DOCSLIB.ORG

Stocking Rates and Varying Social-Ecological Conditions on the Rangelands of Inner Mongolia, China

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Stocking Rates and Varying Social-Ecological Conditions on the Rangelands of Inner Mongolia, China Stocking Rates and Varying Social-Ecological Conditions on the Rangelands of Inner Mongolia, China David Crook Department of Geography McGill University, Montreal Submitted August 2017 A Thesis Submitted to McGill University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Master of Arts © David Crook 2017 Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Résumé ........................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... 5 Preface ............................................................................................................................................ 7 Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Policy Context ......................................................................................................................................... 9 1.2 Theoretical Background ........................................................................................................................ 10 1.3 Thesis Outline and Fieldwork ............................................................................................................... 13 Chapter 2 : A Review of Literature Relating to Ovegrazing and Grazing Management Strategies ...................................................................................................................................... 15 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 15 2.2 The Concept of Overgrazing: Definitions and Debates ........................................................................ 16 2.3 Herd Maximization among Pastoralists ................................................................................................ 17 2.4 Self-organization among Resource Users ............................................................................................. 18 2.5 Livelihood Pressures and Ecological Degradation ............................................................................... 19 2.6 Land Tenure: Definitions and Evaluation ............................................................................................. 20 2.7 Access to Credit and Environmental Sustainability .............................................................................. 22 2.8 Critical views of overgrazing discourse ................................................................................................ 24 2.9 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................... 26 Chapter 3: Effect of Environmental Shocks on Stocking Rates in Inner Mongolia ............. 28 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 28 3.2 Methods................................................................................................................................................. 32 3.3 Results ................................................................................................................................................... 40 3.4 Discussion ............................................................................................................................................. 45 3.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 54 Appendix 1 – Stocking rates and environmental shock occurrence across counties .................................. 56 Appendix 2 – Stata output of PCA for asset index ..................................................................................... 57 Chapter 4: A choice model of incentive strategies for reducing overgrazing Inner Mongolia’s rangelands................................................................................................................ 59 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 59 4.2 Study Site and Experimental Design .................................................................................................... 62 4.3 Results ................................................................................................................................................... 72 4.4 Discussion ............................................................................................................................................. 78 4.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 81 Chapter 5 - Thesis Conclusions ................................................................................................. 82 References .................................................................................................................................... 