Buddhist monasteries facilitated landscape conservation on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Abstract Context The Sanjiangyuan region of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau—also known as “Three Rivers’ Headwaters”—is origin Yellow, Yangtze, and Mekong Rivers therefore key water source for hundreds millions downstream residents. Protecting this region’s ecosystems is a priority sustainable development in China Asia. An important social dimension long-established widespread presence Tibetan Buddhism, particularly manifested large number monasteries throughout region. However, influence cultural factors on environmental change remains largely understudied here. Objective We focus two types spatial associations—point-point point-area features—to quantitatively investigate effects Buddhist land use/cover (LUCC) surrounding landscapes. Methods conduct spatially-explicit analysis periods, 1990–2000 2010–2015, to identify quantify distributions LUCC compared village communities that lack monasteries. Results found highly correlated with preservation natural ecosystems, specifically grasslands forests. Within monastery buffer zones radii between 1 10 km, 7.13–9.30% more grassland area 7.14–7.47% forest remained around villages. This contrast decreased increasing distance monastery/village. Overall, built-up areas were also much smaller than villages, while unused was commonly transformed forests Conclusions These findings strongly support idea culture, through its physical institutions communities, are instrumental achieving desired landscape conservation outcomes.