Study on the Timely Adjustment of the Grazing Prohibition Policy: Ban or Lift? Empirical Research from Local Government Managers

Lihua Zhou,Ya Wang,Guojing Yang

doi:10.3390/su10124852

Abstract

As national policy implementers and regional development planners, local government managers have a clearer, more objective and comprehensive understanding of ecological changes than herdsmen. Thus, they have a significant impact on the sustainable development of grassland resources and agricultural and pastoral areas. In this paper, grassland ecological change and related factors in different stages were investigated by means of questionnaires and structured interviews, and the adjustment strategies of grazing prohibition policy were studied. The perception of local government managers was that there was an improvement in grassland ecology, coverage, quality, yield, and in species richness in the early grazing prohibition period. There was, furthermore, an obvious improvement in the intermediate stage and a significant improvement with some degradation in its current stage. The grazing prohibition policy urgently needs to be adjusted according to the management pattern and to the limited time and space. It is necessary to improve the standard of ecological compensation and bolster herdsmen livelihoods, diversification, and non-agriculturalization. Based on the non-equilibrium theory and polycentric governance, the multi-central grassland governance and control system should be created in future.

Highlights

The agro-pastoral ecotone in northern China is a unique geographical unit
The grazing prohibition policy (GPP) effectively improved the ecology of Yanchi County, and the trend of desertification reversal was very obvious, except for some grasslands in the northern desert
43.75% of the LGMs preferred the view that the grassland ecology had a slight improvement before the GPP (Figure 4a)

Summary

Introduction

The agro-pastoral ecotone in northern China is a unique geographical unit It is an ecological transition and blending zone between eastern agricultural areas and western grassland pastures [1,2]. From the late 1950s to the end of the 1990s, there had been a series of ecological problems, such as land desertification, soil erosion, and sandstorms [2], due to the natural ecological vulnerability (drought, wind, freezing, snow) and irrational human activities (grassland cultivating and overgrazing) in historical periods. This situation has affected the development of the local socio-economies, and even seriously threatened the eastern agricultural regions and national ecological security

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion