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

has been put forward. The government also rewards the slaughter of livestock
through cash awards, is improving the infrastructure in pastoral areas, is promoting
universal free medical care <strong>and</strong> nine-year compulsory education <strong>and</strong>
is increasing poverty alleviation <strong>and</strong> development efforts to help low-income
families in pastoral areas. These efforts include raising the number of livestock,
building stalls <strong>and</strong> sheds, fencing rangel<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> encouraging alternative
sources of income. These efforts have brought tremendous transformations in
pastoral areas. However, if a huge disaster strikes again, we will still have to
pay a great price because we have not repaired the most vulnerable link in the
traditional pastoralist chain.
2 Re-conceptualizing traditional <strong>Pastoralism</strong>
The characteristics of traditional pastoralism have often been described <strong>and</strong>
distinguished on the basis of their typology. In addition to the well-known
aspects related to terminology such as nomadism, self-sufficiency <strong>and</strong> seclusion,
there have to be highlighted aspects of self-sufficiency <strong>and</strong> short production
chains. We will first look at the following survey of a pastoral village (Table 1),
<strong>and</strong> then discuss two specific issues.
Table 1: Initial weights (in kg) for different age cohorts of yaks before the
fattening process in 2009
Age 3 years 4 years 5 years 6 years 7 years 8 years
weight 96.5 148.5 170.7 209.6 226.9 263.4
Source: Meng 2009
Sibu Village (Sibu Ranch originally) of Tashi Gang Town, Maizhokunggar
County, is a traditional yak-keeping village. There are 215 households, 1,360
people <strong>and</strong> seven thous<strong>and</strong> yaks in the village. The survey covered 172 households,
1,089 people, <strong>and</strong> 6,494 yaks, accounting for about four fifths of the
total village households <strong>and</strong> their livestock. The average household surveyed
raised 37.8 yaks. Of all the yaks, 38.1 % were one to four years old, 33 % were
five to eight years old <strong>and</strong> 28.9 % were eight years or older. The ratio of female
to male was 62:38, with a calving rate of 7.2 % <strong>and</strong> a slaughtering (including
death) rate of 12.3 % in 2008. Of the slaughtered yaks, 2.5 % are consumed,
3.9 % sold <strong>and</strong> 5.9 % lost to a variety of reasons. The survey revealed to us that
the village households had more old yaks than calves, more bulls than cows,
<strong>and</strong> more yaks that are still growing than those ready for slaughter <strong>and</strong> more
yaks were lost than sold. The yaks are characterized by a poor nutritional status
<strong>and</strong> slow growth. Only rarely is a yak under the age of nine years old slaugh-
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