Adaptive management of grazing lands

Rangelands, the main land type used as grazing lands, occupy ~54% of the worlds ice free land surface, and grasslands dominate ~16% of all rangelands. China is the third largest country for rangeland resources in the world and has approximately 400m ha, about 40% of China's land surface. These grazing lands are susceptible to severe degradation due to over exploitation, especially, overgrazing. This chapter provides an overview of the geographic distribution and management issues of these grazing lands, and a case study on adaptive management in an innovative grazing system in Inner Mongolian desert steppe. We emphasize the importance of applying models and management demonstration related to stocking rate reduction, lambing time change and the use of warm shed based on household to prevent resource degradation. We discuss the interaction of ecological and economic benefits in the application of grazing systems for desert steppe areas. We provide evidence for the use of an innovative adaptive management practice based on development of a summer grazing system with low stocking rate and winter warm shed feeding.