• 标题：Priorities for the sustainable development of the ecological environment on the Tibetan Plateau
• 关键词：ecological environment ,Tibetan Plateau
• 作者：

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The Tibetan Plateau is often referred to as the “roof of the world ”because most of its area lies more than 4000 m above sea-level. As a result of this high altitude, the Tibetan Plateau stores the largest volume of glacier after the Arctic and Antarctic regions and is often called the Earth’s third pole [1] . It has recently been estimated that the glacier reserves of the Tibetan Plateau contain more than eight trillion cubic meters of water, which could supply more than two billion people [2] . A number of large rivers originate from the Tibetan Plateau, including the Yangtze River, Yellow River, Brahmaputra and Ganges, leading to it being called the “water tower of Asia ”. The extreme environment and abundant water resources of the Tibetan Plateau mean that it forms a unique habitat for wildlife, and the genes of a large number of rare high- altitude plant and animal species are preserved in this important region. Forests, grasslands, wetlands, permafrost and other ecosystems of Tibetan Plateau are vital carbon pools and are crucial to achieving global carbon neutrality. The role of the Tibetan Plateau as a natural barrier and its unique environment requires the development of a strategy for sustainable development to allow this region to meet the United Nations’ (UN’s) 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [3] . The development of a strategy for the sustainable development of the Tibetan Plateau is not an easy task. The plateau is a sensitive, fragile and functionally vulnerable area in terms of the global environment and climate change and is comparable to the polar regions in importance [1] . The difference between this “third pole ”and the Earth’s actual polar regions is that the population and economy of Tibet are both developing rapidly. The population of Tibet increased from 2,580,000 to 3,510,000 from the year 2000 to 2019 [4] , with most of this increase resulting from urbanization. The regional gross domestic product (GDP) of Tibet was up to 169.78 billion yuan (about US$ 26.20 billion) in 2019 [4] , with a growth rate > 12% in half of the years in the last two decades ( Fig. 1 ). This growth rate ranked first in all provinces of China and was among the highest in the world. Following this economic prosperity, can we say that the Tibetan en- vironment is experiencing sustainable development? Eco-environmental deterioration and GDP growth simultaneously occur just as “twinborn ? Corresponding author. Following this economic prosperity, can we say that the Tibetan en- vironment is experiencing sustainable development? Eco-environmental deterioration and GDP growth simultaneously occur just as “twinborn sisters ”. This raised up the need for policy regulation to balance the population-resource-environment system on the Tibetan Plateau. Tibet’s Ecological Security Barrier Protection and Construction Plan (hereafter referred to as “the Plan ”) entered into force in 2009 and a series of tech- nological fixes was used to solve environmental problems. The ultimate goal of “the Plan ”is to coordinate social, economic, environmental and ecological development.