Geography and Sustainability 1 (2020) 275–283

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Geography and Sustainability

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geosus

Article

Sustainable development problems and countermeasures: A case study of

the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
Yannan Zhao a, Dong Chen a,c, Jie Fan a,b,c,∗
a
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China
b
Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Haidian District, Beijing 100190, China
c
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijingshan District, Beijing 100049, China

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t
• Identifying problems for sustainable de-
velopment of QTP.
• Evaluating the sustainable development
index in different functional zones in
QTP.
• The index in the urbanized zones is
the highest, followed by the agricultural
zones.
• Ecological security and pastoral zones
have the least sustainable development
level.
• Formulating strategic options to pro-
mote sustainable development in QTP.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is a region with unique and distinctive natural landscapes and cultural charac-
Received 17 July 2020 teristics and presents a useful case to improve understanding of sustainable development for regions with extreme
Received in revised form 19 November 2020 environments and unique social backgrounds. Research has been conducted for small-scale regions, however there
Accepted 22 November 2020
has been insufficient exploration of the problems and countermeasures for sustainable development in Tibet. This
Available online 27 November 2020
study analyzes different functional zones (urbanized zones, agricultural zones, pastoral zones and ecological se-
Keywords: curity zones) of the QTP. Then it develops a sustainable livelihood index (SLI) based on the sustainable livelihood
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau analysis framework resulting in three main findings. First, sustainable livelihoods vary greatly across functional
Functional zone zones. The SLI for farmers and herdsmen in the urbanized zones is the highest, with a value of 3.57, followed
Sustainable livelihood
by the agricultural zones of 3.07. In comparison, the SLI values in the ecological security zones and pastoral
Sustainable development
zones are 2.92 and 2.85, respectively, indicating that the two zones present challenges for sustainable develop-
ment in the QTP. Second, all counties had few natural, social or physical assets, indicating the need to expand
assets to achieve sustainable livelihoods. Finally, urbanized and agricultural counties had more robust livelihood
strategies than ecological and pastoral counties. In light of these results, strategic options have been formulated
to promote sustainable development. These options include: accelerating construction of the third pole national
park group; establishing a pattern of green mining; promoting the biological resources industry; and initiating a
carbon trading market in the QTP.

1. Introduction goals (Kaivo-oja et al., 2014). The Brundtland Commission’s concept

of sustainable development in 1987 attracted significant attention and
Efforts to make society and its processes more livable require sus- launched a great deal of new research. Since that time, studies on sus-
tainability, which has been one of the world’s most important policy tainable development have encouraged global analysis worldwide from

