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Twenty years

Reflections on life in Tibet & Central Asia

By Plateau Perspectives

March 24^th, 2020

Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic

Looking back over the years... it is hard to believe just how much has changed over these past 20 years — in the places we have worked, in the lives of our many friends and colleagues, and also for us personally. These have really been extraordinary times! Times of growth and change, often times with much hard work, and sometimes frustrations, but also times to play and enjoy friendships and to learn about and revel in the wonderful wealth and diversity of God's creation and the world's beautiful and varied cultures.

Originally from Montreal, Canada (Marc) and Edinburgh, Scotland (Marion), and with our forebears on both sides having lived in China, Japan, India and Sri Lanka since the early 1880s... we have found ourselves, in our own nuclear family, living and working on the Tibetan plateau and in the mountains of Central Asia. Both our fathers were born in China, in the 1920s and '30s — each of them with their own extraordinary life stories! — but for our part, we both moved to Western China in the mid 1990s, where we met and began to work together. We married in Mitford, Northumberland, UK, on July 14, 2000. Our first family home was in Lhasa, Tibet.

After some time in Lhasa and Lhoka, Tibet, we spent a short season in St Andrews and Kings Barns, in the Kingdom of Fife, UK, when our son Alistair was born. When he was 4 months old, we moved back to China — to Xining, Yushu, and Zhiduo...

Marc and his first Beijing jeep, driving through the Kunlun Mountains, circa 1997

Marc, Marion and Alistair in Zhiduo county, circa 2006 (photo: Peter Foggin)

Marc on horseback, in Suojia district, c. 2002 (photo: Tashi Dorje)

Marion checking x-ray during post-earthquake rehab field camp in Longbao, 2010

George and Frieda Foggin, circa 1960 (source unknown)

Today as I write we are in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. New adventures will certainly lie ahead, and also many unknowns... Alistair is preparing to start university in the UK. But for now, we are in lock-down in Bishkek with a national 'state of emergency' declared together with enforced nightly curfew, due to Covid-19...

We don't really know what to expect, what lies ahead, and neither do our families and friends around the world. But it is also a good time to look back over the years and to reflect on the past as well as the future, and through this to recall how, in His providence, God has brought us through many other difficult times, too. Perhaps none quite of this scope; and also, we know that we are never promised freedom from suffering or losses... However, we can look to the good, not only the difficulties, and pray for the people who are now serving on the front lines.

Here in this illustrated Exposure article, we look back over the years and joyfully celebrate both the 20-year anniversary of the non-profit organisation, Plateau Perspectives, and also of our marriage and life of adventure together!

Launching the organisation

All the achievements over the years and the varied projects have involved many people from many places, many professions, both short term and long term. It has always been a team effort and here we wish to extend our sincere, heartfelt thanks to everyone who has been involved and walked this journey together with us. It has been such a joy and a privilege to participate.

Plateau Perspectives was established in 1998 and registered in 2000 with the core aim to support local Tibetan herding communities to find and develop long-term solutions that could help improve their quality of life and resilience in times of change, particularly under conditions of climate change and globalisation, while simultaneously protecting the natural environment. At a motivational level, this also was to be done as an expression of practical Christian love for the world — both in matters of loving our neighbours and caring for creation.

Over the years, Plateau Perspectives' work has expanded and now reaches beyond the Tibetan Plateau region and now also encompasses mountain areas and communities in Central Asia as well as serving in an advisory role for a range of development projects in the Caucasus and East African highlands.

Programme areas

Plateau Perspectives' main programme areas include:

(i) community health, (ii) education, (iii) income generation (e.g., ecotourism), (iv) environmental conservation, and as emergency situations arise, sometimes also (v) disaster and relief assistance.

The organisation is led by an extremely highly qualified board of directors and trustees in Canada and Scotland. These are further complemented by a prestigious international Council of Reference that is comprised of globally renowned development and conservation specialists.

Wetlands east of Qinghai Lake, with Sun-moon (riyue) Mountains in background

Plateau Perspectives' Council of Reference

We also owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Mrs Jane Torrance (née Bartholomew) who was Plateau Perspectives' first Secretary. Jane brought so much cheer to everyone. Her great commitment and constant professionalism laid a solid foundation for the organisation. With her support we carried out foundational health research, ran community health projects, established several village tent schools, and so much more besides.

Jane was a core member of the Plateau Perspectives team in those memorable early years. Sadly, she passed away in 2008, survived by her husband (and Chair of Plateau Perspectives Scotland) Rev Prof Alan Torrance, and their four sons — Andrew, Peter, Robert, and David.

The Langduo Village Clinic in Tibet is dedicated in her memory, a tribute to her many years of faithful service to the Tibetan people.

Langduo Village Clinic, in memory of Jane Torrance

Landscape in Linzhi prefecture, eastern Tibet Autonomous Region (source: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/923119)

Langduo Village Clinic (photo: Gongbo Tashi / Plateau Perspectives)

Beginnings in the source area of the Yangtze River

Having first seen Qinghai province in 1988 — though only briefly, on an exhausting 8-day, 4,000 km journey on public transport from Lhasa to Lijiang, via Xining and Chengdu — then again in 1994-95 when I was undertaking preparatory work for my PhD research, it is only from 1996 that the province became second home for me. Marion and I first met in Xining in 1997. In 1998-99 we travelled and worked together several times on medical and development projects across the province.

