Effect of snow disasters on livestock farming in some rangeland regions of China and mitigation strategies – a review Z. H. Shang A,B , M. J. Gibb C and R. J. Long A,D A International Centre for Tibetan Plateau Ecosystem Management, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China. B Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 10085, China. C Formerly of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, North Wyke, Devon EX20 2SB, UK. D Corresponding author. Email: longrj@lzu.edu.cn Abstract. Severe snowfall events, termed snow disasters, lead to losses of livestock, preventing sustainable development of livestock systems, in the rangelands of northern China. In order to reduce losses under snow disasters, a review of the factors contributing to these losses was used to indicate the most appropriate strategy. It is proposed that governments and herders should implement a holistic strategy using a multi-disciplinary approach to ensure sustainable development in these rangelands. The possibility of seeing snow disasters as a natural restraint on livestock numbers and allowing losses to take place during these events is not considered as acceptable as part of a holistic strategy. The aim of the strategy is to improve animal nutrition, health and disease control rather than simply mounting rescue missions to save threatened livestock. It is suggested that central and local governments should encourage permanent solutions through a combination of education, the provision of materials for animal housing and the creation of reserve banks sufficient to ensure adequate feeding and survival of livestock through the winter, whether threatened by snow disasters or not. The economic return from the marketing of animal products should be enhanced through a combination of government and herder initiatives to promote a higher turnover rate of livestock and to encourage the sale of high-quality products. Regeneration of degraded grassland by herders should be encouraged by enhancing vegetation cover and forage plant height, thereby reducing the effect of snow cover on forage accessibility. Since current stocking rates on many rangelands are too high, their reduction should be an absolute priority in order to prevent irreversible degradation of rangelands. Only by improving herders’ confidence in their economic survival, through the adoption of such changes, will they be persuaded to reduce grazing livestock numbers, thereby helping to ensure, not only the short-term survival of livestock through snow disasters, but the long-term survival of their rangeland pastures upon which their livelihood depends. Additional keywords: Chinese pastoral area, forage storage, livestock industry, marketing, sustainable development of rangelands. Received 19 August 2010, accepted 30 September 2011, published online 29 February 2012 Introduction Rangelands occupy 41% of China’s land area and are important from the point of view of ecological stability, the livelihoods of many smaller-scale communities and China’s grassland livestock industry (Ren et al. 2008). Severe heavy snowfall events, ‘snow disasters’, occur frequently in some regions of China and are the major cause of the loss of livestock in these regions. There are three regions that are particularly prone to the heaviest losses due to snowfall events; namely, an area covering north-western Xinjiang, the central area of Inner Mongolia, and the north- eastern Tibetan plateau (Xu 2005a). In these areas the season of heavy snowfall, normally begins in January and may last until April, but on occasions may occur earlier and persist until May or even June and affect large numbers of people and livestock. For example, the heavy snowstorms during the winter of 2009–10 endangered over 4.6 million people in north China, and accounted for six deaths (Zhang 2010). During such disasters, heavy and long-lasting snowstorms deprive livestock of grazing on rangelands, frequently leading to losses due to starvation, often exceeding 20% of a household’s herds or flocks (Zhang and Zhang 2002). Such large losses of livestock present enormous challenges to the development of sustainable livestock enterprises in China’s affected pastoral regions. Emergency policies and implementation strategies are, therefore, required to reduce losses Journal compilation Ó Australian Rangeland Society 2012 www.publish.csiro.au/journals/trj CSIRO PUBLISHING The Rangeland Journal, 2012, 34, 89–101 Review http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/RJ11052