85 1 Abstract Overgrazing is a serious problem in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region. The government has attempted to reduce overgrazing by mandating maximum livestock stocking densities. These stocking limits are enforced using a combination of cash subsidies for herders who abide by them and fines for those who don’t. However, the success of these policies has been mixed, and overgrazing has continued. Herd sizes in Inner Mongolia are influenced by a variety of socio-economic, political and environmental conditions. Environmental shocks, lack of credit and insecure land tenure are all factors that push herders toward herd maximization as a short-term survival strategy rather than investing in long-term sustainable grazing. In this thesis, I performed two analyses to gain insights into how herders’ stocking choices are influenced by environmental and policy conditions. First, I performed a difference- in-differences analysis to test for a relationship between stocking rates and the frequency of environmental shocks. I found that while droughts were associated with higher stocking rates, snowstorms were associated with lower stocking rates. For my second analysis, I performed a choice experiment to compare how variations in different policy incentives influence herders’ willingness to keep lower stocking rates. I found that lengthening land tenure contracts had the greatest effect on herders’ choices. These findings have important implications for future policy formulation in Inner Mongolia. The varying effects of different environmental shocks on stocking rates means that stocking regulations may need to vary depending on which type of shock predominates. Herders’ interest in land tenure reform suggests that longer land tenure contracts may make a major improvement in tackling overgrazing. Together, these findings demonstrate that mitigating overgrazing requires understanding and addressing herders’ vulnerabilities to both environmental and socio-economic uncertainties. 2 Résumé Le surpâturage constitue un grave problème au sein des prairies de la Mongolie Intérieure en Chine septentrionale. Le gouvernement a tenté d’y réduire le surpâturage en imposant des taux d’occupation maximums du bétail sur les terres. Ces limites sont mises en œuvre par l’entremise d’une combinaison de subventions financières pour les éleveurs qui les respectent, et d’amendes pour ceux qui y dérogent. Cependant, le succès des politiques appliquées est mitigé et le surpâturage se poursuit. En Mongolie Intérieure, la taille des troupeaux est influencée par une grande variété de conditions socio-économiques, politiques et environnementales. Les chocs environnementaux, un manque d’accès au crédit et l’insécurité associée au régime foncier sont parmi les facteurs qui poussent les éleveurs à maximiser la taille de leurs troupeaux comme stratégie de survie, au lieu d’investir dans une stratégie de pâturage durable. Dans ce mémoire, j’ai effectuée deux analyses pour mieux comprendre comment les choix des éleveurs concernant la taille de leurs troupeaux sont influencés par les conditions environnementales et les politiques gouvernementales. J’ai d’abord employé la méthode des doubles différences afin de déterminer s’il y a une relation entre la fréquence des chocs environnementaux et le taux d’occupation. J’ai constaté que les sècheresses sont associées à des taux d’occupation élevés, tandis que les tempêtes de neige sont associées à des taux d’occupation plus faibles. Pour ma deuxième analyse j’ai appliqué la méthode d’expérimentation des choix pour comparer les effets des différentes politiques incitatives sur la volonté des éleveurs de réduire leurs taux d’occupation. J’ai découvert que la prolongation des contrats fonciers est le type d’incitatif ayant le plus grand effet sur les choix des éleveurs. Ces constatations ont des implications importantes pour la formulation de futures politiques en Mongolie Intérieure. Les effets variables des différents types de chocs environnementaux sur le taux d’occupation 3 signifient qu’il sera peut-être nécessaire de faire varier les réglementations
Load more

Recommended publications
  • From Designers to Doctrinaires: Staff Research and Fiscal Policy Change at the Imf
    FROM DESIGNERS TO DOCTRINAIRES: STAFF RESEARCH AND FISCAL POLICY CHANGE AT THE IMF Cornel Ban ABSTRACT Soon after the Lehman crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) surprised its critics with a reconsideration of its research and advice on fiscal policy. The paper traces the influence that the Fund’s senior man- agement and research elite has had on the recalibration of the IMF’s doctrine on fiscal policy. The findings suggest that overall there has been some selective incorporation of unorthodox ideas in the Fund’s fis- cal doctrine, while the strong thesis that austerity has expansionary effects has been rejected. Indeed, the Fund’s new orthodoxy is con- cerned with the recessionary effects of fiscal consolidation and, more recently, endorses calls for a more progressive adjustment of the costs of fiscal sustainability. These changes notwithstanding, the IMF’s adaptive incremental transformation on fiscal policy issues falls short Elites on Trial Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Volume 43, 337 369 À Copyright r 2015 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 0733-558X/doi:10.1108/S0733-558X20150000043024 337 338 CORNEL BAN of a paradigm shift and is best conceived of as an important recalibra- tion of the precrisis status quo. Keywords: IMF; staff research; Keynesian; New Consensus Macroeconomics; austerity FROM GREAT EXPECTATIONS TO MODEST RECALIBRATIONS In 2008, many expected that the widespread outrage and economic hard- ship caused by the financial crisis would lead to the replacement of the neo- liberal policy paradigm. The rediscovery of Keynesian macroeconomics in 2008 2009 by the lea- ders of the G20 seemed to indicate that change was imminent.À Indeed, mainstream macroeconomic and finance economics seemed on their way to a historical trial.
