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Friday, November 30, 2012
Maps of Hulunbuir
Hulunbuir Grasslands
Overview of
Hulunbuir Grassland
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| http://hulunbeier.baike.com/?m=article&id=25146target=_blank |
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| http://wenku.baidu.com/view/509689380912a216147929fc.html |
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| http://www.at0086.com/Hulunbuir/ |
Hulun Lake
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| http://chinatours.elong.net/ChinaTours/CT3873-Hulunbuir-Grassland-4-Days-Tour |
Mongolian Yurts
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| http://www.globaltimes.cn/www/english/travel/focus/2011-04/477195_4.html |
Stock Breeding in Hulunbuir
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| http://www.tochinawest.com/shownews.asp?newsid=892 |
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| http://wenku.baidu.com/view/6072c764caaedd3383c4d3fe.html |
Historical State of Hulunbuir Grassland
I.
Grassland is an important ecosystem
Grassland is one of the most
important resources in China. It covers 4 million km2 crossing from
the northeast to southwest— almost three times the amount of cultivated land and is 40% area
of China. It is significant in Chinese terrestrial ecosystem because it is
the center of biodiversity and cultural diversity, which supports the
sustainable social and economic development, especially the stock breeding of
nomad (People's Republic of China 2004).
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| http://hulunbeier.baike.com/?m=article&id=25146target=_blank |
II.
Introduction to Hulunbuir
The Hulunbuir grassland is known as one of the most
important three grasslands in the world. It is in the northeast of Inner
Mongolia with a regional scale around 100,000 km2.
The Hulunbuir grassland mainly consists
of 80% natural pasture area, including nearly 120 different kinds of nutritious
vegetations, hence commonly called the "Kingdom of grass”. It was also known as the green
paradise with high quality, free-polluted pasture and is the most preserved
grassland in China (Zhu, 27-31). However, because of negative climate changes and excessive inappropriate
human use of the land, Hulunbuir grassland has suffered varying degrees of
destructions for the past 50 years.
III.
Land Degradation
Among all of the
destruction, the most significant one is the increasingly severe land
degradation or land desertification. The Hulunbuir grassland ecosystem is now,
changing from the meadow steppe and typical steppe into desert steppe and
desert ecosystem. Namely, one third of
the grassland has been degraded or even become sandy land. For instance, in the 1950s, the percent of
desertified grassland was about 0.18% while it grew to 10 times that in 2000
(Squires et al. 91). And between 1980 and 1990, the
desertified grassland had increased by 230,000 Mha. According to a recent
report, the grassland area in 2009 has decreased by 11.92% compared to the
area in the 1980s (Zhu, 27-31). The graph of the ratio of desertified grassland is
shown below:
In addition, the area of cultivated
land has also increased over the years. According to statistics, due to the
expansion of state-owned farms and increasing immigration in 1970s, the
farmland area was about 929.48 million mu (619,653.33 km2). And as a
result of developing economics system zone in Hulunbuir city between 1980s and
1990s, the cultivated area was approaching 1800 million mu (1,200,000 km2)
(Zhang). Here is the graph showing the increase of cultivated land over 50 years.
As land
desertification accelerated, cultivated land expansion and depletive utilization of
grassland resources have dramatically driven up the percentage of
soil erosion. Thus, some vicious results are stimulated. For example, the
kinds of vegetation decreased from 130 to 30 and some herbage even
disappeared from the land (Squires, Lu, Lu, Wang and Yang, 91). Surviving
forage species and their quality have decreased in the past 20 years. The
following is the richness index among different levels of land degradation.
IV.
The Change of Land Use
With the degradation land doubling and the amount of cultivated land dramatically increasing since the 1980s, the
biodiversity of the land shrank and the use of the Hulunbuir grassland gradually
changed. Namely, the converted farmland increased stock breeding development.
According to statistics, livestock grew from 2.71 million to 4.8 million from
1989 to 1999 (Squires et al. 96). The increasing number of
livestock over the past 50 years is shown below:
Today, several policies have been
established to protect the Hulunbuir grassland and strengthen the management of
grassland resource use. For instance, “the Grassland Law of PRC” and “the
Grassland Management Regulations of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regions” have been passed in hopes of improving the ecosystem and rationally using grassland resources. (Squires et al. 98).
