Tibetan Plateau Project (TPP) of the Earth Island Institute (EII)
Founded in 1992, the Tibetan Plateau Project (TPP) of the Earth Island Institute (EII) is a
grassroots environmental organization in the United States which concerns itself with development
issues in a region that encompasses portions of Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Tibet. The
primary goal of the organization is to continually safeguard the area's bio-diversity via medicinal
plant conservation, endangered species protection, community-based economic development
projects and global information and education. TPP attempts to create environmental models
which can be applied to various sectors of the region. According to the organization, it " believes
that the active participation of traditional healers and mountain communities is critical to
environmental protection and sustainable development in the region." Cultural, economic and
environmental "appropriateness" of solutions is stressed.
The EII provides organizational support for projects which aim for conservation,
preservation and restoration of the global environment such as the one mentioned above. By
providing assistance in program strategy, public relations, database management, accounting, and
project coverage through Earth Island Journal, EII offers a cost effective organizational structure
to advance the work of its diverse projects. While EII administers and provides support services
for some thirty projects, it does not directly fund or subsidize these projects. Project directors
manage their own fundraising efforts with foundations and the general public.
Information about this project was obtained by its World Wide Web page which located at:
http://www.earthisland.org/tibet/tibet.html or http://www.earthisland.org/index.html
Entry contributed by George Flaherty (gflaher1@swarthmore.edu) for a course by Peter Taylor