Competitive Husbandry, Grasslands Ecology and the Maintenance of Pastoral Livelihoods

摘要

The authors’ investigation of farming, pastoral, and mixed farming-pastoral areas in Xilingol and Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, demonstrates that with extreme unbalance in both ecological systems and in the course of marketization, herding lifestyles shift from ecological to market adaptation. Multifunctional traditional grasslands husbandry supports biodiversity, livestock production, herding lifestyles, minority culture, travel and tourism, border stability and national security, food security, and so on; yet under conditions of industrializing food production and animal husbandry, and international free trade in the products of these industries, traditional husbandry has become simplified competitive husbandry in which livestock production, and a limited amount of organized tourism, are emphasized. This has led to the erosion, alteration, or suppression of other functions of grasslands husbandry, threatening the sustainability of the grasslands ecosystem and the maintenance of herding lifestyles and culture. Issues of pastoral production, environments, and people can be resolved by recognizing the interconnectedness of grasslands ecosystems and human activity while adopting science-based livelihood adaptation programs. The promotion of healthy grasslands ecology, the preservation of minority culture, border stability, international security, and other such functions can only be brought into play once competitive husbandry, and the simplistic market logic on which it is predicated, are left behind.