∗
Corresponding author
E-mail address: fanj@igsnrr.ac.cn (J. Fan).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geosus.2020.11.002
2666-6839/© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. and Beijing Normal University Press (Group) Co., LTD. on behalf of Beijing Normal University. This is
an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Y. Zhao, D. Chen and J. Fan
ecological, economic and social perspectives as well as the growth of
reforms (Boström, 2012). Among these is sustainable livelihoods which
is the combination of capabilities, assets and activities necessary for
supporting living activities (Chambers and Conway, 1992; Hahn et al.,
2009). Thus, sustainable livelihood is a critical part of sustainable de-
velopment (Kates et al., 2001; Attfield et al., 2004). Sustainable liveli-
hoods can cope with and recover from stress and shocks and maintain
and strengthen its livelihood without destroying the natural resource
base (Serrat, 2017). Therefore, sustainable livelihoods are necessary for
sustainable development (Attfield et al., 2004). Studies on sustainable
livelihoods have direct implications for achieving the Sustainable Devel-
opment Goals (SDGs), which are a global development agenda issued by
the United Nations in 2015.
China was the first country to adopt “Agenda 21” and to identify sus-
tainable development as a major national strategy. The Qinghai-Tibet
Plateau (QTP) is known as the “Roof of the World”, the “Third Pole of
the Earth” and the “Asian water tower” (Qiu, 2008). It contains natural
areas, rare species habitats and a highland species gene pool, and serves
as an important ecological security barrier for China and other parts of
Asia (Zhao et al., 2006; Li, 2019). Sustainable development in the QTP
is critical for China’s sustainable development as the plateau occupies
approximately one-quarter of the Chinese territory. Thus, the QTP not
only has unique values for natural ecosystems, but also for human sys-
tems, suggesting a critical need for sustainable development (Fan et al.,
2017). As a result, studies on the QTP have attracted attention from in-
ternational organizations and scholars, especially Chinese scientists in
conjunction with the Chinese government, due to its unique geographi-
cal location (Yao et al., 2012a, 2012b; Yao et al., 2017; Fan et al., 2019).
The Tibet Autonomous Region (hereafter referred to as Tibet) occu-
pies more than 50% of the QTP. Tibet, which is located in the southwest-
ern part of the QTP, has remarkable characteristics, history and culture
(Yang, 2004; Qi et al., 2013). It is not only vast in area, but also has great
natural ecological significance, an underdeveloped economy and a large
number of people living in poverty (Hua et al., 2017). Sustainable de-
velopment in Tibet is important for the coordination of its economic de-
velopment, society and environmental resources. Over the years, experi-
ence has shown that ignoring natural and cultural characteristics of the
QTP will inevitably lead to conflicts between modernization, resources,
the environment and the social economy (Fan, 2000; Yang et al., 2017 ;
Li et al., 2019). The imbalance of the economic-social-natural systems
will inevitably result in resources destruction, ecological degradation
and environmental pollution, which will ultimately affect economic de-
velopment and social progress (Harris, 2010; Wu et al., 2016). If sus-
tainable development policies and measures fail, the sustainable devel-
opment process will be negatively affected or possibly even destroyed
(Zilberman et al., 2018). Only by establishing a rational scientific con-
cept of sustainable development can further deterioration be avoided,
and a significant loss in human history be prevented.
The ecological environment in Tibet is highly fragile and sensitive
to environmental change. Despite the low intensity of human activ-
ities in the QTP, ecological and environmental issues have received
widespread attention (Yu et al., 2012). Studies in Tibet have been
conducted from the natural resource perspective focusing on water,
grasslands and forests. With advances in conceptualization of sustain-
able development, poverty has emerged as an important problem, thus
the issue of people’s sustainable livelihood has attracted much atten-
tion. Recent studies on exploring livelihood assets, livelihood strate-
gies and their relationships have emerged with the application of sur-
vey data (Wang et al., 2014; Hua et al., 2017). Survey data is widely
used, but is mainly conducted on small-scale regions at one point in
time. Unfortunately insufficient dynamic research on large-scale re-
gions make it more difficult to understand the problems and coun-
termeasures for sustainable development in Tibet. Thus, this study
aims to identify problems and countermeasures for sustainable develop-
ment by exploring sustainable livelihoods in Tibet. This study will help
deepen the understanding of sustainable development in extreme envi-
276
Geography and Sustainability 1 (2020) 275–283
ronments with unique social areas, which will ultimately help achieve
the SDGs.
This paper is organized into five sections. Section 2 provides the
study methodology. In Section 3 the study results are reported and dis-
cussed. Section 4 addresses the study’s policy implications and the final
section provides the main conclusions.
2. Material and methods
2.1. Study area
Based on the “Planning of the Major Function Oriented Zoning of
the Tibet Autonomous Region” and Notice by the General Office of the
National Development and Reform Commission, Tibet’s counties are di-
vided into four zones: urbanized; agricultural; pastoral and ecological
security (see Fig. 1). This research is limited to 72 counties, as two coun-
ties (Shuanghu County and Chengguan District of Lhasa) were excluded
due to lack of data.
2.2. Data sources
The main obstacle encountered in this analysis has been the lack
of data, as datasets for Tibet have been either unavailable or of poor
quality. After several field visits for data collection, data for this study
was ultimately sourced from the Tibet Statistical Yearbook for 2006,
2011 and 2016, the Tibet Yearbook for 2006, 2011 and 2016, the China
County Statistical Yearbook for 2006, 2011 and 2016 and the Overview
of Tibet County. The administrative division data of various districts
and counties in Tibet were sourced from the National Geographic Infor-
mation Resource Directory System. Social assistance security data were
obtained from the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
2.3. Sustainable livelihood analysis (SLA)
The SLA framework was established by the Department for Interna-
tional Development (DFID) and is one of the most commonly used frame-
works (see Fig. 2). It has five components: vulnerability context, liveli-
hood assets, transforming structure and processes, livelihood strategies
and outcomes (Carney, 1998; DFID, 1999). The vulnerability context
refers to the vulnerable external environment made up of shocks, trends
and seasonality that are outside an individual’s control. Livelihood as-
sets include human (H), physical (P), social (S), financial (F) and natural
(N) assets. The choices that people make and the activities that people
undertake to achieve their goals are defined as livelihood strategies.
Based on the SLA framework and previous studies (Liu and Xu, 2016;
Mayur et al., 2016; Qiu et al., 2018; Zhao et al., 2019), the index for
sustainable livelihoods in Tibet was constructed (see Table 1). Rural em-
ployees refer to the rural population over the age of 16 who participate
in production and business activities.
2.3.1. Data standardization
There are n evaluation indicators: X1 , X2 , X3 , ..., Xn . The original data
matrix of the m participating objects obtained is Xij ( i = 1, 2,……, m, j=1,
2,……, n). The positive index“excellent” is the maximum value and the
reverse index “excellent” is the minimum value. Therefore, formulas (1)
and (2) can be used to standardize the forward and reverse indicators,
respectively.
𝑋𝑖𝑗
𝑃𝑖𝑗 = (1)
max 𝑋𝑗
min 𝑋𝑗
𝑃𝑖𝑗 = (2)
𝑋𝑖𝑗
Among them, Pij is the original data matrix and Xij is the standardized
data matrix.
Y. Zhao, D. Chen and J. Fan Geography and Sustainability 1 (2020) 275–283

