The Fall of the Water

Alpine and desert steppe on the western Tibetan plateau, typical habitat for threatened or endan- gered species such as Tibetan antelope, wild yak, Tibetan argali sheep, Tibetan wild ass, brown bear and, in the more rugged areas, snow leopard.

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et al. 2004). Unfortunately, the calving grounds of some large Chiru populations still remain unprotected, and include areas threatened by road development and mining. While protected areas generally appear to have good effects on species conservation, law enforcement remains weak in many Chinese reserves. This is a com- mon problem throughout most of Asia, but very typical of large parts of Tibet. As fragmentation and habitat destruction associated with road development and intensified land use along infrastructure corridors continue to play a primary role in relation to biodiversity loss, the relative importance of different pressures for biodiversity may change. While infrastructure will largely increase the acces- sibility of humans, pests, and invasive species to the few remaining hotspots, climate change and pollution may further reduce the resilience of biodiversity to cope with these or new emerging pressures. Control of piecemeal development and its associated regime of exploitation will therefore be essential for conservation of biodiversity.

Four large protected areas in China have been set aside specifically to safeguard Tibetan Plateau wildlife spe- cies, including chiru and wild yak and their habitat, and other reserves are proposed, Those established to date include the Chang Tang Nature Reserve and Xianza Nature Reserve (334,000 km 2 and 40,000 km 2 , Tibet Autonomous Region), Kekexili (aka “Kokoxili” or “Hoh Xil”) National Reserve (45,000 km 2 , Qinghai Province), and Arjin Shan (or “Altun Tagh”) Nature Reserve (45,000 km 2 , Xinjiang Autonomous Region). These reserves already have positive effects and the popula- tion decline has apparently been halted or even slightly reversed in some areas. Other threats to the chiru and other plateau ungulates include fencing and grazing en- croachment by pastoralists, which interfere with chiru migration and foraging and the expanding exploitation of extractive industries that increase immigration and settlement into these areas. Thus, even if large-scale poaching is controlled, the effects of livestock increases and husbandry modernization, as in rangeland ecosys- tems elsewhere, are likely to be the primary long-term threats to the high plains ungulates such as chiru (Fox