d’Alpoim Guedes Awarded NSF Grant for Archeological Study on Human Management of the Jiuzhaigou National Nature Reserve in Light of China’s “Returning the Farmland to Forests” Conservation Program

Posted: 2/28/2024 ()

CSDE Affiliate Jade d’Alpoim Guedes (Anthropology) has been awarded an Archaeology Program Senior Research Award from the NSF for her project  titled “Deep Time Human Resource Management in the Jiuzhaigou National Nature”.  New conservation programs have sought to minimize human impact on the landscape in the belief National Parks may constitute “pristine nature”. The Jiuzhaigou National Nature Reserve (JNNR) (Tibetan: gzi-rtsa sde-dgu) is located in one of the most biodiverse regions on earth. In the belief that humans may be negatively impacting this biodiversity, the livelihoods of the Sharkog Amdo Tibetans who call gzi-rtsa sde-dgu home have been altered as China actively reforests the land as part of its “Returning the Farmland to Forests” conservation program. However, archaeological evidence suggests that the concern that people are negatively impacting the environment may be misplaced and shows that people have occupied this landscape for thousands of years. The archaeological project will carry out excavations and employ various types of evidence to answer how humans managed forests, planted crops, managed their animals and managed erosional processes over deep time. The researchers will also conduct ethnographic interviews to determine how park residents have used these resources in living memory. See the full story for project photos from 2019!