ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on fieldwork carried out from Oxford University in Tibet, mainly in 1990 and 1991, together with the Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. The effects of increased demand on each of these items is not the same. Grain and dung are of course renewable natural resources. The economically more developed farming areas, as for example in the peri-urban areas of central Tibet close to towns or with reasonable road access, have some areas at risk of degradation to the natural environment. It may have been the case in the past that the small areas of natural forest in central Tibet were at risk from over-felling, and also from the free grazing of livestock which prevents regeneration. The increased demand on biomass is both for immediate consumption by rural and urban households, and for production for market and economic investment.
