Grassland Ecological Compensation, Income Level and Policy Satisfaction: An Empirical Analysis Based on a Survey of Herders in Ecological Protection Redline Areas

Abstract

In the past 10 years, the implementation of grassland ecological compensation policy has played an important role in the sustainable development of the pastoral economy. How much impact on herders will delineating the ecological conservation redline have? Such delineation is significant for the smooth implementation of the ecological conservation redline. Based on this, taking the three banner counties with a large area under the control area of the ecological redline of the Xilin Gol as examples, OLS and quantile regression were used to analyze the impact of a grassland ecological compensation policy on herdsmen’s income level, and the ordered Probit model was used to analyze the influencing factors of herdsmen’s satisfaction with the policy. The results show that: (1) grassland ecological compensation has a significant positive impact on low-income herders in ecological protection redline areas; (2) grassland ecological compensation, income and the implementation of current policy have a positive impact on the satisfaction of herders in the redline area; (3) herdsmen are highly satisfied with the grassland ecological compensation policy, but there is still a lot of room for improvement in the compensation policy after the redline is delineated. In this regard, we should increase compensation for areas with a high proportion of ecological conservation redlines, and explore ways to increase income from animal husbandry products. At the same time, we should strengthen the publicity of ecological protection redline policies and promote the timely disbursement of funds, reconstruct the grassland ecological compensation mechanism by strengthening policy incentives and hardening regulatory constraints, and effectively improve the policy efficiency of ecological protection redlines.

Determinants of Herders’ Satisfaction with the Grassland Ecosystem Compensation Policy: A Case Study of Gansu Province, China

“…These studies have unveiled differences in overall satisfaction, with herders in the Western Desert Region displaying higher satisfaction levels due to diversified income sources and reduced reliance on animal husbandry. The size of households and herders' comprehension of the policy have been identified as crucial determinants of herders' policy satisfaction in all regions [48,49]. Although extensive research has been conducted on satisfaction and its influencing factors regarding implementing the GECP, all these studies are based on regions with the same subsidy standards and various ecological functional zones.…”

“…In the model used to analyze policy satisfaction factors, this study considered various independent variables based on the literature on the GECP in northern China [12,29,31,49] and the socio-economic characteristics of farmers and herders in the study area. These independent variables included individual basic characteristics, family characteristics, cognitive characteristics, and regional characteristics of herders.…”

“…Willingness to move to an urban area (X 12 ): Willingness to relocate to urban areas may have a negative impact on satisfaction with the implementation effects of the GECP. Given that livestock rearing constitutes the primary livelihood of herder households, implementing the GECP can compel unskilled herders to seek new livelihoods in urban areas, thereby increasing the burden on herder households [49].…”

Evaluation of Urban Ecological Security and Measurement of Urban Ecological Resilience

“…Current studies on ECR effects on ecological conservation mostly focus on qualitative analysis, and their perspectives and methods are limited (Hou et al, 2018;Zeng, 2021;Yue et al, 2022). Studies have been conducted to evaluate the ecological benefit, environmental impact, human disturbance activity, and ecological security patterns by constructing indicator systems, calculating ecosystem service values, landscape pattern index, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) (Bailey et al, 2021;Bai et al, 2018;Yang and Qiao, 2023); and to assess the ecosystem value, carbon sequestration function, water conservation, soil conservation and biodiversity, and ecosystem health after ECR delineation (Jia et al, 2018;Nelson et al, 2009;. However, studies comparing habitat changes inside and outside the ECR and before and after ECR delineation remain lacking.…”

Analysis on the effects of ecological conservation redline policies in the Pearl River Delta area, China

“…Current studies on ECR effects on ecological conservation mostly focus on qualitative analysis, and their perspectives and methods are limited (Hou et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2021;Yang and Xie, 2021;Zeng, 2021;Yue et al, 2022). Studies have been conducted to evaluate the ecological benefit, environmental impact, human disturbance activity, and ecological security patterns by constructing indicator systems, calculating ecosystem service values, landscape pattern index, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) (Bailey et al, 2021;Bai et al, 2018;Chen et al, 2021;Yang and Xie, 2021;Yang and Qiao, 2023); and to assess the ecosystem value, carbon sequestration function, water conservation, soil conservation and biodiversity, and ecosystem health after ECR delineation (Jia et al, 2018;Yu et al, 2020;Nelson et al, 2009;Jiang and Wu, 2021;Zheng et al, 2022). However, studies comparing habitat changes inside and outside the ECR and before and after ECR delineation remain lacking.…”