Does grazing exclusion enhance grassland restoration? evidence from northern China

Abstract

Grazing exclusion programs have been widely implemented worldwide for decades to address the negative impacts of overgrazing and promote grassland restoration. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of understanding of the causal links between grazing exclusion and grassland restoration. To explore these interactions in greater detail, we examined a large-scale georeferenced dataset focusing on a grazing exclusion program implemented in North China. The main analysis in the study showed that grazing exclusion significantly increased grassland area while having no significant effect on the improvement in grassland quality, measured by average net primary productivity (ANPP) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Our analysis also showed the heterogeneous effect of grazing exclusion on grassland restoration in regions with varying initial grassland conditions and levels of local economic development. In particular, our study suggests that grazing exclusion should first be promoted in regions with high levels of income, and we suggest to pay more attention to newly restored grassland and select proper post-restoration management. Finally, we provide new evidence of the importance of moderately increasing ecological compensation.