Below is an article published by Reuters:

China's Inner Mongolia region plans to speed up resettlement of nomads
from their traditional grasslands to fixed homes in towns, as part of a
conservation programme, a top official said on Thursday [8 July 2010].

The government will also increase payouts to herders who settle down,
said Liu Xinle, deputy governor of the northwestern region. Inner
Mongolia is fighting severe desertification blamed in large part on
over-grazing of the rolling steppes.

"We will step up our conservation efforts," Liu told a news conference
on government plans to boost development in poorer western parts of China.

"We aim to gradually achieve the natural regeneration of the environment
on the grasslands through moving people to urban areas, moving animals
to designated grazing areas, and moving industry and business into
industrial zones," he added.

The government will use more interventionist methods in areas where
natural regeneration is a challenge, he added.

Opponents of the government's plans say herders who have grazed the
grasslands for centuries are key to solving the problem, and should not
be blamed for spreading deserts.

Studies by Nobel prize winning economist Elinor Ostrom showed that when
China imposed agricultural collectives on grassland areas that were
formerly home to nomadic peoples who moved herds with the seasons, they
became degraded.

Privatisation in the decades since China decided to follow a path of
"reform and opening up" caused further damage.

China says it is improving environmental stewardship constantly and
massive changes in society and living standards mean many Mongolian
nomads need to settle down.

Over a quarter of China's land area was covered by desert in 2007, and a
nationwide survey published the next year found that serious erosion is
scouring over a third of the country, putting its crops and water supply
at risk.

"We will put in place conservation compensation mechanisms, and
intensify permanent and temporary bans on grazing," Liu said.

Rights groups claim the government has failed to provide Mongolian
herders with suitable means of living after moving them to settled
homes. Liu said the government would boost payouts.

"We will also increase the scale of subsidies to herders in the areas of
the (grazing restriction) programmes, and extend the time-frame for the
issuance of such subsidies."