The effect of grassland transfer on herders' livestock production and grazing intensity in Inner Mongolia and Gansu, China

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand the impact mechanism of grassland transfer on herders' production behaviour in pastoral areas. The impact of grassland transfer on herders' livestock production and grazing intensity is quantified.Design/methodology/approach Using the survey data collected for 356 herder households from Inner Mongolia and Gansu, China, quantile regression is employed to assess the heterogeneous effects of grassland transfer on livestock production and grazing intensity. To correct the potential self-selection bias of grassland transfer, the propensity score matching technique is used.Findings Results show that labour, percentage of livestock income and livestock stock are the main factors affecting herders' choice to transfer grassland. The positive effect of grassland transfer on livestock numbers on behalf of those who rented additional grassland is statistically significant but declines with livestock numbers. The sustainability-enhancing effect of grassland transfer on grazing intensity is significant, and the effect becomes larger amongst herder households with higher grazing intensity. The analysis on the impact mechanism shows that grassland transfer significantly promotes the adoption of sustainable grazing modes, such as rotational and seasonal rest grazing, which in turn increases herders' livestock numbers and decreases grazing intensity.Originality/value Few studies have empirically analysed the influence of grassland transfer on livestock numbers and grazing intensity. This study fills this gap by employing a quantile regression to assess the heterogeneous effects of grassland transfer on livestock numbers and grazing intensity, while accounting for self-selection bias. In addition, the authors have examined the influencing mechanisms under which grassland transfer impacts on livestock numbers and grazing intensity.

Research Progress on the Theory and Practice of Grassland Eco-Compensation in China

“…As for the response process of herder households, there are very few related studies. Some scholars found that when many herder households in pilot areas received compensation and did not reduce livestock as required, they often attributed the reason to the lack of a supervision system [64,65]. We agree that strong supervision will certainly help herder households to reduce livestock and improve compensation efficiency.…”

“…However, such compensation's effect is always inefficient, because it is difficult for herder households to spontaneously change the current production status without the support of training, supervision, equipment, etc. [64,65]. Industrial compensation is currently in the exploratory stage, and its purpose is to help herder households get rid of their dependence on traditional livestock husbandry.…”

“…Many households in the pilot areas have a long-term dependence on traditional livestock husbandry. Therefore, compared with the change in income, the current effect of reducing livestock is not obvious [64,65,80]. Finally, the satisfaction degree of the households to grassland eco-compensation varies in different regions.…”

Temporal–spatial variability of grazing behaviors of yaks and the drivers of their intake on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

“…It is well known that plant communities are often found to have a mosaic distribution at different spatial scales ( 58 ). Even at a small local scale, the composition and biomass of palatable pasture may differ due to the effects of soil water content ( 54 ), grazing intensity ( 57 , 59 ) and animal excrement ( 60 ). In fact, temporal variability in livestock behaviors has been reported in some previous studies.…”

A Study of Livelihood Transformation Strategies for Digitally Driven Pastoralists’ Ecological Perceptions

“…(1)Herders acquire relevant grassland ecological knowledge through mobile phone media multi-communication channels (WeChat, public numbers, TikTok, etc. ), which broadens the individual's ecological cognitive horizons from the acquaintance community to the vast network society, constantly refreshes herders' understanding and desire for grassland ecosystems, improves the perception of the risks faced due to ecological damage, strengthens the ability to take action for ecological protection, and reduces the perceptual chances and inaccuracies, which are a critical subconscious dominant factor in increasing predictable behavior for livelihood transformation; (2) The increasing improvement of informatization facilities in pastoral areas has simplified and broadened the difficulty and channels of obtaining information, weakened the cost of getting ecological knowledge, improved the accuracy of the information received, reversed the asymmetry and incompleteness of information dissemination among herder groups, and to a certain extent enhanced the herders' awareness of ecological protection. Consequently, the enhancement of herders' ecological cognition pertaining to harmonious practices contributes to their perception of the extent of grassland degradation, comprehension of the grassland ecological subsidy policy, and confidence in grassland ecological protection.…”