Effects of Enclosure on Grassland Ecological and Economic Benefits in Northern China

Grasslands in northern China serve the country as both an ecological barrier and a livestock production base. There, installing enclosures has been becoming the major grassland restoration measure adopted by many local governments. However, the effects of restoration on both ecological and production benefits of grassland remain unclear for implemented grassland restoration policies. Therefore, a representative rangeland in northern China, the Maodeng pasture in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was selected as the study area, and remote sensing monitoring analyses were carried out to quantify the ecological benefits and economic benefits from 2015 to 2021. The results showed that: 1) in terms of ecological benefits, the grassland area with a grassland coverage rate of more than 60% accounts for 32.3% of the regional area, and 86.4% of its grassland grew significantly better than the same period in 2015, showing a significant improvement in grassland growth. Using the average amount of carbon per unit area as the ecological benefit evaluation index, it increased by 27.1% to 32.48Tg C/yr from 2015 to 2021. 2) In terms of economic benefits, both theoretical grass production and livestock carrying capacity increased from 2015 to 2021. Compared to 2015, the theoretical grass production in 2021 increased by 24.8% to 71 900 t. The livestock carrying capacity reached 52 100 sheep units in 2021, nearly 11 000 sheep units more than that in 2015. During the study period, multiple economic indicators (on a per capita basis of permanent residents) for the pastoral area of Xilin Hot City to which the Maodeng pasture belongs, have grown steadily. Per capita total income rose from 29 630 yuan (RMB) in 2015 to 62 859 yuan (RMB) in 2021. Relying on grassland resources to develop the pastoral ecology also broadens the potential economic development space. Overall, the establishment of the reserve and the experiment of implanting an enclosure policy have had a significant and positive impact on Maodeng pasture’s development from both an ecological and economic perspective. With the support of scientific evidence, enclosure policy can be extended to more than 110 000 km² of grasslands in northern China with similar precipitation and temperature conditions, enhancing the productive and ecological potential of grasslands. The above research results will contribute to the scientific formulation of grassland pasture quality improvement plans in northern China.