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Hum Ecol DOI 10.1007/s10745-017-9891-8

Pastoralist Decision-Making on the Tibetan

Emily T. Yeh1 & Leah H. Samberg2 & Gaerrang 3 & Emily Volkmar1 & Richard B. Harris4

# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017

Abstract Despite a growing body of research about rangeland [The government] should try hard to change these con- degradation and the effects of policies implemented to address cepts in traditional pastoralism: judging wealth by live- it on the Tibetan Plateau, little in-depth research has been con- stock numbers, perceiving rangeland as free resources, ducted on how pastoralists make decisions. Based on qualita- using [rangeland] without limit, and the unwillingness tive research in Gouli Township, province, , we to slaughter or sell. analyze the context in which Tibetan herders make decisions, -Committee for Population, Resources, and and their decisions about livestock and pastures. We refute Environment, Chinese People’s Political Consultative three fundamental assumptions upon which current policy is Conference, 20081 premised: that pastoralists aim to increase livestock numbers without limit; that, blindly following tradition, they do not ac- tively manage livestock and rangelands; and that they lack Many Tibetan herdsmen believe that the innumer- environmental knowledge. We demonstrate that pastoralists able sheep and cattle crowding the range are bless- carefully assess limits to livestock holdings based on land and ings from Buddha, but many are now [because of labor availability; that they increasingly manage their livestock government restrictions] realizing that less is more. and rangelands through contracting; and that herding knowl- – Xinhua News, 2013.2 edge is a form of embodied practical skill. We further discuss points of convergence and contradiction between herders’ - servations and results of a vegetation analysis. Introduction Keywords . Pastoralism . Rangeland condition . Livestock management . Environmental knowledge A growing body of literature addresses the causes of degradation on the Tibetan Plateau and the effects of various rangeland management policies that have been implemented in response. The dominant view of Chinese policy makers as * Emily T. Yeh well as scientists in the Chinese academy [email protected] is that degradation is caused largely by irrational manage- ment and overgrazing beyond carrying capacity, and by Ochotona 1 University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA the burrowing and herbivory of plateau pikas ( 2 Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN 55108, USA 1 Research report on establishment of long-term rangeland ecological protec- 3 The Centre for Tibetan Studies of University, tion compensation mechanism in the TAR (guanyu jianli Xizang caoyuan Chengdu, China shengtai buchang changxiao jizhi de diaoyan baogao) in Proposals on Sustainable Development 2007 (in Chinese), Forestry Publishing House, 4 Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Olympia, WA 98501, Beijing, 366–72, in Nyima (2014:186). USA 2 http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-08/31/c_132679346.htm Hum Ecol curzoniae)(Duet al. 2004;Duet al. 2012;Panet al. 2015; interviews with Tibetan pastoralists to explore their practices and Wang et al. 2013; Wei and Chen 2001). Policy responses, motivations in relation to current policies. At their core, these including the Rangeland Household Responsibility System policies presume that transhumant pastoralism is an anachronism and tuimu huancao (Bretire livestock, restore rangeland^), whose practitioners must be modernized in order to restore grass- have been grounded in a tragedy of the commons model that land condition. More specifically, as demonstrated in the epi- presses for the privatization and division of pastoral use rights graphs above, they are premised upon the assumptions that to smaller scales of management – increasingly to the house- Tibetan pastoralists (1) aim to increase their livestock numbers hold. However, studies have demonstrated negative social and without limit; (2) act according to tradition and thus do not ac- environmental effects related to the reduction of flexibility and tively manage or make sound decisions about their livestock and mobility, including more concentrated trampling and grazing, rangelands; and (3) are not knowledgeable about their environ- as well as greater susceptibility to livestock loss during snow- ments. Following a description of our methods and study site, the storms (Bauer 2005; Bauer and Nyima 2010;Caoet al. 2011a; paper demonstrates that these assumptions are untenable. In the Cao et al. 2011b;Caoet al. 2013; Gongbuzeren et al. 2015; first main section, on livestock numbers and management, we Harris 2010;Li2012;Yanet al. 2011; Yan and 2005;Yan address the first two assumptions. The last section addresses et al. 2005;Yeh2009;Yeh2013;Yehet al. 2014). herders’ environmental knowledge and its relationship to find- In addition to division of pasture use rights, other policy re- ings from ecological science. sponses have included mass pika poisoning campaigns, despite the pika’s status as a keystone species for biodiversity (Smith and Foggin 1999), and regulations to limit household livestock hold- Methods, Study Site, and Context ings to government-established carrying capacities. Herders are largely opposed to poisoning because of their Buddhist stance on Our analysis is part of a larger interdisciplinary study conducted the mass taking of life, and because they note that pika numbers from 2009 to 2014 in Village Five of Gouli Township, Dulan bounce back quickly from poisoning. Moreover, recent studies