The Driving Force Analysis and Sustainability Evaluation of Land Use Change in Yijihuoluo Banner

YiJinHuoLuo Banner is a county of Inner Mongolia with obvious semiarid monsoon climate. Because of unsuitable land use, such as cultivating marginal land and over pasture, desertification was getting severer and severer before 1974. Since 1974, People have been doing their best to grow woods, shrubs and grasses for increasing the coverage of vegetation. People have taken suitable and available methods of land management for combating desertification and increasing agricultural production. For example, the conservation tillage is taken for preventing wind erosion in winter season, the grazing is forbidden in early spring season for prevent grassland degradation, wells are digged for irrigation, plastic thin film is used for prolonging growing season, etc. In recent twenty-six years, land use structure has changed a lot. Woods, shrubs and grass coverage has increased. Desertification has been controlled somewhat. Although the farmland decreased, the total grain yield increased. People’s income increased too. In a word, land use is going forward to sustainability. The main driving forces of land use changes are mining industry development and land tenure. Due to the mining industry development, many farmers get job in coalmine and do not depend on agriculture for living much more. Therefore, many people give up cultivation of marginal land. At the same time, with current income increasing, the ability of input on land rises. Because the farmers get 30 years land-using right, they care about land protection and like to put much investment on the land.