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Forage-livestock balance is important for sustainable management of alpine grasslands under global change, but the robustness of diverse algorithms for assessing forage-livestock balance is still unclear. This study compiled long-term (2009–2014) field observations of aboveground biomass (AGB). Using climate and remote sensing data, we evaluated the inter-annual dynamics of the forage-livestock balance on the Northern Tibetan Plateau (NTP). Here, we assumed that AGB dynamics in fenced grasslands (AGB_F) is only driven by climate change; whereas AGB dynamics in open grasslands grazed by livestock (AGB_G) is driven by a combination of climate change and human activities. Thus, human-induced change in AGB (AGB_H) could be estimated via the difference between AGB_F and AGB_G. Furthermore, differences in the temporal trends between AGB_F and AGB_H could indicate the state of forage-livestock …