County, Qinghai Province, China (Fig. 1), home to 175 residents have found that extermination campaigns negatively affect pred- in 37 households, most of whom are engaged primarily in pas- ator abundance as well as hydrological functioning toralism. Village Five occupies relatively high elevation pastures (Badingquiying et al. 2016;WilsonandSmith2015). within Gouli (between 4100 and 4900 m, with vegetation sparse Regulation of livestock numbers is similarly problematic in above 4700 m), and had been used as summer and transitional practice. Nyima (2015) demonstrates that the purportedly scien- (spring/fall) pastures before collectives were dismantled in 1983. tific determination of carrying capacity on the Tibetan Plateau is Pastoralists now use the lower areas as winter pastures, to which not only plagued by technical problems, but also often deter- they move in mid-October and stay until mid-June, when they mined more by political-economic incentives than ecological leave for higher spring/fall and summer pastures. The implemen- considerations. Moreover, in some areas the official carrying tation of the Rangeland Household Responsibility System in capacity is at or below what is considered the household poverty 1996 allocated specific winter pastures to each pastoralist house- level. However, to date, there are few places on the Tibetan hold on long-term leases (for details see Yeh and Gaerrang 2011). Plateau where these limits on household livestock numbers have In addition to annual surveys of livestock numbers from 2009 been strictly enforced. Destocking has instead taken place most to 2012, we conducted semi-structured interviews and participant dramatically in the area of Qinghai province (a observation with 17 households in 2009, 2010, and 2014. The encompassing the sources of the , Yellow and interviews, most of which were conducted by native Tibetan Rivers) through Becological migration,^ a program that researcher Gaerrang, focused on village and household rangeland moves herders completely off the to settlements in and livestock management history, household socioeconomic distant towns, which had led to socio-cultural dislocation with- and demographic information, herders’ understandings of the out attendant evidence of grassland improvement (Bauer 2015). relationship between livestock and rangeland condition, snow- In critiquing the flawed assumptions of these various policies, storms, daily herding practices, livestock sales, identity, and Harris (2010:8) notes that Bmost Chinese biological research has household aspirations and definitions of success. The broader not asked, much less answered, questions regarding human mo- study also included an exclosure experiment (Harris et al. tivations among the pastoralists using the rangelands of the 2015), and non-destructive annual vegetation sampling for [Tibetan plateau], but this has not kept many authors from sug- ground cover and species composition on 317 permanent plots gesting simple reductions in livestock numbers or dramatic in eleven winter pastures from 2009 to 2012 (Harris et al. 2016). changes in livestock production systems.^ Social science re- Pastoralists, like all people, make everyday decisions within search, for the most part, has also not focused on understanding specific political-economic, environmental, and socio-cultural pastoralists’ decision-making about their pastures and livestock contexts. In Gouli, Tibetan herders maneuver within China’s (but see Bessho (2015) on decisions to leave herding and move authoritarian state capitalist institutions and forces, which have to town). Addressing this lacuna, this paper draws on in-depth produced an increasingly marketized environment, as well as Hum Ecol

Fig. 1 Study site. Map by Galen Maclaurin development projects that subsidize new houses for pastoralists livestock weights have decreased over time. Like Tibetans else- in town, aimed at enticing herders to urbanize and give up pas- where on the eastern Tibetan Plateau (Byg and Salick 2009), toralism; compulsory education and school consolidation poli- herders in Gouli note significant changes in precipitation pat- cies; attempts (thus far unsuccessful) to organize herders into terns, stating for example: BMany years ago, before the rain it cooperatives; and rapid construction of transportation infrastruc- was foggy and damp so grasses grew quickly… Now in the ture. In contrast to many areas of Qinghai, caterpillar fungus summer the rainfall is rare but sometimes there are sudden rain- () is not found here and is thus not an falls and hail, which may destroy grasses and break plants.^ important source of income for Gouli households. Limits on Culturally, an important trend since the early 2000s has household herd size were announced in 2004, but have not been been the growing influence across the eastern Tibetan plateau strictly enforced. As a way of maintaining flexibility in the face of the slaughter renunciation movement, led by charismatic of the quasi-privatization of pastures through the Rangeland Buddhist teachers from the Larung Gar Buddhist Academy in Household Responsibility System, Gouli pastoralists have, over Serthar (Seda), Sichuan province. As part of a Buddhist ethi- the last 15 years, developed an increasingly complex system of cal reform movement, Tibetan religious teachers have encour- sub-leasing their pastures, paying rental fees to graze their live- aged herders to take vows not to sell livestock to slaughter- stock on others’ pastures, providing labor for herding, and houses, in order to prevent the severe suffering engendered by contracting livestock out to other herders. The increasing preva- the ways the livestock are transported and slaughtered lence of