This paper describes the climatic, ecological, social and institutional features that characterize pastoral socio-ecological systems and identify some of the recent pressures and changes that are occurring within them. Traditional and emerging paradigms in the field of rangeland management are also described as well as the changing meaning and role of community and the current understanding of vulnerability and resilience. The framework presented at the end of the paper draws on these elements and highlights characteristics and linkages that can lead to resilient pastoral social- ecological systems and the role of community-based rangeland management in this process.

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This paper describes an experimental project in Huolonggou Tibetan village aimed at slowing the rate of grassland degradation by working on capacity building within the community. The NGO staff helped the community to set up a Community-Based Grassland Management Group and to rebuild the basic structure of the community's grassland Code of Conduct, which had been disrupted in the years since the founding of the People's Republic of China. The NGO and the villagers worked together to protect and restore the grasslands. An assessment, conducted by the villagers themselves in 2009, concluded that, over the 2 years previous, the project had helped dramatically to alleviate the degradation of the grasslands.