilent

4890 gas chromatograph. Specimen such as yak dung

will also be taken as samples to laboratories for

testing.

2.3 Interviews

To gain data in family-production-unit resolution, this

project intends to interview the majority of families

in the study area by using structured and semi-

structured interviews. So far, we have carried out

interviews in August 2019 and August 2020.

Questions about the villagers’ production activities,

material, and monetary assets, household

expenditures, as well as cultural and festival activities

(which can take up a significant proportion of living

footprints in the area) were asked. Interviews were

carried out in the local language (Tibetan), and then

translated into Mandarin. All interviews were

recorded and videoed after informal consent by the

interviewees, which are then entirely transcribed

Southern Tibet Human Activities: Ecological Footprint Analysis of Nyingchi Region

(disclosed upon completion of the project). Typical

questions include: “What are your family incomes?”

“What does the income source of the family

comprise of?”, “What are the housing arrangements?

Is housing subsidized by the government?”, “How

many family members are there in the family?”,

“How are the pastureland/forestland/arable land

allocated? How many acres do each family own?”,

“How many livestock (including yak, chicken, pigs,

etc.) does your family own?”, “What are the festival

activities in the region and what are the social

customs?”, etc.

2.4 Study Area

Nyingchi is located at around 26°52′N～30°40′N,

92°09′E～98°47′E, southern Tibetan Plateau. It lies

at the abrupt hairpin turn of the Yarlung-Tsangpo

river, at the foot of the Namjagbarwa Mountain. The

region covers an area of around 117 thousand sq km

with an altitude ranging from 150m above sea level

to over 7000 m asl, with an average elevation of

around 3000 meters. Due to the high altitude drop in

the region, this region possesses the most complex

vertical-belt distribution in the world. Nyingchi is

characterized by abundant forest and shrub

vegetation, hosting a forest area that covers 26.4

billion cubic meters, with over 3500 species of

higher plants and 123 types of wildlife species in the

region. Figure 1. shows series of photos taken in the

study area.

Nyingchi is home to a variety of minority ethnic

groups. Having a population of around 2.3 million

until 2016, its ethnic race mainly consists of Tibetans,

Menba, Luoba, Nu, Dulong, Naxi, Bai, Lisu, and Yi.

This unique ethnic combination has shaped both the

culture and production activities in Nyingchi region,

as can be seen in our next section.

a) Yarlung Tsangpo River Valley

b) Entrance of Nyingchi village

c, d) Inside the primordial forest of Nyingchi region, near

Nyingchi village

Figure 1. Photos of Nyingchi region.

3 PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Here we show preliminary results obtained from

some of the interviews. We observe drastically

different living styles in Nyingchi from the northern

CoEEE 2021 - International Joint Conference on Energy and Environmental Engineering

traditional pastoral region of Tibet, where a nomadic

lifestyle is led in the arduous conditions of the

highland. Nyingchi region is well ecologically

endowed, leaving its inhabitants with rich living

materials. The production patterns in Nyingchi are

similar to a self-sufficient farming economy, with a

focus on the cultivation of arable land, along with

extensive use of natural endowments in the

mountains and rivers, such as mining valuable

precious medical materials for trade. The fertile land

and warm climate as well as the rich forest and biotic

resources allow the local inhabitants relative well-off

living conditions, comparably better than a typical

inland Chinese farmer, due to the agreeable climatic

conditions for farming and extra tourism dividends.

The food abundance is shown to be extremely high,

with suitable conditions for raising a variety of

livestock (cow, yak, pig, chicken, duck, sheep, goat,

etc.), fertile black soil for growing crops and

vegetables, and rich biotic resource in the nearby

forest for spice, seasoning, fungus, medicines, as

well as other wild food sources. This is in great

contrast to the northern pastoral region of Tibet

where only yak and goats are the available source of

food. Housing is provided by the government in the

region, with an architectural appearance similar to

traditional Chinese cottages with Tibetan decorations.