grassland leasing has been recently documented in other (Gaerrang 2011; Gaerrang 2015). This movement has had Tibetan areas as well (Li 2012;Levine2015). Whether such limited influence in Gouli, where herders have not taken such arrangements decrease (Li 2012)orincrease(Yehand oaths. However, some are familiar with the teachings and are Gaerrang 2011;Levine2015) inequality is dependent on the reluctant to sell livestock directly to slaughterhouses, prefer- leasing arrangements developed in specific locations. However, ring to sell livestock for non-slaughter purposes or, in some the system in Gouli appears distinct insofar as pastoralists lease cases, to middlemen. Importantly, this is very much a not only land but also livestock. Buddhist modernist movement, an articulation of how to be Though herders in Gouli do not have a uniform view on ethical, modern, and Tibetan in the twenty-first century, rather trends in grassland condition, there is widespread agreement that than an unchanged tradition, as state discourse tends to Hum Ecol represent Tibetan herders’ actions and ideas (Gaerrang 2011, Multi-Faceted Decision-Making about Herd Size in Gouli 2015;Gayley2013, 2016; Kabzung and Yeh 2016). Nyima’s(2015) arguments are directly relevant to Gouli, where households with larger herds have noticeably higher standards of living in the form of better housing and vehicles. The Simplistic View of Livestock as Wealth Herders make decisions about livestock purchase and sales based on their needs to pay for school tuition, medical ex- Explanations about how pastoralists decide herd size, move- penses, religious expenses, transportation, subsidized (but ment, and grazing strategies often fail to take seriously the not free) housing from state development projects, and other complexity of their own goals and strategies (McCabe everyday expenses in an increasingly monetized economy. In 2004). Instead, herders aroundtheworldhavelongbeen doing so, they weigh options (and labor opportunity costs) to portrayed as having irrational cultural norms that give status engage in other forms of work, such as wage labor and petty and prestige to owners of large herds (Doran et al. 1979; sales, against the income that can be earned from animal prod- Herskovits 1926). The epigraphs that begin this paper are ucts. These decisions are also conditioned by the extent to typical of Chinese representations of Tibetan pastoralists as which they have been influenced by the slaughter renunciation overly conservative and single-minded in their accumulation campaign, and their desire (or lack thereof) to maintain a pas- of too many livestock, a Bbackward^ trait that must be over- toralist identity by retaining a tie to the land. come through development (Yundannima 2012). Beyond the parameters of Nyima’s(2015) critique, we con- Social and ecological evidence has shown these models to tribute here another argument against the assumption that be flawed. In northern Kenya, McPeak (2005a, b) found that herders maximize their livestock herds without limit: far from herd sizes are rational at both the household and collective focusing exclusively on increasing livestock numbers, pasto- levels. Household income increased with herd sizes, and ralists in Gouli engage in complex assessments of land avail- wealth in livestock offered a higher rate of return than other ability and quality as well as considering labor availability available forms of formal savings, even with periodic herd when making decisions about herd sizes. Because sheep must losses taken into account. Degradation resulted from subopti- be followed more closely than , households with less mal spatial distribution of herds rather than herd sizes. available labor power tend to keep fewer sheep. As Similarly, McCabe’s(2004) study refutes the long-held notion Pastoralist LG explained, BI take labor into account when that herds are an end in and of themselves for pastoralists. deciding whether to increase or decrease [my livestock num- Instead, among Kenya’s Turkana pastoralists, livestock herds bers]… If there are not enough people to work then pastoral- are primarily a means to form families, a process which itself ists will only herd yaks. If labor is available, they will herd must be understood in cultural context. Moreover, herders do both yaks and sheep. Now, my grandson only herds yaks and not sell more because they do not receive fair rates of ex- my son-in-law herds the sheep.^ Another herder, Pastoralist L, change for livestock, marketing infrastructure is lacking, and explained, Bduring the winter, I divide the weaker sheep and there are few opportunities to make investments with greater herd them separately,^ a strategy that requires either having rates of return (ibid). Furthermore, larger herd sizes have been multiple laborers within the household or hiring outside labor. found to be an efficient risk reduction strategy for nomadic Pastoralists also consider weather and grassland conditions pastoralism (Naess and Bardsen 2010;Roth1996). when assessing the number of each type of livestock that their Based on research in Nagchu Prefecture, Tibet pastures are capable of supporting. This in turn informs their Autonomous Region, Nyima (2014) refutes the Chinese state decisions to sell or trade livestock, sublease additional land, or discourse of livestock as a Bsymbol of wealth^ for Tibetan contract out part of their herds to others. Pastoralist DT ex- herders on three grounds. First, he argues that outsiders may plained, BI plan according to the weather. If it rains, I will plan have an inflated view of livestock numbers because they do to increase my number of livestock. If the weather isn’tgood not understand the number of years needed before livestock and I increase the livestock number, that won’thelp.