We married in July 2000 in Northumberland, UK, with a spectacular venue provided by our loving parish community at Church of St Mary Magdalene, Mitford, which together with the 11th century Mitford Castle in the background is steeped in fascinating history.

From 1996 onward, and especially after we moved to Zhiduo county, many aspects of pastoralists' life in the high grasslands became more apparent to us. We often travelled to very remote pastoral areas, in the early years all off-road. We sometimes stayed in yak-hair tents, and we often drank butter tea and ate dried yak meat, tsampa, noodles, and rich yoghurt. Getting stuck in fast-flowing rivers or mud ruts as we drove the abysmal grassland tracks across the plateau was the norm — and, to an extent, we loved it! Introduced to community members as a friend's friend, we were readily accepted and welcomed in.

Zhiduo county (Drito in Tibetan) is the highest in the Yangtze river watershed, with the capital town at 4,200 m above sea level (asl) and several township centres (former communes) around 4,500 m asl. Some pastoral families live as high as 4,800 or even 4,900 m asl where the high vegetation line is found, but living conditions at such extreme altitudes are very challenging. The upper reaches of the Yangtze river are formed by the highest tributaries — Muqu, Dangqu, Yaqu and Jiongqu rivers, which also are the names of the villages, or the 'work brigades' in the former communal era. Further downstream, in the east of Zhiduo county, China's longest river is known as the Tongtian River, meandering south... The entire region also is recognised as a core part of the vast Sanjiangyuan area, which comprises the headwaters (or source areas) of the Yangtze, Yellow and Mekong in the heart of the Tibetan plateau.

Ancient burial mound in Suojia district, undated

Winter road, enroute from Xining to Yushu

School children from Muqu tent school, circa 2004 (photo: Ben Henderson / Plateau Perspectives)

Driving on the grassland, near the Yangtze-Mekong watershed divide

Where in the world?!?

Central Asian highlands extend from the Tibetan plateau region in western China and Mongolia to the north, through several of the former Soviet republics together with Afghanistan and northern Pakistan and India, all the way to western Iran and the Caucasus.

In this 20 year review of Plateau Perspectives' development work, most attention is on the Sanjiangyuan region and Kyrgyzstan...

Family life in Zhiduo County

We both had already visited Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture several times in the 1990s, but it was a few years before we were able to move and live in the countryside, shortly after Zhiduo county was declared 'open' to foreigners, just a few months after our son was born in October 2002... Our local friends and partners in the first grassroots organisation to be established in the region and the county government formally invited us to come and plan work together, to launch a 5-year development project...

Arriving in town late one winter afternoon, we sat down with our friends and drank tea for a while, exchanging both pleasantries and updates of the past several months. Much was changing rapidly — with new freedoms and opportunities for community engagement in development-related dialogues, along with emerging possibilities for revisiting traditional views and ways and advancing community-led environmental conservation. But for us personally, we also had to learn new ways of living, right in the present!

After a couple of hours of discussion, we asked about accommodation for the night... and were shown a house that we could rent. Based largely on trust amongst friends and their social networks, we agreed on terms and suggested cost, and moved in. The first night, it was -15 degrees Celsius inside our new home, and ice remained on the lower part of the inner walls for months... but slowly, it became home!

Although we had to collect water from a well, toilets were outdoors, and there was no electricity for at least 4-5 months each year, we adjusted and came to greatly enjoy our life in Zhiduo town. It also gave opportunity for us to easily travel in the grassland regions, or conversely for village partners to come to town on their motorbikes and drop in unannounced — often allowing impromptu and very genuine conversations about life, the universe, and everything! Our home also served as our project office and training classrooms. We constantly had both national and international staff/volunteers living with us, on one hand, and also various trainees and government partners dropping by and discussing issues and future plans, on the other hand. A busy time, to be sure, but also a happy time — and most definitely a memorable time for all us!

Alistair as a baby, with jimpa (grandpa) JB Torrance

Centre of attention, hyper on coke after a long day of meetings!

With grandma and grandpa (Beth and Peter Foggin) on frozen Qinghai Lake

Always has been an engineer type, right from the early days

Alistair in the front yard in Zhiduo, c. 2004

Tibetan nomad life:
in their own words

Early in our time in Zhiduo (circa 2003-08), far removed from the provincial capital, Xining, and all matters urban, we worked with some partners to bring training to a community of Tibetan nomads in the west of the county in the use of video equipment and story-telling, giving them an opportunity to reflect on their lives and tell their personal stories, in their own words.

Yangtze River Headwaters Sustainable Development Project

Following the unexpected but much appreciated invitation from the Government of Zhiduo County in southwest Qinghai province for us to collaborate with them and the local Upper Yangtze Organisation (UYO) on a comprehensive community development project, we took a 'leap of faith' and signed an agreement in August 2002. This formed the basis for more than a decade of collaborative work in the highest county in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

Our broad programme agreement was to bring technical and related financial support in core areas of community health, basic education, income generation, and environmental protection, and to serve as a bridge between local needs and interests, and regional and international priorities and opportunities.

Our young family served as the 'core team' for our organisation's contribution to this place and people, complemented by a lovely and committed crew of national staff and several international volunteers as well as a suite of national and international expert advisors, supporters and encouragers, and donors. But more than just 'contributing to' or 'helping' this place, in our own perspective, in our hearts, this became our home.

