Satisfaction of herdsmen with the Grassland Ecological compensation policy and its influencing factors in typical pastoral areas of Qilian Mountains

Abstract

Research on grassland ecological compensation is highly significant for promoting grassland ecosystem protection and realizing sustainable development of regional animal husbandry. Herdsmen's satisfaction with the grassland ecological compensation policy has, to a certain extent, improved the compensation policy and performance. A total of 197 herdsmen were selected from three typical pastoral areas in the Qilian Mountains: Maozang Township, Huangcheng Town, and Yeniugou Township. Combined with questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews, an ordered logistic model was constructed to analyze the influence of relevant factors on satisfaction. The results indicate that 45.1% of the surveyed herdsmen are “relatively satisfied” and “very satisfied” with the compensation policy. Actual inventory, changes in household income, and their agreement to ecological migration have significantly negative impacts on the satisfaction of the surveyed herdsmen, while gender, age, contracted grassland area, and changes in employability indicate no significant impact. To effectively implement the grassland policy and improve the livelihood of herdsmen, it is necessary to accelerate the perfection of the mechanism design of the grassland ecological compensation policy and formulate differentiated grassland ecological compensation standards.