Social Monitoring Report Semi-annual Report July 2013 PRC: Southern Gansu Roads Development Project Prepared by Gansu Provincial Transport Service Administration Bureau for the People s Republic of China and the Asian Development Bank.
Southern Gansu Road Development Project Due Diligence Report Impact of Guan e gou Bus Station on Ethnic Minority People Gansu Provincial Transport Service Administration Bureau July 2013 1
Figure 1: Guan e gou Passenger Station in Tanchang County 2
Figure 2: Guan e gou Passenger Bus Station Figure 3: Dresses of EM Women in Guan e gou Area 3
Figure 4: Traditional Memorial Ceremony Figure 5: An EM Village in Guan e gou 4
Figure 6: Scenery in Guan e gou Figure 7: EM Women 5
I. Introduction 1. The Southern Gansu Road Development Project comprises: (i) construction of a 134 km four-lane access-controlled toll expressway between Wudu and Guanzigou; (ii) upgrading of 357km rural roads; (iii) construction of 30 class-v township bus stations and 1,500 rural administrative village bus stops; (iv) pilot testing of a road transport action plan in Longnan; (v) improvement of corporate governance; and (vi) capacity development for local transport authorities. 2. Guan e gou passenger bus station in Tanchang County 1 is one of the 30 class-v stations of Component (iii), and it is the only sub-component of the project that directly benefits ethnic minority communities. 3. This due diligence report, as per ADB requirement, assesses the impacts of the Guan e gou Passenger Station (see Figures 1~2) on ethnic minority people. II. The Bus Station 4. Data about the Guan e gou passenger station (see Figure 2) is presented in the table below. Table 1: General Data of Guan e gou Passenger Station No. Indicator Unit Qty/description 1. Date of construction commencement 01 May 2010 2. Date of construction completion 07 Nov 2010 3. Nature of construction (new, rehabilitate) New construction 4. Operation commencement date Jan 2011 5. Total investment CNY 490,000 6. Land area occupied mu 3.5 7. Ownership of land before occupation State ownership 8. Land use type before occupation Barren land 9. Daily buses to county seats at present in 2012 No. 20 (tourist buses) in summer 5 in other season 10. Daily buses in 2010 No. 3 11. No. of beneficiary villages No. 5 12. Beneficiary population (local) in 2012 No. 3,382 13. Beneficiary EM population in 2012 No. 1,346 (39.8%) Source: Tanchang County Transport Bureau 1 Tanchang County is located in the northwest part of Longnan Municipality in Southern Gansu. Tanchang administers 25 townships and it had a total population of 299,300 by 2012. It is 290 kilometers away from Lanzhou City, the capital city of Gansu Province. 6
III. Guan e gou Area and Zangqiang People 5. Guan e gou area was an independent Tibetan township in Tanchang County (see Figure 1) before 2001, and it became part of the Chenguan Township 2 (i.e., county seat) since 2001. The Guan e gou area (refer to the former Guan e gou Tibetan Township thereafter) has a total area of about 156.5 square kilometers with 6 villages and 3,950 people in 2012. Two of the six villages are dominated by ethnic minority of Tibetans or Zangqiang People 3. The total ethnic minority population in Guan e gou area is 1,346 in 2012, accounting for 34.0% of the total population. 6. Up to now the Zangqiang people still keep the architectural style and customs of the ancient Qiang people, but no longer having own language (speak Mandarin). Because of the blocking of Guan e River and the inconvenience of the transportation, people in Guan e gou are relatively isolated before 2000s. The traditional economy and mode of production were agriculture, lumbering, and the collection and processing of medical herbs. Since the implementation of Natural Forest Protection Program by the State government, together with Land Conversion Program (converting cultivated sloping cropland to forests), lumbering is prohibited and agricultural production shrinks dramatically. Young and strong adults in the villages have to go out to seek jobs, leaving the elders and women at home for agricultural production. 