Indigenous literary perspectives on green governance grassland management policies in China

This chapter analyzes literary perspectives on ecological civilization policies that impact grassland management in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and the Tibetan Plateau. Beijing’s green governance policies conceptualize grasslands as infrastructure which shields the capital from dust storms and prevents desertification. Yet enclosure and sedentarization policies intended to restrict overgrazing and settle pastoralists in towns often harms the environment and its Indigenous populations. Rather than isolated infrastructural units, nomadic pastoralists view grasslands as supporting a holistic ecosystem with interdependent components. Literary works reflecting experiences of Indigenous Tibetan, Kazakh and Mongol stakeholders convey grief and outrage at the destruction of cultural heritage and local environments via policies and prejudices that favor extractive industries and industrialized agriculture over pastoralism. Although Indigenous intellectuals attempt to influence policy by adopting market language to incorporate deep knowledge of how to sustain grassland ecosystems, they criticize neoliberal policies that destroy the environment and lifeways of minority nationalities.