Works Cited
People’s
Republic of China. Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in India. China’s
Grassland, 2004. Web. <http://in.china-embassy.org/eng/szyss/gjgk/t87582.htm>.
Squires, Victor R., Xinshi Lu, Qi Lu, Tao Wang, and Youlin Yang. Rangeland Degradation and Recovery in
China’s Pastoral Lands. 1 st ed. London: MGP Books Group, 2009. eBook. <
http://books.google.com/books?id=2fu6jVgfh-UC&pg=PA95&lpg=PA95&dq=hulunbeier%20grassland%20ecosystem&source=bl&ots=k9cAoqE4rA&sig=4jjI6ZmIHwilwixgqZhuLynOId8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-2O1UNS9I4qUiQKzqIHYDw&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=hulunbeier%20grassland%20ecosystem&f=false>.
Zhang, Deping. “Will The Hulunbuir Disappear?—The Thinking On Cultivated
Land Conservation of grassland.” Land and
Resources of Hulunbuir.
Zhu, Libo. “呼伦贝尔草原保护的对策思考”CAOYE YU XUMU. 2007 27: 27-31.
Web. 2 Dec. 2012. http://wenku.baidu.com/view/aa12947ca26925c52cc5bfaa.html>.
Human Impacts
The protected areas of the Hulunbuir grassland are well
preserved, but unprotected areas are degrading from human activities. The deterioration of the grassland is due
partly to the migration of farmers from the Central Plain of China. The Central
Plain farmers were accustomed to ample rainfall and fertile lands. Even after
migrating to the grassland, they used the same farming system as they did in
Central China. Their method of deep plowing degraded the surface of the soil,
which is vital in protecting the bottom layers of loose soil (Zhang, Borjigin, and Zhang 20). The combination
of a damaged topsoil layer and strong winds in that area resulted in wind
erosion of the land and dust storms. As a result of land degradation, blowout
dunes have formed and have become more prominent (21). Local herders also
contributed to the deterioration of the grassland. They used it as
a grazing zone for their livestock, but their animals have advanced the damage
to the topsoil and have further contributed to erosion of land (23).
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Coal mining has also had a serious impact on the quality of
the grassland. As miners searched for coal in the grassland, they left enormous
pits that have only added to the amount of degraded land. By the early 21st
century, 39,833 km of grassland was affected by desertification. Currently, at
least 73.5% of the Hulunbuir grassland is degraded and are continuing to
deteriorate at 2% every year (Shuang, 2012).
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| http://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2011/f86af4e7-bd9b-45c1-8ae1-393e74d7025b.jpeg |
In 1950, desertification of the Mongolian Plateau was
measured to be only 0.18% , but increased to 18.48% in 2000. At this rate, the
grassland will become a desert-like area in 40 or 50 years (Squires et al. 94).
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| http://books.google.com/books?id=2fu6jVgfh-UC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false |
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| http://books.google.com/books?id=2fu6jVgfh-UC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false |
Because of land degradation, the amount of available
resources in Inner Mongolia was reduced and plant species in the area decreased
from 130 to 30 in the early 21st century (Squires et al. 93).
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| http://books.google.com/books?id=2fu6jVgfh-UC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false |
Works Cited
Shuang, Yan. "Inner Mongolia Sinking Under the Weight of Its Mining Industry." Globaltimes.cn. N.p., 20 Sept. 2012. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/734241.shtml, 2012>.
Squires, Victor R., Xinshi Lu, Qi Lu, Tao Wang, and Youlin Yang. Rangeland Degradation and Recovery in China's Pastoral Lands. Wallingford, UK: CABI, 2009. Web. <http://books.google.com/books?id=2fu6jVgfh-UC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=18.48%25&f=false>.
Zhang, MunkhDalai A., Elles Borjigin, and Huiping Zhang. "Mongolian Nomadic Culture and Ecological Culture: On the Ecological Reconstruction in the Agropastoral Mosaic Zone in Northern China." Ecological Economics 62.1 (2007): 19-26. Print.
