Rangeland Degradation and Recovery in China's Pastoral Lands

Rangeland Degradation and Recovery in China's Pastoral Lands

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Edited by Victor R Squires, Xinshi Lu, Qi Lu, Tao Wang and Youlin Yang

Hardback

June 2009

9781845934965

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$230.60

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The extreme climate variability that characterizes China's arid rangelands can cause drought and degradation, resulting in dust storms, floods, animal losses, financial hardship and a decline in food availability. Addressing the issues of even greater climate extremes in the future, this book discusses both new approaches and past successes and failures in order to provide the necessary insight to develop sustainable rangeland management strategies, drawing on regional case studies and lessons learned from Australia, Canada and the USA.

"This is a valuable addition to pastoral literature, bringing together rich, but scattered, information on China's rangelands in a form accessible to international readers. It should be in the libraries of institutions dealing with traditionally managed drylands, not only in China."
J.M. Suttie - , Journal of Experimental Agriculture

Part 1. Introduction 1. The context for the study of rangeland degradation and recovery in China's pastoral lands, 2. Historical degradation episodes in China: socio-economic forces and their interaction with rangeland grazing systems since the 1950s

Part 2. Mechanisms of rangeland degradation and recovery 3. An analysis of the effects of climate variability in northern China over the past five decades on people livestock and plants in the focus areas, 4. Mechanisms of degradation in grazed rangelands, 5. The mechanisms of soil erosion processes by wind and water in Chinese rangelands, 6. Processes in rangeland degradation, rehabilitation and recovery,

Part 3. Case studies of degradation and recovery 7. Hulunbuir grassland, Inner Mongolia, 8. Horqin sandy land, Inner Mongolia, 9. Xilingole grassland, Inner Mongolia, 10. Ordos plateau, Inner Mongolia, 11. Hexi corridor, Gansu, 12. Alashan Plateau, Inner Mongolia, 13. Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Rangelands, 14. Northern Xinjiang