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Background Paper for Conference

on the " The Environments of the Poor”, 24-26 Nov 2010, New Delhi

Poverty, Environment and Climate Change

In Grassland Areas of North and North-west China

Cui Yanhu

Institute of Social-cultural Anthropology, Xinjiang Normal University, Urumqi, China

(Urumqi, 830054)

Abstract:
In the past decades, although many measures have been taken to reduce poverty
in the grassland areas of China by the Chinese government and local governments
concerned, the poverty is still a serious challenge to the livelihood of herders in China
and to the social development of the grassland areas of the country.
The present paper, starts with a description of government programs to address
dryland poverty in China. Based on the data from the field surveys of the writer, the
paper then describes the poverty situation of herders in North and North-west China,
analyses the complexities of the poverty situation related to environment, social and
cultural dimensions of grassland societies and the successful and unsuccessful
aspects of the measures that have been taken to reduce poverty in the areas. The
paper also describes the increasing complex impacts of environment changes and
climate changes on the poverty of the areas (very good), and it also points out that
poverty should not be merely understood as an economic phenomenon of the
grassland areas of the country, and the social and cultural factors should be
considered in in the strategies for poverty reduction. (very good; can you elaborate
on this a bit)
It is suggested that it is important to take a true sustainable development
strategy with a spatial approach to poverty reduction in China’s grassland areas. In
realizing this, it is essential to understand the issues such as the local social and
cultural conditions, local active participation in poverty reduction policy-making and
the design and implementation of integrated development strategies for grassland
development, in which grassland environment protection and restoration should be
placed on a key position with overall consideration of the local eco-environment
cultures.
Key Words: poverty climate change grassland environment North and Northwest
China
Introduction

In the North and North-west China, including the western part of Inner Mongolia,
Xinjiang, the western part of Gansu Province, Qinghai and Ningxia, lies vast areas of
grassland, where live about 70 million people, of which about 7-8 million are herders,
settled or nomadic. And these vast areas are also the major part of dryland of China
and the average annual precipitation of the areas ranges from 20 mm to no more
than 200 mm. And it is noted that in the past 50 years and more, there have been
drastic changes in the eco-environment system of the two areas due to ongoing
drought and rising of the climate temperature, unreasonable human activities and un-
sustainable development strategies.

This paper gives a brief description of the situation of changes of the environment of
the areas, and focuses on the environmental changes caused by climate changes
and their consequences to the poverty of the herders and farmers living in there, and
it also reports the measures that China and the local governments have taken in the
past years to reduce the impacts of the climate changes on the environment and the
production of the livelihood of the people. Finally, the paper makes some proposals
for further policy-making and actions on how to meet the challenges of climate
changes on the eco-environment and poverty of grassland and dryland areas like
that of the North and North-west China.

I Pastoralism in North China

China is one of the countries in the world that have the largest areas of grassland,
and the grassland area of China mainly lies in the north of the country, 2.87 billion
hectares in area, which is one tenth of the total grassland area of the world, and one
fifth of the total area of the country. If compared with the farmland area of China, the
grassland area is 3.2 times larger than the former.
In history, the grassland areas of China were the very area in which many nomadic
peoples lived, who were engaged in pastoralism for living and they moved their
animals to seek for natural pastures and water. This type of subsistence led to
various nomadic cultures, and so the grassland areas are also is a “web” of China’s
cultural-diversity. And the grassland peoples made great contributions to the
civilizations of China. Today, about 11 ethnic peoples, such as Mongolians, Tibetans,
Kazaks, Kirkiz, etc., live in the grassland areas and many of them still practice
pastaolism for living.
For the past thousands of years, the nomadic peoples in North China acquired
resources for survival with their nomadism knowledge and skills, “making home
where water and grass is found”. Constrained by their understanding of the natural
eco-environment and the nomadic skills based on that, the nomads’ preservation of
the grassland eco-environment is established on a natural recognition of the
relationship between the humans and the grasslands. The grassland resources are
utilized and conserved in an orderly manner. The past hundred years saw great
changes in the grassland societies and life ways of the nomadic peoples. With more
and more grassland being reclaimed into farmland, resettlement and turning to the
sedentary have been two major choices for the herders, which inevitably result in the
changes of their subsistence forms and livelihood. On the other hand, ongoing
situation of deterioration of grassland eco-environment has been a great force that
drives herders to make changes in their production.

