Agricultural Settlement and Land Use in Mountains - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 569

were available to herders. Their seasonal migration commences in early May, when
melting snows nourish summer pastures that may be up to 150 km (90 mi) from winter
lowland sites. Moving days begin in morning darkness, when camels are loaded with
yurts (circular tents) and household goods. The scene repeats itself until fall, when the
nomads slowly descend to winter pastures in the semiarid foothill and lowland basins.
As in Tibet, this migratory land use succeeded for centuries until the Chinese govern-
ment instituted various state-run communes. Chief among these were the introduction
of more livestock, inducements to take up sedentary agriculture, and relocating ethnic
majority Han farmers from eastern China to cultivate traditional winter pastureland.
This continued until the mid-1980s, when decollectivization policies reversed the trend.
By then, the productivity of foraging lands had declined by some 30 percent, reflecting
the sharp increase in livestock during the collective period (Banks 1997). The current
policies promoting individual land tenure would appear to let pastoralists revert to the
traditional balance. However, undoing the past has proved more difficult than in Tibet.
Only 1 million of Xinjiang's 20 million people are still pastoralists, of whom almost all
are Kazak, Mongol, or Kirghiz minorities. In addition to the aforementioned livestock
increase, 50 percent of the former pastoral households now cultivate much of the pre-
vious winter and spring pastures. Mineral and gas development since the 1990s and
advancing desertification are also consuming rangeland.
A final blow to nomadic herders everywhere is competition from industrial world re-
source extraction, especially in oil-rich western China and Siberia. Competition from
cattle ranching and sedentary agriculture threatens nomads in Africa. Voluntary attri-
tion also contributes as other lifeway options become more attractive. In particular, urb-
an centers offer better opportunities for schooling and health care, along with stable
cash-economy employment. This is the case with the Kharnak of eastern Ladakh and
some Mongolian groups. Thus robust digital-age technology and global consumerism
may speed the decline of this ancient lifeway.
Transhumance
Transhumance follows many of the same ecological principles as nomadic pastoralism.
However, this strategy also involves the concurrent cultivation of valley fields and a
permanent settlement. There are two major differences between transhumance and no-
madic pastoralism. The first is the nature of winter activity: Nomads simply drive their
livestock and dwellings to other pastures; transhumant herders descend in the fall to
lower-elevation villages where supplemental feed and, in some cases, winter grasslands
carry the animals (mostly sheep and goats, or cattle) through the winter. This includes
summer hay and grains produced in fields while livestock are absent. The amount of
winter feed harvested or purchased, combined with the grazing capacity of summer
pastures, determines each transhumant herd size. A second fundamental difference is
the social ties between seasonal shepherds and those who own the livestock. Nomads
socially bond into firm family or clan relationships. In contrast, many transhumant her-
ders are hired from outside the family or social group to tend livestock they do not own.
Transhumance is more productive than sole reliance on either cultivation or pas-
toralism, and provides insurance when part of the operation fails due to weather, dis-
ease, or warfare. Consequently, it is more widely adopted in mountains than is pas-