A Review of Rangeland Privatisation and Its Implications in the Tibetan Plateau, China

Abstract

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

Rangeland Privatization and the Maasai Experience: Social Capital and the Implications for Traditional Resource Management in Southern Kenya

“…In many cases, however, fencing is discouraged for this very reason. Such de facto bans on fencing correspond with results from earlier research in other subdivided group ranches in Kenya (Kimani and Pickard 1998;Rutten 1992), as well as with research findings of pastoralists in China (Zhaoli et al 2005).…”

“…Landowners and their neighbors have adapted and developed social networks to pool their lands and manage them communally. Like other analogous pasture sharing agreements, cooperative development, and movement of livestock across boundaries elsewhere in Kenya and among pastoralists in China, these arrangements are usually based on traditional bonding ties with friends and family (BurnSilver and Mwangi 2007;Ning and Richard 1999;Worden 2007;Zhaoli et al 2005). They are an extension of long-established, reciprocal Maasai traditions.…”

Impact of Meadow Degradation on Soil Water Status and Pasture Management—A Case Study in Tibet

“…This flexibility in policy implementation is emerging (e.g. Banks et al, 2003;Yan et al, 2005), and China's revised Grassland Law (2003) arguably provides legal space for such alternative models. Based on the research in Kema, herders are happy to settle in a village.…”

Preface

“…Starting in the 1980s, the Chinese government has encouraged and subsidized individual pastoral households -Mongolian, Tibetan, Kazakh and others -to privatize parcels of rangelands, cease long-distance seasonal movements and grow or buy supplementary fodder to feed their animals over winter (Williams 1996, Banks 2003, Zhaoli et al 2005. The Chinese government and some scientists justified these policy reforms as an effort to reconcile a tension between private ownership of livestock and the open access to grazing land following decollectivization in the 1970s.…”