Grassland ecological compensation policy in China improves grassland quality and increases herders’ income

Abstract

Many countries have undertaken large and high-profile payment-for-ecosystem-services (PES) programs to sustain the use of their natural resources. Nevertheless, few studies have comprehensively examined the impacts of existing PES programs. Grassland Ecological Compensation Policy (GECP) is one of the few pastorally focused PES programs with large investments and long duration, which aim to improve grassland quality and increase herder income. Here we present empirical evidence of the effects of GECP on grassland quality and herder income. Through a thorough and in-depth econometric analysis of remote sensing and household survey data, we find that, although GECP improves grassland quality (albeit to only a small extent) and has a large positive effect on income, it exacerbates existing income inequality among herders within their local communities. The analysis demonstrates that the program has induced herders to change their livestock production behavior. Heterogeneity analysis emphasizes the importance of making sure the programs are flexible and are adapted to local resource circumstances.

Evolution Characters and Influencing Factors of Regional Eco-Efficiency in a Developing Country: Evidence from Mongolia

“…In the further, the western region of Mongolia should pay more attention to sustainable development and reference the green development model from Northwestern China, where there are also developing regions with fragile ecological environments [83]. The government of Mongolia can support tourism [84] and new energy industries [85] and implement a grassland ecological compensation policy [86] to achieve sustainable goals on economic growth and ecological environment protection.…”

Perceptive Factors That Affect Household Food Consumption Among Different Grassland Areas: A Case Study Based on Fuzzy Cognitive Map

“…Thus, they have an incentive to expand the family breeding scale, which would lead to overgrazing in the grassland areas. However, overgrazing is one of the most severe causes of grassland degradation (Liu et al, 2018;Hou et al, 2021). Therefore, understanding the relationship between food consumption and the ecosystem is the basis for us to pursue sustainable development goals.…”

“…However, under socioeconomic development, a progressively increasing population and resultant consumption requirements cause more acute contradictions and clashes between human activities and local ecosystems, challenging regional development, particularly in grassland areas (Cao et al, 2010;Barthold et al, 2013). Meanwhile, the conservation and governance of grassland was proved to be usually extremely complex around the world, which strongly needs the coordination of different stakeholders (Manolache et al, 2020;Hou et al, 2021).…”

Ecological Response of the Subsidy and Incentive System for Grassland Conservation in China

“…Nevertheless, few countries have created payment-for-ecosystem-services programs for protecting their grasslands on a large scale. From the viewpoints of area scale and total monetary transfers, the SISGC is considered as the world's largest grassland conservation program [20,21]. The first phase involved a cumulative investment of over 10 billion US dollars from the Chinese central government to eight major grassland regions, including Inner Mongolia.…”