Pastoral household natural resource dependence and contributions of grassland to livelihoods: A case study from the Tibetan Plateau in China

Abstract

Although the utilization of natural resources by traditional pastoral households has a certain impact on ecosystems in arid and semiarid areas, this utilization can meet diversified livelihood needs. Assessing the dependence of communities and households on natural resources helps improve the awareness of ecosystems and develop strategies for sustainable grassland management. Taking Sunan Yugur Autonomous County on the Tibetan Plateau, China, as a case study, this paper chose three communities based on different natural resource utilization methods (a grazing community, mixed-feeding communities, and stall-feeding communities), evaluated their natural resource dependence using a dataset containing 163 questionnaires, and used the Tobit model to explore the main factors affecting the level of natural resource dependence. The preliminary results indicated that pastoral households had a relatively high level of natural resource dependence (0.44) compared with other ecosystems analyzed in a previous study, and the main purpose of depending on natural resources was to meet income needs. Pastoral household natural resource dependence in grazing communities was the highest, along with the increase in their large-scale livestock numbers. Natural resource dependence decreased along with the increase in income diversification, and the implementation of grassland ecological compensation policies in mixed-feeding communities and stall-feeding communities had a positive impact on changing traditional livelihoods at the cost of natural resource losses. Grassland ecological compensation policies have played a certain role in promoting the restoration of vegetation; however, the natural resource utilization efficiency was relatively low, especially in stall-feeding communities. Therefore, improving feeding technology is recommended to promote effective resource utilization. At the same time, in addition to subsidies for pastoral households, the study suggests that sustainable grassland management policies can be improved by promoting nonagricultural employment, strengthening education, and increasing infrastructure construction.