^ can be used either for production or sale. Second, he argues Similarly, herder RC noted, BIf the weather is good and there that a larger number of livestock acts as a form of insurance is rain, I will buy more livestock. If it is not, I will sell against the probability of a devastating loss of the herd as a livestock.^ Pastoralist LG explained, BI haven’t tried to in- result of density-independent mortality from severe snow- crease or decrease my livestock numbers [in the last few storms (Nyima 2014;Yehet al. 2014). Finally, he finds that years]. I know how many [sheep and yaks] I can herd based households with larger herds have a higher standard of living, on the grassland condition and not more than that. Each year is with greater access to health care, education, meat and milk different. I consider if there is enough grass each year. If there for consumption, and participation in religious practices such isn’t enough, I will sell some livestock and sheep because as pilgrimage. In short he argues that the number of livestock there isn’t enough space available on the grassland...Even if that herders keep is economically rational. the condition is better than previously, I would not make a Hum Ecol rushed decision. I would wait until there has been at least one strategy for wealthier herders, who essentially offload month of good weather^ before considering increasing herd that risk to those with fewer assets (Yeh and Gaerrang size through purchase. These statements about the importance 2011). of temperature and precipitation for vegetation dynamics are Households endowed with adequate land and labor power supported by a number of studies of the Tibetan Plateau that often decide to herd other households’ livestock along with demonstrate both temperature and precipitation are important, their own, on their own pasture. If they wish to increase their often interacting, drivers of vegetation dynamics (Berdanier own herd size, they choose the option of keeping 30–35 lambs and Klein 2011;Chuet al. 2007;Sunet al. 2013;Zhanget al. per 100 sheep (and bearing the risk of livestock loss). 2010), though our data in Gouli did not find spring/summer Alternatively, they may choose monetary compensation for precipitation to be an important predictor of annual biomass their labor. Conversely, they may mitigate risk by contracting (Harris et al. 2016). part of their pasture to other herders to use in exchange for cash payment. Finally, those who have a reputation within the Active Management through Contracting village of being particularly skillful herders can generally le- verage more advantageous arrangements. Within the broad policy context of use rights privatiza- tion and division of rangeland into smaller parcels, Successful Use of Contracts Gouli herders try to match livestock numbers to pasture access through contracting arrangements that are multi- Here we present two examples of successful pastoralists who ple and fluid, often changing from year to year for each have increasingly turned to contracts and rentals to manage household. Most contracts are signed annually, though the mismatch between their herd sizes and the amount and some have terms as long as five years. Several Gouli quality of pasture to which they have use rights. These cases herders act as middlemen, brokering complicated, multi- further demonstrate that herders do not simply increase their party arrangements. Most contracting is of sheep rather livestock numbers without regard to limits. than yaks, because herds do not grow as quickly and yaks do not need to be watched as closely as Pastoralist T sheep. It is common for households to graze their yaks on (common) summer or fall pasture during some or all In 2009, Pastoralist T’s household had the highest per capita parts of the winter, saving their winter pasture, which is number of livestock among herders in Village Five. Like lower and warmer, for sheep. many others in the village, he lost more than 100 sheep in Most herding households in Gouli take part in the snowstorm of 1997–1998. In 2001, he purchased 100 contracting of livestock and land. In general, less sheep to increase his herd size to 200. By then he had begun wealthy households prefer to take in other households’ to contract out some of his sheep to other herders, who kept livestock on contract, as the butter and cheese produced 65–70% of the new lambs born each year, returning the orig- can be consumed or sold, and the household can also inal flock plus 30–35% of the new lambs to Pastoralist T. By increase their own herd size. Most commonly, they re- 2005, his sheep flock had reached 500, including 100 lambs. turn to the owner 30–35 lambs per 100 adult sheep During the winter, Pastoralist T herded them for two months taken in, while keeping the rest of the lambs, or alter- on his own winter pasture and then for another four months on natively return the original flock along with the mone- pasture subleased from another herder. He also sold 80 sheep tary equivalent of 30–35 lambs, keeping the entire flock that year, noting that he felt there were too many for his pas- of baby sheep born in a year. ture to support. Like most other Gouli herders, Pastoralist T Conversely, those who are wealthier, those who have grazed his yaks primarily on autumn and summer pastures more livestock than they feel their land or labor can even during the winter. support – and those who make a living in town as From 2005 to 2009 he contracted 300 sheep to other salaried employees or petty entrepreneurs or who must herders to graze on the other herders’ pastures. He used his move to town for other reasons (such as caring for