Near Chuxi Village of Tingri County there is a piece of beautiful wetland. Although it is small, it has affluent grass for livestock and a running spring that provides water for animals and human, and agricultural irrigation as well. The wetland also helps increase humidity for the village where many other villages in the region faces dry weather all year round. Usually villagers graze their horses, goats and sheep on this wetland in spring. Horses are always tethered to a picket to prevent them from running away, and horses are therefore can only feed on a small area of grassland. This will give huge pressures on the grassland and animals sometimes would dig the land for grass roots. As a consequence, the grasslands are destroyed and cannot be easily recovered at this altitude of 4300 meters high. If the horses break the tie, they will then run into neighboring farmland and destroy the crop.
To help the village better protect their precious wetland and meadow for houses, sheep and goats, and prevent livestock from treading farmland nearby, The Pendeba Society visited Chuxi Village on July 16, 2011 to identify feasibility of implementing a conservation project. The project aims to protect this valuable land by setting enclosures around the wetland, letting animals feed freely and promoting rotational grazing on the land. It will protect around 1 hectares of farmlands and around 10 hectares wetlands as well as water resources and fodder that depend on them, benefiting over 400 villagers and more than 2000 livestock in Chuxi Village.
After having an informative conversation with village leaders of Chuxi Village, we think this project is rather useful and has multiple benefits for both community development and environmental conversation. It not only protects the wetland from over grazing, but it also provides sustainable land management measures for the better use of the wetland and meadow. The village leaders have urged us to implement the project as soon as possible, and we will surely do so in the coming months.