Herders’ Forage-Livestock Decision Behavior in Northern Grassland regions of China

China has approximately 393 million hectares of grasslands, accounting for 41.7% of the national land area. However, 90% of useable grasslands are degraded because of human and natural reasons. Overgrazing was the dominant factor affecting grassland condition. In order to control the grassland degradation problems, the government has proposed the „forage-livestock balance‟ policy in 2002. A series of ecological policies were (Hou et al., 2013) and outcomes have been described as a “partial improvement amidst overall deterioration”. Reasons for apparent failure of the policy have been the subject of much discussion over the years. However, there has been a lack of research on the role of herder decision making behavior regarding the balance between animals and grass. Under the Household Responsibility System, the herders are directly responsible for managing these vast and important lands for China, and their decisions have both direct and indirect impact on the balance between animal needs and forage supply. Self-reliant herders are the main livestock producers in the Chinese northern grassland regions. Those herders breed animals mainly based on their own available rangelands, and buy forage and fodder only for winter use. They often consider they have lived in pastoral areas for generations, and have their understanding of the rangeland carrying capacity, thus always breed livestock number that they think are reasonable. As a result, overgrazing is universal. A better understanding of the effect herders‟ behavior has on the grassland condition and the details of decision making and their stock-breeding practices is urgently needed to develop more effective policies and programs to alleviate the degradation of grassland