For us, it was a huge privilege — actually, a highlight in our lives — to be accepted by our neighbours as their very own 'local foreigners' and thus be a part of local society, even if never expecting or asking to be seen as Tibetan ourselves! Of course, there were challenges, too, in this life and this line of work, but the warm friendships and sense of camaraderie far outweighed the occasional negatives.

Mother and child at local clinic, in Zhiduo county circa 2006 (photo: Kieran Dodds / Plateau Perspectives)

Signing of agreement between the Government of Zhiduo County, Upper Yangtze Organisation, and Plateau Perspectives (August 2002)

Plateau Perspectives team in Zhiduo, c. 2004 (credit: Plateau Perspectives)

Preparing solar energy power supplies for delivery to partners across the region

Riding across the winter landscape in Suojia district

Marion and one of her village doctor trainees

First cohort of village doctors trained under the Yangtze Headwaters Sustainable Development Project

Mother and child travelling to summer pastures

Plateau Perspectives team in Xining, c. 2008

Community health

One of the greatest challenges in this region, as expressed by local partners from our very first interactions, was that of maternal and child health. Working in collaboration with the health bureau and local communities, several training courses were offered for around 100 village and township doctors and for women health workers, 5 village clinics were established (this also enabled access to national health insurance schemes), and immunisations were provided.

Considering some of the health and other implications of recent changes in Tibetan grassland areas, particularly those related to urbanisation and relocation, we are glad to know these have recently returned to more community-oriented decisions...

Women health workers, learning about immunisations

Basic education

Looking to the future, many village leaders also felt that education was of paramount importance for their communities. They wished to provide opportunity for their young people to study, but always with the aim that they could later return to their communities and support them as leaders familiar with their homeland and culture. Times were changing fast, they felt, and so they organised for their youth to receive an education that would enable them to connect between the different worlds, with their different ways of seeing.

Several children from the first cohorts of students who attended these tent schools from 1999 onwards have now graduated from university!

Muqu tent school, c. 2000 (photo: Upper Yangtze Organisation)

Income generation

Considering the resources available in the highlands, rural incomes come mostly from agro-pastoralism and affiliated opportunities. We have over the years supported agricultural trials for the development of quinoa, with reasonable success. The greatest advances, however, have been made in matters of community governance, particularly with the development of community cooperatives and associations — sometimes also linked with 'poverty alleviation' initiatives — and these setups often have subsequently launched into community-led entrepreneurial activities such as tourist home-stays and handicrafts as well as grassland monitoring and conservation.

Rural village community meeting in Shigatse area, c. 2014 (photo: Gongbo Tashi / Plateau Perspectives)

Environmental conservation

Some of the most substantial societal changes have occurred in the arena of environmental conservation. It is noteworthy that not only are people's lives affected by environmental conditions, such as with particular forms of degradation, but also their lives may be affected by conservation-oriented programmes and policies, such as with the creation of protected areas. In our work we have focused especially on strengthening community-based conservation, and in regard to national initiatives, on community co-management approaches. Most local communities do care about the environment including their wildlife species — we should therefore treat them as partners.

Poster about Tibetan wildlife (all photos by Marc Foggin)

Emergency relief

Finally, sometimes natural disasters occur. We have also responded to such situations, helping to mobilise resources and bring relief to the people who have been most affected.

For example, we have assisted after several snowstorm disasters that have occurred over the past couple decades, in which several 1000s of yak have died. We also responded to the government's and other local partners' request to provide emergency relief, following the devastating earthquake that destroyed Yushu on 14 April 2010.

Yushu Earthquake emergency disaster relief camp, April 2010 (photo: Plateau Perspectives)

Yushu Earthquake 2010

The quake, which struck the Tibetan plateau at 7:49 a.m. on 14 April 2010, is one of the largest recorded in the immediate area, which is rife with seismic activity. Yushu town was devastated. Official numbers indicate that nearly 3,000 people died.

Rehab relief work in Longbao village, May 2010

Plateau Perspectives initiated a rapid response following the Yushu earthquake, establishing a medical camp and providing immediate emergency care for over 1,200 people within 2 days. We came at the request of the government and the foreign affairs office of Yushu prefecture, and under Marion's leadership we were able to serve our neighbours in a time of great need.

Recognised as one of the 14 formal camps, we staffed our operations with rotating medical teams – bringing international doctors from around the country. After the advance team of 5 people including a paediatrician and a surgeon set up the camp and began to see patients, a second team with experience from the Sichuan Earthquake joined them. Other teams followed. Our vehicles served as ambulances, with permission to transfer patients to the army camp near the airport for evacuation. Our medical camp ran until government established larger tent hospitals and closed the smaller medical camps. Following this, for the next several months we supported people with essential livelihood and household supplies.

Physical recovery for many people affected by the earthquake also required rehabilitation... into which Plateau Perspectives equally vested resources, energy, and commitment. A rehab centre was furnished and many health and rehab workers trained, as well as patients seen — both immediately following the earthquake, and onward over the next 2 or 3 years...

