Rangeland Use and Agro-pastoral Linkage in the Alpine Area of Northwest Yunnan Province, China

Abstract

Pastoral areas of the People’s Republic of China, such as Inner Mongolia Uighur and Tibet, have suffered serious rangeland degradation since the 1980s due to overgrazing. Therefore, the Chinese government has extended the Household Responsibility System to rangeland as well as crop fields. This study aims to show some patterns of alpine pastoralism at the village and household level, and to discuss “privatization” of rangeland in the alpine environment. Field survey was conducted in two Tibetan villages, of Shanggelila county, northwest Yunnan province.

Three kinds of bovine livestock are raised, and these are classified into two types according to how they are fed: as part of mixed farming or by mobile pastoralism. The former type is connected with crop fields by supplying manure and plowing, and is essential for every household. The latter is selectively raised in roughly half of all households. Winter grazing methods are different between two villages: the herd is left in mountain pasture in Wengshang village and grazed around the settlement in Hompo village. Alpine pastoralism presents several patterns on the basis of agro-pastoral linkage, and rangeland would have a different value in each case. In considering the privatization of rangeland, it is necessary to grasp the diverse form of alpine pastoralism.