Matching Local Knowledge and Environmental Change with Policy Changes in Rangeland Tenure

Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons has often been cited as the rationale for the privatization of pastures throughout the world, yet rangeland degradation is still widespread. A significant body of ecological research has demonstrated negative impacts from limiting herd movement through fencing. The privatization of pastures has often followed heterogeneous patterns. We use a natural experiment in common grazing areas on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau where land use was privatized beginning in 1999 following different land use division patterns. We measure the relationship between land use privatization paths and grassland quality using satellite data from 1989 to 2011 in five different villages, and compare how well herder environmental perceptions match satellite data. We find that rangeland degradation has significantly increased following privatization of land use, and that grassland in small individually managed fenced plots is deteriorating more significantly than in larger fenced areas with group herding. We further find that herders’ had accurate perceptions of the state of their pastures that closely match remotely sensed data.