The privatization process of rangeland and its impacts on the pastoral dynamics in the Hindu-Kush Himalaya: the case of western Sichuan, China

Abstract

Profound changes in the last four decades in China has greatly affected traditional Tibetan pastoral production systems. The Chinese government is implementing an ambitious rangeland intensification scheme throughout the Plateau in response to perceived rangeland degradation. Traditional production systems have been altered ever since the Collective period of the 60’s and 70’s, but now, once communally managed rangelands are being “privatized ” under the Household Responsibility System. In one such programme in Western Sichuan, the government provides aid to settle nomads by providing a house, a barn, fenced pasture, and artificial grassland, on a 50 year lease. These changes have far-reaching implications for pastoralism in the future. On the one hand, settlement and intensively managed livestock production brings improved access and services to previously remote nomadic areas. In contrast, it can have negative effects in terms of biodiversity conservation and social cohesion. Accompanying settlement is a corresponding reduction in the spatial mobility of livestock herds which means more condensed grazing pressures on residual open areas, thus reducing plant species diversity and productivity. This is exacerbated by climate change in the region. In addition, the allocation process has led to social conflicts, a breakdown of