Fig. 1. Tibet’s urbanized, agricultural, pastoral and ecological security zones.

Fig. 2. Sustainable livelihoods framework established by the Department for International Development (DFID, 2000).

Table 1
Weighted indicators and sub-indicators for the SLI.

Indicators Weight Sub-indicators Weight Positive / Negative Index

Human asset (H) 1 Number of rural employees 0.5 +

Education level 0.5 +
Natural asset (N) 1 Area of grassland 0.5 +
Area of fenced grassland 0.5 +
Social asset (S) 1 Participants number of new rural social endowment insurance 0.5 +
Number of people covered by the rural minimum living security system 0.5 +
Financial asset (F) 1 Income per capita 1.0 +
Physical asset (P) 1 Grain per capita 0.5 +
Livestock assets 0.5 +
Livelihood strategies 1 Number of livelihood activities 0.5 +
Ratio of non-agricultural employment 0.5 +
Vulnerability context 1 Disaster 0.5 -

2.3.2. Weight of SLI
The weight of the SLI is calculated using the Experts Grading Method
(EGM), which is a method for gathering opinions from experts. The use
of EGM overcomes the bias of individual designers and helps to ensure
content validity, reliability and consistency.
The EGM works as follows. First a group of experts is invited to assess
the importance of sustainability criteria using real numbers between -1
and 1. A larger value indicates that a criterion is more important. The
scores of each criterion are provided by different experts with profes-
sional knowledge and experience from local government and academic
institutions.

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Y. Zhao, D. Chen and J. Fan Geography and Sustainability 1 (2020) 275–283

Fig. 3. SLI by county in in 2015.

Second, the indicator weight as assessed by each expert is defined

as:
⎛ 𝑎1𝑗 ⎞
⎜ ⎟
⎜ 𝑎2𝑗 ⎟ (3)
⎜⋮⎟
⎜𝑎 ⎟
⎝ 𝑘𝑗 ⎠
where k presents the identifying number of each expert. Then the weight
matrix of indicators is created as follows:
⎛𝑎11 ⋯ 𝑎1𝑛 ⎞
⎜ ⋮ ⋱ ⋮ ⎟ (4)
⎜ ⎟
⎝𝑎 𝑘 1 ⋯ 𝑎𝑘𝑛 ⎠

