From: Social-ecological transformations of Inner Mongolia: a sustainability perspective
Major characteristics | Evolving stages | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Traditional nomadism (before the 1900s) | Primitive industrialization (1900s–1949) | Collectivization (1949–1978) | Economic reform (1978–present) | |
Natural resource and ecosystems | Natural grasslands | Localized cultivation and land degradation | Large-scale cultivation and increasing land degradation | Serious degradation due to overgrazing, cultivation, mining, etc. |
Production structure | Primitive nomadism | Traditional nomadism, with limited sedentary pastoralism and cultivation | Sedentary pastoralism, with increasing cultivation | Privatized sedentary pastoralism, with cultivation, mining, tourism, etc. |
Population | Very low and sparsely distributed | Episodic immigration waves | Rapid growth, large-scale immigration | Steadily increasing, with low immigration rate |
Institution | Tribes, clans, and feudalistic empires | Tribes, subordination to centralized government | Communes, collectivism | Privatization, property rights, marketization |
Social consciousness | Reverence for nature, lamaism (since 16th century) | Lamaism and various other trends of thought | Socialism, conquering nature | Mixture of nature exploitation for profits and nature conservation for sustainability |
National/international influence | War, commercial trading | Immigration, capital | Immigration, technology, land use policy | Land use policy, common markets |