西藏地区可持续发展面临的主要生态环境问题及对策

Frontier of the Ecological Construction Support the Sustainable Development in Tibet Autonomous Region

西藏是我国重要的生态安全屏障区域,也是我国生态建设的重点区域。生态安全屏障建设和促进农牧民持续增收是西藏可持续发展过程中面临的两方面重大需求,其面临的主要问题包括:(1)受高原特殊的自然条件限制,西藏资源环境承载能力极为有限,其资源与生态环境本底情况有待于进一步调查、评估;(2)以高寒草地为主体的高原生态系统深受气候变化和人类活动的双重影响,屏障功能正面临日益严峻的威胁;(3)以高寒草地为支撑的畜牧业仍沿袭传统模式,农牧民收入现状及趋势与全国平均水平还有一定的差距。因此,在建设西藏生态文明的背景下,应积极探索资源节约型、环境友好型发展道路,为转变经济发展方式、发展生态产业提供理论与技术支撑,在实现农牧民增收的同时,保护和建设国家生态系统安全屏障。主要对策包括:(1)开展西藏地区资源环境容量调查与研究,保障西藏的可持续发展;(2)量化辨识气候变化和人类活动对草地生态系统的影响,建立科学有效的分类治理与管理模式;(3)实施农牧系统耦合工程,实现高寒草地保护和农牧民增收的双赢;(4)加强西藏高原特色畜产品基地保护与建设,促进农牧民增收。

Tibet Autonomous Region, as central part of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, is a unique ecological regional unit on the Earth, average elevation above 4 000 m, has a lot of special and peculiar ecosystems, and thus is important for biodiversity, river source conservation, and other ecological services. Therefore, the Tibetan plateau is one key zone for ecological sheltering function to China and East Asian, while the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau is among those areas that are most sensitive and vulnerable to future climate change. Climate change predictions indicate that increase in temperature will be faster on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau than in surrounding areas and trends will increase with elevation. Climate change will within the next decades have major effects on biodiversity and ecosystem function on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. Addition with increasing human activities, such as overgrazing, many ecological problems including ecosystem degradation, even grassland desertification emerged on the Tibetan plateau, will inevitably weaken the ecological sheltering function on the Ti- betan plateau. In 2009, for protecting the ecosystem services on the Tibetan plateau, Chinese government began to implement the project of ＂Protection and Construction of the State Ecological Safe Shelter Zone on the Tibetan Plateau＂. Based on many constructive technician and restorative countermeasures of ecological engineer, the degraded trend of Tibetan plateau ecosystem was suppressed, and the functions of plateau ecological sheltering become stable on the whole Plateau, even enhanced in some area. On the other hand, how to increase income of the local farmers is another important issue on the Tibetan plateau. The average income of local farmers is still lower than national level, and aim of government is to increase the local framer＇ s average income to national level in year 2020. These need more developing projects to achieve the goal, which will certainly put more environmental pressures on the ecosystems on Tibetan plateau. In summary, both the ecological sheltering construction and increasing income of lamer and herdsman are two pressing tasks faced by government of the Tibet Autonomous Region during their sustainable development and ecological civilization. Key problems involved in this situation include： （1）Background of natural resources and environment need more investigation and research, due to the large area and extreme environment on the Tibetan plateau; （2）Ecological sheltering function of the Plateau ecosystem is suppressed by both climate change and human activities, which would lead to ecological degradation especially in alpine grassland ecosystem; （3）Gap between the farmer＇s and herdsmen＇s average income and national level currently exists in the Tibet Autonomous Region, because the traditional husbandry supported by alpine grassland ecosystem still dominated in the Plateau which lack of cooperative organization, effective support of science and technology. The ways to deal with this situation include： （ 1 ）comprehensive evaluation of regional resources and environmental capacity and reach the goal of regulating the ecological capacity, to realize sustainable development in the Tibet Autonomous Region; （2）quantitate and identificate the impact of global change and human being＇ s activity on alpine grassland, to develop the different technique and pattern for manage typical Plateau ecosystem and construct different ecological projects; （3）coupling agriculture and animal husbandry system in different areas to realize the double win for increasing farmer＇ s income and guarantee the ecological sheltering function in Plateau; and （4）strengthen protection and construction the base for characteristic animal products for enhancing transition of husbandry economy and increasing the farmer＇ s income in the region. Therefore, the road to sustainable development and ecological civilization in the Tibet Autonomous Region should conserve the natural resources and environment friendly, support the development of ecological industry and transition of husbandry economy, which leads to not only increase the average farmer＇ s income but also safeguard the ecological sheltering function on the Tibetan plateau.