The weight of the indicator is then calculated as shown in Table 1. It

is noteworthy that the grassland, especially the alpine grassland in Ti- Fig. 4. SLI for each functional zone between 2005 and 2015.
bet, provides significant ecosystem functions and services. Overgrazing
is one of the main factors causing degradation of Tibet’s alpine grass-
lands. Fencing grassland has been one of key policies to maintain the sta- Baqing, Bange, Dingqing County and others of which six are in ecologi-
bility of the alpine grassland community. As a result, the area of fenced cal security zones.
grassland is set as a positive in our analysis. The SLI categorized by functional zone is presented in Fig. 4. The re-
sults show that the SLI of urbanized and agricultural zones is higher than
𝑘
1∑ that of pastoral and ecological security zones. For instance, in 2015 the
𝑎𝑗 = 𝑎𝑗 (5) SLI was 3.57 for farmers and herdsmen in urbanized zones, 3.07 for agri-
𝑘 𝑘=1
cultural zones, 2.92 for ecological security zones and 2.85 for pastoral
2.3.3. SLI zones. Therefore, the livelihoods of farmers and herdsmen in urbanized
The standardized data Pij and each index weight aj constitute a and agricultural zones are more sustainable than the livelihoods of farm-
weighted average comprehensive model, as shown below: ers and herdsmen in pastoral and ecological security zones. Tibet cannot
achieve sustainable development without the unifying ecological, social
𝑚
∑
𝐿𝑆𝐿 = 𝑎𝑗 𝑃𝑖𝑗 , 𝑖 = 1, 2, … … , n. (6) and economic benefits across different functional zones. Thus, explor-
𝑗=1 ing sustainable livelihoods by functional zone is necessary in order to
identify Tibet’s sustainability problems and potential solutions.
3. Results
3.1. Livelihood assets
The results of the SLI were classified into five groups using the Jenks
Natural Breaks Classification method, as shown in Fig. 3. In sum, the sus- Urbanized and agricultural zones have high levels of human, physi-
tainable livelihood of farmers and herdsmen in Tibet showed large spa- cal and financial capital. Although pastoral and ecological security zones
tial differences. A high SLI was found in 13 counties, including Bailang, have high social capital, other assets are lower than those in urbanized
Dazi, Gongga and others. Among these, eight counties are classified as and agricultural zones (see Fig. 5). From the perspective of livelihood
urbanized. In contrast, a low SLI was identified in ten counties, including strategies, the urbanization and diversity of livelihoods in pastoral and

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Y. Zhao, D. Chen and J. Fan Geography and Sustainability 1 (2020) 275–283

Fig. 7. Livelihood assets of agricultural zones in 2005, 2010 and 2015.

(H: Human; P: Physical; N: Natural; F: Financial; S: Social)

Fig. 5. Livelihood assets of each functional zone in 2015.

(H: Human; P: Physical; N: Natural; F: Financial; S: Social)

Fig. 6. Livelihood assets of urbanized zones in 2005, 2010 and 2015

(H: Human; P: Physical; N: Natural; F: Financial; S: Social) Fig. 8. Livelihood assets of pastoral and ecological security zones in in2005,
2010 and 2015.
(H: Human; P: Physical; N: Natural; F: Financial; S: Social)
ecological security zones are also lower than that of urbanized and agri-
cultural zones.
3.1.2. Agricultural zones
The structure of livelihood capital in agricultural zones is similar to
that of urbanized zones. Agricultural zones had fewer physical assets in
2015 than in 2005 and 2010, due to the decline in livestock per capita
3.1.1. Urbanized zones
(see Fig. 7).
In urbanized zones, the structure of livelihood assets has not changed
Beginning in the Eighth Five-Year Plan Period, the regional com-
significantly between 2005, 2010 and 2015. Farmers and herdsmen in
prehensive development program, using agriculture and livestock as its
urbanized zones have the highest level of financial assets, followed by
foundation, has boosted agriculture and animal husbandry in the “One-
human and physical assets, and then natural assets. These assets have
River-Two-Tributaries” (Yaluzangbu River and its tributaries, Niancu
secured their livelihoods resulting in a low proportion of people in the
River and Lasha River in Tibet) basin, bringing Tibet to the first level of
social guarantee system. As a result, farmers and herdsmen have low
development. Farmers and herdsmen account for about 80% of the Ti-
levels of social assets as shown in Fig. 6.
bet’s population, thus the long-term stability of society and economy de-
The development of services and tourism has been the driver of in-
pend on the further development of agriculture and animal husbandry.
creased urbanization, transforming the economy. During the early ur-
One factor impeding development of agriculture and animal hus-
banization period, the service industry dominated Tibet. The propor-
bandry is the difficulty of importing grains from distant Chinese
tion of administrative tertiary industry and those providing local public
provinces. This has imposed a significant burden on grain supplies,
services was 86%, while the proportion of those employed in produc-
transportation and local finances. Therefore, improving local grain pro-
tive industries was low. Administrative services have played an impor-
duction is crucial to the overall development of Tibet. The Chinese cen-
tant role in the formation of QTP’s cities and towns. The administrative
tral government’s regional comprehensive development program in the
functions of cities and towns have driven the development of various so-
“One-River-Two-Tributaries” basin was undertaken, in part, to solve
cial and economic undertakings. After 1984, Tibet implemented a com-
these supply issues and has resulted in a sharp increase in agricultural
prehensive reform policy. With the improvement of infrastructure, the
products. Agricultural products and their byproducts have experienced
economic growth of cities and towns accelerated, economic functions
significant increases with peanuts increasing by 1,300%, green feed by
have been strengthened, the urban population has concentrated and the
448%, vegetables by 408%, rapeseed by 267% and fruits by 103%. Com-
income levels have improved.
modity crops (e.g. rice, wheat and barley) have also increased by 55 to
Secondly, the tourism industry, particularly in central cities with his-
66% (Fan et al., 2017).
toric sites, has helped to develop urban services. Relying on its unique
resources, Tibet’s tourism industry has become an important engine for
economic development. The opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in 3.1.3. Pastoral and ecological security zones
2006 resulted in the rapid development of Tibet’s tourism industry, with The pastoral and the ecological security zones have similar liveli-
the number of tourists increasing from 929,000 in 2006 to 40 million hood capital structures characterized by low levels of natural capital
in 2019. In addition, new tourism formats, such as self-driving tours, and high levels of social capital. In 2010, grassland ecological compen-
are also growing rapidly. The rapid development of tourism has bro- sation policies were applied in the ecological security zone resulting in
ken the long-term stagnation of Tibet’s economy (Fan and Wang, 2005; a decrease in the proportion of physical assets in the livelihood capital
Fan et al., 2017). structure (see Fig. 8).

