Sustainable development problems and countermeasures: A case study of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Abstract

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is a region with unique and distinctive natural landscapes and cultural characteristics and presents a useful case to improve understanding of sustainable development for regions with extreme environments and unique social backgrounds. Research has been conducted for small-scale regions, however there has been insufficient exploration of the problems and countermeasures for sustainable development in Tibet. This study analyzes different functional zones (urbanized zones, agricultural zones, pastoral zones and ecological security zones) of the QTP. Then it develops a sustainable livelihood index (SLI) based on the sustainable livelihood analysis framework resulting in three main findings. First, sustainable livelihoods vary greatly across functional zones. The SLI for farmers and herdsmen in the urbanized zones is the highest, with a value of 3.57, followed by the agricultural zones of 3.07. In comparison, the SLI values in the ecological security zones and pastoral zones are 2.92 and 2.85, respectively, indicating that the two zones present challenges for sustainable development in the QTP. Second, all counties had few natural, social or physical assets, indicating the need to expand assets to achieve sustainable livelihoods. Finally, urbanized and agricultural counties had more robust livelihood strategies than ecological and pastoral counties. In light of these results, strategic options have been formulated to promote sustainable development. These options include: accelerating construction of the third pole national park group; establishing a pattern of green mining; promoting the biological resources industry; and initiating a carbon trading market in the QTP.

Keywords

Qinghai-Tibet Plateau / Functional zone / Sustainable livelihood / Sustainable development

Decalartion of competing of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

This study is supported by Research on the 2nd comprehensive scientific investigation into the Tibetan Plateau (2019QZKK0404), Strategic Priority Research Program of the CAS (XDA20020300), Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (41630644) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2020M680660).

Author Contributions

All authors contributed to this work. In particular, conceptualization, methodology, software, validation, formal analysis, investigation, resources, data curation, Y.Z.; Writing-Original Draft Preparation, Y.Z. and D.C.; Writing-Review & Editing, Y.Z., D.C., and J.F.; Visualization, Y.Z., D.C.; Supervision, J.F.; Project Administration, J.F.; Funding Acquisition, J.F.

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