Because of land privatisation and marketisation in rural areas, community-based adaptation to climate change may face new challenges. A field survey conducted on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP) shows that herders with a grassland collective management system (CMS) suffer higher livestock mortality than those with an individual management system (IMS) during the same extreme climatic events, in contrast to previous research findings. This study seeks to explain this contrast. The results show that although local herders have begun to rely on market-related adaptation strategies to cope with climate change, IMS herders are more inclined to rent-in grassland, while CMS herders are more inclined to purchase fodder. The high-cost grassland renting-in strategy reduces livestock mortality and total household economic loss more effectively than purchasing fodder during snow disasters. An important reason for this is that IMS strengthens market concepts and promotes interaction between herders and external markets, especially the grassland rental market, while CMS continues past grazing traditions and maintains traditional social relationships and collective concepts within the community. CMS herders fail to rent-in grassland due to psychological free-riding incentives and scale mismatch. In the face of repeated climatic disasters, however, CMS herders have also begun to overcome various obstacles to entering the grassland rental market through self-organization and are gradually forming a new pathway of adaptation to climate change.
In China, rangeland fragmentation leads to the problems of anticommons, in terms of livestock production and ecological conditions. As the countermeasure, rangeland use right transfer has been encouraged by the governments recently, which aims to integrate the fragmented rangelands by lease. Can transfer overcome the problems of anticommons? We addressed this question through a case study in Inner Mongolia, by comparing livelihoods and ecological conditions between the households with lease-in pastures and those without practicing transfer. We found that though transfer could make the livelihoods of lease-in households with larger rangeland better-off in weather good years, but worse-off in drought years; and the over grazing was intensified on the transferred pastures. We concluded that the transfer may not be able to fundamentally overcome the problems of anticommons. We argued that spatial anticommons and right anticommons are interrelated to each other, rather than two juxtaposed types as defined by anticommons scholars.
Weather constitutes a major source of risks facing households in rural areas, which are being amplified under climate change. In this context, two main rural financial services, weather index insurance and microcredit, have been increasingly adopted by farmers worldwide. However, the understanding of the socioeconomic and ecological impacts of these rural finance schemes, including potential maladaptive outcomes, remains ambiguous. We review the recent literature on weather index insurance and microcredit for farmers and find that both rural financial services have positive economic impacts, though benefits to the poorest populations remain controversial. Moreover, their impacts on the ecological systems are less studied and are found to be mainly negative. In addition, considering that both financial instruments have strengths and limitations, we argue that combination schemes (e.g. a hybrid product) may generate positive synergistic effects on building socioeconomic resilience to climate risks in agricultural regions. However, this may also add new economic risk to local financial institutions. This comprehensive review provides a reference for the potential benefits and risks of agricultural finance innovations. Further studies on the ecological impacts of rural financial services and the synergistic effects of the combination on socioeconomic and ecosystem resilience in rural contexts are needed to fill the current research gap.
The literature on microcredit programs has largely focused on positive socioeconomic outcomes and low accessibility issues in farming areas and has provided less insight into the effects of easily acquired microcredit in pastoral areas. Using a case study approach, and econometric models, this paper addresses this gap by examining why and how easily acquired microcredit loans in Inner Mongolian pastoral areas increase the risk to the financial security of households or livelihood risk. Results show that existing microcredit programs increase livelihood risk because loan and repayment requirements do not align with the husbandry production cycle of contemporary Inner Mongolian pastoralists. This misalignment forces pastoralists to borrow from usurers to repay bank loans. Furthermore, households that need to borrow from usurers typically own smaller numbers of livestock and are less likely to be able to repay the usurers by selling animals. Instead, they tend to increase their bank loans in the coming year to repay the previous year’s debt, trapping them in a vicious and ultimately impoverishing circle of annual loans they cannot fully pay back, and feeding increasing debt. We suggest that microcredit programs in semiarid areas should be in sync with the local production cycle and recognize environmental constraints that cause high variation in production seasonally and year to year. Our results supplement previous findings on microcredit applications and are particularly pertinent for other semiarid areas of the world.