I Grassland Environment and Environment Degradation

The grassland areas of North and Northwest China are in the semi-arid and arid belts
of the east part of Eurasian Grassland. Drought is always a great threat to the
environment and peoples there. In some of the areas, the annual rainfall is below
200mm(such as in Western part of Inner Mongolia and South Xinjiang, where the
area of arid pastures takes the largest and vegetation is poor in terms of height,
coverage and number of grass species.
Degradation of the pastures in the North and North-west China is a common
phenomenon. According to Prof. Zhang Xinshi, an outstanding scholar of grassland
environment of China and an academia of China Academy of Natural Sciences, the
grassland of North and North-west China has been in a condition of non-self-
maintenance, non-sustainable in ecology and non-sustainable in environment. And
deterioration of grassland eco-environment has been happening in almost of the
grassland areas. Specifically, the following are believed as the most serious ones:
- Of the 2.87 billion hectares grassland, about 90% of the pastures are
deteriorated to certain degrees
- the pastures which are deteriorated, desertificated and salinized takes about
53% in area of the total;
- The production capacity of the grassland has reduced 17%-40%, of which
the arid grassland pastures is the most serious, 40% reduction is very
common.
- The area of soil erosion in the North and North-west China increased from
2,870,000 ｋｍ 2 in 1989 to 2,940,000 ｋｍ 2 in 2000, most of which occurred
in the grassland areas
- Many rivers and lakes of the areas have either dried up or reduced in the
volume of water and area.
- The composition of plant species community in the grassland areas have
changed with disappearance of more and more fine forage grasses and
increase of more and more poisonous grass species, and this is especially
obvious in the western part of Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Xinjiang.

Table 1: The Desertificated Areas in North and North-west China

Province Desertificated Area % of the Country’ Total
Xinjiang 1071,600 km2
Inner Mongolia 622,400 km2
Tibet 433,500 km2
Gnasu 193,500 km2
Qinghai 191,700 km2
Shan’xi 29,900 km2
Ningxia 29,799 km2
Hebei 23,200 km2
Total 98.45%
Source: National Yearbook of Environment, 2008

From this, it is clear that the most serious desertification exists in the grassland
areas of North and North-west China.

A Case: Maqu County, Qinghai Province

In the past 20 years, 90% pastures of the county have been deteriorated to
some degrees, which can be seen from 1) fresh grass production dropped from 5860
kg/ hectare in 1981 to 4000 kg /hectare in 2000, 31% reduction; 2)the average height
of grass has dropped
from 35cm in 1990 to 15 cm in 2009, and coverage dropped from 70% in 1980’s
to 70% in 2009; 3)the area of wetland shrank from 1000000 mu in the 1980’s to less
than 300000 mu in 2009, 62% shrinking.
(Du Guozheng, 2009, private exchange)

The reasons of the deterioration of the environment of China’s grassland areas

are complex. And the Chinese researchers of the field have conducted extensive
studies on it. The following are thought as the most important:
- Reclamation of grassland to farmland (5% of the grassland area were
reclaimed)
- Over-capacity and overgrazing (which are seen in all of the grassland areas)
- Rapid growth of population in the grassland areas
- Mining and industry development related to exploitation of mineral resources
- Classmate changes in the past 50 and more years
- Non-sustainable management of grassland eco—environment.

2 Resources for Animal Husbandry Production

In the past, herders, nomadic or non-nomadic, lived on animal husbandry and their
herd was composed of sheep(with very small number of goats, cattle, horses and
camels). The four types of domestic animals offered most of the resources for their
life, food, clothing dwelt and transportation. In most of the grassland area, herders
moved their animals to places where there were sufficient grass and water. And the
animals were the most important sources of livelihood: meat, milk and dairy products,
clothing, felts and yurts.

The vast grassland provided the herders with basic natural resources: hay and
fodder, wood and water. In order to obtain and make a successive use of the natural
resources, The herders practiced a seasonal migration strategy, that is, they would
move their animals from one pasture from another for grass and water. In the case of
Xinjiang, nomadism remained the major form of subsistence for the above said ethnic
groups. Even during the People’s Commune era (1958-1984), the pastures were still
collectively owned under the “Commune”. The nomads were organized into
Production Brigades under the Commune and tended the collectively owned herds
on family basis in exchange for daily necessities. At that time the nomads would drive
their herds from the winter camp (or “winter home” located in valleys or basins) to the
spring pasture for lambing. When the lambing is over, they would move on to the hill
pasture and then further onto the high mountain/summer pasture. After spending 2 or
3 months on the mountain pasture, they would move back to the autumn pasture
following the same route (in many areas, the spring and autumn pastures are the
same) before the snowfall. They would sell the marketable animals at the autumn
pasture and then return to the winter pasture (in late October or early November).
The nomads would stay for 5 months on the winter pasture through the cold winter
and leave in mid March in the following spring. It is a yearly cycle that is familiar to
them since ancient times.

The nomads’ animal herds are normally composed of four species: sheep (or goats),
horses, cattle and camels. Sheep and cattle are the most important sources of
income and food (e.g. dairy products, which are indispensable in the nomads’ diet).
The horses are for people to ride and camels the most important means of
transportation for moving the yurt and other belongings. However, an exception is
found in Kazakh or Kirgiz families who would slaughter one or two horses and leave
the meat to dry for food. Horsemeat is considered choice food by the Kazakhs and
Kirgizs while the Mongols and Tajiks never slaughter or eat horses. All the nomadic
peoples consume horse and camel milk and take it as premier delicacy.

Ecologically speaking, the nomadic way of working and living in Xinjiang is adaptive
to the local environment and sustainable in resource exploitation. Taking the winter
pasture for example, every Production Brigade would send a team of young and
middle-aged men from the summer pasture to make hay there in August for winter
use. In about 5 months a year, they wouldn’t graze animals there to let the grass
grow back. It is the same for the spring, autumn and summer pasture where the
grass has time to grow back up each year. The nomadic practice ensures that the
ecology of various pastures is preserved with the respite.

