In Awang Township, over 40 kilometers awayfrom the seat of Qamdo's Gonjo County, Awang sheep dot the vast pastures like scattered snowflakes. Yet for years, a strange phenomenon persisted here: some households had large pastures but few laborers, leaving them unable to tend to their livestock; while others had small pastures but many laborers, and their sheep - even when "scrambling for resources" - never had enough to eat.

Affected by this unequal distribution of resources, neighbors often fell out over pastureland in the past.

The Konjo County Bureau of Agriculture and Science and the Party committee and government were quick to identify this problem and stepped forward as "middlemen." Rather than resorting to administrative orders, they convened meetings with villagers to jointly verify pastureland ownership. The township and villages served as a bridge, introducing a "paid livestock fostering" model - households with larger pastures foster livestock for those with smaller pastures, with payment made according to agreement.

The cadres laid out three accounts for the villagers: the ecological - if pastures degrade, what will future generations eat? The economic - herding as individual households means livestock fetch poor prices; and the long-term - by pooling pastures and centralizing fostering, there will be dividends year after year. Gradually, the herders came around, moving from "mutual isolation" toward "resource sharing."

Following this mobilization, a total of 250 households participated in the fostering model, signing 232 fostering agreements. The results were tangible: the total number of livestock across the township remained stable with a slight increase, but the number of households practicing overgrazing dropped from 39 to 17. The pressure on pastures eased, and the grasslands grew greener day by day. Baden, a herder in Awang Township, used to struggle to manage over a hundred sheep on his own. Now he entrusts some of his sheep to a neighbor for fostering, paying a fostering fee, and his own pasture has been given room to recover. In addition, Zhang who had plenty of labor but lacked pastureland fostered others' sheep, expanded his breeding scale, and doubled his income.

Besides, the distribution of grassland subsidy funds in Awang Town used to lack transparency, causing discontent among residents. Nowthe town made a firm resolution: all pastureland verification and allocation plans were laid out on the table for villagers to decide.

Cadres then verified household by household, allocating idle or underutilized pastures to herders in need. As a result, the number of households in the town receiving grassland subsidies increased from 311 to 507, achieving 100% coverage. In 2026, the town is expected to receive 4.97 million yuan (RMB) in subsidies, an increase of 1.795 million yuan over 2025.

What is even more convincing is that the town gave special consideration to households that had been lifted out of poverty and those facing difficulties, tilting subsidy calculations in their favor to prevent them from falling back into poverty due to a lack of pastureland. As a result, petitioning issues caused by pastureland disputes over the years have been virtually eliminated.

"Awang Town' s practice shows that ecological protection must not come at the expense of herders' interests, nor can herders' income growth be achieved at the cost of ecological damage. Government-driven mandates are less effective than genuine public participation - letting resources flow fairly and enabling interests to be shared through mutual assistance," said Wu Song, Party Secretary and Deputy Director of the Konjo County Bureau of Agriculture, Rural Affairs and Science and Technology.

Today, Konjo County is preparing to promote Awang Town' experience across the entire county. Herders on the plateau are safeguarding the ecological barrier at the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in their own way, while paving their own path to moderate prosperity.

Reporters: Phuntsok Namgyal

Translator: Zheng Yujie

First Reviewer: Zhi Xinghua

Second Reviewer: Drakpa Wangchen

Third Reviewer: Hu Rongguo