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

Table 2: Various service function values of natural rangel<strong>and</strong> ecosystems in
Xinjiang
58
Survive Function Service Value
per Unit Area
(USD/ha/year)
Service Function
Value
(million USD/
year)
Proportion of
Service Value
( %)
Air <strong>Management</strong> 4.09 196 2.75
Interference
<strong>Management</strong>
22.28 1,069 14.99
Water <strong>Management</strong> 1.55 74 1.04
Water Supply 18.65 895 12.55
Erosion Control 14.24 684 9.59
Soil Formation 0.49 024 0.34
Culture 4.32 207 2.90
Waste Disposal 21.91 1,052 14.75
Pollination 12.27 589 8.26
Food Production 31.58 1,516 21.26
Raw Material 0.52 25 0.35
Genetic Resource – – –
Habitat 1.49 72 1.01
Biological Control 11.29 542 7.60
Entertainment 3.79 182 2.55
Total – 7,127 100.00
Source: Ye <strong>and</strong> Xu 2006; Halik <strong>and</strong> Yang 2006
According to different estimations of function values of the rangel<strong>and</strong> (Table
3), the total service value of the rangel<strong>and</strong> system in Xinjiang is 7.1 billion USD.
The dominant categories in Xinjiang’s rangel<strong>and</strong> ecosystem include: temperate
desert pasture, temperate desert <strong>and</strong> lowl<strong>and</strong> meadows, with a moderate contribution
to the total service value of rangel<strong>and</strong> ecosystem, making up for only
43.17 % of the total. While the area of lowl<strong>and</strong> meadows, temperate pastures
<strong>and</strong> highl<strong>and</strong> meadows is small, they produce a higher proportion of the value
of ecological services. The contribution of lowl<strong>and</strong> meadows is the highest.
Marsh <strong>and</strong> temperate meadow pastures have a high ecological service value per
unit, but it is small in size. If we can increase the area covered by marsh <strong>and</strong>