3 Subsistence and Transformation of Pastoral Societies

Although nomads do turn into sedentary farmers from time to time historically
speaking, the number of families making the changeover is sparse and sporadic in
North and North-west China grassland. The massive transformation of nomads into
settlers starting in the mid 1980s in the areas is, however, a social practice on a
wholesale scale. At that time, nomadic villages were completely or partially led into
crop farming on a gradual basis. The operation is composed of the following parts:

- Nomads give up their tradition and turn into crop farming with some
pastoralism practice;
- The local governments choose the location and builds permanent housing for
the nomads (the settlements are mostly located in valleys and basins and
plains where permanent water source is available);
- The local governments allocates farmland to each household as the
resources for the nomads’ new life (size of the plot depends on arable land
availability in the region. Information from investigation shows the size of the
plots the nomads received in different areas differ greatly, varying between
30 – 120 mu (2 – 8 hectares) on the average.
- A certain number of livestock is kept and fed with fodder from grass farming.

In the mean while, the local government built infrastructure facilities such as schools,
clinics and stores to improve the living standards and offered crop-farming training
courses to the nomads.

The number of nomadic households that have settled down varied according to
areas. In Inner Mongolia, almost all of the nomadic herders are settled down,
practicing both sedentary farming and animal husbandry production. By 2008, more
than 85% of the nomadic households in Xinjiang had turned into the settled lifestyle,
i.e. less than 25% (sic) and falling were still practicing nomadism (Xinjiang Statistics
Yearbook, 2009, China Statistics Press). In Qinghai, Gansu and Tibet, the numbers
are smaller with
the above two.

Turning the nomads into sedentary settlers is a profound change, socially,

economically and culturally. How the nomads adapt to the new way of life is a point of
concern for the academic community. As mentioned before, the nomads’ income rose
rapidly and living standard improved markedly through raising more livestock and
with the price rise of animal products in the decade after 1984. However, most of the
nomads who settled down began seeing income stagnation or obvious drop from
1998.

Though it is impossible to portray a panorama of the livelihood before and after the
Reform in Xinjiang, this author will try to offer an overview of the profound changes
through describing a number of cases of nomads going into sedentary lifestyle and
the process of social-cultural changes for the nomadic communities and people.

When we consider the poverty situation in the grassland areas of North and North-
west China, a historical perspective of both practice of nomadism and sedentary
production by grassland herders should be accounted for. On the one hand, poverty
exists among those herder households that still practice nomadism to some extent,
and in the areas where the grassland deterioration is serious, poverty situation is
serious, too, for the degraded pastures no longer provide the herders with enough
resources to keep animals as they hope for. And in the grassland areas of Xinjiang,
Qinghai, Tibet and Gansu, it has been a difficult dilemma for those households that
still move their animals from one pasture to another to increase their herd sizes as
the resources (pasture, grass and water) have become scarce due to the
environment changes. However, it means that they should stay where they are in
terms of income if they always keep the same size of herds. What is more, with the
fragmentation of the grassland with more and more pastures to be reclaimed into
farmland, which is believed to be one of the causes for further degradation of the
eco-environment system of the grassland, the traditional nomadic practice has been
experiencing more difficulties. On the other hand, as said in the above, those herder
households that resettled down and turned to sedentary farming practice as their new
subsistence form, it is a pain-taking process for them to adapt themselves to “learn”
how to farm, no matter what they choose, growing fodder or growing crops. And it is
pain-taking not only because it will at least take a long time for them to learn farming
technologies. It is observed in Xinjiang that it will take at least 5-7 years for Kazak
herders to do so. In other areas, the time for this may be shorter or longer, depending
on what training the local governments offer to them or how this training is carried out
and also depending on how well they learn them. Similarly, if there are some
environment restraints, such as lack of water for irrigation, the poor soil condition or
frequent drought, they have more difficulties in farming. According to the field
observations in Xinjiang and Qinghai grassland, the income of 90% settled herder
households obviously dropped after they settled down for the first year. And in Inner
Mongolia, some researchers noticed that most of the settled herders would
experience income-reduction in the first several years if the number of the number of
their domestic animals gets smaller and smaller due to difficulty in obtaining
resources to raise them.

II Climate Change and Poverty of Herders in Grassland Areas of North and

Northwest China
Climate changes are an issue that has been debated over years in terms of
“global warming or global cold”. However, the paper does not intend to be involved in
the debates. Rather, it is going to report the local knowledge of climate changes in
grassland and the consequences of the changes to the livelihood, and their impacts
on the poverty situation that exists in the areas. The local knowledge of climate
changes comes from the oral narrations of the herders that the author interviewed in
the past years.
As it is said in the previous parts, the grassland of North and North-west China
lied in the semi-arid and arid areas where drought is an unbeatable challenge, even a
great threat, to the people living there. The nomadic herders accumulated rich
knowledge about the climate changes and also they developed traditional
technologies and skills to reduce the impacts of the climate changes on their
production and life as well.
 According to the surveys on the question of whether climate has obviously
changed or not, of the 140 herder households (70 still moving with animals and 70
are settled down), 91% herders believe that the changes are an obviously and
constant existence.