own pasture for his yaks, as well as the yaks of other herders. family members in the hospital) – contract their live- For example, in the winter of 2008–2009, Pastoralist L herded stock to other households. These contracts usually stip- 70 of his own yaks and all 150 of Pastoralist T’s yaks on ulate that they will receive their original flock back at Pastoralist T’s winter pasture from October through the end of the year, along with 30–35 lambs or their February, and then on common summer pasture in March monetary equivalent. They also require that those who and April. That year, severe snow caused 20 of Pastoralist take in livestock must compensate owners for any live- T’s yaks to die of malnutrition and another ten were killed stock loss, including livestock deaths from heavy snow. by wolves. In 2009–2010, Pastoralist T contracted 100 of his Thus, these arrangements also serve as a risk mitigation 140 yaks to Pastoralist PG to graze on Pastoralist T’sland. Hum Ecol

Pastoralist T also paid Pastoralist L 8000 RMB3 to graze his each of whom grazed the sheep on their own land in return for remaining 40 yaks on Pastoralist L’s land for six months of taking 35% of the new lambs born that year. The following that year. year, his herd reached its maximum size of 800 sheep and 170 In the winter of 2010–2011, Pastoralist T subleased pasture yaks. That year, he contracted sheep to five households (20 to use rights from another herder in the village for three months one household, and 50 each to four households) and in order to rest his own pasture. When we interviewed him contracted 140 lambs to a sixth household. He himself raised about the size of his pasture, he pointedly said that his deci- the remaining 440 sheep on his and his relative’scombined sions have to do with the quality, rather than the area, of his pastures. That year his family members also herded their 170 rangeland. Pastoralist T was particularly attentive to the rela- yaks on fall and summer pasture during most of the winter. tionship between livestock trampling and the quality of his Deciding that there were too many livestock for his land, he grassland, stating that he did not sublease his pasture to other sold 90 sheep and continued to reduce his herd size the fol- herders because they might overstock it, leaving him with lowing year. damaged pasture. Like others, he stated that weather, specifi- cally precipitation, was an important factor in his annual as- sessments about how to modify his herd size. Through 2014, Herders’ Environmental Knowledge he had continued to contract his sheep out to other herders while maintaining 200 yaks. In 2014, he stated that he planned Having addressed two policy assumptions about livestock to reduce his number of livestock because, Bnow there are too numbers and pastoralists’ active management, we now turn many animals…If livestock number increases, then future to the third assumption, about knowledge. That herding is a grassland conditions will be poor. More livestock damages practice and profession requiring skill and careful observation the grassland through their trampling on the grassland.^ is not acknowledged in state policies or discourses, which represent pastoralists as having, until recent state intervention, Pastoralist H Bwandered around^ in search of grass and water, implying a random and unskilled practice. However, we find that Tibetan Pastoralist H, a former village Communist Party Secretary, is pastoralists clearly have a great deal of environmental respected in Village Five as a thoughtful and capable man and knowledge. This knowledge is what Ingold and Kurttila B ^ B considered a skilled herder. He has six children: a monk, a (2000)call LTK or traditional knowledge as generated in ^ B ^ B trader living in neighboring Golog County, two high school the practice of locality, as opposed to MTK or traditional graduates now working in salaried positions, and two herders knowledge as generated enframed in the discourse of ^ living at home. His sheep numbers have increased slowly and modernity. The latter model conceives of knowledge as a B ^ steadily over time; once he assessed that his allocated land had substance, a set of discrete items that is passed down in already reached the maximum number of livestock it could order to be retrieved and applied, whereas the former under- support, his dominant strategy has been to contract his live- stands knowledge to emerge through embodied practice. As B stock to others. Compared to Pastoralist T, Pastoralist H was practice, knowledge undergoes continual generation and re- ’ emphatic about the role of weather variables in determining generation within the contexts of people s practical engage- ^ grassland condition, going so far as to say, BGrassland condi- ment with significant components of the environment tion does not depend on herding. It depends on the weather.