Featured on the Chinese Government Official Web Portal, the Pendeba Program was depicted as “having brought noticeable achievements.”
The program, started in 1994, was in response to the growing need for local participation in the protection of the Qomolangma National Nature Preserve (QNNP) in the Mt. Everest Region. This innovative program relies on a new type of conservation and community service volunteer, known as a Pendeba. Pendebas are locally nominated volunteers from each village within the protected area who improve family health, advance options for income generation, spread conservation concepts, and organize collaborative action around local priorities. In QNNP, these volunteers have helped to decrease child mortality by 50% and reduce deforestation by 80%.
From 1994-2010, more than 1200 Pendebas were trained to bring benefits to villages in three protected areas of Tibet. In 1998, the United Nations recognized the program as one of the world’s most successful examples of sustainable human development.
Today, The Pendeba Society, the first non-profit organization to be registered in the Everest region of China, provides a support network and offers practical skills training for more than 270 Pendebas across 406 villages of QNNP. The model has also spread to the Four Great Rivers region of southeastern Tibet, and five other nature preserves across China are interested in adapting the model.
The news is also being disseminated and shared with other main web portals in China such as People’s Daily Online, China Daily, and China Tibet News.
In the meantime, Beijing Television, a main television network in China, also reported the Ford Green Awards 2011 with The Pendeba Society awarded the Top Prize. Mr. Tsering Norbu, Executive Director of The Pendeba Society, in the interview by Beijing Television described our program as not only focused on environmental conservation, but also about a series of community-related activities including public health, community development and income generation skills training.
More information about the news can be found here: Beijing TV Report