Table II-1: Perception of Climate Changes by Herders

Very Obvious Changed but
Place of Ethnic Type Not settled Settled Change not obvious *

Surveys
Altay Steppe Kazak herder 32 19 Non- 2
Settled:30
Settled: 17
2
West Tianshan Kazak and 24 21 24 0
Mountain Mongolian
Herders
19 2
Ordos, Inner Mongolian 18
Mongolia Herders

18 0
Kezilesu, West Kirkiz Herders 28 23 27 1
Tianshan
Mountain
19 4
Yushu, Tibetan 16 12 16 0
Qinghai Herders 11
Gannan Tibetan 20 20 20 01
Gansu Herders 18 2
The Field survey conducted in 2007, 2008 and 2009
* Those who answered” changed but not obvious” were all young herders under the 30 years old

No matter whether they are still herders practicing a kind of nomadic herding to
some extent or they are settled to turn to farming, the surveyed herders have a
common knowledge about the climate changes in the grassland areas in the four
provinces or regions. And most of them consider that climate changes have
happened and they have “seen” the impacts on them: the rise of temperature and the
continuing “dry” in the grassland and the shrinking of rivers and lakes in their areas
where their ancestors lived and they are living now. During the interviews, some of
the herders expressed their worries about the impacts of the changes on their
livelihood as the grassland environment will be changing greatly if the climate
changes continue.

Case II-1: Jinser, a Mongolian herder of Handgarte Mongolian Town, Altay Steppe,
Xinjiang:
“Handgarte is a hilly pasture area of Altay Mountain area and it was cool in the
Past years. But we have a feeling that it is getting warmer and warmer now. In the
past there was a lot of snow in the winter and we used sleighs as a means of
transportation, but they are gone as there is no much snow on the ground. And the t
ime for snow to stay on the ground is much shorter than before (How long has this
been so?). Well, about 15 years. What is worse is that the water in the river is less
and
less and the there are no fish at all now. And grass growing in the spring pastures
around here is shorter and thinner and many springs from which we get drink water
have dried up. In the past we were worried about too much snow but now we are
worried about too little snow.

Case II-2: Losang Redi, a Tibetan herder of Gannan grassland, Gansu province
“In spring there are too much dust both in the air and pastures now. In the past
When we were on horseback, going in the grassland, there was no dust. (Why is it
so?) Too dry with less and less rain and snow! In the past we wore our traditional fur
cloths in spring and summer but now it is too hot to wear them. The temperature is
rising and even in winter, it is warmer than the past. If it is going on like this, we will
lose the grassland! Where we can live without grassland?

Case II-3：Naranbater，a Mongolian herder of Ushen Qi, Ordos, Inner Mongolia

“In our grassland, there were many lakes, and some of them were very big and
Some were small. But many of them dried up and the lake basins are desertland
now. In the past it was cool here but now it is very hot. I raise fine wool sheep for 35
years and they do not like to stay in a place where it is hot. In the past, we did not
have any
problem with this ( too hot for the sheep), but now they have troubles with the
summer
temperature. I am worried about it because we will have to give up raising fine wool
sheep if the climate goers on like this.

Case II-4: Hishankhan, a Kazak herder of Oyimok Town, Altay Steppe, Xinjiang
(Before the interview began, the old man showed me to look at his high mountain
pastures which are about 3000 meters high above sea level and grass was
yellowish and very short, his sheep were very hard to graze on the ground.-mid July
2008)

“I am 72 years old but I have never seen this scene before. Of the four seasonal
pastures, the summer pastures here are usually very abundant with high-quality
grass, usually 40 cm high. But you see, there is no grass at all on the slopes and the
top of the mountain. We have not had any rain since March and most of the streams
are dry without water. My sheep and other animals have had a very hard time here,
and this is what I have not experienced in my life. I am worried about my animals
because two months late we will move them down to our autumn pastures, but there
are no grass on the way and how they could walk down there without anything to eat
on the way? This year I lost 4 cows because they ate poisonous grass which there
are too many here in the mountains this year1
1
In 2008, in the two counties of Altay Steppe area, more than 200 big domestic animals died of poisonous grass,
and the number was much higher than that of the the previous years. The local herders attributed this to the
serious drought of the year.
The climate is changing a lot in recent years but in this year it is extremely obvious
and it is very unusual, very unusual.

Table II -2: Perception of the Impacts of Climate Changes by Herders

Place of Number of Very Serious Yes, but not serious Do Not Know
Surveys Herders Serious
Xinjiang 149 121 22 6 0
Inner 18 18 0 0 0
Mongolia
Gansu 40 34 5 1 0
Qinghai 28 27 1 0 9

What the herders perceived in climate change in the areas is confirmed by the
local authorities that manage the animal husbandry production.

