FutureGenerations

In twenty years, the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in partnership with Future Generations has achieved major conservation success. Today 40 percent of the land area is protected under conservation management with the active participation of local people as conservation stewards.

Across China, youth from 32 universities have joined the Green Long March to promote environmental awareness and community action for a sustainable future. Initiated by Future Generations and Beijing Forestry University with endorsement from the State Forestry Administration and support from such sponsors as Goldman Sachs, Suntech, and the Swire Group, the Green Long March takes a proactive, positive approach to improving China's environment.

Future Generations provides training and support to the Tibetan Plateau Biology Institute to preserve the remaining wetlands within the capital city of Lhasa. More than half of this precious zone has already been lost, but the government recognizes the danger with 30% remaining and has created a huge urban park. The Lhasa Wetlands National Nature Preserve, known locally as Lhalu, is the highest urban wetland in the world. Spreading beneath the Potola Palace, this 1,605 acre protected area not only preserves open space but provides critical ecological

The Qomolangma (Everest) National Nature Preserve, a park the size of Massachusetts, is home to the world’s highest mountains and 86,000 Tibetans. Future Generations staff helped develop and ten years later revise a master plan for this protected area.

 

Southeastern Tibet has a “sea of forests” so vast that the region contains 1/7th of all the timber reserves for China. The once rapid deforestation of the region was banned to protect the upper watersheds for four of Asia’s greatest rivers: the Yangtze, Salween, Mekong, and Brahmaputra. These rivers serve 20 percent of humanity living in eight countries downstream.

Click to start the virtual tourBuilding on the tradition of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and Windstar Foundation, Future Generations has taken the next step in green design by building a zero-energy use office.

The first community nature reserve in Arunachal Pradesh was created utilizing a new clause in the Indian National Forestry Act. Building on Future Generations environmental research and advocacy, people who had been poachers were trained to do conservation studies. They made a movie of their rarest animals and participate in sustainable forestry. Villagers used their data and devised a management plan to protect most of the eastern half of the Siang River Gorge, an area roughly the size of Rhode Island, with the greatest concentration of biodiversity in India.