Published by: World Tibet Network News Monday - July 14, 1997

BEIJING (July 14) XINHUA - An ecotourism project of the Chinese government and the United Nations Development Program will be started on the world's highest mountain to help people there get out of poverty.

The project is to generate income and protect the ecology and biodiversity in the Qomolangma Nature Preserve (QNP) on Mt. Qomolangma (Mt. Everest), on the border with Nepal. It is known for its picturesque high mountain scenery, cultural sites, and Tibetan traditions, but remains one of the poorest areas in China.

In Dinggye and Tinggri, people earn less than 300 yuan annually. Initial work on the project has already begun, with a master plan having been worked out by a Sino-foreign experts group and approved at a UNDP-Chinese government joint meeting held in Lhasa in early July.

The UNDP will approve an additional 300,000 to 400,000 US dollars for the project soon, mainly to help co-ordinate the ecotourism master plan and get local governments to attract more investment, said Arthur N. Holcombe, UNDP resident representative in China, in an interview with Xinhua.

During the first phrase of its poverty reduction program, UNDP put nearly 1.2 million US dollars into the activities.

A high rate of population growth has put great pressure on the fragile mountain ecosystem there, making the need for ecotourism all the more urgent, according to Li Bosheng, a leading botanist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The UNDP is aiming even higher. Holcombe expressed the hope that the ecotourism project in the QNP will give the UNDP a wealth of experience in its work on poverty alleviation in mountainous areas around the world.

"And we also hope that the tourism master plan, together with demonstration activities and micro-finance, may serve as a superior model for future activities in other counties in Tibet," he said.