Grassland Degradation and Its Control in Region AroundQinghai Lake

A quite severe degradation was found in all seven types of grasslands in the study area involving 12counties of the northwestern Qinghai Province. The slightly, moderately and severely degraded grasslandsoccupied 49.7%, 32.0% and 18.3% of the area respectively. The major factors resulting in the degradationwere overgrazing, the damages from mice and grasshopper and blown sands, and improper use of grasslands.The measures to deal with these problems should be: 1) to make livestock development in accordancewith grassland carrying capacity for animals; 2) to build more artificial grasslands with a stable and highergraas yield; 3) to put more widely the rotation grazing system into practice; 4) to clear up the poisonousgrass species; and 5) to adopt more effective measures to deal with the damages to grasslands by mice andgrasshoppers.