Daqu Farmland Protection and Wetland Conservation Project Launched

On October 8, 2011, our second project of Vale Award was launched in Nyalam County’s Daqu Village. Led by Mr. Nanchu Ouzhu, Daqu’s Village Chief and other village leaders, over 120 village members participated in the construction of the project, which is expected to be completed by the middle of the month.  

The project, by setting enclosures around the village’s farmland, aims to protect over 70 hectares’ farmland from being trodden by wandering animals like cattle, houses and sheep and reduce collateral agricultural lost. The protected farmland will ensure increased agricultural productivity and safeguard food security for low income villagers in the community. In the meantime, as a main feed for livestock, the leftover of harvested Tibetan barley will also increase, which reduces traditional dependence on natural grassland and stimulates the sustainable development for animal husbandry in the region.  It will benefit over 500 villagers and more than 8000 livestock in Daqu Village. 

On the other hand, traditional enclosures of the village’s farmland are made of earth blocks dug from the neighboring wetland, which also brings about expansive destruction to ecosystems of wetland and grassland where uprooted grasslands cannot be easily recovered at this altitude of 4300 meters high. By using wire enclosures, it will therefore end such unsustainable and environmentally unfriendly activities, and leave time and space for destructed wetland to restore, where conservation can be achieved for animals living on such natural resource.  

The Pendeba Society would like to express our sincere gratitude to Vale Award and the Government of Nailong Township, who provide funding and other support to make this project run smoothly. We also like to thank Daqu villagers because without their active participation and involvement, this project cannot be implemented this early. By the end of the project, follow-up lectures will then delivered to Daqu community on environmental conservation and community development.   

This is just a beginning of our conservation effort. In the near future, The Pendeba Society will apply various approaches such as traditional sheep corral transformation to better conserve the wetland and grassland that exist along Pengqu River, the largest river in QNNP.