The major energy source in the region consists of

firewood collected from the forest, hydropower from

traditional hydropower stations, and modern power

grids. Cow and yak dung are also collected for

burning. Primary and secondary education is

provided by the local government free of charge,

living expenses such as meals in canteens are

provided to students in the form of subsidies.

Additionally, we find phone service generally take

up a significant proportion of the expenses in the area,

sometimes accounting for around 15% of the total

expenses.

The following content provides the income, asset,

and expenditure list for an interviewed family of

three, including husband, wife, and son (two married

daughters not taken into account)(table 1.). Salary

income from part-time jobs as truck driver and

cement worker is the main source of income for the

family, taking up more than half of the total income

(approximately 53.7%). Income from the tourism

industry also takes up a significant share of the total

income (approximately 43.0%), including selling

food to tourists (32.2%) and dividends from tourist

attraction ticket fees (10.7%). Pastureland subsidies

are also provided to families, depending on the acres

of pastureland that is contracted to the family. The

conventional major expenses of a family such as

housing and food expenses are almost null, with the

former covered by the government and the latter self-

sufficient (from self-owned cultivated-land and

livestock). The major expenses for the interviewed

family include education, phone service, and clothing,

each taking up 74.9%, 14.9%, and 6.2% of the total

expenses, respectively. The physical asset of the

family includes housing provided by the government,

arable land in the back yard of the house, and

livestock (15 cows, 10 pigs, 60 chickens).

a, b) Interview scenes taken inside the family’s house

c) Photo of interviewee and research group in front of the

family house

Figure 2. Photos of a selected interviewed family in

Nyingchi.

Table 1. Income, asset, and expenditure list for an

interviewed family of 3.

Income

Ticket from tourism 10000RMB/year

Pastureland subsidy 3000RMB/year

Selling potatoes, fish, tea

to tourists

30000RMB/year

Income from part-time

job (husband)

50000RMB/year (truck

driver and cement worker)

Southern Tibet Human Activities: Ecological Footprint Analysis of Nyingchi Region

Assets

House approximately 100 sq m

(provided by the

government)

Arable land approximately 500 sq m

Cows 15/yea

s 10/

Chicken 60/yea

Expenditure

Housin

Food 0 (self-sufficient)

Electricity bill 556RMB/year

Clothes 2000RMB/year

College education

(enrollment fee)

700RMB/year

College education (living

enses)

24000RMB/year

Phone service 4800RMB/year

4 PRODUCTION INTENSITIES

OF THE REGION

We plan on obtaining production intensity of arable

land, pastureland, water use, energy use, and carbon

emissions in the Tibetan region of 42 economic

sectors. After obtaining a detailed inventory list of

emissions water use, land use, and energy use in the

region, a systematic analysis of the series of

footprints in the region can be calculated. However,

current production intensity calculated from official

Tibetan statistic input-output data may suffer from

sectoral and regional aggregation, which point to the

need for more detailed fieldwork analysis of

production efficiencies in local regions.

5 DISCUSSIONS AND

CONCLUSIONS

Preliminary interviews and fieldwork of this study

have shown that the ecological footprints are

considerably small compared with inland regions.

The investigation of the village has shown that the

production patterns of the Nyingchi region is similar

to a combination of subsistence forest economy and

small-scale farm economy, with a large proportion of

the daily necessities harvested in a self-sufficient

manner. With the current data and fieldwork setup,

this study plans to make further progressions in the

following area:

First, face-to-face semi-structured interviews with

the villagers in the Nyingchi area need to be carried

out to collect more data on the living expenditures and

incomes of families. The field study plans to apply the

snowball sampling method that aims to survey at least

50 more participants to acquire needed data to be

incorporated in the full set of evaluation models that

has been developed.

Continue field monitoring of greenhouse gas

emissions in already established points in the

Nyingchi Region, and deploy more sampling points

of water use, land use, and energy use in the region to

build a comprehensive emissions inventory of the

region’s GHG emissions and other resource use.

A full set of evaluation systems that consist of

standard procedures to analyze the multi-scale living

footprints of residents in Tibet will then be applied.

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Southern Tibet Human Activities: Ecological Footprint Analysis of Nyingchi Region