Research On Ecological Poverty Reduction In Pastoral. Areas In Inner Mongolia

Since the reform and opening up (especially the beginning of the Western DevelopmentStrategy),the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, answering to the national policy, has been enhancingits resource development, which satisfied local people’s need and made great contributions to theeconomical and social development of this region. With the rapid growth of economy, the pace ofgrassland’s ecological construction is also accelerating. But the pastoral areas are facing increasinglygreater pressure on environment, development and income growth of herdsmen. Various problems suchas the destruction of grassland’s ecological environment, the widening of the gap between urban andrural areas and the polarization of the rich and the poor are worsening. In all, status quo of pastoral areashas not been fundamentally improved.Combining with the ecological environment policies, this article studies the status of the economicand social development in Inner Mongolia by analyzing existing literature and statistical data. Based onthe survey results, this paper makes empirical analysis about the cost effectiveness of herdsmen, thecurrent situation and problems of the pastoral areas. The thesis carries out its analysis from economicand ecological points of view: firstly,it introduces the longitudinal change of the economic and socialindicators since the reform and opening up, compares the lateral disparities of the four major pastoralareas, the three major regions of Inner Mongolia and the urban and rural areas, then the paperthoroughly analyzes the historical evolution, current development status and existingproblemsin InnerMongolia and its pastoral areas;secondly, this article studies the current situation of the pastoral areas’ ecological environment ingrassland degradation and vegetation destruction, and then elaborates the local government’senvironmental policies and their impacts on herdsman and the grassland ecology and the existingproblems.The paper concludes two major contradictions that hinder the development and poverty reductionin pastoral areas of Inner Mongolia: first, the contradiction between economic development andecological environment. With the rapid development of economic, grassland ecological environment isconstantly deteriorating. The key to realize the sustainable development of the pastoral areas in InnerMongolia is to protect the ecological environment by effective policies, while realizing its economicdevelopment; second, the contradiction between economic development and the uneven distribution.The income gap between the urban and rural residents and the development disparities among the threemajor regions of Inner Mongolia, also, is increasing. The regional economic development imbalancewould inevitably leads to further loss of capital and human resources in pastoral areas, whichconsequently impedes the economical development and the recovering and protection of the ecologicalenvironment.There are various reasons for the poverty of different pastoral areas in Inner Mongolia. Thegovernment should mainly make supporting policies in solving grasslands degradation and infertility ofnatural resources because of natural reasons such as drought. The thesis mainly focuses on analyzing theeconomic-development oriented poverty reduction. For the environmental destruction owing to economic development and the reduction of herdsmen income because of the implementation ofecological policies, the government should primarily make compensating policies. The paper propose toprotect the environment and realizes herdsmen’s income growth by applying ecological povertyreduction mode. Compared with economic-development orientated poverty reduction, ecologicalpoverty reduction mode means to take national ecological compensation policy as leading direction,gives full play to herdsmen’s positivity in developing economy and protecting environment. It advocateschanging herdsmen’s production and management modes according to the requirements of ecologicalpoverty reduction. Cooperating with other related policies in health care, education, social security, etc.,such mode would realize the protection of ecological environment while increasing herdsmen income,thus realizing the harmonious development between economy and society.