Pastoralism and Rangeland Management on the Tibetan Plateau in ...

started the process of de-collectivisation. For three decades some observers have
noted a revival of a “nomadic way of life” 43 ; others perceive the distribution of
communal livestock among households <strong>and</strong> the contracting of grassl<strong>and</strong> user
rights to them as the beginning of a deregulation <strong>and</strong> privatisation in the pastoral
sector. 44 For nearly two decades this strategy was the conventional approach
in giving certain degrees of freedom to pastoralists.
Table 2: Recent reforms affecting pastoralism on the Tibetan Plateau
Comprehensive
Set of Four
Constructions – the
“Four-Way Scheme”
(sipeitao jianshe)
Great Development
of the West
campaign (xibu da
kaifa)
1996–2004 Infrastructure
development
<strong>and</strong> provision of
services
State-sponsored
privatisation
Since 2000 Significant
support for
infrastructure
development
<strong>and</strong> subsidies
for rural uplift
43 M<strong>and</strong>erscheid 2001.
44 Goldstein & Beall 1999, Ho, 2000, Oi 1999, Yan Zhaoli et al. 2005.
In the Grassl<strong>and</strong>
Areas :
(i) subsidised building
of permanent
settlements (jianshe
dingju dian) <strong>and</strong>
of shelters for
livestock on winter
pastures,
(ii) erection of
fences (jianshe
weilan) to improve
efficiency <strong>and</strong>
to modernise/
rationalise animal
husb<strong>and</strong>ry,
(iii) construction of
schools <strong>and</strong> health
stations (jianshe
xuexiao weisheng
zhan), (iv)
contracting
pastures to families
(bao caoyuan dao
hu)
Rural infrastructure
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