We also refocused attention to livelihoods development, aiming to help communities recover from longer-term damages from the Yushu earthquake. In particular, we began looking for viable economic options consistent with (and therefore supported by) government policies for the region. "Ecotourism" was one such option and we began to explore how the benefits from this emerging opportunity could be maximised for local communities. A few years later, tourism in Yushu also is being labelled as part of China's Belt & Road Initiative! But whatever the political framing adopted, local tourism should benefit local communities, rather than mainly seeing them as source of employees or cultural assets.

Delivery of relief supplies, Xining to Yushu

Rehab follow-up (photo: Plateau Perspectives)

Elderly patient receiving treatment and medicines

Plateau Perspectives medical camp in Yushu, April 2010 (photo: Plateau Perspectives)

Follow-up rehab clinic in our front yard

Expanding horizons

Experiential study tours to Mongolia, Canada, Nepal and elsewhere have helped to open our eyes to new opportunities, new ways, new possibilities...

Plateau Perspectives has organised several study tours over the past few years in order to learn from national and global experiences about strategic development topics or practices related to resource governance and management, protected areas management, poverty alleviation and community-based tourism. After each tour, the participants have returned with increased enthusiasm and have taken on new ideas to implement. For example, after the study tour to Mongolia (2008), participants came back with ideas how to create and launch a community-based herders cooperative; after the trip to Canada (2010), senior nature reserve authorities began to explore more earnestly how to integrate community co-management into their operations; and through the tour undertaken in Nepal (2011), many new options for development of ecotourism began to fall into place, leading to trainings for community initiatives in the Yushu area and later also translating into the work of Horseback Planet Society.

Camels in the arid rangelands of South Gobi, Mongolia

Study tour with Parks Canada, September 2010

Study tour team from Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve on Vancouver Island, September 2010

Study tour visit to the Columbia Icefields in the Canadian Rockies, September 2010

Study tour to Nepal, to learn about the interface of national parks, ecotourism and poverty alleviation

Traditional house in Nepal, developed as homestay for cultural tourism

Exploring nature conservation and ecotourism options available to communities in Nepal

Kegawa Herders Cooperative

Early morning landscape and reflection on the Tibetan plateau

The Kegawa Herders Cooperative was launched in 2010 in the Yushu area and now has more than 100 members. As a voluntary association of entrepreneurs, the cooperative encourages innovative thinking as it helps to create new business opportunities in grassland areas of the Tibetan plateau.

The cooperative was established to help produce and sell livestock products, provide employment, and generate income for local community members in ecologically sound ways. It seeks to fill the notable gap between state level development programmes and individual household management of grassland resources — returning to more community-oriented governance mechanisms, yet also still maintaining individual commitment and benefits as community members also are both investors and shareholders. With its officials elected and important topics discussed at annual general meetings, this model of resource governance is a truly bottom-up and collaborative approach to rural development.

In addition, grassland environmental monitoring has been instituted by the cooperative to ensure that chosen approaches are ecologically sound. It is not only livestock grazing practices, however, that may impact grassland condition. It is increasingly evident, for example, that regional climate change equally is affecting plant phenologies (i.e., timing of growth) and the extent of mountain glaciers, with flowers appearing earlier in the season and rising snow lines noted by the Kegawa community environmental monitors.

The cooperative has working groups covering topics including wildlife monitoring, education and awareness, ecological animal husbandry (livestock management), handicrafts development, various specialist trainings, and garbage collection.

Studying field guide for carrying out environmental monitoring of the grasslands

Annual general assembly of the Kegawa Herders Cooperative (photo: Kegawa)

Blue sheep caught by camera trap, as part of the collaborative Yicun Yidian project with the nature reserve and local herding communities

Kegawa team monitoring the grasslands and mountain glaciers (photo: Jesse Montes / Plateau Perspectives)

Community co-management

Tibetan horsemen in the Mekong headwaters, c. 4.400 m in western Zaduo county

Protecting the Sanjiangyuan

Plateau Perspectives has promoted community-based governance and management of natural resources in many ways over the past couple decades — from support for the development of herders’ cooperatives, to the launch of collaborative snow leopard conservation, to novel explorations and workshops for peer-to-peer exchanges focused on community-beneficial ecotourism.

Most of our efforts for advancing support for the concept and approach broadly known as community co-management have, however, focused on its integration into protected area design and management within the realm of what is currently possible under national legislation in China.

Local herders have de facto been protecting wildlife for generations in the Yangtze River headwaters through traditional livelihoods and cultural practices. More recently, they have been even more actively protecting selected species including the snow leopard, chiru (Tibetan antelope), kiang (wild ass), wild yak and black-necked cranes through community-designated local protected areas that were formally established in 1998. These were initially recognised by the district government and subsequently also by the Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve government authorities. A joint planning meeting in 2005 brought these community-led protected areas more fully into the realm of a "co-management" partnership with the nature reserve, initially through the Yicun Yidian (or "one village, one station") collaborative project with Plateau Perspectives (see here), supported by the Government of Norway.

Launch meeting at the Suojia Field Station (Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve) for the Yicun Yidian project collaboration, c. 2007

Trial demonstration of the community co-management approach largely revolved around a collaborative project to monitor and conserve snow leopard in the Yangtze River headwaters (with slideshow available here).

Over the following several years, this approach to community engagement and partnership in the context of "protected areas" has become more fully integrated across the majority of nature reserves in Qinghai Province.

