Qinghai officials have appealed to scientists in Hong Kong and overseas to research the effects of global warming which is causing a chronic water shortage in the remote northern province.
The province - where the Yangtze, Yellow and Lanchang rivers originate - is suffering from drought and a rise in temperature.
Describing the Tibetan Plateau as the 'third pole', the director of the province's Environmental Protection Bureau, Kang Weixing, said much of the 720,000 square km province was undergoing major desertification.
Mr Kang, who visited Hong Kong last week, said: 'It's a sensitive, critical area. It's crucial for all of Asia and acts as an indicator for the whole world of the effects of global warming.' Mr Kang met representatives of Friends of the Earth and officials from the Environmental Campaign Committee.
A massive glacier at the source of the rivers was melting, said Mr Kang. Half a kilometre of ice had melted from it in the past seven to eight months.
'It is the global warming effect, it's impossible that it's the man-made effects of people in the area,' said Mr Kang. His bureau was building up a support base of researchers to help with data collection, he said.