Human impacts and sustainability of grasslands in the northern Tianshan Mountains region of China

A case study of changes in the pattern of land use was undertaken to describe the impact of land-use policy reform, rapid industrialisation and urbanisation in an arid area with particular reference to the Fukang County of the Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region of western China, in the Tianshan Mountains region, between 1971 and 2006. Information was obtained from a range of sources on changes in the consumption of products and related to changes in their area of production since little exchange of crop and animal products occurred outside the County particularly during the earlier part of the period in the light of the traditional self-sufficiency in inland undeveloped counties of western China. It was found that an unrestrained boom in the consumption of energy resources and animal products to promote economic activity and to increase the standard of living of humans led to a rapidly increased production from land resources. However, continuously expanding resource consumption quickly crossed the threshold of land ecosystem rehabilitation and caused unsustainable land-use patterns, especially in the transitional grassland–cropland area. The study demonstrated that grazing land is exposed to more ecological risks than cropland and forestland, not only due to enormously expanding requirements for and decreasing supply of grazing land but also Kazak herdsmen’s inability to cope with the management of change in the use of the grassland resource largely because of their poor economic status, lack of knowledge, passive response to rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, and some cultural conflicts.