Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

Gyatong Grassland is located in Chengduo County, Yushu Prefecture on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, covering an area of 160km2. It is an important water source and home to many rare animal species such as Chinese Mountain Cat, Black-necked crane and Tibetan Fox. As with many alpine areas, Gyatong suffers from grassland degradation which negatively affects carbon absorption. Our project‚ purpose is twofold: first, to increase soil carbon uptake by restoring vegetation; and second, to engage the public in ecosystem conservation by reducing carbon emissions.

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Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

Indigenous communities face the most direct and profound impacts of climate change and grassland degradation. In Gyatong, as in many other areas, indigenous communities often play a passive role when carrying out adaptation actions, passively following top-down methods from the government and scientists, including receiving subsidies and watching the government‚ grassland restoration activities. This is largely because local herders are not given the knowledge or capacity to deal with these problems, hence are not included in the decision-making and executive processes. Over time, herders have become accustomed to this situation. As a result, the vulnerability of this group was not seen by the society as they don‚ t speak out. 

Through past investigation and research, our project first confirmed that herders have knowledge and experience of sustainable grazing management, and that there are corresponding grazing management systems in the community‚ traditional practices. This result provides a basis for policy makers to reconsider the significance of local wisdom, as well as the structure and management of grazing communities. 
Simultaneously, we provided training and sharing of successful cases to local herders, helping them to establish faith in taking actions on their own, and gradually developing confidence and initiative by participating in grassland restoration experiments. What‚ more, modern knowledge and technologies were also distributed through this process. This work is aimed at empowering more pastoral participants and wider alpine rangeland areas in the future. In addition, we engaged 160 million people via the internet to educate them about the herder group, the problems they face and their ongoing efforts. 

The above activities serve as the basis for policy recommendations to better value local contributions, indigenous knowledge and involve herders in the decision-making process.

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