中国・内モンゴルにおける草原保護政策下での牧羊経営の変化

―シリンゴル草原地域を事例として―

抄録

The focus of this essay is to outline the issue of grassland desertification in Inner Mongolia, and discuss the recent changes in the region’s sheep-grazing zone management procedures that were preceded by some revisions in the region’s grassland preservation policies.
One of the important causes of the desertification of the Inner Mongolian grasslands is the decades of overgrazing, which, in turn, has led to major revisions of the regional policies for resource conservation. Recently, it has been observed that grassland desertification and the consequential preservation policies have continuously hindered sustainable development of the traditional pasturage business. Under this circumstance, in order to prevent the further decline of the pasturage business, the regional government and analysts are currently laboring to find a solution to regulate the use of grasslands to control both the damage to the ecosystem (i.e., soil erosion) and pasturage production.
The case study introduced here is about the XiLingol grasslands area and can serve as an excellent example of this issue. We also consider the future scenario for the pasturage business in Inner Mongolia.