Expansion of the resource frontier in the Tibetan Plateau

Research Team

Benedikt Korf

Norman Backhaus

Emily Yeh

Bernhard Schmid

Peter Schaber

Konchok Gelek

Research

This project will focus on the expansion of economic exploitation activities in previously lightly populated and utilized regions and their effects on property relations and livelihood futures. The project will conduct mapping, livelihoods analyses, key informant interviews and household interviews and closely collaborate with scientists of the other clusters working at that site in terms of logistics. This will allow a comparison across two latitudinal sites of the URPP, where expansion processes of the resource frontier type are particularly pronounced. The methodology would build on the tested Phase 1 approach in Borneo, allowing for cross-case comparison in terms of resource characteristics, land use patterns, property relations, livelihoods pathways, commodity chains.