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Yagnob & Pamirs

Plateau Perspectives has been in dialogue over the past few years with partners in the high Pamirs Mountains and in Yagnob Valley. Unique needs and opportunities exist for partnerships, with unique challenges faced by resident agropastoralist mountain communities.

Yagnob Valley

The resident population of Yagnob Valley has been declining in recent years, with those that remain having only basic and often challenging living situations with urgent need for health care and education. Beyond seeking further improvements within these service areas, opportunities also exist for diversified livelihoods at the interface of tourism and conservation. Additionally, proposals are currently in development with the aim to recognize the secluded valley with ‘protected area’ status (with the goal to preserve and enrich both the natural environment and Yagnobi culture), and thus to help the people become more resilient and self-reliant with greater participation in conservation efforts, engagement in the emerging tourism sector, and documentation and preservation of traditional knowledge.

In June 2017, an exploratory trip was undertaken to visit local communities and partners. Since then, Plateau Perspectives has continued to dialogue with partners regarding proposed establishment of the park and the development of community tourism. Project plans are now being developed to encourage greater community participation in wildlife monitoring and research, and simultaneously to provide capacity building to help secure and strengthen people’s livelihoods of this historic valley and community in the face of globalisation.

Short film (5 minutes) from exploratory trip to Yagnob Valley in June 2017

For more information…

Yagnob – Ancient Sogdiana: Past, Present, and Future

The Pamirs

The nomadic Kyrgyz in the eastern Pamirs live in a stunning but extremely harsh environment. Although the landscape provides for their basic needs and is home to much unique and endangered wildlife, there are also distinct challenges for the people. In summer 2017, Plateau Perspectives initiated the process of scoping project possibilities in conservation and community development, focusing especially on unique issues in the grassland region as presented by a local expert and community member. Informal meetings took place with a range of community members including herders, nurses, teachers, and tour guides.

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Pamirs Eco-Cultural Tourism Association (PECTA)

Pamirs – The Roof of the World

Community Ecotourism

All forms of tourism are expanding rapidly in China and surrounding regions. Yet many of the potential benefits for local communities may leak away from the regions, benefiting only distant, external tour operators and affiliated companies. The development of tourism in mountain regions should follow more sustainable and equitable approaches, adopting a ‘tourism for development’ perspective rather than focusing on number of visitor or financial profits alone.

Helping local communities to draft business plans, offering opportunities for training in the tourism services sector and promoting new avenues to market local mountain products and experiences (e.g. destination marketing) are just a few of the approaches that will help community-based ecotourism to develop and bring socioeconomic benefit to areas such as the Tibetan Plateau.

Plateau Perspectives has led a number of study tours to help support the development of community-friendly tourism, with participants ranging from community representatives and social entreprises to nature reserve managers, government leaders and NGO partners – including the Cailunduo Mountain Resort (in Huzhu Beishan Forest Park), Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve, and D-Starine.

Adventure tourism including white water river rafting is being developed in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, through D-Starine in partnership with Plateau Perspectives, supported by the Tourism Bureau. Practical trainings for local Tibetan guides in rafting (and swimming!), camping, cooking and first aid have been provided. The first international river rafting festival was held in Yushu in 2015. Traditional cultural activities also are being revived and promoted, including the art of kite flying and archery.

In addition to Plateau Perspectives’ core work in the Sanjiangyuan region, it also has supported the development of community tourism with guidance provided for the launch of a village tourism cooperative, including homestays and rafting excursions, in Gongbo Gyamda County, Tibet Autonomous Region. In partnership with D-Starine, homestay opportunities also are being explored near Longbao wetlands and nature reserve (in Sanjiangyuan) and in the Qilian Mountains in northern Qinghai Province.

Finally, since 2015 Jesse Montes (PP Bhutan) has actively engaged in ecotourism research. During an 18-month research project (2015-2016), in collaboration with the Royal Thimphu College (RTC), Sikkim University and Kathmandu University, they explored the sustainability of ecotourism ventures in the southeast Himalayan region through funding from the Himalayan University Consortium. In 2017-2018 Jesse Montes and a team of students from the RTC further explored social and human-environment impacts from the sector, with funding from the RTC Research Development Grant. The larger aim of this research is to build student capacities and to produce ecotourism policy recommendations, with the overarching goals to support sustainable development and to successfully promote poverty reduction, environmental conservation and the protection of cultural identity.

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Citizen Science

Field work for the first field guide was conducted in the Ala Archa National Park, situated in the western Tianshan Mountains. The field guide includes original photographs, general descriptions and distribution maps, and it also allows users to submit new observations as part of a citizen science initiative. Join us now in creating an online community actively engaged in learning more about and promoting our appreciation of Kyrgyzstan’s extraordinary natural treasures. Special thanks to Amadeus DeKastle for concept design, field work, and overall development of this first app – and also to our colleagues at !nkubasia for turning concept into reality!