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Y. Zhao, D. Chen and J. Fan
Fig. 9. Livelihood strategy indicator values by county in 2015.
As discussed below, the long-term blood-transfusion supportive
model creates problems and challenges to modernization for these two
zones. The QTP has a unique natural environment, being rich in nat-
ural and biological resources such as native plants, animals and com-
munities. However, the ecosystem is fragile and economic development
is poor. The ecological security and pastoral zones are the QTP’s most
underdeveloped areas. Animal husbandry is the dominant industry and
main livelihood source for farmers and herdsmen. Pastoral and ecolog-
ical security zones account for 88.4% of Tibet’s total land area. As a re-
sult, regional development and the improvement of people’s well-being
rely on state financial subsidies – referred to as the blood-transfusion
supportive model.
Although this model can be effective in creating a flourishing so-
ciety, it has two shortcomings. First, improving the living conditions
has created a financial burden on government. Second, long term use
of the blood-transfusion model diminishes local development initiative,
skills and ability. The negative effect of “wait, depend on and ask” con-
tinues to increase. Therefore, establishing a path for sustainable social
and economic development in the QTP that has limited environmen-
tal capacities and resource support is critical to achieving sustainable
development (Fan et al., 2019).
3.2. Livelihood strategies
The livelihood strategy indicator values for 2015 are divided into
five categories, as shown in Fig. 9. Four counties, including Naidong,
Qushui, Qusong and Sangri, have relatively high livelihood strategy val-
ues (0.43-0.5). Of these, two are classified as urbanized while the other
two are agricultural. Nine counties have low livelihood strategy values
of which five are classified as ecological security zones.
3.3. Vulnerability context
Vulnerability context indicator values are divided into four cate-
gories as shown in Fig. 10. Three counties, Dangxiong, Milin and Motuo,
have the highest values, indicating that they are most vulnerable to eco-
logical and disaster risks. Among these, Dangxiong and Motuo are classi-
fied as ecological security zones while Milin is an agricultural zone. The
280
Geography and Sustainability 1 (2020) 275–283
medium vulnerability context category includes 15 counties, of which
four are in ecological security zones, seven are agricultural, three are
pastoral and one is urbanized.
4. Discussion
The sustainable development of Tibet is gaining attention from a
range of development organizations. The sustainable livelihoods frame-
work contains a range of assets, including traditional land resources
as well as financial and social resources. Livelihood assets are assessed
and show differences across security zones. In comparision, urbanized
and agricultural zones have higher livelihood assets than pastoral and
ecological security zones. The four zones have a common character-
istic—low natural and physical assets. Thus, it is difficult for herds-
men to use their existing livelihood assets to further develop their
livelihood strategies and to enhance sustainable development. This is
consistent with previous studies repor reporting that livelihood strate-
gies adopted by herdsmen are dependent on their livelihood assets
(Bebbington, 1999; Koczberski and Curry, 2005). Thus human, financial
and natural assets have a positive impact on a farmers livelihood strat-
egy (Fang et al., 2014). A diverse portfolio of livelihood activities is one
of the key objectives of sustainable livelihoods (Ellis, 1998; Zhang et al.,
2020).
Vulnerability contexts in Tibet have caused great losses to sustain-
able livelihoods (Qiu et al., 2018). The vulnerability to disasters has
created great losses (Sanderson, 2000) since relief supplies from sur-
rounding regions are costly. This is consistent with previous studies
demonstrating that adaptions can improve livelihoods and enhance cop-
ing mechanisms and resilience from climatic shocks (Adger et al., 2005;
Younus and Kabir, 2018). Failure to adapt can result in large economic
impacts (Younus and Harvey, 2014), thus disaster management capabil-
ity should be included in future livelihood analyses.
Although this research is useful for understanding sustainable liveli-
hoods in Tibet, how can this research be useful to policymakers? The
question can be answered by creating resources to assist in develop-
ing regional strategies. The sustainable development system is based on
sustainable ecological development, led by sustainable economic devel-
opment and guaranteed by sustainable social development. Thus, sus-
Y. Zhao, D. Chen and J. Fan Geography and Sustainability 1 (2020) 275–283