This was facilitated to a large extent by the large-scale UNDP/GEF project entitled Strengthening the effectiveness of the protected area system in Qinghai province, China to conserver globally important biodiversity, which itself built on the earlier experiences of Plateau Perspectives in partnership with local herding communities in the Yangtze River headwaters (see here).

Further strengthened by a study tour co-hosted by Plateau Perspectives and Parks Canada in 2010 to learn about mountain protected areas and the values and opportunities presented by adoption of co-management principles, authorities in China began the process of creating its first national park in 2016.

The Sanjiangyuan National Park will be formally launched in 2020.

Final report of the Snow leopard community co-management project

Altai Mountains & Wetlands

Building on initial experiences and traction gained in development of the UNDP Qinghai Biodiversity Conservation Project (see above), UNDP launched an ambitious national initiative to protect the country's critically important wetlands. Toward this end, I (Marc) had the privilege of co-leading with national colleagues in the design of the regional Altai Mountains and Wetlands biodiversity project, incorporating traditional and culturally relevant practices of local Kazakh pastoralist communities into the project design, including specific action plans and targets.

Mountain stream in the Altai mountains of northern Xinjiang, China

Wetland in the Liangheyuan Nature Reserve in the Altai Mountains of Xinjiang, China

Sandaohaizi peat wetlands in the Liangheyuan Nature Reserve in Altai Mountains, comprised of palza formations and surrounding waterways

Bulbul (stone man) and local herder in the mountains of northern Xinjiang, China

Kazakh woman leading her family and livestock herds to summer pastures in the Altai Mountains

China's First National Park

Over the years, China has successfully developed an extensive system of protected areas. It is only recently, however, that the country specifically embarked on creating national parks, which — in contradistinction to more common nature reserves — do not focus only on strict nature conservation (with the full exclusion of local communities), but also aim to consider the needs, interests and wellbeing local communities.

Both personal and professional insights derived from over two decades of working with communities and government in the very heart of what is now, in 2020, to become China's first national park are brought together in the comprehensive article Environmental Conservation in the Tibetan Plateau Region, also including some lessons and recommendations for China's Belt & Road Initiative as it extends into mountain regions of Central Asia.

Some further insights are shared in the articles Pastoralists and wildlife conservation in western China: collaborative management within protected areas on the Tibetan Plateau and Managing shared natural heritages: towards more participatory models of protected area management in western China.

Tibetan nomad girl in Jiongqu village, Zhiduo county, c. 2006

Ecotourism planning and development meeting

Village meeting on the grasslands, c. 1998

Regional annual community gathering near Zhiduo town

Jigme Rabden preparing his horse (photo: Jesse Montes / Plateau Perspectives)

Community leader at village festival in Jiongqu, c. 2005

Gongbo Tashi and Marc Foggin co-leading meeting on ecotourism development in the Sanjiangyuan region

Documentary film: 18 years in the Sanjiangyuan region

A documentary film was released on Hong Kong Star Television in 2017 — presenting the rich experiences of Plateau Perspectives’ committed volunteers who devoted themselves to environmental conservation and community development in the Sanjiangyuan region in Qinghai Province, China, since 1998.

From the producers: “Plateau Perspectives, a Canadian non-profit organisation established in 1998, was established to protect the ecology of the Tibetan Plateau and improve the wellbeing of local communities. This film was produced by a third party, which sought to capture and record the real volunteers of Plateau Perspectives and their daily life, work and relationships with the local residents as they continuously promote environmental protection and people’s wellbeing. In the creation of this video, the soul and nature of their work are captured, combined with visuals of some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. An ambitious and nuanced, multi-perspective analysis is presented, striving to bring to the audience a strong sensory experience and deep visual enjoyment. Creating the mood was achieved through a complete fit of visuals together with the narrative, and a sensual blending of music with fascinating scenes. The viewer’s eyes and thoughts are carried through beautiful leisurely imagination, with images aiding in interpreting the development of life and nature.”

Mountains of Central Asia

In 2013, Plateau Perspectives' Canadian board of directors decided to extend the geographic scope of the organisation's work, to allow for replication and scaling up of experiences as opportunities arose. Marc and Marion and their son Alistair moved to Bishkek in 2014.

Bishkek is situated below the mighty Tianshan Mountains, an oasis in Central Asia noted widely for its hospitality and mix of cultures, novel approaches in development and conservation, and a vibrant civil society and entrepreneurial spirit.

Crop fields in Chui province, Kyrgyzstan with the Tianshan mountains seen in the distance to the south

Focus on Kyrgyzstan

We moved to Kyrgyzstan in 2014, for several reasons. Our projects in China continued, led in their daily operations by national colleagues. In Bishkek, we had sought to find a way by which we could learn more about the region before embarking on any particular development project.

As it turned out, I was offered a position as senior research scientist (and later as associate director) at the Mountain Societies Research Institute of the University of Central Asia. This was a rich time for learning as well as for contributing to the strengthening of higher education in Central Asia — especially by participating in the creation of a mountain university of international calibre.

Other partnerships also have developed over the years. Now we have moved into a new phase of collaborative work with communities in several regions in Kyrgyzstan and more broadly in Central Asia. Several main partners, past and present, are introduced below.

