Social Fencing and Sacred Landscapes: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Common-Pool Resource Governance on the Tibetan Plateau
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: The Tibetan Plateau, a globally critical socio-ecological system, faces severe vulnerabilities under modern top-down rangeland fencing policies. While physical fencing aims to curb ecological degradation by privatizing land-use rights, it frequently fragments pastoral landscapes and disrupts the traditional transhumance mobility vital for alpine ecosystem resilience, creating a profound "fencing paradox". This study addresses a critical empirical and theoretical gap regarding how indigenous communities utilize Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as an endogenous "social fence" to govern common-pool resources (CPRs). Integrating a textual hermeneutics analysis of classical Tibetan codices (14th–17th centuries) with ethnographic fieldwork ($N = 32$) across Nagqu City, we analyze the institutional mechanisms of seasonal landscape sealing ( ri rgya klu rgya ). Findings indicate that traditional governance operates via cognitive-ontological sacralization, institutional spatial zoning, and performative ritual enforcement. Empirical cases—including female-led aquatic stewardship at Lake Dangra Yumtso, myth-enforced terrestrial conservation at the Gyang shod cypress forest, and spatial zoning at the Maedika Wetland—demonstrate how cultural boundaries successfully manage pastures and watersheds with near-zero transaction and monitoring costs. However, rapid market integration from the Cordyceps economy and rigid administrative boundaries pose severe risks to TEK transmission. This paper contributes to human ecology and CPR governance by demonstrating how incorporating indigenous "social fences" into contemporary co-management frameworks extends Elinor Ostrom’s design principles, facilitates local institutional legitimacy, and enhances polycentric socio-ecological resilience.
Source: Research Square
Authors: tazong ji, tazong ji
Institution: Minzu University of China
Language: English
Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7165167910