^ (Ingold and Kurttila 2000:192). Ingold and Kurttila further This observation about the significance of climate factors over argue that LTK can be conceptualized as skill, understood as B biological ones in affecting vegetation condition does not, a property of the whole human organism-person, having however, mean that he pays no attention to how many live- emerged through the history of his or her involvement in an ^ B stock he puts on the grasslands. Indeed, Pastoralist H is known environment; it is thus refractory to codification in the pro- ^ for diligently and closely following his livestock, carefully grammatic form of rules and representations (193). In short, managing where they graze. it is that which cannot be adequately described in the two- The complexity of his herding strategies also reveals dimensional form of a textual narrative or a set of quantitative Pastoralist H’s considerations of livestock number and grass- metrics. That distilling such embodied skill into written textu- land condition. In 2009, he subleased the land of a monk in the al, numeric, or symbolic form is difficult and awkward does village for a five-year period, for 50,000 RMB. During the not mean that herders do not have sophisticated practical winter, he herded 400 of his sheep on his own winter pastures, knowledge about their land and livestock. This can be seen which were divided at the time of rangeland allocation into in how herders describe which livestock they graze at what five different parcels, as well as that of a relative. He also times in what locations. For example, Pastoralist L explained: contracted out his remaining 250 sheep to three other herders, I have both sunny and shadow sides in my winter pas- 3 The exchange rate is roughly 6.5 RMB = 1 USD. ture. When it is snowing, I use the sunny side of the Hum Ecol

pasture [which he has fenced], which is a little warmer Our vegetation study corroborates the fact that herders di- than other parts. When the snow is not heavy, I can use rect their attention to pastures and livestock. Harris et al. both sunny and shadow parts. When it is sunny, I use the (2016) found that overall, pastoralists stocked their pasture parts of the pasture that have less grass, such as the high in response to the relative abundance of palatable forage, rocky mountain area and the shadow side where the and stocked more lightly where indicators of were grass is shorter. This way, I can save the best parts of higher. Though Gouli herders did not verbally articulate their the pasture for harsh days when it is snowing or very strategies in relation to palatable vs. unpalatable species, their cold. During cold days, I herd livestock in the relatively practical actions consisted of avoiding putting more sheep on warm parts of the winter pasture, but not the most pro- pastures that had high biomass but significant weedy species. ductive parts, which I save for days when it is snowing. That is, their embodied skills included a differentiation be- On good days, I herd livestock in places where they can tween palatable and unpalatable species, even when, in inter- access just enough grass, not the best…. views, they did not articulate these distinctions (see results from Harris et al. 2016). Of course, like other groups of people, individual Gouli herders vary in their level of knowledge and skill in herding. Herding yaks is easier than herding sheep. But these Some are more thoughtful, meticulous, diligent, and observant days, there are very few places where one can free yaks in their management and embodied skill than others. By dem- to graze wherever they want. Herders have to go with onstrating that herders are knowledgeable about their environ- the yaks to graze them strategically. A herder has to see ments through continual engagement with place, and do not which parts of winter pasture they should graze first, and just Bwander^ aimlessly in search of water and grass, our which parts later, when it is cold. If you let your yaks go intention is not to paper over differences in the degree to freely to winter pasture and let’s say they’re not killed by which this is the case. After accounting for both annual and wolves, they will eat the best parts of the pasture and site specific differences in forage quality and quantity, Harris then there won’t be any grass left during the harsh et al. (2016: Table 2) found that pastures displayed heteroge- [snowy] days. A good herder will not allow this to neity in their responses to pastoralist decision-making, and happen. that pastoralists evidently differed in their ability to move pastures toward palatable, away from unpalatable, and away Pastoralist DT explains his strategies for herding different from eroded conditions. types of livestock as follows: The BScent^ of the Soil

On the winter pasture, there are sunny and shadow parts, In discussing qualities of different pastures, herders frequently but there is not enough for the livestock because parts deploy the concept of the soil’s Bscent^ (sa dri). For example, are bare soil with no grasses left. I have flat grassland Pastoralist W stated, Bthe best pasture has the qualities of that I use in the winter for livestock that are old and dense grass, soil that has a good scent, and a combination of weak, and also sheep and yaks that already have new- sunny and shadowy slopes, wetlands, and flat areas.^ Gouli born lambs and baby yaks. When it is windy and chilly, pastoralists state that because their soil has a particularly good we herd on the sunny part of the land and the valley… scent, their livestock are relatively plentiful, large, and healthy Sometimes it is necessary to herd [different kinds of compared to those in other pastoral areas on the Tibetan livestock] separately. At other times, it is necessary to Plateau, even though grass cover is sparser. As one put it, herd them together when there is only one part of the BEven though there is less grass than other places, the live- grassland that can be grazed. If there is snow, then there stock here can better survive. Around , the grass should be more grass on the shadow side of the winter is much denser, but their livestock are not as good as ours. It’s pasture that is covered with snow until February. If there said this is due to the different scent of the soil.^ Another isn’t much snow, then the sunny side should be better. In explained, Bin a place with abundant grass but without good years when there isn’t much snow, we do not allow the soil scent, the livestock will starve in the fall even if there is livestock to eat grass on the sunny side [because we grass to eat.