Inner Mongolian Herders Move Toward Sustainability and Elevate Their Incomes from Cashmere Goat Production by Reducing Grazing Pressure on Fragile Grasslands

Overgrazing, mainly caused by Cashmere goats, is contributing to the desertification of West Erdos fragile grasslands resulting in the threat of extinction of several endangered wild plant species. This transition area between desert and grassland includes some 400,000 ha and some 72 unique, relic and endangered plant species. The area is home to 5,000 inhabitants, mainly subsistent goat farming families and coal mining activity. Industrial land use in the reserve adds additional economic pressure to herders operating on a shrinking land base. This phenomenon has elicited the entrenched, traditional response of producing more livestock thus jeopardizing current levels of production and risking inevitable total desertification of this fragile rangeland. The objectives of this study are to return the land to full and sustainable biodiversity levels and to increase the incomes of the traditional West Erdos herders. Lessons learned may be transferable to other areas of Inner Mongolia where desertification is active