Fig. 10. Vulnerability values for each county in 2015.

tainable livelihoods in Tibet have an opportunity for coordinating the 4.2. Transferring natural resources to natural assets
development of ecological protection with changing traditional indus-
tries and lifestyles. This analysis assists policymakers by providing four The QTP is an important national security barrier, ecological secu-
strategies as discussed below. rity barrier and strategic resource reserve base. The complex geological
structure and evolutionary process, the different types of sedimentary
basins in various eras and the multiple periods of intense magmatic
activities have created favorable conditions for the formation of min-
4.1. Constructing the national park group to enrich livelihood strategies
eral resources (Yang et al., 2015). As a result, the QTP is rich in min-
eral resources, especially oil, natural gas, ferrochromium, copper, gold,
While the QTP covers a large area with few people and has restricted
aluminum, lead, zinc, chromium and salt minerals. With the develop-
conditions for developing agricultural and animal husbandry, it has out-
ment of China’s economy and society, the demand for mineral resources
standing ecological landscape values. The formation of the QTP National
will continue to rise. The expansion and utilization of QTP’s mineral
Park Group can help realize its economic value through environmental
resources may guarantee China’s mineral resource capacity as well as
protection, which is important for tourism and will energize the QTP
promote local economic development and well-being (Tang, 2019).
into a higher level of development (Fan and Yu, 2019). Combining na-
Establishing a pattern of green mining can help to transform natural
tional parks and global ecotourism can help to promote sustainable de-
resources into sustainable natural livelihood assets. However, geological
velopment in pastoral and ecological security zones.
disasters occur frequently so the development of mineral resources must
The QTP National Park Group would protect unique natural and hu-
consider the social, ecological and geological environment by imple-
man landscapes consisting of the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon, Naqu
menting different development models. For instance, it is critical to de-
Selinco, Arizada soil forest, the source of the Three Rivers in Qinghai
velop green mining and to build a spatial transformation mining devel-
and the Everest and Qiangtang uninhabited areas. Combined with a se-
opment model. Specifically, the expansion of the solid minerals indus-
ries of national parks on the edge of the QTP, this would become the
try should adopt the “mining and mining area industrial park” model.
most concentrated and distinctive park in the world. The construction
The expansion of geothermal development should adopt the dual-model
of the QTP National Park Group is the most effective way for the QTP to
of “geothermal power generation and geothermal energy direct utiliza-
realize increased value and achieve sustainable development for a large
tion”. The expansion of mineral water should adopt the “research and
and significant area.
development (R&D)-industry-culture integration” model, while mine
Even though the current development level of the QTP is low,
water expansion should adopt the “underground-aboveground recy-
the cultural industry is expected to play a foundational role in boost-
cling” model. Moreover, the expansion of salt lake mineral resources
ing the regional economy due to increased demand from domestic
should adopt the “R&D-mining area test” model to achieve sustainable
and foreign markets. In sum, protective development is conducive
development of the green mining economy (Dunzhu, 2017).
for: highlighting the benefits of culture and natural resources; pro-
moting the Qinghai-Tibet culture; strengthening communication be-
tween Qinghai-Tibet and the outside world; and promoting QTP’s in- 4.3. Boosting industrial development to promote livelihood assets
dustry. Furthermore, protective development is effective in directing
benefits to the local population. Thus, accelerating the construction of The QTP is the highest plateau in the world and has unique biota
QTP National Park Group and promoting the construction of world- with a well-preserved intact ecosystem and rich wildlife resources
class tourist destinations would enrich livelihood strategies for the (Zhang et al., 2002). Most Qinghai-Tibet medicinal herbs grow in envi-
QTP. ronments with high altitudes, extreme cold and hypoxia, wide tempera-

