Kegawa Herders Cooperative

KEGAWA HERDERS’ COOPERATIVE – ENHANCING COMMUNITY RESILIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION IN THE YANGTZE RIVER HEADWATERS

Herder Cooperatives in the Tibetan Plateau region

DR J MA R C FO G G I N

M O U N T A I N S O C I E T I E S R E S E A R C H I N S T I T U T E

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ASIA

http://blog.sina.com.cn/kegawa

Kegawa Herders Cooperative Established by Tibetan herders in the Yushu area to produce and sell livestock products, to help provide employment and generate income for local community members in ecologically sound ways. Founded with the support of

© kora 2016

Launching the Cooperative

!  Following a ‘study tour’ to Mongolia in 2008, in which our team observed positive development outcomes from… !  Increased access to credit (micro-finance), !  Improved confidence through tourism ventures, !  Communities strengthened through collaborations, and !  Improved grassland environmental conditions…

!  Our senior field staff in Xining decided to encourage the trial establishment of a community cooperative

This launched the process of developing the community-based Kegawa Herders Cooperative in Qinghai province

Highlands of Central Asia

Yak Herding in High Asia

Three Rivers’ Headwaters (Sanjiangyuan)

!  Source areas of the Yellow, Yangtze and Mekong rivers !  High wetlands & rangelands !  Yak and sheep husbandry !  Development policies and ‘modernization’ !  Sanjiangyuan nat’l nature reserve (c. 153,000 km2)

Tibet Autonomous Region

Under Golmud Administration

Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture

Tsonub Mongolian and

Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture

Dechen Tibetan AP

MiliTibetan AC

Kartse Tibetan AP

Ngawa Tibetan and

Qiang AP

Tsojang Tibetan AP

Tsolho Tibetan AP

Golog Tibetan AP

Pari TibetanAC

Haidong Prefecture

Kanlho Tibetan

AP

MalhoTibatan

AP

Xining City and District

T I B E T A U T O N O M O U S R E G I O N

Q I N G H A IG A N S U

Y U N N A N

S I C H U A N

China

India

Kazakhstan Mongolia

Myanmar

Thailand

Pakistan

Nepal

Philippines

South Korea

Area ofdetail

Kilometers

0 2,000Russia

Source: Boundary (Marshall and Cooke, Tibet Outside the TAR, 1997) Satellite Image (NASA), 2004©Tsering Wangyal Shawa, Princeton University, 2008

Location Map

TIBET

Lhasa

Miles0 150 300

Kilometers0 200 400

X I N J I A N G

INN E R M ONG O L I A

NINGXIA

AP Autonomous PrefectureAC Autonomous County

Provincial Boundary

Tibetan Cultural Area

Tibetan Plateau •  Tibet Autonomous

Region (TAR) •  Qinghai Province •  Gansu Province •  Sichuan Province •  Yunnan Province

Sanjiangyuan Region .

Zhiduo County, Qinghai Province

Collaborative approach as ‘middle ground’

At both ends of the spectrum: !  National plans – ‘one size fits all’ does not allow for adequate

adaptation, social-ecological realities may be ignored, some change is needed in resource governance

!  Household responsibility – personal advantage may take precedence, increasing disparities, social instability

Governance of the middle ground: !  Community level governance – development processes may be slower, but resulting change will be deeper and longer lasting – economic outcomes also may be strengthened by social benefits

Kegawa Herders Cooperative

!  Started with ~40 households; now with over 90 households !  Main goal: strengthening community cooperation and

cohesion, providing access for members to variety of new (previously unavailable) development options; embedded in ecological context

© Kegawa


!  Market research undertaken – local and regional !  Favorable policy environment – coops, conservation !  Community chosen focus on ‘ecological’ livestock products

!  Raw materials, in particular yak wool !  Value-add products, e.g. handicrafts

© Kegawa

!  Ecotourism, including community-based service provision (with training opportunities); clean-up

!  Handicraft development !  Shop and library in town !  Environmental monitoring


Development of community-based tourism: !  Destination marketing (regional approach, equity)

Outcomes !  Diversification of livelihoods (enhanced resilience), increased

income, capacity development, enhanced sense of community

!  Raising awareness of government authorities !  Potential role of tourism for poverty

alleviation, conservation, etc. !  Introduction of cultural tourism

and ‘adventure’ tourism !  Kite flying festival, traditional

archery, river rafting, nature tourism


© Kegawa

!  Environmental monitoring !  Snowline is rising !  Flowers are earlier !  Wildlife is monitored

K2 Partnership Kegawa-kora (K2) Partnership http://www.kora.net/

!  Our goal is to help the people and ecology of the Himalayas to thrive. By sourcing yak wool from nomadic herders on the Qinghai Tibet plateau, we help them to adapt to change while also maintaining their culture, knowledge and traditions.

!  Kegawa Annual General Meeting (AGM) !  52 of 92 households attended annual general

meeting in December 2015

!  Annual profits are shared as dividends to members, top-up of core fund, social fund © Jesse Montes

The kora vision…

!  A mutually beneficial partnership with a socially driven business

!  Empowerment of local herders as partners !  Generating revenues through wool purchase and

seasonal employment !  Raising awareness through the brand's marketing

activities

K2 Partnership

Resilience to Climate Change

Outcomes of coop establishment

!  Diversified local economies, with a variety of livelihood options available to herders

!  Decreased dependence on livestock For example, community-beneficial tourism / ecotourism, banking on a diversity of cultural and natural resources

!  Greater returns on investment !  Value add on products !  Capacity building

Environmental Conservation

Kegawa ‘working groups’ include

!  Education and awareness raising !  Grassland and wildlife monitoring teams

These can serve as a model for mutually beneficial partnerships with protected areas and other environmental authorities

!  Ecological husbandry (livestock management) !  Handicraft development (training, value-add) !  Garbage collection (e.g. after local festivals)

LESSONS LEARNED

Collaborative Governance (1)

!  Conservation outcomes sometimes are best achieved through ‘human’ solutions (rather than focusing on technical solutions or strictly biological knowledge)

!  Socio-economic aspirations may be leveraged for integrated development and conservation outcomes

LESSONS LEARNED

Collaborative Governance (2)

!  The development of sound (i.e. genuine, trusting) partnerships is essential for sustainable change to take place – see, e.g., the Kegawa-kora vision

!  Enabling and supportive policy environments are necessary to allow for safe and creative trialing of new development models in mountain regions

Empowering farmers and pastoralists

An alternative way to increase world food supply is to empower

small-scale farmers and pastoralists, a policy that is endorsed in

principle by governments … but lacking major implementation

to date. It is necessary to redress current economic policies for

agriculture and food – to empower historic guardians of agro-

bioresources so that they may increase food security and ensure

the conservation of vast areas of dryland and other natural

habitats. Hodges et al. (2014)

Mountain Societies Research Institute

R4D in Central Asia MSRI @ University of Central Asia

msri.ucentralasia.org

Dr J Marc Foggin Associate Director, MSRI [email protected]