The Grassland Livestock Transition Discussion Inalpine Pastoral

Maqu wetland which is known as the "Chinese water tower" and "The Yellow Riverreservoir" is facing a dry trend. In recent years, climate warming impact on grasslandecosystems deeply, coupled with population growth and overloading, ecological environmentdeteriorated sharply in Maqu,a large area of grass depredated and deserted. The reservoir ofYellow River is drying up, and the water complementary role to the Yellow River began todecline. The ecological security and economic and social sustainable development of YellowRiver basin is seriously threatened. Protecting and constructing this ecological public goods,have great significance on the people’s production and life in the Yellow River basin, and thesafeguarding of national ecological security.Based on the important ecological barrier function of Maqu, the important ecologicalfunctions and the impact of grassland degradation in the Yellow River basin are analyzed.Then the principal component analysis is used to evaluate the sustainable development ofgrassland livestock in Maqu. On this basis, four transition paths are put forward, that is:grassland transition、livestock transition、industrial transition and herders transition. The mainconclusions are as follows:(1) Ecological barrier function of Maqu wetland, of which core is “water conservation”,is the public goods in the Yellow River basin. It is related to the waterlines ecological securityof the Yellow River basin. However, under the influence of the double man-made and naturalfactors, the territory of the ecological environment deteriorated sharply, and the ecologicalfunctions of wetlands is on the decline, which impact on local development and theecological security of the Yellow River basin.(2) The results for sustainability evaluation of grassland livestock in Maqu between2001and2010is that: the level of population subsystem and economic subsystem are in anupward trend, while the level of resources subsystem declined year by year. Coordinationcalculation results show that: level of coordination between the population and economicsubsystem is from uncoordinated to coordinated development, and the levels of coordinationbetween population and resources subsystem as well as economic and resource subsystem isfrom coordinated to uncoordinated. So, the development of grassland livestock in Maqushows unsustainable.(3) In order to protect the wetlands in Maqu,this ecological public goods, the grasslandlivestock can be transformed from following four aspects:①grassland transition: usingmodern agricultural production techniques and management techniques to repair the degradedalpine meadow, retrace the ecology function of grassland, and the function repositioned toreduce the grass economic output, focusing on the long-term use of the eco-efficiency;② grassland livestock transition: reduce the scale of grassland livestock development, thegradual transfer the “raw materials livestock” into “plateau brand livestock”;③industrialtransition: first is take ecological beneficiaries charge according to grassland ecosystemservice value of Maqu, second is develop ecological grassland prairie style tourism, usingunique natural and cultural landscape in Maqu④herders transition: throughintergenerational transition、 industry transition and ecological migrants to find a new wayout of livelihood for the local herders to reduce the livestock population and the pressure onthe grasslands.