Grassland Degradation and Its Control in Region Around Qinghai Lake

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