Collaborative Design for Sustainable Restoration of Tibetan Grasslands

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, initiated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), aims to bolster global ecosystem protection and restoration in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), which has seen over 70% of its grasslands degrade by 2020, illustrates a significant ecological decline. This deterioration is evidenced by decreased biomass, reduced proportions of edible grass, shifts in plant communities, degraded soil and microbial health, and the occurrence of "black-soil-type degradation" and desertification. These conditions pose severe threats to the ecological functions and the sustainability of local livelihoods and the cultural landscape.
In response, one of the largest ecosystem restoration projects globally is currently underway on the QTP. Various restoration methods, adhering to a “close-to-nature” principle, have been implemented. These include enclosure and grazing control in lightly degraded areas, nutrient supplementation, microbial agent application, no-tillage sowing, and artificial restoration in severely degraded zones. However, "black-soil degradation" —indicative of extreme ecological breakdown with the loss of surface vegetation and root systems—remains a formidable challenge, with 12.3 million hectares affected. Despite the significant funding of 48 million Chinese Yuan in 2021 to restore ten thousand hectares, this only represents 0.08% of the total degraded area.
Current restoration efforts primarily focus on technical methodologies to alter ecological processes. However, to truly enhance the sustainability and efficacy of these initiatives, increasing local community engagement is essential. The effectiveness of restoration tools is pivotal in facilitating this engagement. Traditional grassland restoration equipment, often ill-suited to the plateau's distinct soil, terrain, and the lightweight nature of local grass seeds, leads to laborious and prolonged efforts that are unfeasible within pastoral communities. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop convenient and accessible restoration tools that are tailored to the needs of the local population, thereby bolstering community involvement in restoration activities.
Goal and Objectives: The goal of this project is to improve the efficiency of grassland restoration through innovative design of restoration tools while fostering local community involvement in ecological conservation. This approach is expected to lessen labor requirements and facilitate greater local participation in ecological rehabilitation efforts.
Objectives:
1. Create prototypes of grassland restoration tools, including replanting tools, grass seed harvesting tools, and other equipment designed to spark local interest in restoration activities.
2. Use the "Urban Living Lab" on the campus of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University to simulate plateau terrain and soil conditions for field testing these prototype tools, ensuring their practicality and effectiveness.
3. Implement these tools in the grassland restoration season of 2025, refine and finalize the prototypes, and develop a knowledge dissemination plan for community utilization of the restoration tools.
Project Team: This project boasts a transdisciplinary team comprising grassland restoration practitioners from Henan Mongolian Autonomous County in Qinghai Province; Plateau Nature Conservancy; and experts from Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, including Professor Vicente Esteban, an industrial designer with extensive experience in social design for community engagement, Dr. Li Li, a landscape ecologist specializing in the socio-ecological dynamics of grassland degradation, and Professor Uromi Goodale, a member of the IUCN seed specialist group.