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Climate Change Adaptation Among Tibetan Pastoralists: Challenges in Enhancing Local Adaptation Through Policy Support

Environmental Management volume 50, pages 607–621 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

While researchers are aware that a mix of Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK), community-based resource management institutions, and higher-level institutions and policies can facilitate pastoralists’ adaptation to climate change, policy makers have been slow to understand these linkages. Two critical issues are to what extent these factors play a role, and how to enhance local adaptation through government support. We investigated these issues through a case study of two pastoral communities on the Tibetan Plateau in China employing an analytical framework to understand local climate adaptation processes. We concluded that LEK and community-based institutions improve adaptation outcomes for Tibetan pastoralists through shaping and mobilizing resource availability to reduce risks. Higher-level institutions and policies contribute by providing resources from outside communities. There are dynamic interrelationships among these factors that can lead to support, conflict, and fragmentation. Government policy could enhance local adaptation through improvement of supportive relationships among these factors. While central government policies allow only limited room for overt integration of local knowledge/institutions, local governments often have some flexibility to buffer conflicts. In addition, government policies to support market-based economic development have greatly benefited adaptation outcomes for pastoralists. Overall, in China, there are still questions over how to create innovative institutions that blend LEK and community-based institutions with government policy making.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA05130702 to Y. P. Y.) and Ford Foundation (Grants No. 1075-0729 and 1090-0448). The original map on which Fig. 2 is based was provided by the Yiqing Township government and composed by Haiying Yu. We thank Silang Qunpei and other people in Yiqing Township for their support throughout the course of field research. We also thank Georg Miehe for comments on the manuscript and Nick Norrsmen for assisting with editing the first draft. Many thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on the manuscript. During this research, all work (interviews, household surveys, etc.) complied with Chinese law.

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Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Biogeography, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, 650204, China

    Yao Fu & R. Edward Grumbine

  2. Centre for Mountain Ecosystem Services, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, 650204, China

    Andreas Wilkes

  3. World Agroforestry Center Beijing Office, Beijing, China

    Andreas Wilkes

  4. Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No 18, Shuangqing Road, Beijing, 100083, China

    Yong-Ping Yang

  5. Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No 132, Lanhei Road, Kunming, Yunnan, 650204, China

    Yong-Ping Yang

  6. World Agroforestry Centre, China & East Asia, Kunming, Yunnan, 650204, China

    Jian-Chu Xu

  7. Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research at Kunming, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, 650204, China

    Yun Wang

  8. Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yuquan Road, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yao Fu

Authors
  1. Yao Fu
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  2. R. Edward Grumbine
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  3. Andreas Wilkes
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  4. Yun Wang
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  5. Jian-Chu Xu
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Correspondence to Yong-Ping Yang.

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Fu, Y., Grumbine, R.E., Wilkes, A. et al. Climate Change Adaptation Among Tibetan Pastoralists: Challenges in Enhancing Local Adaptation Through Policy Support. Environmental Management 50, 607–621 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-012-9918-2

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Keywords

  • Tibetan Plateau
  • Pastoral community
  • Local ecological knowledge
  • Climate
  • Change adaptation