Abstract: It is essential that local knowledge is incorporated into decision making and policy analysis and formulation through the collection of information about land use strategies and their affecting factors at household level. In particular, policy decision of local land use often plays a critical role in land cover change and also in mitigating land degradation and promoting sustainable development in dryland regions. Our survey was carried out to understand the response of local land management for changing policies. Specifically, our questionnaire was designed to assess the response to the grazing prohibition policy and its effects on land use measures. The results suggested that: ① Households took the different land use measures in response to policy changes; ② Policy factors affected strongly the vegetation recovery because it restricted certain land use practices of farmers and herdsmen; ③ The age structure of households affected the land use decision, and the decision of young families was more active than that of senior families. Different land use types and environmental conditions of households should be considered when a land use policy is formulated. Furthermore, the improvement and management of natural resources and artificial rangelands should be subsidized, and the techniques of feeding sheep in pens should be provided to farmers and herdsmen.