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Y. Zhao, D. Chen and J. Fan
ture differences between day and night and intense sunshine. Therefore,
Qinghai-Tibet medicinal herbs have cold and drought resistance, special
breeding methods, complex secondary metabolites and high photosyn-
thesis accumulation (Liu et al., 2009; Zhang et al., 2013). However, his-
torically social, economic and technological conditions have prevented
a plateau-specific plant resource industry. With the improvement of liv-
ing standards, new health concepts and lifestyles have brought about
the growth in health needs. Led by biotechnology and the life sciences,
the health industry could become a powerful force for economic growth.
Therefore, the QTP’s unique biological resources could create eco-
nomic value based on investments in scientific research, development
and deep processing. Economic development would be further enhanced
from advancing development of biological resources and medicines and
promoting biopharmaceutical industry. This could also benefit regional
agricultural development and become an important pathway for green
development.
4.4. Setting up a carbon trading market to achieve green development
The Chinese government has set green development action targets
by 2030 based on national conditions, development stage, sustainable
development strategy and international responsibilities. These goals in-
clude: 1) overall carbon dioxide emissions peaking by 2030, but striv-
ing for this to occur as soon as possible; and 2) decrease carbon dioxide
emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 60% to 65% over 2005
levels. China will continue to adapt to climate change and improve in
areas such as risk prevention, forecasting and early warning and disas-
ter prevention and mitigation. Carbon trading markets have become a
new type of international trade mechanism designed to cope with cli-
mate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In January 2005, the
global carbon market initially formed when the European Union carbon
emissions trading market launched and carbon emission rights became
a global tradeable commodity (Bayer and Aklin, 2020).
The QTP is an important ecological barrier in China. This safety bar-
rier is manifested through water conservation, biodiversity protection,
soil and water conservation and carbon sinks. Although some progress
has been made in ecological protection, the full potential of its ecolog-
ical barrier is unrealized. International carbon sink trading rules and
creating carbon sink functional zones could strengthen environmental
protection and promote the carbon sink industry, thereby promoting
economic and social development and achieving green development and
shared development goals (Ma and Gao, 2016).
5. Conclusions
This study identified problems and potential solutions for the sus-
tainable development of the QTP focusing on different functional zones
(urbanized zones, agricultural zones, pastoral zones and ecological se-
curity zones). The first finding of this analysis is that sustainable liveli-
hoods vary greatly across functional zones. Urbanized zones have the
highest SLI, which is driven by the development of productive services
and tourism. In comparison, sustainable development in the ecological
security and pastoral zones is lower because of the long-term blood-
transfusion supportive model. Second, all counties have low levels of
natural, social and physical assets, which need to be increased in or-
der to achieve sustainable livelihoods. Finally, urban and agricultural
counties have higher SLIs than ecological and pastoral counties.
The level of economic and social development in the QTP is low and
thus promoting social and economic development will continue to be
a key objective. Due to its unique environment and economy, the QTP
development should emphasize the coordination of economy, society,
resources and environment. According to the basic principles of sus-
tainable development and the requirements of the strategic objectives,
a range of development paths to achieve sustainable development of the
QTP are recommended.
282
Geography and Sustainability 1 (2020) 275–283
Decalartion of competing of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgments
This study is supported by Research on the 2nd comprehensive scien-
tific investigation into the Tibetan Plateau (2019QZKK0404), Strategic
Priority Research Program of the CAS (XDA20020300), Key Program of
National Natural Science Foundation of China (41630644) and China
Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2020M680660).
Author Contributions
All authors contributed to this work. In particular, conceptualiza-
tion, methodology, software, validation, formal analysis, investigation,
resources, data curation, Y.Z.; Writing-Original Draft Preparation, Y.Z.
and D.C.; Writing-Review & Editing, Y.Z., D.C., and J.F.; Visualization,
Y.Z., D.C.; Supervision, J.F.; Project Administration, J.F.; Funding Ac-
quisition, J.F.
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