Marketization induced overgrazing: The political ecology of neoliberal pastoral policies in Inner Mongolia

Neoliberal environmental logics have increasingly characterized China's grassland governance since the 1980s. The government has implemented a series of policies premised on the assertion that intensification and marketization will alleviate grassland degradation caused by overgrazing by increasing returns on production and thus enabling herders to raise fewer livestock. However, after several decades, overgrazing is more severe than ever. This study explains this outcome through the lens of political ecology. Based on qualitative and quantitative analysis of data from field research in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, this study explores how market-based policies that aimed to allow herders to destock by improving returns on production have instead decreased production returns and exacerbated overgrazing. Results show that the development of market-based intensive production and herders' marginalized political-economic position have together eroded their ability to benefit from livestock production, causing a simple reproduction squeeze and a cycle of indebtedness that forces herders to overgraze. Overgrazing is not a result of herders' lack of knowledge or care for the grasslands. Instead, it is caused precisely by state policies aimed at increasing economic efficiency for the purpose of environmental improvement.