Kazakh nomads, rangeland policy, and the environment in Altay: insights from new range ecology

This paper considers the degree of environmental variability in an extensive pastoral area of Altay, northern Xinjiang (China); assesses the extent to which institutional arrangements are able to accommodate environmental variability, and discusses the implications of this for rangeland policy.

The article finds that:

• there is some inter-temporal variation in rangeland productivity (in pasture zones), suggesting some applicability of new range ecology
• there is less environmntal variation in summer pasture, suggesting that the concepts and tools of conventional rangeland management might be more applicable
• livestock numbers are not resonsive to overall environmental variability. This is because state credit institutions subsidise fodder
• spatial variability in the availability of rangeland resources is exploited in Altay through regular, seasonal movements between different pastures, a strategy that new range ecology provides the theoretical underpinnings for
• rangeland policy has been implemented in a way that facilitates, rather than undermines, continuing livestock mobility
• rangeland policy in the Altay context could not be more accommodative of environmental variability than it presently is

The article recommends that:

• the use of fodder markets rather than land tenure flexibility to buffer environmental risk is sensible in the Altay context
• New range ecology suggests the need for a more decentralised and adaptive approach to resource use regulation in situations where the intensity of rangeland use could be more accomodative of environmental risk. Existing institutions at the village level and below provide a sound institutional basis for the adoption of such an approach