Top-Down Implementation and Fragmented Bureaucracy: An Analysis of the Livestock Waste Prevention Regulation in China

Abstract

Livestock and poultry raising is the largest source of agricultural non-point source pollution and an essential aspect of environmental governance. To resolve the issue, China has introduced a series of policies to promote the recycling of livestock and poultry excrement since 2014. This study uses data from government documents, policy papers, and official husbandry statistics to understand the effects and policy implications of husbandry waste regulations from 2014 to 2019. We examined the planning and implementation guidelines of husbandry waste control programs and supplemented the archival data with 29 in-depth interviews with local environmental protection officers as well as husbandry operators in five provinces from 2015 to 2018. Our findings indicate that the new regulatory regime has three fundamental issues: First, the inconsistency between national and ministerial policy goals; Second, the binding targets of these policies create unforeseen consequences in their implementation, which has hindered the establishment of a national resource recycling system; Third, the regulations provide few incentives to promote the development of sustainable husbandry industry.