Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
ment objectives on Yunnan's rivers and to show how these strategies are grounded in mor-
al, cultural, and historical precedents. Key government agencies, including the NDRC and
the MWR, view hydropower development as a means to achieve energy security amid the
continually rising demand for electrical power. This goal is significant and laudable, with
the potential of generating enough electricity to offset and perhaps even render obsolete
hundreds of coal-fired power plants that are at the heart of the nation's air-pollution woes.
It is also part of a national strategy to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions and to
reduce the carbon intensity of major economic activities, especially manufacturing. I have
argued that the current boom of hydropower development is part and parcel of the statem-
aking process; it is a means through which powerful political and economic interests can
advance further resource claims in the geographical and cultural periphery of the southwest
region. Paradoxically, statemaking involves powerful nonstate actors: hydropower corpor-
ations and a dizzying array ofsubsidiaries that seek to develop the region'shydropower po-
tential and distribute electricity eastward on the grid. International investors view the situ-
ation as an attractive financial opportunity because putting money into energy conglomer-
ates is essentially betting on the continued expansion of the Chinese economy.
The conservation agenda in Yunnan—driven by well-known multilateral agencies such
as UNESCO, international NGOs such as TNC, and an array of domestic organizations,
scientists, journalists, and other advocates—draws heavily on scientific studies that show
Yunnan to be a key repository of biological diversity. These organizations stake a claim on
Yunnan's unique assemblage of flora and fauna as a form of common global heritage. At
thesametime,variousdomesticNGOsworktoachieveconservationgoalsinmorecircum-
spect ways. The issue of preserving biological diversity and cultural heritage is not without
complications because it is unclear at what geographical scale claims to the region's biod-
iversity can legitimately be made.
The picture gets considerably more complicated when local villagers' needs are taken
into account. On the Lancang, where tens of thousands of villagers have been displaced so
far and where many more will undoubtedly be displaced in the years to come, the story is
one of adaptation in the face of difficulty and uncertainty. Villagers must cope with dra-
matic changes in access to agricultural land, which affects their subsistence and their abil-
ity to produce commodity crops for the market. A primary means of adaptation is to send
one or more household members to cities and towns in search of wage-labor opportunit-
ies; resettled households, equipped with some seed money from government compensation
programs, appear to be taking advantage of the opportunities presented to them by initiat-
ing entrepreneurial activities. But resettled villagers also face an altered social landscape
in which their networks of interdependence and cooperation are disrupted. Some resettled
households have borrowed significant amounts of money from families and neighbors in
recent years, likely as a means to invest in income-generating opportunities, a trend that
may have serious negative consequences down the road. The comparison of resettlement at
