Biogas program fuels sustainable agriculture in Tibet.

• Author: Herro, Alana
• Position: EYE ON EARTH - Global Environmental Institute - Brief article

They were told it would never work in the high altitude and cold climate of Tibet. But a Beijing-based non-profit, the Global Environmental Institute (GEI), has successfully implemented a biogas program in the mountainous Chinese province. The project provides clean, renewable energy to households and complements the region's growing organic agriculture trade. Located in Wujinmai Village, it is the most recent outgrowth of GEI's sustainable rural development program, mirroring a three-year-old initiative in Yunnan province that boosted participating farmers' incomes 20-fold.

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GEI's program, launched in April 2006, uses a three-pronged approach to address issues of pollution and poverty, according to assistant executive director Lila Buckley. The first component is composting animal manure, a potential groundwater pollutant, into biogas for energy and fertilizer for growing organic crops. GEI trains farmers to manage and maintain the "upfloating" biogas systems, small tanks that employ simple technology and require only one cow or three pigs to provide one or two five-person...