Grasslands of the World.pdf - Disasters and Conflicts - UNEP

Other grasslands 443
gigantea , Calamagrostis epigeios , Bromus inermis , Deyeuxia angustifolia ,
D. arundinacea , Poa pratensis , P. angustifolia , Miscanthus sacchariflorus ,
Phragmites communis , Brachypodium sylvaticum , Festuca ovina , Carex
duriuscula , Potentilla anserina , Sanguisorba officinalis , Iris lactea var. chinensis ,
Suaeda spp. and Sophora alopecuroides .
Dominant plants of the Alpine Meadow class are mainly cold -resistant
perennials. Most are Kobresia spp. and forbs. The most important are Kobresia
pygmaea , K. humilis , K. capillifolia , K. bellardii , K. littledalei , K. tibetica ,
Carex atrofusca , C. nivalis , C. stenocarpa , Blysmus sinocompressus , Poa alpina ,
Polygonum viviparum and P. macrophyllum .
Marsh classes are dominated mainly by Cyperaceae and Gramineae.
The most important are Carex meyeriana , C. muliensis , C. appendiculata ,
C. stenophylla , Scirpus yagara , S. triqueter , Phragmites communis and Triglochin
palustre .
Grassland deterioration – a worldwide problem – is severe in China . According
to data published in 1994, the area of degraded grassland was 68 million hectares
at the end of the 1980s – 27.5 percent of all grassland. It has increased remarkably
in the past decade. Now 90 percent of grassland shows signs of deterioration,
of which moderately degraded grassland is 130 million hectares (32.5 percent of
total) and it is increasing by 20 million hectares each year.
The government is taking vigorous measures to deal with grassland degradation
. According to the Planning Programme of National Ecological
Environment Construction and Outline of Fifteenth Ten-Year Plan, the following
should be achieved by 2010:
• artificial grassland and improved grassland increased by 50 million hectares;
• 33 million hectares of degraded grassland and 20 million hectares of desertified
land improved ;
• of 600 000 ha of eroded land controlled ; and
• 6.7 million hectares of cropland (on >25° slope) returned to forest and grass .
Improvement is being undertaken by closure, with or without reseeding ,
and is associated with a very large programme of returning sloping arable land
to pasture .
SOUTH ASIA
Himalaya -Hindu Kush
These grasslands and associated grazing systems are discussed in detail in a
recent FAO publication (Suttie and Reynolds, 2003) and in the country Pasture
Profiles of the five countries: Afghanistan , Bhutan , India , Nepal and Pakistan
(Thieme, 2000; Wangdi, 2002; Misri, 1999; Pariyar, 1999; Dost, 1998). The
Himalayas (see Plate 11.22), which form a barrier between the Tibetan plateau
and the plains of India and Pakistan, run obliquely northwest to southeast for
about 2 500 km. They contain the highest mountains in the world and protect
the sub continent from cold air from the north. The grazing zone goes beyond