Nan Wang

An Assessment of the Importance of Traditional Livelihoods and Beliefs in Protection Scared Forests and thereby Conserving Wildlife in Western Sichuan, China

Sacred grove,special conserved by local people for a long history, tend to be the best habitat for birds.

Local people make smoke for showing their respect to buddha and sacred groves.

Preliminary studies that I have undertaken have shown that many of the forests surrounding the Sichuan Tibetan communities support large populations of wildlife and generally high biodiversity. This is due solely to the protection provided by the Buddhist beliefs of local people, which has occurred for many generations. The beliefs dictate that no animal other than livestock should be killed and eaten, that areas of forest around religious buildings and in landscapes are revered and are regarded as scared sites, that people feed wildlife around their houses and that they regard the colour white as important. Therefore, species such as the white eared-pheasant are especially important. In combination this has prevented hunting and logging and as a result wildlife is abundant.

However, in recent years, economic development, including tourism, has occurred at a tremendous rate throughout all of China. This has resulted in improved transport infrastructure and this is exposing the Tibetan culture to the influences and demands of the outside world. Tourism areas are being established in natural habitats, putting tourists into areas of high biodiversity and as a consequence increasing pressure is now starting to be put upon natural resources, threatening habitats and wildlife that has been protected for generations.

Galliformes are one of the world’s most threatened groups of bird species and will form the focus of this study. Although the species protected by the traditional beliefs of the Sichuan Tibetan communities are currently sufficiently numerous not to be regarded as threatened, the erosion of protection may alter this. This project will undertake a number of surveys; to assess the importance of scared forests relative to nearby, non-sacred forests, the current level of threat posed by increasing tourism and natural resource use, attempt to measure and predict the potential levels of threats in the future and undertake a feasibility study of developing sustainable livelihoods.

The project will provide an opportunity to initiate conservation action to protect a range of species before they become threatened, and also highlight the importance of protecting traditional cultural beliefs. This work will not only provide fundamental ecological information on this subject, but will also form the basis of an educational and awareness raising campaign targeted at stakeholders at all levels from local communities to national Government. It is hoped that this work will be presented at the 4th International Galliformes Symposium to be held in October 2007 in Sichuan Province, China.

For more information contact Wangnan761227@yahoo.com.cn