Market-based grazing land transfers and customary institutions in the management of rangelands: Two case studies on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Population Research Institute, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, P.R. China;2. College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, P.R. China;1. Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering, Potsdam-Bornim, Germany;2. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany;3. Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, Germany;1. Lhasa Plateau Ecosystem Research Station, Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modelling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China;2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;3. Freie Universität Berlin, Institute of Biology, Biodiversity/Theoretical Ecology, Altensteinstraße 34, 14195 Berlin, Germany;1. Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7013, 75007 Uppsala, Sweden;2. Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, University of Goettingen, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 5, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany;3. Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California at Berkeley, CA 94720 - 3110 Berkeley, United States;1. Ecosystem Science and Management, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA;2. Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Inner Mongolian Agricultural University, Hohhot, China;3. Charles Sturt University/University of Sydney, Orange, NSW, Australia;4. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada;5. USDA-ARS, Jornada Experimental Range, Las Cruces, NM, USA;6. Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China;7. School of Life Sciences and Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA;8. Sino-US Center for Conservation, Energy, and Sustainability Science, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China;9. Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China |
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| Abstract: | ![]()
Beginning in the early 1990’s, grazing lands once held in common were contracted to individual households in the rangeland regions of China. The resulting fragmentation of rangelands has led to ecological and social problems. As China seeks to address intractable poverty and rangeland degradation, attention has turned to rental, or transfer, of contracted grazing land as a market-based approach to re-aggregating grazing land into larger units that support economies of scale. However, given that many pastoral regions still maintain community customary institutions, what the relationship between market mechanisms and local customary institutions should be in rangeland management needs further analysis. This paper applies comparative case studies of two types of relationships between market mechanisms and customary institutions: (1) market mechanisms that replace customary institutions in the case of Axi village, and (2) market mechanisms that are embedded within customary institutions in Xiareer village. This allows contrast of the impacts of differing approaches on livelihoods, livestock production, and wealth differentiation among pastoral households. We found that there is a higher level of livestock mortality, lower livestock productivity, and higher livestock production cost in Axi Village compared to Xiareer Village. In addition, household asset levels are higher and there is less income differentiation in Xiareer Village. It is concluded that embedding market mechanisms within customary institutions has had notable benefits for the herders of Xiareer Village, because it is a better fit to the coupled pastoral social-ecological system. Based on these findings, we argue that in pastoral communities where the rangeland transfer system for contracted grazing land has not yet been implemented, it is critical to reconsider China’s current policy approach to pay greater attention to the innovative management systems being developed in local regions. Instead of considering market-based approaches as oppositional to traditional institutions, options that derive from the interaction of market-based and customary institutions should be considered. |
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| Keywords: | Rangeland transfer Market mechanisms Community customs Institutional embeddedness Customary institutions Qinghai-Tibet Plateau |
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