Cultural invasions and land degradation

Abstract

Recognizing the connections between a culture and its environment provides an important perspective on a neglected aspect of coupled natural and social systems. Based on the history of grassland degradation in Northern China, we found that cultural invasions (the replacement of an indigenous culture by an invading population’s culture) have profoundly affected the local environment and the connections between humans and nature. The environment shapes and is shaped by culture, and we concluded that invasion of a grassland region by an agricultural culture was one of the underlying reasons for land degradation in this region. We discuss how current environmental policy in China, including the ecological migration policy, is inappropriate and harm transmission of important cultural knowledge, and suggest that environmental managers both re-establish traditional practices and find ways for these practices to coexist with newer practices.