Mr. Jumader, deputy head of Burjin County Animal Husbandry Bureau, Altay
Prefecture, Xinjiang, said:

“We Kazaks herders classify serious and dangerous climate disasters into two types,
“black disaster” and “ white disaster” “Black disaster means drought while “white disaster”
means snowstorm or heavy snow. We see them as “disasters” because they bring great
damages to animal hunbandry production, even great lose of human life. In the past
years, ten more more, there are more cases of balck disasters in Altay steppe areas
because of drough caused by rising temperature, and though the number of “white
disasters” is not as many as in the past, each time it hits our grassland, it causes more
damages than before. Climate change is not something like a theory here, but it is
something that we perceive, see and that affects us more and more.”

Ms.Uyunqiqige, deputy head of Ushen Qi Animal Husbandry Bureau, Ordos, Inner

Mongolia, said:
“In the past years, there are more “black disasters than “white disasters” in Ordos
grassland and drought is the most dangerous disasters to the animals and herders of the
area. If we say that in the past, wolves were dangerous to sheep, now it is the drought
that are more dangerous than wolves. Each time we are hit by a “black disaster”, we lose
many sheep and herders suffered a lot from this. In our Qi, there are cases that some
herders became poor after a serious “black disaster” and the number of this type of
herder households is increasing now.”

From the above, we may come to the conclusion as the following:

First, herders in the survey areas all perceived the climate change from their
experiences and knowledge. this may support the view that climate change have
been happening in the areas and these change has brought a lot of difficulties to their
life and herding production.
Second, herders in the areas are worried about the impacts of the change on
their daily life and herding and farming as a way of survival. And at this moment they
do not have any way out.
Third, the climate change may affect even remap the ecosystem of the semi-arid
and arid grassland area, and the local herders are much worried about this, for if it
happens, the eco-environmental foundation for herding in the areas may be partially
damaged or totally damaged.

The ethnographic knowledge of climate change and its impacts on the herders
and their livelihood in the grassland areas of North and North-west China are
confirmed by scientific researches of the field.

“In the past 50 years, the annual average temperature of Northwest China has
been rising most obviously, especially in the months of February and October, and in
April, May, June and August, this change is also obvious.”
(Dr. Zhai Luxin: Climatic Variability and Impact on Hydrology in Recent 50 Years in Northwest China)

“According to the studies on climate change and grassland degradation in 54

counties of Inner Mongolia, the rise of annual average temperature has been obvious
and the rainfall has remained the stable or less; And the temperature rise has much
to do with the degradation of grassland.”
“If the other conditions remained unchanged, 1 degree rising in temperature
results in 0.05 ratio of the degradation of grassland, while human activities, such as
1% increase in the density of population in a village area, will result in 0.5 ratio of the
degradation of grassland.”
“The climate change, especially the temperature rise, contributes 18% to the
degradation while human activities contributed 52% in Inner Mongolia grassland from
1984 to 2000. And the importance of the former is increasing in the past 10 years.”
(Dr Wang Yunxia: “A Positive Study on the Grassland Degradation and Its Determinants in Inner
Mongolia”)

“From a general view of the climate change in grassland areas of North China,
there has been a tendency of changes that the climate is becoming warmer and drier.
Climate warm is leading to the deterioration of grassland eco-system and reduction
of pasture biodiversity and biomass production and plant coverage. This will speed
up the desertification of the areas. Meanwhile, the reduction of grassland biomass
production will reduce the carry-capacity of grassland, which in turn, will reduce the
income of herders there to a great extent”
(Professor Pan Xuebiao: “A lecture at the Forum on Sustainable Development of Grassland of North China 2008”)

“On average, there were 2.5 times of serious drought disasters and 4.5 times of
general drought disasters while 1.5 times of serious snow disasters in Inner Mongolia
from 1951 to 1987. And other naturals disasters were frequently happening. There
were constant serious drought disasters from 1999 to 2001, which caused great
damages to the grassland environment and herder society. It is also noted that the
most serious sandstorms occurred in the grassland.”
 (Professor Zhang Xinshi: An interview on Climate Change and Grassland Environment”)

III Poverty, Grassland Degradation and Climate Change

1 Poverty Situation in Grassland of North and Northwest Chin

The poverty situation has been serious in the grassland areas of North and
Northwest China. First, the number of national-level poverty-stricken counties in the
areas is more than that in other areas of the country. And by the end of 2008, there were
74 national-level poverty-stricken counties, about 15% of the total in China. And the
percentage of the poverty-stricken households takes about 18%-22% of the whole
number of households of the areas. For example, in Qinghe County of Xinjiang, the
number of poor herder households is 35% of the total herder households. And the
average income of each herder household of the areas is 25%-40% lower than the
average income of each rural household of the country. And due to environmental
changes, the income growth of herder households of the areas is much slower than that
of the rural households of the country in general. According to an Oxfam report on the
poverty conditions of Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Qinghai, about 60% of the herder
households were affected by grassland degradation and most of them lived at the edge
of poverty.