Preparing horses in Chonkemin valley, Kyrgyzstan, hosted by Shumkar Association

A mountain university in Central Asia

The University of Central Asia (UCA) was founded in 2000 as a private, not for profit, secular university through an International Treaty signed by the Presidents of the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan, and His Highness the Aga Khan; ratified by their respective parliaments, and registered with the United Nations. As a university focused on development of mountain societies, UCA's undergraduate programmes are located at its world class residential campuses in Naryn, Kyrgyzstan, and Khorog, Tajikistan.

For its part, the Mountain Societies Research Institute (MSRI) conducts trans-disciplinary research to help inform and contribute to Sustainable Mountain Development in Central Asia. As Associate and Acting Director of MSRI from 2015 to 2018, Marc led the ~20 person team in integrated approaches to research with and for the benefit of mountain societies, incorporating both social and ecological factors and drivers of change operating at multiple spatial and temporal scales.

UCA Naryn campus on the bank of the Naryn River (photo: AKDN / Gary Otte, source: https://www.akdn.org/gallery/naryn-campus-university-central-asia)

Ilbirs Foundation

Ilbirs Foundation is a non-profit organisation that aims to preserve the natural heritage of Kyrgyzstan. It carries out educational, social, cultural, informational, research and other activities in the sphere of environment protection, with a special focus on endangered wildlife in Kyrgyzstan including though not limited to snow leopard. Plateau Perspectives has been partnering with Ilbirs Foundation since 2019 — including socioeconomic research, engagement with communities in matters of ecotourism, environmental conservation initiatives, and more.

Ilbirs Foundation is particularly noteworthy for its community orientation, as it seeks to closely work with and to empower local people for conservation and sustainable development. In its work, Ilbirs collaborates with several associations around the country comprised of former poachers, who now are committed to protecting the wildlife in Kyrgyzstan's high mountains.

Zair Kubanuchbekov setting a camera trap in Ala Archa National Park, Kyrgyzstan

Araketke-Bereket

Araketke-Bereket means "from many efforts come great blessings." The organisation works with volunteers and local communities to bring holistic improvement in health, education, and development. Plateau Perspectives is partnering with Araketke-Bereket in several areas of work, including the development of novel approaches to help improve education through use of new technologies, creating systems that strengthen sustainable and responsible ecotourism, and supporting community health and relief work.

One of Araketke's most special projects is the Tendik Village Clinic, which is committed to serving this village in northern Kyrgyzstan through medical care and health education — providing primary care, home visits for new mothers and people with disabilities, health screenings, and public health education.

Tendik Clinic (in foreground) is operated by Araketke-Bereket, serving the people ofTendik village

Choosing ecotourism

Working with Araketke-Bereket, Ilbirs Foundation and Horseback Planet Society (from China), we have over the past three years been developing a new model of ecotourism for Kyrgyzstan; or rather, we have been seeking to bring greater clarity to people's understanding of what actually is eco-tourism, and through this to better ensure that it brings its intended purposes to both people and nature.

This model was first conceived and trialed in the Qinghai Lake area in western China, and first transferred over to Kyrgyzstan in 2017. Now that some traction is gaining here, new ideas and approaches are again returning back to China, too — with exchanges of ideas and communications being a two-way street, as such should be.

Kyrgyz horsemen playing 'kokboru''in Chonkemin valley (photo: Horseback Planet Society)

Mountain stream in summer pastures of Naryn province, Kyrgyzstan

Nomad girls in the 'jailoo' (summer pastures) in southern Kyrgyzstan

11th century Al-Kashgari world map, with the city of Balasagun (in present-day Kyrgyzstan) in the centre (for more information, visit shorturl.at/pCJ15)

Zair Kubanuchbekov, director of Ilbirs Foundation

A trial ecotourism venture was organised and undertaken in the Lake Issykul region in October 2019. The central purpose of the journey was to collaborate with and support two mountain communities that are actively engaged in the conservation of the elusive snow leopard and their habitat in the Tianshan Mountains of Central Asia. The following 3-minute film about the trip was produced by Pavel Bolshakov. It also serves as a teaser for a longer documentary film that will imminently be released.

Archery practice in the evening at Jaichy Yurt Camp

Eagle hunter and his bird in Ton village

Young apprentice with his taigan, the Kyrgyz hunting dog

Horseback Planet Society

Horseback archery competition in Tibet

In December 2019, we brought ecotourism and conservation experiences from Kyrgyzstan back to China. A training workshop centred around a friendly horseback archery competition on the south shore of Qinghai Lake (c. 3,200 m asl) aimed to create special opportunity for peer-to-peer learning and networking for ~25 participants from four provinces around the country. The skills learned and encouragement received have led to excellent dynamics that have continued to the present, facilitated after the workshop largely by social media platforms in China.

A public lecture also was given in Xining, and several people are now seeking to launch an ecotourism association to support goals for both people and nature. A youth sports league, including hockey, has been launched, too, emerging in large part from the enthusiasm engendered from the workshop.

Plateau Perspectives staff also are involved in several regional and international organisations and associations that help to advance similar goals and purposes.

Other advisory roles

ICCA Consortium

Custodian communities and their ICCAs – Territories of Life face unprecedented stresses and threats arising from the socio-ecological changes sweeping the world. Increasingly, however, they are also being recognised as among the best hopes for the conservation of biological and cultural diversity left on the planet… Plateau Perspectives is a member of the ICCA Consortium and seeks to support indigenous peoples and local communities through practical measures as well as developing new partnerships and solutions.

