The Clash over State and Collective Property : The Making of the Rangeland Law

Along with growing attention to the environment over the 1980s and 1990s, rangeland protection and management have surfaced on the political agenda of the central leadership. However, current rangeland policy has been beset with problems of implementation, and desertification and rangeland degradation are reported to have increased at an alarming rate. The main pillar of rangeland policy in China is the 1985 Rangeland Law. This paper deals in detail with the formulation and rationale of the law, the state institutions involved in its making, their clashes of interests, as well as central-provincial relations. It shows that the most critical issue and inherent contradiction of the law concerns land tenure and the distinction between state and collective property.