The project, begun in 1994, funded and supported by Future Generations, the Tibet Autonomous Region State Government, and the Central Government of China. Health concerns of the villagers were used as the entry point for instituting a process of community improvement and change. Results Achieved The project, although ongoing, has already produced tangible, beneficial results. Villages with no health care services have now someone local to turn to.
People have access to family-planning services on a voluntary basis.
Additionally, there has been tangible capacity-building development with the organisation of village meetings held to comment on and direct the efforts of the Pendebas, particularly as the program expands to include other services that benefit the villages. These additional services include income generating activities, reforestation and irrigation projects, the introduction of solar cookers, the printing of Tibetan texts for the schools, and introduction of other appropriate technologies. Lessons Learned Importance of a bottom-up approach to changes. The population, once engaged, become stakeholders and defenders of the preserve and more aware of the link between conservation and sustainable development. The management structure of the QNNP, designed specifically to use the existing decentralised county administrative units, made it easier to accomplish the task of bringing conservation, ideas and practices into the developmental mind-set of county administrators.