^ Several herders attributed this to a greater salt save it for later]. When we want to herd the live- content in the soil. Importantly, herders emphasize that grass is stock on the higher parts of the pasture, we have to not everything; tall grass growing on soil with poor sa dri will be very careful not to trample the grass when we result in poor livestock, whereas good sa dri will cause live- drive the herd to the destination. We drive them stock to be fat and healthy even if the land looks degraded to through a very small valley where there is a path outsiders because of sparse grass. This insight speaks to fre- so that the grass will not be affected by trampling. quent clashes between outsiders’ landscape aesthetics and Hum Ecol local understandings of vegetation history, in pastoral areas grass mixed with flowering plants yaks will become more and beyond (Williams 2002; Yundannima 2012). productive in milk, which is an important indicator that yaks Despite their conviction that Gouli had relatively good soil, have good nutrition.^ no herders stated that its scent was improving over time. Some herders’ statements about weather events appear to Instead, in explaining why livestock weights have decreased, represent a radically non-equilibrium view of the ecosystem, Pastoralist K stated that it was the scent of the soil that has in which weather events make livestock numbers inconse- deteriorated over time. A number asserted that mining and the quential for grassland dynamics. These herders explain that digging of medicinal herbs undermines the good Bscent^ of their pastures have limits in terms of how many livestock they the soil. This concept of the soil’s scent is found in other can support, but that the consequences of exceeding these Tibetan pastoral areas as well, and is related to the concept limits would be the death of livestock, rather than grass of the soil’s Bnutrition^ or Bessence^ (sa bcud). The latter is growth the following year (as long as precipitation is plenti- widely deployed to explain why grassland condition suffers as ful). Several claimed that Bin places where grass grows well, it aresultofmining(seeYeh2014). Sa bcud is understood as a will continue to grow regardless of livestock number; in regional condition, whereas sa dri is a more localized condi- places where livestock do not grow well, then the grass does tion that can vary from kilometer to kilometer. Thus, though not grow even where no livestock are put on the land,^ a there is limited mining in Gouli itself, confined to the land of proposition contradicted by our vegetation study (Harris one pastoralist-businessman who willingly rented out his land et al. 2016). for mineral extraction, herders asserted that mining locally and However, these assessments are tempered and somewhat more broadly on the plateau affected both the scent and the contradicted by other statements, sometimes by the same essence of the soil and thus rangeland conditions and livestock herders, that do suggest the importance of livestock density, weight. usually couched in terms of a problem of trampling rather than grazing per se. Several stated that the soil might be Bkilled^ by Grazing, Climate and Grassland Condition the trampling action of too many livestock. Others suggest that both trampling and grazing affect grassland condition, a As is the case with much ecological research on the Tibetan proposition supported by Harris et al.’s(2016) study. plateau and elsewhere, Gouli herders’ analyses of vegetation Pastoralist GW asserts, Bif you herded your livestock in a conditions sometimes converge with and sometimes conflict way that does not allow for some grasses to be leftover, this with those of ecological science (Klein et al. 2014; will affect next year’s grass growth.^ Pastoralist GK agreed Nightingale 2016). The majority of Gouli herders we that, Bif you herd fewer livestock on the pasture, this is good interviewed stated that grassland conditions at the present time for the grassland condition.^ More importantly, even those are worse than in the past, a general trend that is reinforced by who stated that livestock numbers made no difference for their observations of declining livestock weights, and that is grassland condition had clear notions of how many livestock supported by Harris et al.’s(2016) vegetation study, which are appropriate for their pastures, and engaged in contracting found declines in most rangeland indicators over the 2009– of land and livestock to maintain these levels, with varying 2012 study period, even accounting for annual weather fluctu- degrees of success. That is, though they appeared to articulate ations. However, there were some dissenting voices. For ex- a radically non-equilibrium view of the ecosystem, their em- ample, Pastoralist RC stated in 2014 that though conditions bodied practices were more consistent with a much more nu- worsened for a number of years after the division of winter anced view (and one more in keeping with current ecological pastures, Bsince 2005, grassland condition has been improv- understandings) in which biotic and density-dependent factors ing. The grass is taller and thicker. There is more grass cover of herbivory and trampling are consequential at many times, and less bare ground.