|
CHINA> Regional
![]() |
|
50,000 herdsmen resettled on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-24 23:29 XINING: Almost 50,000 herdsmen have bidden farewell to nomadic life and settled down in brick houses on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China during the past four years in a drive to protect the environment of a well-known nature reserve. The ecology of the Nature Reserve of the Three-River Headwaters in Qinghai Province, the source of China's three major waterways: the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers, has deteriorated during the past three decades because of global warming and frequent human activity. Concerns about the ecological safety of the three rivers led to Qinghai starting in 2003 to resettle herdsmen from the reserve, which is known as Sanjiangyuan in Chinese. In 2005, the central government initiated a 7.5 billion yuan (US$110 million) ecological reconstruction project in the area and the relocation of herdsmen was stepped up.
To help the herdsmen adapt to their new life, the provincial government has offered vocational training and set up a fund to encourage them to start their own businesses, Li said. The per capita annual income of the immigrants reached 2,000 yuan in 2008, double that before the relocation, he said. "We have also built new schools and enlarged old schools for their children as well as cutting tuition fees for students at secondary schools," he said. Tashi Dondrup, 48, a Tibetan herdsman who left the reserve and settled down in an immigrants' village in Henan county in Qinghai four years ago, has found a new life in stone carving. "Five of six in my family have learnt stone-carving skills in a government training program," he said. The local government set up a stone sculpture company backed by the collective investment of more than 700 immigrants in the village. "I have just accepted an order for 27,000 yuan from the company and hopefully I can earn as much as 40,000 yuan this year," Tashi said. In another immigrants' village in Maqen county, former herdsmen have learnt another life skill -- weaving Tibetan-style carpets. "I am now accustomed to an eight-hour work day and the new life here," said 47-year-old Tibetan woman Tompo. Under the relocation plan to be completed in 2010, 55,700 herdsmen will be moved from the vulnerable river source. |
长春市| 友谊县| 富顺县| 黄浦区| 金湖县| 嘉义县| 台中市| 东海县| 泾源县| 新民市| 沂水县| 广元市| 鄂托克旗| 莎车县| 安远县| 噶尔县| 图们市| 商洛市| 巴马| 乌兰浩特市| 沙河市| 梅河口市| 扎赉特旗| 堆龙德庆县| 兰溪市| 鸡西市| 灵武市| 兴仁县| 甘南县| 贡山| 宣城市| 新龙县| 靖宇县| 永州市| 北宁市| 慈溪市| 武安市| 米脂县| 玉溪市| 敖汉旗| 新化县|