The common pool resource (CPR) theory has made invaluable contributions to the governance of natural resources in the past decades, but few literatures have specifically paid attention to the different property right arrangements of resource system and resource units, and their relationship. In this paper, we take two types of grassland property right system on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) in China, one is grassland contract system under that the previous grassland common use was given up and the other is grazing quota system under that the common use is still kept in the community level, as cases to present the different consequences on the ecological conditions, herders’ livelihoods and livestock husbandry. Furthermore, from the perspective of property rights of resource system-units, we explore why the two systems resulted in the different consequences. We find that the grazing quota system indicated by the number of livestock each household allowed to raise has more advantages in improving the herders’ livelihoods and reducing the livestock production costs, and both systems could alleviate the grazing pressure though the long-term effects of the contract system might be negative on ecological conditions. The main reason why the grazing quota system works better is that this type of individual use rights were clarified based on the resource units so the grassland could be kept common use as an integrated resource system, while the contract system was claimed by physically dividing the resource system by fencing, thus the resource system was fragmented which led to mismatch with the large scope movement needs of livestock grazing. We argue that, theoretically, the grazing quota system is a private property rights embedded in the grassland common property right system, which forms a nested property right regime. Our findings have important implications for both of the CPR theory and practical rangeland management worldwide.
In contrast to agricultural settings, the process of urbanization in the pastoral regions of China are largely driven by long-term influences of ecological conservation and the provision of social services. Consequently, many of the herders who have migrated into nearby secondary urban centers depend on resources from pastoral regions to support their livelihoods, forming complex patterns of rural–urban linkages. While current literature has discussed the processes of herder out-migration and their implications on rural and urban livelihood development, few studies have examined the linkages between the herders living in the pastoral regions and those who have out-migrated to urban regions and their importance in rural livelihood transformation. Based on past studies, we argue that, in a changing pastoral social–ecological system, herders living in both rural and urban regions depend on each other to support their livelihoods through three types of mobility: (1) livestock mobility, (2) herder mobility, and (3) resource mobility. However, what innovative institutions in rangeland resource management and herder economic cooperation can do to help maintain these three types of mobility to sustain rural livelihood development, becomes a critical challenge. Innovative community cooperative institutions developed by pastoral communities from the Tibetan Plateau and Inner Mongolia may be able to offer new perspective and insight on how to better maintain rural–urban linkages in the processes of urbanization in pastoral regions. In this current study will present the two cases of innovative institutions and the roles they play in facilitating the three types of mobility to address livelihood challenges. While current studies recommend an increase of government subsidies, provision of vocational training, and social insurance that help herders better adapt to urban livelihood, we argue that rangeland management and community economic cooperation in innovative institutions are needed to facilitate the mobility of livestock, resources, and the herder population, and maybe only then the livelihood challenges that migrated herders are facing will be addressed effectively.
Mainstream policies encourage pastoralists to apply credit loans and input exogenous fodder to alleviate the stress caused by climatic variability and uncertainty. Such external inputs induce new driving forces to the coupled pastoral social-ecological system (SES), but their long-term impacts are not fully understood. Taking Sonid Left Banner of Inner Mongolia as a case study area, we applied an agent-based model and Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the impacts of fodder import and credit loans on the resilience of pastoral SES in terms of pastoralist household livelihood, livestock production, and rangeland health. The results showed that the strategy of importing fodder only in natural disaster years could make the pastoral SES more resilient to climatic variability, while frequent importing of fodder in climatically normal years would increase the vulnerability of the pastoral SES. Credit loans could enhance the resilience of the pastoral SES in general if fodder is not imported or only imported in disaster years, but could reduce the resilience if fodder is imported frequently. Our findings revealed several differences with previous research on fodder input and credit loan effects, indicating that relevant policies should be holistically evaluated from the perspective of social-ecological systems.
Tourism’s impacts on ethnic cultures have received much attention, but few studies have been done on its impacts on nomadic people, especially for Kazakh nomads in China. Many Kazakh households are experiencing a transition from pastoralism to tourism, with yurt tourism being the popular Kazakh tourism products. This study takes Narat in China as a case to understand the impact of yurt tourism on the gendered labor division of Kazakh families, and the status of Kazakh women. Observations and semi-structured interviews were adopted. We find that the division of labor in yurt tourism is an extension of traditional nomad labor division and that the traditional gender statuses have been reinforced. Women are required to not only work but also face additional social pressure since they are considered to be going against customary rules when greeting tourists. Despite this, women’s self-confidence, business skills, and income have improved since the development of tourism. We argue that the form of tourism product, ideology of gender roles, and position of ethnic families in the tourism market account for this change. Diverse results of tourism impacts on the gender relationships of ethnic communities can be derived from the interactions of these three factors.