2 Returning to Poverty
The continuing grassland degradation in the areas not only makes the poor herder
households poorer but also makes the average-income herder households return to
poverty. For the poor households, they have to sell more sheep and other animals to
make living, and the degradated pastures cannot support their animals grazing, so
the result is that the more they sell, the fewer they keep, the reduction of the number
of animals they keep becomes inevitable. For example, one third of the poor
households at Bayinamen Village of Jinghe County, Bortala Mongolian Autonomous
Prefecture, Xinjiang, only have sheep no more than 100 sheep and few big animals
each, this number can not offer a basic herd of female animals, sheep in particular,
by which the reproduction of their herds is possible. According to the surveys, 16.5%
of the poor herder households no longer have their own animals and the men have to
work for looking after the domestic animals of the comparatively rich herder
households to make a living. This is increasingly common in the grassland areas of
North and Northwest China. For the average–income households, as they have more
animals than the poor but the production of the pastures has decreased and the
pastures cannot support more animals, either. And these type of herder households
are at a dilemma: wishing to make more income do improve their life but being
conditioned by the degradated pastures.
In Altay Steppe area, many herder households improved their living conditions
with the income from enlarging their herd size from 1985 to 1998 and there was a
period in which their income increased rapidly. Our survey results suggested that the
income of herder households at this period increased faster than that of the farming
households around the grassland. However, after the year of 2000, the income of
herder households became stagnated. The main reason for this is the production
capacity of the pastures becomes lower and lower due to the degradation of their
pastures and they do not have any other access to natural resources for more
animals. No surprisingly, about 20% of the herder households that were out of
poverty in 1980’s and mid-1990’s return to poverty again. This is also the same for
the other grassland areas. Returning to poverty due to the environmental causes has
been a common phenomenon in the grassland areas. .

Case III-1: Herders Returning Poverty in Inner Mongolia

In 1983 when the “responsibility system” was implemented in Inner Mongolian
grassland areas, there were no “poor herder households” in the area. However, the
poverty happened in the following years. Take a Gacha of Xinlinguolen Prefecture,
Inner Mogolia, as an example:

Table III-1: Poverty Increase at Yingtu Gacha of Zhengxiangbai Qi1 (1983-2005)

Year Number of Poor H.* Percentage of the total Note
H.Households
1983 0 0%
1985 2 0.29%
1990 8 1.16%
1995 5 0.72%
2000 20 29%
2005 32 46% Of the poor herder households. 25
do not own any animals
*The poverty line of Xilinguoleng Meng(Prefecture) of the year is that average sheep unit/ per person is or below 30

And the similar situation is seen in other Qis or Gachas of Inner Mongolia. For
example, in Abaga Qi, each person of 70% herder households owned only 28 sheep
unit in 2002, visibly below the poverty line of the region, and this means the number
of herder households in poverty took 70% of the total herder households there.

3 Poverty of the Settled Herder Households

For those herder households that were settled and turned to farming, the number of
poor households has been increasing since they were settled and turned to farming
subsistence, and the surveys indicate that the causes of poverty occurrence among
them mainly are the following:
- Degradation of grassland and lack of resources
- Lack of farming technology
- Natural disasters
- Poor management
- Lack of labor

Case III-2
The herder household of Qinghaojia Village, Wenquan County, Xinjiang were
settled at the end of 1990’s and they were allocated with farmland and other farming

1
resources and provided with training for farming after they were settled. Before 1998
when they were nomadic herders, there were only 3 poor households that needed
the poverty-aids from the local government. In 2007, 42% settled herder households
were in poverty.

Jiamali, head of the village:

The amount of land the villagers actually cultivate is only about 630 mu –
approximately 5.4 mu of land per person. Due to the year-round low temperatures
the climate is not suitable for growing cotton, so the main crops are wheat and oil-
sunflower. There are two types of land in the village: near Bortala River there is
embankment which takes up about 320 mu, and the leftover land is gobi or desert
which takes up about 310 mu. These lands are poor and barren, so 5.4 mu per
person is not enough, and the land is frequently contracted out. In 2010, the village
had a total of 44 households, six of which practiced cultivation, three of which are
Mongolian and three of which are Kazakh. In recent years, along the banks of Bortala
River in the townships a large amount of land has been opened up, but it is difficult to
calculate the surface area exactly, it stretches continuously for several kilometers, no
less than one kilometer from the river. Most of this land is used for growing oil-
sunflower, which is a water intensive crop. Another side of Qinghaojia village is for a
Herding Unit. After sedentarization, each herder family received 30 or so mu of
fodder land which, according to the plan, was supposed to be used for raising alfalfa
for the livestock. In reality, however, most of these alfalfa fields are contracted out to
outside businessmen who use them for wheat or oil-sunflower production. The
herders have preserved their nomadic herding method, going into the mountains in
the summer and winter months and only staying in the permanent settlement during
the spring and autumn.”

This case suggests that, though herder-settlement strategy was originally designed
to help herders out of their poverty situation which were partically caused by
degradation of grassland, most of settled herder households are not able to be out of
poverty. On the contrary, their porverty condition is deepening due to the reasons as
mentiond above.

Qinghaojia case is not single one. In fact, according to the surveys of the author and
researches of others, it is very common situation in the grassland areas of North and
northwest China. Herder households were encouraged or organized to be settled for
farming in hope that this could help to reduce poverty and degradatrion of grassland
which was supposed to be caused by herd overgrazing and pasture over-carry so
that the grassland environment could be improved. However, on the contrary of the
expectations of the strategy, complex causes, including the climate restraints brought
about by climate change, poverty still remains a great challenge to the settled herder
households.

