This paper presents results from an ecological assessment of land use and climate change in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Using a combination of fieldwork, rangeland monitoring, and simulation analyses, this study tackles the socio-economic issues faced by pastoralists in this region, focusing on linkages between climate, land use and human welfare. Employing a systems approach, we use the SAVANNA ecosystem simulation model to examine the long-term effects of anthropogenic pressures on the biophysical system. Our model demonstrates that in order to maintain grassland sustainability, climate variations must be considered by land managers making decisions on grazing. Our model indicates that traditional ways of nomadic herding, where nomads were able to move their herds in response to changing distributions of available forage, would be more adaptive in spatially and temporally variable climate and foraging conditions. In contrast, increased sédentarisation and restrictions on grazing movements imposed by political boundaries or fenced croplands may endanger sustainability by reducing options for adaptive grazing tactics. We suggest that new grazing systems must be developed to mitigate these changes in land use and land tenure.
Founded in the 1970s, the journal Nomadic Peoples has a long and respected position in the scholarship devoted to peoples who maintain a mobile way of life such as nomadic pastoralists, hunters and gatherers, and other peripatetics. The journal’s aim is to provide the scientific community and the general public with new research on past and changing aspects of the culture and society, ecology, economy, and politics of mobile peoples. The journal is international in geographical spread, as nomadic or recently-mobile peoples are found on all the continents. Journal articles discuss some of the challenges faced by nomadic peoples in a rapidly changing world, and their adaptations to new ways of life. As the founding editor, Professor Philip Salzman remarked in 1984, the journal crosses disciplinary and functional specializations, from academics to administrators. In recent years, the Journal has expanded its scope to encompass natural science perspectives on nomadic peoples along side the traditional anthropological and ethnological ones. Contributors and consulting editors include anthropologists as well as development practitioners, ecologists, economists, policy-makers, and range and livestock scientists.
The White Horse Press publishes internationally respected academic journals and books, specialising in environmental issues. The Press has produced a number of important studies in environmental history and is currently expanding operations in this area.
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Nomadic Peoples
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