Policy Cognition, Household Income and Farmers’ Satisfaction: Evidence from a Wetland Ecological Compensation Project in the Poyang Lake Area at the Micro Level

Abstract

The paper follows a field survey of 773 rural households in 14 towns in five prefectures (cities and districts) around the Poyang Lake, and uses a multivariate ordered logistic model to explore the factors influencing satisfaction with wetland ecological compensation policies (WECPs) from the perspective of rural households’ subjective cognition of WECPs and income factors. The research shows the following. (1) the overall score for satisfaction of farmers with WECPs is 3.56, which indicates satisfaction between “fair” and “fairly satisfied,” and there is room for policy optimization. (2) The subjective cognition of policies and the income-related factors have significant impacts on the satisfaction of farmers with WECPs. Among them, cognition of policy objectives, evaluation of compensation rates, timely distribution of compensations, government supervision, changes in household incomes and importance of compensation on households all have significant positive influences on policy satisfaction. (3) The degree of education, the proportion of household labor forces and the proportion of household non-agricultural incomes have a significant positive impact on the policy satisfaction of farmers. Therefore, in future policy implementation, we should strengthen publicity and guidance of the policy, raise compensation rates appropriately, strengthen government supervision, pay attention to rural livelihood, and establish an ecological compensation mechanism featuring fairness and long-term effectiveness.