China: Grassland Restoration in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)

As a result of the favorable outcomes achieved by this project, the Central Government of China has finally changed its policies regarding the restoration of degraded grasslands. Before the year 2000, there was no voice against planting trees in the steppe, and few restoration efforts took into account the well being of the people living in degraded lands in these arid or semi-arid regions. It has been shown that before any of the projects combating desertification in grasslands can work properly, we must allow the forces of nature to restore the degraded lands. The people living in these areas should then be well looked after. Tree planting in the steppe should be prevented, especially the planting of single tree species such as Populus spp. Ecological services, rather than the direct utilization of land with lower productivities, should be stressed in areas such as desert, sandland, steppe and so on. Shifting of land use function should also be considered, such as breeding animals in farm areas while farming chickens in the steppe.

2000-07-23

2005-07-23

The primary reason for degrading grassland ecosystems in Inner Mongolia is the region's exploding population (McNaughton, 1990; Ware, 1997). Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Xilingol League's population has grown from 205,000 to a current total of 920,000, a net increase of 348% (Compiling Committee of the Annals of the Xilin Gol League, 1996). In the wake of this population increase, and the insatiable demand for better material conditions, the number of domestic livestock has also increased dramatically from 1.6 million to 23 million head, a net increase of 1338%. In this way, the foraging pressure on the grasslands goes up at such a fast rate that very soon it exceeds the bearable limits of the whole grassland ecosystem. Indeed, the average pasture area to support a standard sheep's survival has dropped from 5.13 to 0.467 hectares. This means the net grazing pressure on the grasslands sees an increase of up to 950%.

Another contributing factor in the grasslands' degradation has been the change in community lifestyle and the corresponding shift in policy orientation. Beginning in the 1990s, the traditional nomadism of local inhabitants was replaced by fixed settlements, and this has led to an increasing trend toward grassland depletion, as more emphasis is placed on modernization and improved standards of living. One common result of the increased pressure from more sedentary lifestyles can be characterized as follows: after a long, tedious and famine-prone winter, the livestock scramble to the sensitive budding grass in early spring when it is still developing the photosynthetic organs that stimulate its initial growth. If the grazing livestock is not too numerous (i.e. if population density is not too high), the ravage caused in the early spring may be compensated for by nature itself. If, however, the grazing activity is widespread, the budding grasses are too suppressed to grow soundly. Thus, year by year, a malignant cycle comes into being whereby fewer grasses emerge and are grazed even more heavily than the year before.

According to the project's monitoring and observation data, during the 1970s, the land desertification rate in China was 1,560 square kilometers per year. The figure became 2,100 square kilometers during the 1980s, 2,460 square kilometers during the early five years of the 1990s, and 3,436 square kilometers during the following five years (National Environmental Protection General Agency, 2005.). The environmental disaster caused most directly by the ecological depletion of sandy grasslands is the sandstorm (Shu and Jiang, 2002). During the past 100 years, China has been hit by almost 70 sandstorms. During the first 30-40 years of the last century, a sandstorm occurred once every three years on average, and the situation has only become more aggravated in the last decade or so. In fact, there was only one recorded sandstorm from 1930 to 1960, and then one every two years during the 1960s and 1970s. The frequency of sandstorms has since increased dramatically: one each year in the 1990s; 12 storms in 2000 alone; and a staggering total of 18 occurrences of dusty weather in 2001, including a strong sandstorm that lasted 41 days in a row. From March 18 to 21, 2002, most areas in northern China experienced the most ferocious dusty weather since the start of the 20th century, with a land surface of up to 1.4 million square kilometers affected by the storm.

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To assess the plausibility of conducting grassland restoration using careful land management to encourage natural recovery, in lieu of planting trees or employing costly airplane seeding.

Having seen the potential for natural recovery, project planners hope to upgrade restored areas to the status of natural reserves under administrative protection (Peng et al, 2004).