China has nearly 6 billion mu various natural grassland including desolate grassland, ranking the second in the world. Its area takes up 41.7% of total national land area.

In 2006, China had remarkable achievements in the development of grassland conservation system and the transformation of production mode in grassland husbandry. According to primary estimate, the accumulated reserve land for grassland was 400 million mu in 2006, grassland fence area was 787 million mu and 1.3 billion mu of banned, suspended or rotation grazing grassland. A total of over 30 million livestock were raised in pen instead of depending on grazing at natural grassland. With such measures as enhancing the development of artificial grassland and pens, we have basically met the objectives of "banning grazing but raising, reducing the amount of livestock but income". In doing so, grassland vegetation has enjoyed good restoration, which has laid a good foundation for sustainable grassland livestock husbandry.

Grassland Productivity The monitoring results in 2006 showed that fresh grass output across China was 943.13 million tons, equivalent to about 295.87 million tons of dry grass, which could support about 231.61 million sheep，up by 0.6% than that of last year. The top ten provinces (autonomous regions) of grassland output are Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan, Heilongjiang, Gansu, Guangxi, and Hubei with total output of 211.23 million tons, accounting for 71.4% of total output.

Monitoring results on the balance between grass and livestock showed that natural grassland across China overgrazed by 34% on the average. There were overgrazing in six big grazing regions at different degree except the ecological development project areas. Among them, the overgrazing was 38% in Tibet, 22% in Inner Mongolia, 39% in Xinjiang, 39% in Qinghai, 40% in Sichuan and 40% in Gansu. Among 266 pastoral areas and semi-agriculture-semi-pastoral districts, counties (banners), 204 counties (banners) were under overgrazing. Pastoral counties were overgrazed by 28% on the average and semi-agricultue-semi-pastoral counties by 42% on the average.

Grassland Rat and Insect Pests In 2006, 560 million mu grassland suffered from damage by rats, down by 1.8% than that of 2005. Among them, 308 miilion mu were subject to serious damage, down by 3.0% compared with that of 2005. Relatively serious rat damage occurred in 7 provinces (autonomous regions) including Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Tibet and Ningxia with 499 million mu affected, accounting for 88.8% of total grassland. Rat species causing serious damages including mousehare, sand rat, zokor, field mouse and ground squirrel. In 2006, the accumulated grassland area finishing the prevention and control of rat damages was 86 million mu. Among them, 37.40 million mu finished the emergency prevention and control of rat damages and 48.60 million mu finished the establishment of rat-free demonstration grassland.

In 2006, 252 million mu grassland in China suffered from insect pests, down by 9.9% compared with that of 2005. Among them, 109 million mu were subject to serious insect pests, down by 27.3% compared with that of 2005. Inner Mongolia had the most serious insect pests with 102 million mu affected, accounting for 40.5% of total affected area. Second to Inner Mongolia were Xinjiang, Qinghai and Gansu with 84.30 million mu affected. Insect species causing most serious damages were grassland locust, white puncture vine moth, caterpillars, grassland larva and orgyia antique etc.. In 2006, accumulated 57 million mu grassland had finished the prevention and control of insect pests, accounting for 22.6% of the total affected. Among them, 40.16 million mu finished the prevention and control of grassland locust, accounting for 27.2% of total area affected by locusts.

Grassland Fire and Snow Disasters In 2006, 350 fires occurred on grassland in China. Among them, 312 were fire alarms, 35 were fire disasters, 2 were big fire disasters and 1 very big fire disaster. A total of 47,394 ha grassland were affected by fire with the casualty of 1,595 livestock and injury of one person. The amount of grassland fire reduced by 216 and affected area rediced by 6,022 ha compared with that of 2005, being the low level in historical record. Grassland fires mainly occurred in 12 provinces (autonomous regions) including Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang as well as Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region suffered most from fire disaster with 32 (one of them was very big fire disaster), affecting 33,800 ha grassland, taking up 71.4% of the total affected area in China. Next were Sichuan Province and Heilongjiang Province with 4783 ha and 3690 ha respectively subject to grassland fire, accounting for 10.1% and 7.8% of the total affected area.

From January of 2006 to March 10, 2007, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, Sichuan, Qinghai, Jilin and Liaoning had relatively serious snow disasters affecting 5.245 people and 12.6346 million cattle and sheep, a total of 838,000 livestock died due to the disaster with direct economic loss of 1.038 billion yuan.

Measures and Actions

【Grassland Protection and Development】Up to the end of 2006, 400 million mu accumulated land were reserved for planting grass. 787 million mu land were fence grassland and 1.3 billion mu grassland were banned or suspended for grazing or under rotation grazing. Among them, all grassland in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Rehion banned grazing. With such measures as enhanced development of artificial grassland and pens and sheds, more than 30 million livestock had shifted from depending on grazing on natural grassland into pen raiseing. The objective of "banning grazing but pen raising and reducing the amount of livestock but income" has been primarily met and grassland vegetation had enjoyed relatively good rehabilitation.

【Grassland Law Enforcement】In2006, there were 5,924 grassland law infringements, 327 were big cases with 31 cases constituting crime and handed over to judicial institutes. Grassland reclamation infringements dominated various grassland infringements, followed by the disputes over the contractual grassland operation rights and cases of excessive collection and digging of wild plants without permission. In addition, infringements such as temporary occupation of grassland, tree planting or fish pond digging in grassland without any permission as well as illegal requisition or occupation of grassland also constitute significant proportion.

【Master Plan for the Protection, Development and Utilization of Grassland】With the approval by the State Council, the Master Plan for the Protection, Development and Utilization of Grassland has been officially distributed to each province and autonomous region. The Master Plan summarizes and analyzes the achievements and main problems in the protection, development and utilization of grassland; establishes the guiding principle for the protection, development and utilization of grassland, objjectives and tasks. It also identifies the following 9 big projects for the protection and development of grassland: enhanced efforts in returning grazing land to grassland; treatment of sanded grassland; treatment of grassland in karst region of Southwest China; planting good grass species; prevention and mitigation of grassland disasters; development of grassland nature reserves; good proportion and supporting facilities among people, grass and livestock in pastoral areas; development and utilization of grassland in agricultural areas; and water conservancy in pastoral areas.

【Project of Returning Grazing Land to Grassland】From 2003 to 2006, 7.1 billion yuan were allocated from the central government to complete fencing of 440 million mu of grassland. The Plan for the Project on the Treatment of Sand & Dust Storm Sources of Beijing and Tianjin (2001－2010) was implemented. Up to the end of 2006, the central government had invested 2.5 billion yuan and finished the treatment of 35.1418 million mu of grassland. In 2006, with the approval by the State Council, National Development and Reform Commission, Office for West China, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Agriculture jointly issued the project plan for trial site on the rehabilitation of grassland vegetation in karst areas of Southwest China. They appropriated 15.76 million yuan to Qinglong County and Dejiang County of Guizhou Province and Qiaojia County of Yunnan Province for trial site on the rehabilitation of 400,000 mu grassland.