Grassland tenure,livelihood assets and pastoralists’resilience:evidence and empirical analyses from western China

Pastoralists in western China are highly vulnerable due to harsh natural conditions and the poor socioeconomic environment they confront.More than 50%of the pastoralists in major grassland areas are living below the survival line;moreover,around 90%of the usable grasslands in China have been degraded to some degree,and the degradation expands at a rate of two million ha per year.Enhancing pastoralists’resilience is desirable for the economic development and social stability in pastoral areas.As an important aspect influencing livelihoods,grassland tenure in China has not been well studied to learn how it affects the welfare of pastoralists,and what can be done to strengthen their resilience.Based on the evidence from four periods of fieldwork conducted by the authors during 2005-2014,the study applies an analytical framework adapted from the sustainable livelihood theory to examine the interactions of grassland tenure,livelihood assets of pastoralists and their resilience.Main findings show that the existing grassland tenure arrangements cause unbalanced and decreased livelihood assets,which in turn reduce the resilience of pastoralists by lowering their capacities of coping with stresses or shocks.Of the policies and measures aiming to enhance the pastoralists’adaptive capacity and ongoing development,building social capital is critical.Developing functional livelihood asset markets such as grassland rental markets and financial markets will also contribute to a more robust livelihood structure.

Impacts of Cultivated Land Conversion on Environmental Sustainability and Grain Self-sufficiency in China

Using provincial data, the present paper examines the impact of cultivated land conversion on agriculture and the environment. It is found that the grain production center is gradually moving towards more fragile and water scarce areas, putting more pressure on the environment. Land conversion caused large losses in ecosystem service values in the 1990s, but large scale ecological restoration programs have been implemented since 2000 to compensate for such losses. The ecological restoration programs are concentrated in regions with relatively low land productivity, whereas cultivated land conversion usually takes place in areas with relatively high land productivity. Newly-cultivated land, especially that in areas marginally suit for agricultural production, is likely to have much lower productivity levels than the original cultivated land. Because the stock of potentially cultivable land is almost exhausted, China＇s grain self-suffiency policy can only be maintained by preserving the available stock of arable land and increasing its productivity in a sustainable way.