A shepherd uses a machine to mow grass at a grassland in Xilin Gol League, north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Sept. 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Peng Yuan)

HOHHOT, April 13 (Xinhua) — Lu Shuping, a grassland herder from the Xilin Gol League, has kept his flock of sheep in a pen since April, as the grasslands entered a 45-day moratorium on grazing to feed the growing grass.

“I reduced my herd to cope with the grazing ban. Compared to the past, although the number is decreasing, the herd quality has improved and the ecosystem is improving,” said Lu, living in Sonid Right Banner, a county in northern China. Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Lu owns over 7,000 mu (about 467 hectares) of pasture, raising 120 sheep. He has prepared enough fodder since March for his herd to survive the grazing moratorium.

As the widest grasslands in Inner Mongolia, Xilin Gol Grasslands accounts for 89.95% of the league area.

According to the league authority, this year’s no-grazing area breaks the record, reaching 250 million mu and accounting for 92.4 percent of grassland coverage.

Herders are entitled to 1.1 yuan per mu (about 2.6 US dollars per hectare) in environmental subsidies for prohibiting their cattle and sheep from grazing in the pasture.

The league is the pilot in Inner Mongolia for the implementation of grassland grazing spring holidays for ecological rehabilitation. Over 86,000 pastoralist households have been covered since 2018.

In addition to grasslands in Xilin Gol, more than 50 million mu of grasslands in Ordos City have entered the three-month grazing moratorium, when all livestock are in captivity.

Inner Mongolia spans the vast territory of northern China and forms a vital ecological barrier in the country. Grasslands in the region occupy about one-fifth of the country’s total.

The vegetation, however, was threatened by desertification and degradation due to overgrazing, drought and insufficient protection in the late 1990s.

Thanks to ecological preservation efforts, the grasslands of Xilin Gol have regained considerable biodiversity. According to monitoring by the league’s ecology conservation agency, the greening rate of natural grasslands reached 24.9 percent last spring, marking a 0.5 percentage point year-on-year increase. ‘other. ■