Socioeconomic outcomes of ecological restoration projects and parallel policies: A case‐study of the agro‐pastoral ecotone in northern China

Abstract

AbstractClarifying the socioeconomic processes and outcomes of ecological restoration projects (ERPs) is important to the ERP's effectiveness or performance. In addition, ERPs are often carried out in parallel with other policies and may have complex and integrated impacts on social‐ecological systems. However, few studies have included the impact of such parallel policies in their analysis. Here, the agro‐pastoral ecotone in northern China, which contains several national ERPs and grass‐based livestock husbandry promotion policies, was used to analyze the socioeconomic outcomes in the context of multi‐policies. Specifically, we developed a framework to integrate linkages between multiple ecosystem management policies, livelihood assets, activities, and socioeconomic outcomes and used a structural equation model to distinguish the contributions and pathways of multi‐policies to socioeconomic outcomes. Thus, our framework follows the cascading effects of multi‐policies from the perspective of rural livelihoods while highlighting the diverse socioeconomic impacts. The results showed that grass‐based livestock husbandry and the local economy had a more significant impact on rural income compared to ERPs. However, it is worth noting that the agricultural structure has also changed with the development of grass‐based livestock husbandry, which may have a negative feedback effect on the ERP effectiveness. In other words, complementarity and offsetting can occur between ERPs and parallel policies. Our study contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the social‐ecological processes and outcomes, thereby providing new methods and insights for future scientific policymaking.