Contemporary changes to herding systems in China and effects on pasture quality: a case study in Gansu Province, 2000-2012.

Post-2000 efforts to protect China's pastoral areas are distinct from earlier efforts in that funding for the most recent round of policies and programs is commensurate with the task. Even with appropriate funding, however, effective methods of mitigating pasture degradation are widely disputed. The most controversial of the current policies include herding family resettlement, pasture fallow programs (herding "bans"), and the promotion of confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

The effects of China's environmental protection policies on pasture quality and the activities of small-scale herders in Songpan County, Western Sichuan.

Since 2000, there has been an ambitious governmental effort to protect China's grassland resources through new, often controversial, policies and programs backed up by massive capital investments and subsidies. The policies are intended to protect pastoral ecological systems while allowing the pasture-based husbandry sector to continue to evolve in ways that assure acceptable revenues to affected families and regions. This article reports results of a case study conducted in Songpan County of western Sichuan during the fall of 2013 specifically focused on these issues and interactions.