As a Member of the ICCA Consortium, Plateau Perspectives participates in responding to emerging threats and opportunities by promoting ICCA self-strengthening processes at local levels along with networking, peer-support and advocacy at national and international levels. Additionally, Marc was appointed as the Consortium's Auditor of the Accounts and Ombudsperson in December 2019.

Marc Foggin and Teddy Baguilat, at the ICCA Consortium regional assembly in June 2019

Discussing about ICCAs - Territories of life

Friends/family from the ICCA Consortium, including representatives from Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Philippines, UK, Switzerland, Jordan, Turkey...

World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA)

WCPA Mountains Specialist Group facilitates the enhanced conservation, effective management and adequate protection of mountain protected areas in one of the Earth’s most important biomes. This includes their biodiversity as well as cultural, social and economic values.

As noted by the WCPA Mountains Specialist Group, "Mountain areas cover 26.5% of the world’s total continental land surface... Mountains are particularly important for their biodiversity, water, clean air, research, cultural diversity, leisure, landscape and spiritual values. [Mountains also] are income sources for communities through agriculture, tourism and use of natural resources... [Furthermore] rich cultural diversity of mountains is well known. Isolation by rugged topographic barriers has contributed to this and remoteness has kept many cultures relatively intact."

Marc has served as the WCPA Mountains Specialist Group's regional representative for Central Asia since 2018.

Petroglyphs in arid lands of Central Asia

Hiking along the Batura Glacier in Hunza valley, Gilgit-Baltistan, in northern Pakistan

Agro-pastoral community lands in the Pamirs, in Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast, Tajikistan (photo: Matthew Emslie-Smith / Plateau Perspectives)

Tibetan herding family on their seasonal migration to summer pastures, near the source of the Yellow River

Snow leopard caught on camera trap in the local Tseren mountain range, near Shiamba Chumpel's home

Hindu Kush mountains, Afghanistan, as seen from the Tajik side of the Panj River

Yagnob National Park, Tajikistan

The Yagnobi people are direct descendants of the empire of Sogdia. They have many distinct cultural traditions as well as local livelihoods well adapted to their mountainous homeland in northern Tajikistan. However, the resident population resident in the Yagnob Valley has been declining in recent years, with those remaining generally having only basic and often challenging living situations, especially with urgent need for health care.

In June 2017, we conducted an exploratory trip to meet local communities and partners. Since then, we have dialogued with partners regarding the proposed establishment of a new national park — finally established in May 2019 — as well as about the development of community ecotourism.

Homestead and fields in lower Yagnob valley

Pakistan-China Transboundary Conservation

Camp on the Batura Glacier, accessed from Gulmit village in upper Hunza Valley, Pakistan

Hunza valley in northern Pakistan is an extraordinary part of the world with awe-inspiring mountains, abundant wildlife, and extraordinary levels of social organisation. Following earlier dialogues and provisional agreement reached in the 2000s between China and Pakistan regarding feasibility of a transboundary park that would include Khunjerab National Park in Pakistan (5,000 km2) and Taxkorgan Nature Reserve in China (15,000 km2), a proposal is now under development, led largely by EvK2CNR, that aims to create a large-scale biosphere reserve that would encompass all of Gilgit-Baltistan. Based on his experience in Tibet and elsewhere, Dr Foggin is being requested to partner with Mr Ashiq Khan in this programme of work, including the monitoring of project implementation and creation of a transboundary protected area as well as development of appropriate ecotourism that is supportive of community-based wildlife conservation.

Common signage along the Karakoram Highway

The 'Hussaini Bridge' across the Hunza river near Gulmit village in northern Pakistan

Alistair and Marion at our trekking camp in the mountains of Hunza valley, August 2018

Conferences
& publications

Plateau Perspectives senior staff have participated in recent years in a number of noteworthy conferences and workshops, and published several peer-reviewed articles that summarise and provide insights into the broad thematics relevant for the organisation.

Key conferences and workshops include inter alia the following:

BRI Horizon Scanning (Kunming, China)
Cansiglio Declaration (Venice, Italy)
World Mountain Forum 2018 (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan)
Silk Roads 2018: Social & Environmental Impacts (also see here) (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan)
Silk Roads in the Mountains of Central Asia 2017 (Dushanbe, Tajikistan)

"Mountains are vital for our lives" (photo: MSRI)

Chris Hergarten, Alma Uzbekova, Pakiza Shirinova and Marc Foggin jointly organised the launch of the World Mountain Forum 2018 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Talas community team working with Ilbirs Foundation

Field trip to the Pamirs, following the Silk Roads 2017 Conference held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Team meal in Cansiglio, Italy where we convened to discuss social and environmental impacts of China's Belt & Road Initiative and jointly produced the Cansiglio Declaration

Launch meeting for the Bam-e-Dunya Network of Protected Areas along the Silk Road, held in Lanzhou, China

Interagency tam building day with staff from UNDP and FAO in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, making felt handicrafts together

World Mountain Forum 2018

The following publications also have been written...