IV China’s Responses and Measures to Protect the Grassland Environment

 and Restore the Damaged Grassland Eco-system
Since 1990’s, China has taken integrated measuresa to improve and restore the
degradated grassland eco-system and to reduce the poverty of herder households in
the grassland areas of North and Northwest China. The Chinese government has
made many policies for this purposes:
- West China Development Strategy(1995), in which the protection and restore
damaged environment of grassland is decided as the first target of the
strategy, and about ten billion yuan has been planned for this target and the
strategy calls for rebuilding a green environment West China.
- Regulation for Converting the Farmland for Forestry and Pasture( Issued by
the State Council in 2002), which specifies the policies and measures, and
plans to put 3400 billion yuan for implementation of the project which will last
for 17 years
- Supplementary Policies on Converting the Farmland for Forestry (Issue by
the State Council in 2005), which further specifies the measures for offering
funds and technologies to individual herder household to practice converting
the farmland for forestry and pastures. And according to the new measures,
more than 80% herder households in grassland areas of North and
Northwest China obtains cash compensations and technologies for giving up
cultivation and returning their land to forestry and pastures
- Implementation Measures for Regulation on Converting the Farmland for
Forestry and Pasture issued by the local governments of the area(from 2003-
2008). The local governments (at province and county levels) have made
their own measures to ensure and promote the implementation of the project,
and more funds are offered by them for specific key areas.
- Project for Restoration of Damaged Grassland Environment: this project
jointly-initiated by Ministry of Environment Protection, Ministry of Agriculture,
Ministry of Forestry aims to restore the mostly damaged grassland
environment of China, most of which is located in North and Northwest
China. Up to now, hundreds of billion Yuan have been put for the project.
- Project for Construction of Sanbei Protect Forest (covering Northeast, North
and Northwest China): this project aims at growing a grand forest belt from
Northeast China, via North China and to Northwest China to protect the
environment and stopping the desert movement). And the first and second
phases of the project have been completed.

Beside the above policies and measures, China has taken other measures to
help the herder households of the areas to reduce and get rid of poverty, including:
- Improvement of infrastructure of grassland areas
- Implementation of anti-poverty projects at provincial, county and town levels
- Making and implementing poverty relieving policies
- Promotion of small town development in grassland areas
- Improvement of education in grassland and offering training programmes to
help herders to access to new resources for development
 All these policies and measures have proved effective in reducing poverty
conditions of the areas as the they have obviously improve the grassland
environment. For instance, with the implementation of the Regulation for Converting
the Farmland for Forestry and Pasture, about half a million herders have moved to
better environment of the grassland in Xinjiang, and their living condition has
improved as the local infrastructure has improved and grassland environment is
better than that 10 years ago in some areas.
However, as it will take quite a long time to complete the targets of the above
projects and strategies and to see whether they can really function well as they were
designed for and to what extent they will improve the grassland environment so that
the anti-poverty programmes in the areas will be supported with a good
environmental conditions, China needs to input more human, policy, financial and
technological resource in an integrated way to restore the damaged eco-system and
grassland environment. This is vitally important in the context of climate change that
has, as mentioned earlier in this paper, had its increasing impacts on the grassland
environment of the areas, and the impacts are and will be overall and multi-
dimensions in the grassland of the areas of China.
.
V Climate Change Induced Challenges in Poverty Reduction of Herders in
North and Northwest China
In the year of 2008, Altay Steppe area of Xinjiang was hit by a serious drought
disaster which, as some local aged herders said, had never been seen in this areas
in
the past years. The disaster, called as “black disaster” by the local Kazak and
Mongolian herders, caused great damages to both pastures and livelihood of
herders. According to the local statistics, averagely, there was about 15%-20%
decrease in the income of each herder household. And one of the impacts of the
drought was that many herder spent more money on fodder and hay for their animals
in long winter (about 5 months).
In the winter of 2009, the same area was hit by an unexpected snowstorm,
which, a “big white disaster” called by local Kazak and Mongolian herders, brought
about even greater damages to the livestock production than the drought in 2008,
and more than 12000 animals died and more were injured. In the spring time of the
next year, Xinjiang Altay Steppe area was hit by floods from melted snow, which
lasted for nearly about two months. The floods postponed the starting time of
seasonal migrating of herders and their animals, thus they reached the spring
pastures about one month later than usual. So the herder households had to buy
fodder and hay for their animals. To those settled herder households, their farmland
were flooded and irrigation channels and ditches were damaged. The houses of
some of the herder households whose settlements were in lowland or river valleys
were greatly damaged. And the seedtime had to be postponed for month and more,
which had a bad impacts on their income in 2010.
It is not clear whether the successive disasters were related to the impacts of
climate change or not still needs more meteorological researches. But it is no doubt
that they brought about profound impacts on livestock production and livelihood of
the local herders, deepening the poverty condition that already exited in the area.
In fact, the climate of the grassland areas of North and Northwest China is
becoming more changing, which is more difficult to be predicted than before, like that
of Xinjiang Altay Steppe area. As the case of Altay Steppe area in both 2008 and
2009 shows, climate change is worsening the poverty of the whole areas, as in the
other areas, there have been more frequent droughts and sandstorms than 40 years
ago.
According to the researches of Chinese scientists of the field and the
ethnographic data we collected from the field surveys, the impacts of climate change
on the grassland environment are mainly as the following:
- Visible increase in the times and influences of droughts, which bring about
complex impacts on the eco-system of pastures with reduction and disappearance of
species of fine quality forage grass and increase in abundance of species of
poisonous grass and other uneatable herbage grass for animal. The result is clear:
with this change, the plant community structure is simple and the productivity of
pastures is greatly reduced.
- Constant dry climate resulting in shrinking, even dry-up of rivers and lake and
disappearance of wetlands. This will further deepen the eco-crises of semi-arid and
arid grassland environment, and might endanger the whole eco-system to extent that
desertification will speed up.
- .Fragmentation of pastures with more and more herders turning to farming
through reclaiming grassland
- Increase in the frequency of natural disasters, such as droughts, sandstorms,
insect plagues, locust plagues and mouse plagues and snowstorm.

