Society

Herders leaving grasslands in search of greener pastures

By He Dan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-03 07:50

Chaganhuhen (left), a Mongolian woman who migrated from the grasslands after they ecologically deteriorated, serves a customer at her grocery store in the town of Bayinbaoli on July 17. [DUAN FEIPING / PEOPLE CHINA MAGAZINE]

HOHHOT - Like hundreds of fellow herders in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Chaganhuhen left the overcrowded grasslands in an effort to resolve the problem of making a living in such a challenging environment.

"My family left our pasture three years ago," said Chaganhuhen, 41, an ethnic Mongolian woman who now runs a grocery store in the town of Bayinbaoli, where she sells dried meat and dairy products.

"When we lived in the pastures, it was impossible to save money. After a whole year of hard work, all our income from selling cashmere and lamb was used to pay off debt. But now the situation is different. When business is good, I can make a gross income of 5,000 yuan ($735) a day," she added.

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Overgrazing and the pressure of rapid population growth caused the grasslands to undergo desertification, which made the region vulnerable to more frequent sandstorms.

The local authorities launched programs at the end of the 1990s to return grazing areas to grasslands in a bid to prevent further ecological deterioration in the region.

"I chose to move out because we could no longer use the grasslands to feed enough goats to make a living," said Liu Feiliang, 48, who now lives in Subu'erga village in Erdos city.

"To be honest, I felt uncomfortable rearing livestock in an enclosure. As herders, generations of us have grazed cattle on the vast grasslands. But I gradually realized that barn feeding is more efficient," Liu said.

He explained that barn feeding allowed him to rear more sheep, because the supply of food could be guaranteed and there were fewer ewes that miscarried.

The ecological migrants either moved to somewhere with better water resources, where they started to plant and barn feed, or they were resettled in urban areas, where they work in the service sector, said Ji Dacai, deputy director of the region's Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Department.

The government offered resettlement subsidies to those willing to be relocated, as well as housing, 12 years of free education for children and a sound pension system, Ji noted.

Since the end of 1999, the region has invested 2 billion yuan in ecological resettlement, in which 450,000 people, including 100,000 herders, have been relocated, according to the region's Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Department.

Such a large, complicated program was bound to encounter difficulties.

"Some local authorities did not have a comprehensive plan at the beginning, which resulted in many settlements that failed to meet the requirements for the eco-migrants to make a living. Social resources were also not used effectively," said Sun Baoping, a professor at the school of soil and water conservation, Beijing Forestry University.

A Long, deputy head of publicity for the Inner Mongolia autonomous region's CPC committee, said ecological relocation was a painful, ongoing process, which requires time for the fragile ecosystem of the grasslands to recover.

Many of those whose families lived on the grasslands for generations pine for their former way of life.

"Although the government distributed farming land to us and organized training to teach us how to farm, I still know little about planting. I often miss my old home and village. I am willing to move back when the environment recovers in my hometown," said Banagen, a 51-year-old Mongolian man.

Although the process of desertification has not been reversed in the region, the ecosystems of some areas have improved since grazing lands were returned to grasslands, Ji said.