2015 Volume 80 Issue 2 Pages 125-149
Grassland degradation has been increasing in Inner Mongolia. Sparse vegetation and pasture grass degradation are the most typical phenomena of grassland degradation. Pasture grass degradation is mainly seen in the decrease of nutritious grass eaten by livestock, and the increase of the non-nutritious grasses not eaten by livestock. Overgrazing has been considered the main cause of grassland degradation in the area. Therefore, the government has implemented a policy of reverting grazing land to grassland (tuimu huancao 退牧還草) to help the environment, aiming at preventing livestock from grazing and allowing the grassland to regenerate. It mainly includes the'prohibition of grazing' (jinmu 禁牧), that is, the total prohibition of grazing on a piece of land for a certain period of time. However, grassland degradation did not occur on account of grazing. I will argue that the real problem likely lies in the change from traditional grazing to a system that triggers grassland degradation. In this paper, I aim to examine the process of grassland degradation by the transition from nomadic to settled pastoral life, and clarify the relationship between the state system and nomadic society changes, as well as the relationship between the national land policy and the changes in the nomadic system based on data collected during my fieldwork in the northern part of the Jaruud hoshuu (banner, an administrative division) in eastern Inner Mongolia. The paper consists of seven parts: (1) introduction, (2) outline and climate change of the Jaruud banner, (3) stock farming before the socialist revolution, (4) producers'cooperative societies and changes to stock farming under People's Communes, (5) changes to stock farming after privatization under the Reform and Opening Policy, (6) changes to stock farming after the implementation of an environmental policy, and (7) conclusion. The mobile pastoralism in Inner Mongolia has been affected by political and social changes. I examine how such changes have altered mobile stock farming in the region, and how that has influenced the natural environment in the stages outlined in each section. The main changes in stock farming in Inner Mongolia occurred in livestock ownership and the form of grazing. Although the change in ownership might have had an indirect influence on grassland degradation, the change in grazing form did have a direct impact. Before the implementation of socialist reforms, livestock was privately owned. Pastureland used to be owned by the hoshuu. However, the hota ayil, a group with patrilineal agnates as the core, used the pastureland in a way conforming to customary practices, seasonally letting livestock graze the land. During the socialist reconstruction period of Productive Cooperatives and People's Communes, however, livestock ownership passed from individuals to the state, while possession of the pastureland passed from the banner to the state. As far as land usage was concerned, there was almost no change from pre-revolutionary times, with production teams based on the hota ayil. However, the privatization of Reform and Opening Policy redistributed livestock ownership and land usage rights back to individuals. The livestock ownership was returned to a privately-owned system from the state-owned system in the People's Commune period. A completely different system was adopted for the pastureland, and landuse rights were distributed to individuals. After the land-use rights were distributed, livestock grazing became possible only within one's distributed land, so the frequency of seasonal migration fell rapidly. Grassland degradation especially became severe around winter camps. Although many generally felt that it was the socialist revolution that changed the paradigms of the society, it was actually privatization, encouraged by the Reform and Opening Policy, that altered the paradigms of the
(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)