    [Show full text]
  • The Retreat of the State from Entrepreneurial Activities: an Extended Survey
    A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Etling, Andreas; Mause, Karsten; Obinger, Herbert; Schmitt, Carina; Schreeb, Katharina Working Paper The retreat of the state from entrepreneurial activities: an extended survey TranState Working Papers, No. 107 Provided in Cooperation with: University of Bremen, Collaborative Research Center 597: Transformations of the State Suggested Citation: Etling, Andreas; Mause, Karsten; Obinger, Herbert; Schmitt, Carina; Schreeb, Katharina (2009) : The retreat of the state from entrepreneurial activities: an extended survey, TranState Working Papers, No. 107, Universität Bremen, Collaborative Research Center 597 - Transformations of the State, Bremen This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/29688 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen
    [Show full text]
  • The ￢ﾀﾘcredibility Thesis￢ﾀﾙ and Its Application to Property Rights: (In
    Land Use Policy 40 (2014) 13–27 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Land Use Policy j ournal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/landusepol The ‘credibility thesis’ and its application to property rights: ଝ (In)Secure land tenure, conflict and social welfare in China a,b,∗ Peter Ho a Minzu University of China, Zhongguancun Nandajie 27, Haidian, Beijing, 100081, PR China b Delft University of Technology, PO Box 5015, 2600 GA, Delft, The Netherlands a r t a b i s c l e i n f o t r a c t Article history: Debates over tenure insecurity have been divided between those favoring private, marketable, and for- Received 9 December 2012 malized property rights versus champions of grassroots’ customary and communal arrangements. By Received in revised form 16 August 2013 positing the “credibility thesis”, this article argues that it might be more insightful to move beyond Accepted 22 September 2013 concepts of formal and informal, private and common, or secure and insecure institutions, to leave the discussion about institutional form for a discussion about function. The notion of credibility does so by Keywords: drawing attention to institutional function over time and space rather than to a desired form postulated Institutional change by theory or political conviction. Apart from furthering the theoretical foundations on credibility and Titling institutional functionalism, this article aims to develop its methodology and empirical study by taking Land grabbing Expropriation China as a case study, with particular reference to its rural land-lease system, which is perceived to be Urban sprawl highly insecure due to forced evictions and government intervention.
    [Show full text]
  • Credibility and Class in the Evolution of Public Banks: the Case of Turkey Marois, Thomas and Güngen, Ali Rıza
    Credibility and Class in the Evolution of Public Banks: The Case of Turkey Marois, Thomas and Güngen, Ali Rıza This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor and Francis in [Journal of Peasant Studies that will be published in the Journal of Peasant Studies http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/fjps20/current Downloaded from SOAS Research Online: http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/22002/ Introduction Forms of public banking go back thousands of years while modern public banks have served important developmental functions in most countries‟ transitions to capitalism over the last century. By the 1970s estimates suggest that 65 percent of the largest banks‟ assets were publicly controlled in developing countries and 40 percent in the advanced economies (Levy Yeyati et al. 2007, 212). Today public banks still account for a quarter of all banking assets, despite global transitions to neoliberalism and associated privatization processes (de Luna-Martinez and Vicente 2012, 2). The aftermath of the 2008-09 global financial crisis, moreover, has renewed interest in the developmental potential of public banks (UN 2015). Yet within the problematic of property rights and institutions, the debate around bank ownership and development is as starkly polarized as ever. Conventional neoclassical economists regard private bank ownership as innately superior whereas institutional political economists understand public bank ownership as offering conclusive developmental advantages (cf. Caprio et al. 2004; Öztürk et al. 2010; World Bank 2012; Mazzucato and Caetano 2015). Research is most often framed around establishing that either public or private banks can best achieve developmental gains. Substantiating, yet contrasting, evidence is in no short supply for either view, leaving development policy and advocacy in somewhat of a lacuna.
    [Show full text]
  • Formalizing Informal Homes, a Bad Idea: the Credibility Thesis Applied to China’S “Extra-Legal” Housing
    This is a repository copy of Formalizing informal homes, a bad idea: The credibility thesis applied to China’s “extra-legal” housing. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/139461/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Sun, L orcid.org/0000-0002-0102-8801 and Ho, P (2018) Formalizing informal homes, a bad idea: The credibility thesis applied to China’s “extra-legal” housing. Land Use Policy, 79. pp. 891-901. ISSN 0264-8377 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.10.024 © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Reuse This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) licence. This licence only allows you to download this work and share it with others as long as you credit the authors, but you can’t change the article in any way or use it commercially. More information and the full terms of the licence here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Formalizing informal homes, a bad idea: The Credibility Thesis applied to China’s “extra-legal” housing Abstract Discussions about informal housing in developing, emerging economies often revolve around the need for prohibition, privatization and formalization.
