Get reliable rangeland science

The Tibetan plateau of China is one of the world's major pastoral areas, in
which rangeland management underwent fundamental changes in the
twentieth century. This article reviews the rangeland privatisation process
in the Tibetan plateau over the last ten years, examining cases from
Hongyuan, Zoige and Maqu Counties in the eastern part of the plateau,
Nyima County in the northwestern part and Dingri County in the
southwestern part.
Rangelands have been allocated to individual households or 'the least
contracting unit' starting from 1996, but the process of rangeland
privatisation was diverse and is still ongoing in the western part of the
Tibetan plateau.
Rangeland privatisation has some significant impacts on local people
and their environment. First, many rangelands are inequitably allocated
due to their highly variable topography, productivity and availability of
water resources. Secondly, access to social and economic services has
been made more difficult for some, while social conflicts have increased.
Thirdly, privatisation of rangeland and sedentarisation of nomads needs
matching infrastructure but that is still missing in many places.
Meanwhile, privatisation of rangeland has led to increased labour inputs
in some places and added more workload onto women and children.
The article concludes that rangeland privatisation was intended to stop
further rangeland degradation and to provide nomads with better lives.
However, more study is needed on managing rangeland in an appropriate
way.
(source: abstract)