And the ethnographic data also reveal that the above impacts of climate change
on the environment of grassland have in turn induced the challenges in poverty
reduction of the areas.
1. The measures to reduce poverty of herders taken by the government
have lost efficacy to some extent due to further grassland
degradation as the damaged pasture environment is irreversible.
2. The herder households’ efforts to convert farmland to forestry and
pasture become more difficult, even impossible due to the
consequences of climate change, such as lack of water,
desertification and constant rise of temperature.
3. The projects for eco-protection and eco-environment restoration will
bear no results as the eco-environment conditions for them no longer
exist due to the climate change
4. Herders returning to poverty because of eco-environmental crises
that are caused directly or indirectly by climate change is a “social
factor” in grassland areas. And the number of herder households that
were out of poverty returned to poverty takes about 30%-35% of “new
 poor Households”

The grassland areas are located in one of China’s high eco-sensitivity and eco-
fragility zones, and the areas where most of herders live are eco-fragile. And these
areas are easy to be influenced by climate change. This explains why most of the
national poverty-stricken counties are in the eco-fragile areas and 90% poor
population of the country live in these areas. In comparison with the number of
national poverty-stricken counties in most of farming areas, the number of national
poverty-stricken counties in the grassland areas of North and Northwest China is
larger.
Hu Angang points out, it is comparatively easier to reduce the poor population of
low-income than to reduce the poor population of climate causes, and this has been
proved by the ethnographic data we obtained from grassland areas of North and
Northwest China. In the past 30 years, with the help of the government at various
levels and other institutions, many poor herder households got rid of poverty but
the 。degradation of grassland eco-environment partially because of climate change
have pushed them back to poverty again.
It is also demonstrated from the ethnographic data which we obtained in the field
surveys that herders do not know what they can do with the impacts of climate
change on the grassland eco-environment and on their production and livelihood.
And those who were interviewed often seemed to be at a loss facing to the changes
of the environment, as the grassland area is so large and the resources they live on
are pastures and water, which can not be “innovated” by them. It is different from
farmers who can make a comparatively adjustment to the impacts of the change with
modern technologies. Thus, a question appears: do technologies themselves can
help to reduce the impacts and to reduce the poverty depend by the impacts? If not,
then what can or with what work together it can?
Some researchers made suggestions that the reduction of the number of
animals may be a way out. But others argued that, as the response of pastures to
grazing is nonlinear and irresistible, herders can not manage the vegetation of
pastures through increase or reduction of their animals in the context of climate
change. It is difficult to prove which is better than the other. However, the fact in the
grassland areas of North and Northwest China is that climate change is inducing
challenges in poverty reduction and the grassland areas are facing to new challenges
from climate change. Traditional poverty reduction strategies may not work well if we
do not consider the factors of climate change in designing poverty reduction
strategies..

Conclusion: Towards Multi-Sustainable Development Strategy

One of the conclusions of the paper is that climate change may be a powerful
force that will remap the poverty and poverty reduction in grassland areas, which are
more sensitive to the change than in the farmland areas, so is possible the
irresistibility of seriously damaged pasture ecosystem.
With the unprecedented challenges, it is the time to reconsider the strategies for
development and poverty reduction in grassland and to develop new integrated
development strategies for which the social, cultural, eco-environmental components
are to be put into the context of climate changes and its complex impacts on the
areas. The following may be important:
- Reconsideration and readjustment of development strategies for grassland,
from focus on economic growth to focus on sustainable development
- Change of the policy-making for poverty reduction, from the government-
orientated to the interaction between the government and local participation
- Cooperation between modern technologies and the local knowledge in
grassland management and protection and restoration of pasture eco-system
- Development of various integrated green economy models to meet needs of
different herder communities in different eco-environment areas and different
cultural settings
- Change of the strategies for input on poverty reduction, from income poverty
reduction to climate poverty reduction
- Development of global network for poverty reduction, change from area efforts
to global efforts

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