30. Dec 2009
Tibetan nomads from Qinghai "ecological migrants"
(People's Daily) The People's Daily reports that authorities have said 197 more Tibetan households have been removed from their homelands in a remote part of Qinghai province. In a separate report the People's Daily said of the 50,000 Tibetan herders who also "left" the Sanjiangyuan ('Three Rivers' Headwaters') area in Qinghai province, as part of China's largest ecological protection project, "most" were encountering problems following the move. They refer to the former nomads as "ecological migrants" and report that as most of them can neither speak Chinese nor possess any transferable skills, it is hard for them to find work. The Tibetans have been forced to settle in numerous new urban clusters, with one such cluster, the 'Kunlun Ethnic Culture Village', built near Golmud (Chin: Ge'ermu) in 2006, used to house 1,700 people.
 One former herder is quoted as saying that when he was leading a nomadic life, he could earn 30,000 Yuan (UK£2,700; US$4,400; EUR£3,00) per year while his livestock met all his family's needs for meat, milk and heating. But now he claims: "We have to buy all the living items by ourselves. Since I haven't found a job, my family of six depend on the annual 6,000-Yuan (UK£542; US$878; EUR£611) subsidy granted by the local government and our savings, which are running out".