    [Show full text]
  • An Endogenous Theory of Property Rights: Opening the Black Box of Institutions
    The Journal of Peasant Studies ISSN: 0306-6150 (Print) 1743-9361 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fjps20 An endogenous theory of property rights: opening the black box of institutions Peter Ho To cite this article: Peter Ho (2016) An endogenous theory of property rights: opening the black box of institutions, The Journal of Peasant Studies, 43:6, 1121-1144 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1253560 Published online: 15 Dec 2016. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 1 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=fjps20 Download by: [192.240.127.83] Date: 16 December 2016, At: 23:47 The Journal of Peasant Studies, 2016 Vol. 43, No. 6, 1121–1144, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1253560 INTRODUCTION An endogenous theory of property rights: opening the black box of institutions Peter Ho From a neo-liberal paradigm, secure, formal and private property rights are crucial to foster sustained development. From this follows that institutions that fail to respond to shifting socio-economic opportunities are pushed to new arrangements. The enigma is posed by developments on the ground. Why would the removal of authoritarian institutions during the Arab Spring or Iraq war not increase market efficiency but rather cause the reverse, while China and India, despite persisting insecure, informal and common institutions, featured sustained growth? This collection posits that understanding these paradoxes requires a refocusing from form to function, detached from normative assumptions about institutional appearance.
    [Show full text]
  • The Function and Credibility of Institutions by Peter Ho Cambridge University Press, Released on 28 October 2017
    New book launch Unmaking China’s Development: The Function and credibility of Institutions By Peter Ho Cambridge University Press, released on 28 October 2017 Why would the removal of authoritarian institutions in some developing countries lead to sustained socio-economic crisis, while others experience explosive growth despite “persisting” informal, insecure and rent-seeking institutional arrangements? A key to solving this enigma lies in understanding China, a country where the paradoxes of development are highly visible. Peter Ho argues that understanding China’s economy necessitates an analytical refocusing from Form to Function, detached from normative assumptions about institutional appearance and developing instead a “Credibility Thesis”. In this reading, once institutions endogenously emerge and persist through actors’ conflicting interactions, they are credible. Ho develops this idea theoretically, methodologically, and empirically by examining institutions around the sector that propelled, yet, simultaneously destabilizes development: real estate - land, housing and natural resources. Ho shows how this sector can further both our understanding of institutions and issues of capital, labor, infrastructure and technology Table of Contents Archaeology of Institutions: A Theoretical Rebuttal of Neo-liberal Postulates of Development; 1. Institutional Change in China's Development: Myths of Tenure Security and Titling; 2. In Defense of Endogenous Development: Urban and Rural Land Markets; 3. The ‘Credibility Thesis' and its Application
    [Show full text]
  • Institutional Form Versus Function in a Common Property Context: the Credibility Thesis Tested Through an Agent-Based Model
    Delft University of Technology Institutional form versus function in a common property context The credibility thesis tested through an agent-based model Ghorbani, Amineh; Ho, Peter; Bravo, Giangiacomo DOI 10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.105237 Publication date 2021 Document Version Final published version Published in Land Use Policy Citation (APA) Ghorbani, A., Ho, P., & Bravo, G. (2021). Institutional form versus function in a common property context: The credibility thesis tested through an agent-based model. Land Use Policy, 102, [105237]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.105237 Important note To cite this publication, please use the final published version (if applicable). Please check the document version above. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons. Takedown policy Please contact us and provide details if you believe this document breaches copyrights. We will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. This work is downloaded from Delft University of Technology. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to a maximum of 10. Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.
    [Show full text]
  • State Compliance and the Track Record of International Institutions*
    State Compliance and the Track Record of International Institutions* Jeffrey M. Kaplow† Abstract This paper examines how the past performance of an international institution—its track record of compliance—affects the decisions of states to comply with the institution in the future. A substantial IR literature sees institutions as rationally designed to achieve outcomes desired by member states, and so struggles to explain why compliance varies even as an institution’s design remains fixed. I propose an informational theory of state compliance that fills the gap between rational design and actual institutional performance, showing how an international organization may persist with low levels of compliance even as states do not attempt to revise the institution’s design. This theory suggests that an institution’s track record should affect future compliance in settings where the underlying strategic problem is characterized by the need for reciprocity among member states. I test the influence of institutional track record on state compliance using data on violations of the nuclear nonproliferation regime, finding strong empirical support for the track record mechanism. This finding has important implications both for our understanding of the constraining power of international institutions and for the ongoing policy debate about the credibility of the nuclear nonproliferation regime. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! * This research was supported by a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellowship at the RAND Corporation and by the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at the University of California. † University of California, San Diego; Department of Political Science; [email protected] A large and influential literature in international relations sees international institutions as rationally designed to achieve the goals of member states.