Global livestock husbandry provides ecosystem goods and services but also emits 7.1 Gt CO2-eq. of greenhouse gases (GHGs) per year. To lower GHG emissions intensity, appropriate production management systems should be identified. Since the 1980s, grassland livestock husbandry in China has transformed gradually from pastoralism into individual household management under the Grassland Household Contract System Policy. However, little is known about how this transition influences GHG emissions. We selected two case study sites representing two different forms of rangeland management systems in Ruoergai county of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, viz. 1) household-based all year continuous grazing under the individual use of rangeland with fences demarcating boundaries; 2) community-based seasonal grazing under the common use of the whole rangeland. The objective was to examine the differences in greenhouse gas emission intensity between the two systems using life cycle assessment (LCA). The results showed that the transition from community-based seasonal grazing into household-based continuous grazing increased the GHG emissions intensity from -0.62 kgCO2-eq/kg meat to 10.51 kgCO2-eq/kg meat. The increase was primarily attributed to changes in soil carbon storage. Findings suggest that to minimize GHG emissions and environmental degradation, community-based seasonal grazing in the pastoral area of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau should be maintained. Enhancing soil carbon sequestration by adopting appropriate practices would further reduce the GHG emissions intensity arising from the livestock system.
After the founding of P. R. China, land use in rural China was organized under two successive paradigms: state-directed collectivization from 1958–1984 (the Collective Era), and privatization after 1984 (the Household Land Contract Period, HLCP). Taking Nileke County of Xinjiang as a case study, this research analyzed the livelihood changes of agro-pastoralists over the two periods using quantitative household livelihood assets—financial, physical, natural, human, and social capital—as indicators. Using annual series data of the five livelihood capitals, a comprehensive livelihood assets index (CLAI) was calculated by two-stage factor analysis. Higher CLAI scores meant better living and reduced poverty for agro-pastoralists. Quantitative results were validated and detailed with semi-structured household interviews. The results showed that CLAI slightly increased during the HLCP in comparison to the Collective Era, mainly due to increases in financial and physical capital. In contrast, natural and social capital showed downward trends, indicating that alleviation of poverty came at the cost of natural resources and social justice. Natural capital was the main contributor to agro-pastoralist livelihoods during the Collective Era, but diminished and was replaced by financial capital during the HLCP. Based on the findings, we put forward policy suggestions to improve community land management and sustainable livelihoods as part of future poverty alleviation efforts.
Microcredit loans are now common for Inner Mongolian pastoralists and are encouraged by government policy on the basis of their previous success for poverty alleviation. However, the effects of the highly variable weather characteristics of many semiarid rangelands on the efficacy of microcredit have not been fully examined. Pastoralists in our study area are often trapped in a vicious cycle of borrowing more each year to pay for previous debt and the next year’s production. Instead of helping to maintain herds through bad years, microcredit has often led to reduced herds and assets. To understand why, a qualitative, interview-based approach was used to determine the kinds of loans taken out and why they are taken out, as well as to assess household livestock sales, income, and costs in three villages. In poor years, 82% of households used loans to purchase winter forage. However, borrowers sold more livestock because the standard 1-yr loan term, combined with weather and market conditions, often forced sales for repayment. Weather and market variation made annual income and costs difficult to anticipate. Loans became an added household risk, another way that environment can influence the social and economic interactions of a rangeland social-ecological system. Longer-term loans could smooth the uncertainty of weather and market conditions, and supplementary measures such as government subsidies or forage insurance could buffer the inevitable but unpredictable bad years. Globally, study of the impacts of nonequilibrial ecological dynamics on economic and policy institutions would help to understand why many development initiatives have failed in such systems.
Economic, policy, and climate changes have profoundly influenced pastoral social-ecological systems on the Tibetan Plateau. Climate change is believed to be leading to increasing extreme weather conditions such as snow disasters and droughts, putting a strain on the rangeland resources herders must have to increase income. Market-based economic reforms and interrelated development policies such as the Rangeland Household Contract Policy, the Ecological Construction Project, and herder settlement Initiatives have increased integration of pastoral regions into modern markets with promotion of tourism, expanded livestock markets, and marketing opportunities for rangeland resources. Although allocating common rangelands to households is the foundation of current rangeland management strategies to achieve these goals, it removes important technologies for coping with high variability in rangeland forage production from the traditional rangeland management portfolio on the Tibetan Plateau. These include shared risk, shared labor, seasonal and yearly herd mobility, and access to diverse areas of rangelands and multiple water sources. Field study of two villages in Guinan County of Qinghai Province, and Ruoergai County of Sichuan Province from 2011 to 2014 found that the villages responded to externally driven policy, economic, and climate changes with an innovative locally adapted quota-based grazing management system that preserves valuable management technologies, conserves rangeland resources, and provides individual opportunities for financial gain. In this way the village social-ecological system has exhibited considerable resiliency, maintaining a form of community governance that functions to manage the rangelands, improve well-being as indicated by livestock productivity, and, according to local perceptions, maintain rangeland condition. The community-based grazing quota system devised by the villages occupies a middle ground between common and individual models for resource use because it focuses more on how to equitably distribute services and utilities from rangelands, instead of how to distribute rangelands.