Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
multiple damsitesontheLancang—first atManwanandDachaoshan, thenatXiaowanand
Nuozhadu—allows us to examine for the first time how changing government policies re-
gardingresettlementcompensationhaveaffectedthelivesofvillagers.Suchpolicychanges
represent, I argue, one of the bright spots in this study: recently resettled households are
receiving many times the compensation sums that their predecessors did, and these sums
become the seed money that allows them to tenaciously try to rebuild their lives.
In the Nu River basin, villagers remain among the poorest citizens in the country. Al-
though many villagers lack specific knowledge about the hydropower projects currently
being planned and constructed, most actually support the exploitation of hydropower re-
sourcesfornationaleconomicdevelopment.Moreover,theyviewtheprojectsasapotential
job-creation strategy, though evidence from similar projects around the globe suggests that
long-term economic gains from such projects rarely materialize at the local level. Many
households have transitioned from a swidden farming system only in the past generation or
two and still rely on a very small income from agriculture, livestock sales, and nontimber
forest products such as mushrooms and herbs. Dam development is occurring simultan-
eously with massive road-construction campaigns that will soon link the Nu River Gorge
with more heavily traveled areas of Yunnan, a transition that is already pushing many local
residents out of agriculture and into the wage-labor economy. I have suggested that three
areas of vulnerability—economic, political, and cultural—will be important to consider as
the Nu River projects move forward. The world will be watching to see whether compensa-
tion policies are well implemented and whether some of the worst social ills typically seen
withdevelopment-induced displacement campaigns—deepened economic marginalization,
joblessness, and social unrest—can be avoided or mitigated. Can hydropower development
be undertaken in a way that transcends the technocratic approach by meaningfully address-
ing the moral concerns—about disturbing sensitive ecosystems and displacing vulnerable
people—that are at the heart of the controversy?
BEYOND CRITIQUE
Whenweacknowledgethemoraldimensionsofhydropowerdevelopmentandthecomplex
trade-offsthat it entails, wecan more clearly see the things that wevalue andthe things that
we sometimes willfully ignore. In my interview with Dr. Liu, the environmental scientist
who directed a prominent research center, she hinted at a changing value orientation cur-
rently under way among scientists and policy makers in China: “The majority of decision
makers have an instrumental orientation [toward the environment]. They think, 'If the en-
vironment is destroyed, we [people] will be affected.' They consider the environment to
be part of quality of life. Right now, I think that we are developing a second kind of value
orientation: the social/cultural value of environment and natural resources is becoming im-