^ Herder L also stated that the years while being made irrelevant at other points in time. immediately following winter pasture allocation were charac- These disparate views can be interpreted together to sug- terized by more bare ground, but that this changed after 2007– gest that short-term weather variations may outweigh stocking 2008. He attributed his observations of less bare ground and rate in determining annual variation in range condition, but higher grasses to his own skillful management of the pastures. management of grazing density and timing also matter, partic- Gouli herders also have complicated and at times self- ularly over longer periods. Our vegetation study found evi- contradictory understandings of the extent to which grazing dence that, normalizing for the effect of annual weather vari- density - as opposed to weather conditions - affects vegetation. ations, some ecological parameters (e.g., proportion of bare As discussed above, herders emphasize the importance of soil, erosion index, vegetation cover and grass herbage mass) highly variable weather conditions as a key driver of annual responded to livestock density over the 2009–2012 study pe- variation in vegetation growth. For example herder LG states, riod. Moreover, Harris et al.’s(2015) exclosure experiment BWhen there is more rain, vegetation grows better, particularly suggested that the predominant forage species, Stipa those with flowers, which are good for yaks. If there is more purpurea, is adapted to moderate levels of herbivory and Hum Ecol competes with itself in the absence of herbivory, so that graz- 2016) can definitively determine whether and to what extent ing exclusion did not have strong effects on annual biomass lag effects of overgrazing, household division of pasture and production, though it did improve bare soil and other erosion decreased mobility, current overstocking by some pastoralists indicators. or in some years, and , alone and in combina- Finally, it should be noted that interpreting apparent dis- tion, are leading to changes in grassland characteristics. crepancies between herders’ articulated environmental knowl- However, the points of convergence and divergence between edge and the results of ecological studies of vegetation is different forms and sources of knowledge highlighted by this complicated not only by the gap that can be produced in the study should be a particularly productive entry point for fur- translation from LTK to MTK, but also by different time ther research (Gearheard et al. 2010; Klein et al. 2014; scales of observation. Our vegetation data, collected annually Nightingale 2016;Popke2016;Yeh2016). between the growing seasons of 2009 through 2012, cannot More broadly, we have demonstrated that Tibetan pastoral- account, for example, for Herder L’s recollection that range- ists assess limits to livestock holdings based on land and labor land conditions worsened in 1998–1999 because of a lack of availability, and make active decisions about grazing practices rain and a sudden increase in pika numbers, or pastoralist DT’s based on their observations of vegetation, the weather, and statement that there is more bare ground on his pasture now their livestock, and in the context of multi-scalar and contem- than in the past decade, but that 30 years ago there was more porary political-economic and cultural-political forces. Within bare ground than today. These issues should be further ex- a policy context that pushes privatization, they have increas- plored with longer scientific data sets along with a recognition ingly turned to contracting of livestock and rangelands to of the integrative character of local knowledge (Berkes and maintain flexibility in management. Like all people, pastoral- Berkes 2009; Klein et al. 2014). ists differ in their levels of skill and knowledge, but our study suggests that they do have significant knowledge in the form of embodied, practical skill in stocking and managing their Conclusion pastures. Policy makers who wish to achieve policy outcomes that benefit both herders and grasslands would do well to Gouli herders are in agreement about their observations of consider how to engage in dialogue with herders’ existing decreased livestock weights over time. They interpret these knowledge, management practices, cultural context, and goals observations through a set of causal explanations that partially rather than continue to act as if these do not exist. overlap with and partially diverge from ecological understand- ings of rangeland degradation. Many point as an ultimate cause to their understanding that the contemporary world is Acknowledgements We thank Pemabum for field assistance and the B ^ B many herders in Gouli who patiently answered our questions over a in the midst of an age of degeneration or Dharma-ending number of years. age,^ a historical period following the life of Shakyamuni Buddha when sentient beings become greedy and filled with hatred, the dharma cannot be transmitted properly, and there is Compliance with Ethical Standards a state of general world decline. At least one herder in Gouli also attributed what he observed as increased grass cover on Funding This study was funded by the US National Science his pasture over the past six years to efficacious religious Foundation, Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems Program, Award 0815441. activities, including inviting monks to chant prayers over bar- ley grains he provided as an offering. Simultaneously, herders Conflict of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflict also attribute the rangeland conditions they observe to their of interest. own management practices, to mining and quarrying both locally and regionally, to an overabundance of pikas, and to the household division of winter pasture and its attendant con- centration of grazing and trampling. While neither ecologists nor officials of an atheist state are References likely to find much use for Buddhist explanations of the ulti- mate causes of , we have suggested here Badingquiying, Smith, A. 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