Social Reasons of Rapid Desertification in Inner Mongolia: An Anthropological Perspective

In this article, the authors try to understand the desertification and degradation in Inner Mongolia as an on-going process, and explain the tremendous environmental changes in broader social context. The research work was conducted on the basis of documentary and statistical materials, and interviews with herders and local administrators, as well as participant observation, mostly in Alashan Aimak, Inner Mongolia. As a result, it becomes clear that immigration process, population growth, imbalance among different kinds of livestock, changes of core values in nomadic culture, human destruction (mining, transportation, aviation laboratory, production tools), and modernization and industrialization all together contributed to the serious environmental changes, as well as overloading pasture.