NY Times: T. Friedman - Green Dreams in Shangri-La

October 28, 2005
Op-Ed Columnist
Green Dreams in Shangri-La
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN


Shangri-La County, China


I came to Shangri-La and I met the Buddha.


Well, not the Buddha, but one of the "living Buddhas" designated by the
Buddhist hierarchy as spiritual leaders throughout this Tibetan region
of China, and not the mythic Shangri-La of "Lost Horizon," but this lush
western China countryside near the border with Burma that has renamed
itself Shangri-La to attract more tourists.


But don't underestimate this Shangri-La. Its spectacular wetlands, pine
forests and mountains (this is where your rhododendrons originally came
from) make up one of the 34 biodiversity hot spots designated worldwide
by Conservation International as places with large numbers of unique
plant and animal species threatened by human development - which, once
lost, may never come back.


And that's why I came here. Because Shangri-La County is a microcosm of
the biggest challenge facing China. Put simply: if development doesn't
come to Shangri-La and other rural areas, the divide between haves and
have-nots will widen and destabilize China. But if the wrong development
comes here, it will add to global warming and ravage the rural
environment where many of China's indigenous cultures and species are
nested.


Yes, China must get its smoke-belching factories out of the coastal
cities because they are making the cities unlivable, but if it just
pushes them into the countryside, they will destroy way too much of
China's farmland, and the natural areas that are the home of things like
Tibetan culture.


The living Buddha, Ang Weng, is right in the middle of this drama,
trying to promote a higher living standard for his people - without
destroying the "sacred forests" essential to Tibetan spirituality. The
living Buddha wears a sunny smile and a cowboy hat. His wife, who makes
a mean butter tea, a traditional Tibetan drink, translated from his
Tibetan dialect into Chinese for my translator.


He got right to the point: "The human brain is moving much faster into
the modern world than the environment, and this fast move is having an
impact on the environment. Build this and build that, and you lose the
environment."


The good, and surprising, news I found in Shangri-La was how much the
poor villagers here were coming up with their own green growth
solutions. For instance, the 39 families in the village of Hamugu have
bundled their savings to build a lodge for ecotourists drawn by the
wetlands. "We just need a Web site," the manager told me. A local
botanist has built Shangri-La Alpine Botanic Garden, which employs two
dozen people and shares profits with the local village.


It also has the finest public toilet I've ever used, a solar-powered
composting toilet with an automated plastic green seat cover - in the
middle of nowhere! It was labeled "The Lavatory of Environmental
Protection of the Travel."


A U.S. multinational, 3M, is financing the restoration of the local
forests to reduce climate change and protect the watersheds. And the old
log-and-mud town of Zhongdian here is a Disneyland-like traditional
Tibetan village, with hot-pot restaurants that attract droves of Chinese
tourists.


"All the basic elements of a network solution to safeguard environment
and culture are here," said Lu Zhi, Conservation International's
director in China and my traveling companion. (My wife's a C.I. board
member.) "But the challenge is how do you organize this
business-N.G.O.-government network more effectively so you can provide
ecofriendly alternatives to industrial development that could be
replicated in the rest of rural China."


Not only would this be enormously important for China's environment, but
it could also be a model for other developing countries. What we don't
want is for China to protect its own environment and then strip everyone
else's in the developing world by importing their forests and minerals.


"For 30 years, the business of development has been Americans and
Europeans lecturing poor countries about how they need to do things
differently,"
said Glenn Prickett, a senior vice president with Conservation
International. "What we hope to see here is a new paradigm, where China,
itself a developing country, offers a new model of sustainable
development to other developing countries."


I sure hope so. We all need China to start assuming an environmental
leadership role commensurate with its impact on the world. Imagine a day
when China is sharing its own approaches to environmentally and
culturally sustainable development with other developing countries - not
just pursuing them for its resources.


Now that would be a great leap forward.