7. Guan e gou, with an average elevation of 1,800m above sea level, became a national forest park and summer resort since 1991. Its peculiar landscape and Zangqiang culture, luckily, made it a 4-star beauty spot (see Figure 6) in Gansu Province since then. Guan e gou hosted about 100,000 and 80,000 tourists in 2012 and 2010 respectively. IV. Impact Assessment 8. Obviously, the bus station could provide better services to tourists and then promote health tourism development and protect the Guan e gou forest park through: (i) frequent (tourist) bus services from the county seat to the station in summer time; (ii) serving as transit station for tourists from buses and own cars to green-energy buses for sightseeing within the park in the near future 4. The tourism development could bring multiple benefits to local residents, especially the Zangqiang people: (i) (ii) Direct employment in the park. As indicated in Table 2, the number of seasonal Zangqiang employees in the Guan e gou Forest Park increased to 15 in 2012 from that of 8 in 2010, this could generate an income of about CNY 10,000 for each employee in a period of about 4 months. This is a big income for a local households as the average per capita annual income was CNY1,680 only in 2012. Given that Zangqiang culture is a good attraction to tourists, more Zangqiang people will be employed in the future. High frequency bus services. Due to tourism development, more bus services (many more in the summer season, and slightly more in other seasons) are available, this could enable the Zangqiang people to and from the county seat for market, employment and many other services at any time they like. 2 Chengguan Township (or county seat) has 16 villages and 4 urban communities, including the 6 villages from the former Guan e gou Tibentan Township. 3 Locally refer as Zangqiang people, a group of people that have similarities with Tibetans and Qiang people. Qiang is an ethnic minority in Sichuan Province. Zangqiang people were labeled as Tibetans since 1910s. 4 The park authority will introduce green-energy buses for tourists in a couple of years. 7
(iii) Provision of services and local produces to tourists. As shown in Table 2, Guan e gou hosted 100,000 tourists in 2012, an increase of 25% over that of 2010. 5 It is very certain that there will be a boom in the near future given that both expressway and railway to Tanchang are under construction and will put into operation in 2~3 years. The large quantity of tourists will provide good opportunities for Zangqiang people to providing catering services and could add values to local products, including Zangqiang clothes and handcrafts. (iv) (v) Better protection of Zangqiang culture. The best way of protecting an ethnic minority culture is to have more people, especially the young generation, to practice it. The needs from tourists could push more Zangqiang people, including the young ones, to practice their culture and customs in a respective way. In return, Zangqiang people could generate more and more income locally, yet their culture and customs could be known to many tourists from outside the area. Poverty reduction. As consequences of the above-mentioned benefits, Zangqiang people could gradually alleviate the wide-spread poverty in a sustainable way. 6 Table 2: Tourists Hosted and Employees Indicator Unit Year 2012 2010 No. of tourists hosted No. 100,000 80,000 Admission fee income CNY 17,500,000 12,600,000 No. of employees No. 32 18 Employees from Guan e gou area (seasonal, summer time) No. 27 10 females, 7 males 14 (8F, 6M) EM employees from Guan e gou area (seasonal) No. 15 8 Source: Tanchang County Tourism Bureau and Guan e gou Forest park authority 9. To better protect the Zangqiang culture and promote tourism development, Tanchang County is currently implementing the Guan e gou Ethnic Minority Culture and Natural Heritage Program. This program, with a total investment of CNY64.5 millions, will include the construction of museum, road improvement, construction of tourist center (next to the bus station), etc. 10. To prepare this DDR, an impact assessment consultation meeting was organized in Luren village on 25 May 2013. There are 7 participants, exclusively Zangqiang people. 7 All participants believed that the bus station could bring multiple benefits to them and there is no negative impact on them. The influx of large number of tourists, to their understanding, is a good opportunity for them to develop economy and disseminate Zangqiang culture; while bus station and other forthcoming infrastructures could enable Guan e gou to attract more tourists. V. Conclusion 11. The bus station will bring multiple benefits to Zangqiang people and there is no negative impact on them. 5 There will be some decrease in July 2013 due to floods and earthquakes. 6 Currently the poverty incidence of in Guan e gou area, as well in whole Tanchnag County, is over 50%. 7 There are messieurs Yang Huaijin, Du Jiong, Yang Kuaizhong, Mao Shenghe, Luo Youzhong, Yangqidaishun, Mao Shunhe, Yang Zaojin and Yang Liujia, and Ms Mao Biqin. 8