Assessment of the health status and risk factors of Kham Tibetan pastoralists in the alpine grasslands of the Tibetan plateau (Foggin et al. 2006)

Depopulating the Tibetan grasslands (Foggin 2008)

Conservation Issues: Mountain Ecosystems (Foggin 2016)

Environmental Conservation in the Tibetan Plateau Region (Foggin 2018)

Conservation Geopolitics: Envision the future of the Belt & Road Initiative in the Mountains of Central Asia (Foggin et al. 2018)

Biodiversity is essential for human development (Foggin 2020)

Ecotourism: Purposefully bringing benefit for both people and nature (Foggin 2020)

Horizon Scan of the Belt and Road Initiative (Hughes et al. 2020)

Life in Bishkek

Aerial view of Bishkek city, with Tianshan mountains in the background

And now, finally, we return once again to the present... to Bishkek... and to all that 2020 is "giving us" — locally and globally — in this most memorable of years! What project plans had we had in place? What had been our dreams for the future? Some of these may hold, but many others undoubtedly will need to change. What does the future hold? It is almost impossible to say...

But when one day Bishkek does return to normal, it will certainly have the same beautiful character as it always has had. An oasis in the desert, both literally and figuratively — with cold mountain streams feeding the irrigation canals that flow through the city, tree-lined boulevards, and dozens of cafes and myriad restaurants from all corners of the world, also with a vibrant life and the freedom to associate and to discuss and debate the past and present, fashions and factions, different visions for the future. The place is unique, its character most special.

For us, life here has been good. With our colleagues, with projects, with trips to the countryside. For our family, these have been our son's high school years, the latter years before he launches off into the world on his own. We will always be there, yet these have been a most special time for us.

Friends in the evening sun along the Naryn River

English classes, good food, friendships...

Yet some undercurrents remain disturbing... with climate change and melting glaciers, with loss of biodiversity, with imbalanced and unfair global economic systems, with new technologies that may serve for good yet also could be abused for personal gain...

What will the future look like, not only for Bishkek and Kyrgyzstan, but also around the world and particularly for the next generation?

Looking forward

Yet we still look to the future with a sense of hope since, despite the many unknowns, it is now increasingly being recognised that things need to change. And for our part, in our family and in our work, we have seen many 'impossibles' become reality — so we keep faith for the future!

However, whether in regard to the environment, to the economic systems that we blindly assume to be the only option available to us, or to the many sojourners who live amongst us (whether immigrant or refugee, or simply the 'other' in our midst)... there are important changes that must take place in our minds, at both individual and societal levels, which exhibit themselves in our basic assumptions, attitudes, and actions. For our selfishness, we need to repent — or in modern English, we need to turn, to change our direction.

All this goes to the very heart of who we are, for we are not mere physical matter but relational beings, created in His image, and intended to be others-oriented. We need now to recover who we are, for we are not individuals but in fact a corporate body. We are all brothers and sisters in the human realm, furthermore we are all part of the larger ecosystem of Creation.

As I come to the end of writing this summary of our past 20 years in Tibet and Central Asia — and this, not so much as a dissertation or peer-reviewed development journal article, since it reflects both the personal and the professional, in a subjective and intertwined fashion — it feels that a chapter of our lives is coming to a close. This is the 20th anniversary of Marion and my marriage. This year also is the 20th anniversary of the organisation that we co-founded and have run together for many years. It equally is the year that our son will be going to university. Our marriage and family will stay together, and the organisation most likely will continue for many years more. But times are changing, and new ways are being forged. Some projects are being wrapped up, others are just launching.

There also is much uncertainty in the air, not least due to the wake-up call that is Covid-19...

Here in Bishkek, we have just this afternoon had our first outdoor barbecue supper of the year, a sign of spring! But we also remain in lockdown. We have friends around the world who are now ill. Here, government response is very encouraging, but health systems are not amongst the best in the world... so we find ourselves with extra time. Time to read, to talk, to think... and we have so much to think about. It is, I believe, time for us to re-envisage the future we want, the world we wish to live in.

When we come out on the other side of current public health-based (necessary) restrictions, how will we reboot our lives? What will be our attitudes, based on our faith and belief systems? How different might our decisions and actions be in response to the challenges and opportunities that we will face Beyond the immediate emergencies arising around us, these are perhaps the most fundamental long-term questions we must ask and address, head on, to co-create the fair and just world we know we should expect and for which, in each of our lives and decisions, we should strive to build.

The past 20 years have been an exciting journey. We now look forward to whatever new doors may be opened for us, and continuing in the life that God has given each of us and in and through which He graciously makes Himself known.

Suojia fort in the heart of the Tibetan plateau, established c. 1968

To cite: Foggin, J. M. 2020. Twenty years: Reflections on life in Tibet & Central Asia. Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic: Plateau Perspectives. https://stories.plateauperspectives.org/twenty-years

Footnotes

So many people have been in our lives and blessed us these past 20 years. To all of you who have walked with us on this amazing journey, thank you for all your love, patience, and kindness.

Button Label

FootNotes

So many people have been in our lives and blessed us these past 20 years. To all of you who have walked with us on this amazing journey, thank you for all your love, patience, and kindness.

Lairg Crofters Show 2024

Twenty years

Reflections on life in Tibet & Central Asia

FootNotes

The last remaining Crofters’ show in mainland Britain

Where Ancient Culture & Conservation Intersect

One of the largest collections of petroglyphs in the world

Nature and wildlife tourism in Senegal

Exploring community conservation initiatives (and national parks) in Northern Pakistan

Kincardine War Memorial Centenary Commemorative Service, 1922-2022