Future Prospects
In 2009, the Hulunbuir government planned to invest $1.96
billion to protect the grassland from further deterioration and “their investment will [would] be channeled into infrastructure
construction for ecological protection, grassland upgrading, the construction
of a nature reservation, and a monitoring system for ecological security.” The
Hulunbuir government then announced that they would spend another $4.35 billion
from 2011-2015 in order to restore and protect the grassland. They have also
implemented a new regulation requiring those who conduct mining exploration
projects to pay a fee for grassland restoration. Instead of stopping coal exploration, a
human activity greatly damaging to grassland, the government plans on cleaning
up after the coal bases. The government should focus on stopping the problem at
its source, but because of incentives from mining tax income, they continue to
let companies build coal exploration bases on the grassland ("Hulunbuir").
This cycle of damaging and rebuilding
may one day permanently damage the land to a point where the quality of the
grasslands cannot be restored. Even though the Hulunbuir government
plans to protect the grassland, the future of the grassland is still not
secure if they do not place their motives aside and work towards truly
preserving the environment.
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| http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/images/attachement/jpg/site1/20090821/002170196e1c0bf854ea1b.jpg |
Works Cited
"Hulunbuir Invests Billions to Restore Lakes and Pasture." Hulunbuir Invests Billions to Restore Lakes and Pasture. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://www.china.org.cn/english/2001/Sep/18526.htm>.
What can be done?
What we can do to
improve the Hulunbuir Grassland
Though
government has published laws such as “The Grassland Law of PRC” to strengthen
the protection and management of resource use of the Hulunbuir grassland, we think
that there is much more we can do to slow down the speed of land degradation.
1) We should reserve
sufficient amount of grassland for ecological study. As Hulunbuir grassland is
known as “the Kingdom of grass” in China, it contains more than 120 kinds of
nutritious vegetation. But, due to the dramatic degradation of grassland, the kinds of vegetation decreased from 130
to 30 and some herbage even disappeared from the land (Squires et al. 91). It is
not surprising that the rate of vegetation species loss will accelerate over
the years, corresponding with the acceleration of decreasing grassland area. In that,
people will lose vegetation species this is only going to impair biology and ecology research.
2) For endangered
regions like serious desertification areas, people should be banned from allowing livestock to graze
there. For light and medium desertification areas, reconstruction and reduction
of cultivated lands should be put into government and people’s agendas. Besides
the supervision departments that government has established to work on those
tasks, forming a local organization to advocate reducing cropland can be more
direct in practicing such an assignment.
3) To impose the
idea of protection of grassland by reducing cropland, people must be well
educated so that they can realize how significant this assignment is. As most
people in the Hulunbuir grassland are nomads, they don't receive a good
education. The traditional thought of making a living, namely through stock
breeding, would be mainly based on what their ancestors have taught them. However, as
population growth dramatically increases, only surviving on stockbreeding will make the
grassland disappear in the future. Therefore, education is very important to
not only help local people have a correct understanding of how severe the
grassland is, but also to lead them towards a new way of making a living,
such as developing regional cooperative livestock industries to efficiently use
grassland.
4) We also need
to advocate the idea of a “low-carbon life”. It is not only for the protection of
grasslands but also for our earth. As climate change is
considered one of the causes of Hulunbuir land degradation, we should reduce
carbon dioxide release, which directly damages the climate. Also, from our research on the severe
coal mining destroying the ecosystem in Hulunbuir grassland, we suggest the reduction of the demand
of high carbon products and the use of coal.
Work Cited
Squires, Victor R., Xinshi Lu, Qi Lu, Tao Wang, and Youlin Yang. Rangeland Degradation and Recovery in
China’s Pastoral Lands. 1 st ed. London: MGP Books Group, 2009. eBook. <
http://books.google.com/books?id=2fu6jVgfh-UC&pg=PA95&lpg=PA95&dq=hulunbeier%20grassland%20ecosystem&source=bl&ots=k9cAoqE4rA&sig=4jjI6ZmIHwilwixgqZhuLynOId8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-2O1UNS9I4qUiQKzqIHYDw&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=hulunbeier%20grassland%20ecosystem&f=false>
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