    [Show full text]
  • Institutional Function Versus Form: the Evolutionary Credibility of Land, Housing and Natural Resources
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by LSE Research Online Peter Ho Institutional function versus form: the evolutionary credibility of land, housing and natural resources Article (Accepted version) (Refereed) Original citation: Ho, Peter (2018) Institutional function versus form: the evolutionary credibility of land, housing and natural resources. Land Use Policy , 75. pp. 642-650. ISSN 0264-8377 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.02.001 © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. This version available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/91811 Available in LSE Research Online: January 2019 LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facil itate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL ( http://eprints.lse.ac.uk ) of the LSE Research Online website. This document is the author’s final accepted version of the journal article. There may be differences between this version and the publishe d version. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it . To be cited as: Peter Ho (2018), “Institutional function versus form: The evolutionary credibility of land, housing and natural resources,” Land Use Policy, 75/6, pp.
    [Show full text]
  • The Credibility Effect and Rational Expectations
    WILLIAM FELLNER American Enterprise Institute TheCredibility Effect andRational Expectations: Implicationsof the GramlichStudy EDWARD GRAMLICH'SSTUDY in this issue raises a question by a method thathas frequentlybeen found fruitfulin scientificefforts. He presentsan interpretationof observeddata in termsof a widelyused analyticalframe- work that points to a very unfavorabledistribution of the consequences of demanddisinflation by undesirableoutput effects, on the one hand, anddesired price effects on the other.Yet he directsattention to the possi- bility that a reconstructionof the standardframework could reduce the weaknesseshe detectsin the interpretationhe presents.He does not favor the specificreinterpretation that I have suggestedin variouswritings1 and I will describebelow-indeed, he leans perhapsmore to an attitudeof doubt in this regard-but he has an open mind aboutthe methodsof im- provingthe conventionalframework. Essentially, he plays into the hands of all those of us who areeven moreskeptical than he is aboutthe conven- tional way of going about macroeconomicmodeling and who believe in the superiorityof a specificalternative. I would like to make use of the opportunityhis work provides.This is done partly with referenceto his empiricalfindings, to whichI turnin the thirdsection, afteran attemptto place the matterin perspective. The IncompleteOverlap between Two Hypotheses Conclusionsderived from analysisincorporating what may be termed the credibilityeffect overlap with conclusionsfrom analysis commonly 1. For instance, in
    [Show full text]
  • Credibility and Class in the Evolution of Public Banks: the Case of Turkey
    The Journal of Peasant Studies ISSN: 0306-6150 (Print) 1743-9361 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fjps20 Credibility and class in the evolution of public banks: the case of Turkey Thomas Marois & Ali Rıza Güngen To cite this article: Thomas Marois & Ali Rıza Güngen (2016) Credibility and class in the evolution of public banks: the case of Turkey, The Journal of Peasant Studies, 43:6, 1285-1309, DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2016.1176023 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1176023 Published online: 02 Aug 2016. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 171 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=fjps20 Download by: [Thomas Marois] Date: 23 December 2016, At: 20:11 The Journal of Peasant Studies, 2016 Vol. 43, No. 6, 1285–1309, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1176023 Credibility and class in the evolution of public banks: the case of Turkey Thomas Marois and Ali Rıza Güngen In Turkey, three large and decades-old public banks control about a third of the banking sector. These banks were functional to capitalist industrialization in the postwar era and have evolved spontaneously in ways supportive of neoliberalism. These same banks played a key role in stabilizing Turkey amidst the 2008–2009 global crisis. This gives rise to the seeming contradiction of public banks supporting otherwise neoliberal development strategies. The literature around banking and development has largely failed to capture this dynamic, being instead focused on the economics of public versus private banks.
    [Show full text]