Innovation of grassland ecological governance systems: Synergy between government regulation and grassroots governance

Abstract

Previous studies have revealed that grassroots governance has played active roles in protecting grassland ecology, however, the synergistic relationship between government regulation and grassroots governance in regulating herders' overgrazing behavior has been overlooked. Our study addresses this research gap using the fixed effects model based on a panel dataset of 711 herder households in pastoral areas of China. The findings show that the grassroots governance measures, i.e. informal institutions and punishment, can reduce overgrazing by 32.8% and 35.5%, respectively. Regarding government regulation measures, grazing monitoring by higher-level governments reduces overgrazing, in contrast to the positive effect of hiring grassland managers. We also find that grazing monitoring from higher-level governments weakens the inhibitory effect of grassroots informal institutions and punishment on herders' overgrazing; grassroots informal institutions attenuate the positive effect of hiring grassland managers on overgrazing. Hence, this study suggests that the government should be more attentive toward the coordinated development of government regulation and grassroots governance rather than dealing separately with the two.