3.1.4 OvergrazingOvergrazing is mor

3.1.4 Overgrazing
Overgrazing is more common in drier areas of the tropics where pastures degraded by
overgrazing are subject to soil erosion. Stripping trees to provide fodder for grazing
animals can also be a problem in some dry areas of the tropics but is probably not a major
cause of deforestation. Clear cutting and overgrazing have turned large areas of Qinghai
province in China into a desert. Overgrazing are causing large areas of grasslands north
of Beijing and in Inner Mongolia and Qinghai province to turn into a desert. One man
who lived in a village on the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau that was being
swallowed up by sand told the New York Times, "The pasture here used to be so green
and rich. But now the grass is disappearing and the sand is coming.” Huge flocks of sheep
and goats strip the land of vegetation. In Xillinggol Prefecture in Inner Mongolia, for
example, the livestock population increased from 2 million in 1977 to 18 million in 2000,
turning one third of the grassland area to desert. Unless something is done the entire
prefecture could be uninhabitable by 2020. Overgrazing is exacerbated by sociological
phenomena called "the tragedy of the common." People share land but raises animals for
themselves and try to enrich them by rising as many as they can. This leads to more
animals than the land can support. Grassland in Qinghai that can support 3.7 million
sheep had 5.5 million sheep in 1997. Animals remove the vegetation and winds finished
the job by blowing away the top soil, transforming grasslands into desert. When a herder
was asked why he was grazing goats next to a sign that said “Protect vegetation, no
grazing,” he said, “The lands are too infertile to grow crops—herding is the only way for
us to survive.” (Hays, 2008 web page).