中国生态文明建设（中英对照）连载之三十七
基本草原保护制度
本书由北京语言大学出版社出版，2014（教学课件光盘版） 作者 蒋高明
4.2.3基本草原保护制度
4.2.3 Basic grassland protection system
基本草原这个概念是从基本耕地来的。为什么保护了基本耕地，还要保护基本草原呢？这要从中国国情讲起。
The concept of basic grassland comes from basic farmland. Why should we protect the basic grassland as well as the basic farmland? Let’s begin with China’s national condition.
中国是一个历史悠久的多民族国家，中华民族是多民族融合的结果，其主要文明形态是以农耕文明与游牧文明为支柱的。农业的重要性毋庸置疑，支持着大部分人口的生存，而牧业也支持着众多少数民族人口的生存。
China is a multi-ethnic country with a long history. Its civilization is an integration of multi-ethnic cultures and based on farming and herding. The farming culture sustains most Chinese people and the herding culture nurtures numerous ethnic minorities.
中国的草原分布面积广阔，包括内蒙古、四川、新疆、西藏、青海、甘肃、云南、黑龙江、吉林、辽宁、河北、宁夏、山西等13个省区的268个牧区半牧区县（旗、市）[1]。有草原，才有畜牧文化，才有与之相关的各项传统。因此，草原的存亡还关系到少数民族文化的存亡。
China’s grassland is distributed across 13 provinces, namely Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, Yunnan, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Ningxia, and Shanxi, with 268 pastoral and semi-pastoral counties (banner, cities) under their jurisdiction. Grassland generates the nomadic culture and its related traditions. Therefore, the protection of the grassland is concerned with the lifeline of the minority cultures.
2011年，国务院颁布了《关于加快内蒙古草原又快又好发展的建议》。这个建议的出台是来自内蒙古草原研究专家和领导的最初动议。我与草原打交道快20年了，期间几乎年年跑草原。草原的问题是什么呢？人类对草原的利用就是自由放牧。这种用法本身没有问题，草原上的人祖祖辈辈都这样做，并且形成了畜牧文化。问题在于，这种文化的形态是较少的人居住在较大的草原上。听听内蒙古的长歌，那里的故事一定是这样的：广阔的草原，少量的牲口，更少的人。而现在的草原倒过来了。牧民定居了，人口增长，牲畜更是大量增加。草原变得狭窄，被铁丝网分割，游牧无法进行了。内蒙古锡林郭勒盟自新中国成立以来，人口增加了4倍，牲畜增加了20倍！人畜数量增加，生活方式的改变，加上近年草原能源的发现，大量采煤工业造成了草原环境破坏，生态严重退化，草原呈现出明显的向荒漠演化的危险趋势。在这种背景下，国家不得不实行严格的基本草原保护制度。
In 2011, the State Council promulgated the Recommendations on Accelerating the Pace of Healthy Development of Grassland in Inner Mongolia, based on the initial advice of local grassland research experts and leaders. I have been working on grassland for nearly 20 years during which I made trips every year. What’s the problem of grassland? Human use of grassland is in the form of free grazing, which is itself not a problem, because the people have done so for generations on the grassland and developed their distinctive nomadic culture. The matter is that this culture hinges on a small population on a vast grassland. Listen to a long tune in Inner Mongolia. The story in it would tell you the effect that: a vast grassland with sparsely-scattered animals and people. But now the condition has been reversed. Herdsmen are settled, the population is growing, and the number of livestock is increasing even more rapidly. The grassland seems to become narrower and segmented by barbed wire. Free grazing is impossible. In Xilin Gol League in Inner Mongolia, the population has increased fourfold and the number of livestock twenty-fold since the establishment of the PRC. The increase of people and livestock, the change of lifestyle, and the excessive exploitation of coal discovered on the grassland have caused much damage to the grassland environment and serious degradation of the ecology. The grassland shows a dangerous trend of desertification. In this context, China has to adopt a strict basic grassland protection system.
基本草原是指国家认定的重要放牧场、割草地，或用于畜牧业生产的人工草地、退耕还草地以及改良草地、草种基地，还有作为国家重点保护的野生动植物的栖息地草原。
Basic grassland refers to state-identified pasture or mowing grassland or artificial grassland for livestock husbandry, grassland reverted from farmland, improved grassland, seed grassland, as well as habitat grassland for national key protected wild animals and plants.
基本草原的保护管理办法，是由国务院制定实施的。在基本草原保护区或保护地，不允许开垦草原，不允许改变基本草原的用途[2]。围绕基本草原保护，国家在建设项目审批核准、资金支持、税收减免和金融服务等方面，给予优惠政策，帮助该地区健康发展；加强基础设施建设，改善饮水、交通、用能、通信条件，鼓励牧区特色优势产业发展。在草原生态建设方面，加大退牧还草工程实施力度，提高退耕还草补助标准；在草原畜牧业发展方面，启动实施草原畜牧业转型示范工程，支持肉牛、肉羊标准化养殖小区（场）等建设；在牧区特色优势产业发展方面，支持有条件地区发展清洁能源。
Protection and management measures for basic grassland are formulated and implemented by the State Council. In the protected areas of basic grassland, it is forbidden to reclaim grasslands or change their basic functioning. China has adopted preferential policies with regard to project approval, financial support, tax concessions and financial services, to help regional development. It has strived to strengthen infrastructure construction, and to improve drinking water, transportation, energy, and communication conditions in order to encourage the development of their distinctive and preponderant industries; in terms of ecological construction, China has intensified the implementation of converting grazing land to grassland, and raised subsidies for returning farmland to grassland; as to the development of grassland animal husbandry, the government has initiated demonstration projects of the transformation of grassland animal husbandry, and rendered support to the construction of standardized breeding districts (farms) for beef cattle and mutton sheep. With regard to the development of distinctive and preponderant industries, the government has backed up clean energy projects in regions with required conditions.
草原在地球上存在了几万年，在调节气候、涵养水源、保持水土、防风固沙上具有重要作用，必须予以保护。
Grassland has existed on the earth for thousands of years. It plays an important role in regulation of climate, water and soil conservation, and wind prevention and sand fixation. It should be protected.
[1] 这些区域土地面积近400万平方公里，占全国国土面积的42%；草原面积37亿亩，占全国草原面积的62%。
[1] The land area in these regions is nearly 4 million square kilometers, accounting for 42% of the country’s total land area; the grassland is 3.7 billion mu, accounting for 62% of the total grassland area.
[2]其余草原保护措施包括禁止毁坏围栏、人畜饮水设施、擅自钻井、挖鱼塘、挖沟渠、铲草皮、挖草炭、建造坟墓、倾倒排放固体、液体、气体废物和生活垃圾等。
[2] Other grassland protection measures include a ban on destroying fences and drinking water facilities; on unauthorized drilling and digging of ponds and ditches; on removing grass sod, digging peat, construction graves; and on dumping solid, liquid, and gas waste and garbage, etc.
