EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

The Agricultural Landscapes of Inner Mongolia

Agricultural Landscape and State Farm Village 
Near Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, People's Republic of China

Explanation:  It is November and late afternoon in the extensively converted agricultural landscapes of Nei Mongol or Inner Mongolia, in northern interior China.  Below, long shadows are cast by the low sun over a stark land of crops and tree rows lining the fields and roadways.  This is one of dozens, hundreds, of state-run farm villages.  

The original woodlands and wetlands of the region have been utterly tamed, converted, to produce food and other goods.  In my explorations of this austere scene, I encounter very little native wildlife, save for black-billed magpies, crows, and house sparrows.  The native biodiversity seems to have been peeled away.
  

In much of Inner Mongolia, the plains, streams, and hills
have been used to maximum extent.

  
These are hardly scenes unique to inner China, as much of the agricultural world has resulted in similar "artificial" environments devoid of indigenous wildlife.  Take, for example, the Central Valley of California, where only tiny remnants of the once-immense grasslands, wetlands, and streamside forests remain, and thus where such riparian specialist wildlife species as the yellow-billed cuckoo struggle to find habitat.  
  

Hills of Inner Mongolia.

  
But this need not be a conflict.  It is possible to maintain at least some wildlife habitat and provide for agricultural needs as well.  For example, the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences in Massachusetts, U.S., advocates sustainable management of agricultural lands with judicious and careful use of pesticides and provision of water resources.   The U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service's Agricultural Wildlife Conservation Center, and the Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association of Canada, provide guidelines to farmers and ranchers on how to manage fish and wildlife on croplands.  

Many other groups throughout the world are similarly pursuing such balanced management, so that the future -- and its agricultural landscapes -- may be rich with food resources and natural abundances alike.  
  

What does the future hold for balancing increasing food needs
of our burgeoning global population, with restoring native
biodiversity?