Evaluation On The Implementation Effect Of The Grassland Ecological Protection Subsidy And Reward Policy In The Yellow River Source Area

In order to prevent overgrazing and curb grassland degradation,the grassland ecological protection subsidy and reward policy(GEPSRP)was implemented in China in the main pastoral areas in 2011.Because the ecological status of the Yellow River source area is very important,and the contradiction between grassland protection and the livelihood improvement of herdsmen is more prominent,the implementation of GEPSRP has a more significant impact on the sustainable development of the Yellow River source area and the national ecological security.The evaluation of the implementation effect of GEPSRP is the key to find out the existing problems and further improve the GEPSRP.At present,there is a lack of systematic evaluation on the combination of economy and ecology and based on GEPSRP's logic of ‘achieving the goal of protecting and restoring grassland ecology through reducing livestock'.Therefore,this study takes the Yellow River source area as the research area.Based on the policy logic of GEPSRP,the study firstly empirically analyzes the effect of GEPSRP on livestock reduction based on the survey data of farmers.Secondly,the theoretical compensation standard and the minimum scale of breeding are estimated,so as to clarify the causes of the livestock reduction effect.Then,based on the remote sensing data of grassland,the ecological changes of grassland after the implementation of GEPSRP were analyzed from three indicators: the change rate of greenness(GRC),comprehensive vegetation coverage(CVC)and net primary productivity(NPP).Finally,the contribution of climate and policy factors to grassland ecological changes after the implementation of GEPSRP was separated.Based on the above research,this study have the following conclusions:(1)The overall effect of livestock reduction of GEPSRP is limited,and there are differences in the livestock reduction effect between the grass-animal balance area and the no-grazing area.The estimated coefficient of the total bonus of the policy variable was 0.0034,which did not pass the significance test.GEPSRP did not significantly reduce the year-end inventory of livestock of the herdsmen,and the overall effect of livestock reduction was limited.In the grass-animal balance area,if other conditions remain unchanged,every 1000 yuan will increase in the total bonus,the year-end inventory of livestock of the herdsmen increased by 4.42%,significant at 1% level;in the no-grazing area,although GEPSRP reduced the year-end inventory of livestock of the herdsmen,but not statistically significant.(2)The direct reason for the limited effect of reducing livestock of GEPSRP is that the existing compensation standard is low,and the fundamental reason is that the ecological farming scale specified by GEPSRP cannot maintain the long-term livelihood of the herdsmen.In the no-grazing area,the existing no-grazing compensation standard for Zeku,Gande,Dari,and Chengduo is lower than the theoretical no-grazing compensation standard by 38.74 yuan/mu,22.65 yuan/mu,55.79 yuan/mu and 8.82 yuan/mu respectively;the minimum breeding scale is higher than the scale of ecological farming by 304.1 sheep units,294.3 sheep units,103 sheep units,and 300.7 sheep units respectively.In the grass-animal balance area,the existing grassanimal compensation standard of these counties is lower than the theoretical grassanimal compensation standard by 117.15 yuan/mu,40.33 yuan/mu,54.54 yuan/mu and 10.97 yuan/mu respectively;the minimum breeding scale of these counties is higher than the scale of ecological farming by 190.2 sheep units,237.2 sheep units,33.4 sheep units,and 35.5 sheep units respectively.After the strict implementation of the policy,the existing compensation standards can not make up for the opportunity cost of livestock reduction in short-term,and the scale of ecological farming stipulated by GEPSRP cannot maintain the livelihood of the herds in long-term.(3)The ecological effects of GEPSRP are limited,failing to change the overall deterioration of net primary productivity,carbon sequestration capacity and soil and water conservation capacity of grassland in the Yellow River source area,but it is a key measure to protect and restore grassland ecology.The average NPP of grassland in Zeku,Gande,Dari and Chengduo decreased by 11.73%,16.11%,15.56% and 19.62% respectively compared with before the implementation of the policy due to climate factors;the average NPP of grassland in these counties increased by 10.95%,10.98%,11.06% and 16.82% respectively due to the implementation of GEPSRP.However,the implementation of GEPSRP still failed to curb the overall trend of decreasing NPP of grassland and the average NPP of these counties has decreased by 0.78%,5.13%,4.5%,and 2.8% respectively,which was mainly caused by the weak implementation of GEPSRP.In addition,the impact of climate on grassland NPP is almost unanimously,and the impact of human activities on grassland NPP is quite different,which proves that implementing GEPSRP is a key measure to protect and restore grassland ecological environment.In order to improve GEPSRP in the Yellow River source area and its implementation effect,this study puts forward the following suggestions based on the above conclusions:(1)Raising the grassland ecological compensation standard to compensate the herdsmen for reducing livestock losses.Due to the large difference in opportunity cost of livestock husbandry in different regions.Some factors should be comprehensively considered when new grassland ecological compensation standards are formulated,such as grassland productivity,livestock price,herd structure,natural disasters,and climatic conditions.(2)Strengthen the supervision of GEPSRP.The weak supervision of GEPSRP is also an important reason for restricting the implementation of the policy.In order to change the weak supervision of the grassland ecological supplement policy,we should formulate substantive punishment measures and strictly enforce them to prevent farmers from defaulting.Then we should increase the wages of grassland supervisors and expand the grassland supervision team.Finally,we should innovate the means of supervision and apply satellite remote sensing technology,drone and wireless monitoring equipment to the grassland supervision.