Study On The Willingness Of Herders To Participate In The Balance Of Forage-livestock In The Community Level And Its Influencing Factors

Grassland management and protection are not only related to grassland ecological environment,but also closely related to herders’income.Along with the change of production and life style in pastoral areas,grassland management and protection face new challenges,and the top-down promotion of forage-livestock balance in the past lacks sustainability.The advantage of community governance lies in incorporating various relationships between herders and the collective into the scope of governance.Herders are the main body constituting the community,and herders’willingness reflects herders’realistic needs,so it is important to grasp and understand herders’willingness to participate in community forage-livestock balance.In this study,from 2021 to 2022,12 communities were investigated in pastoralist-oriented townships in Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County,Gansu Province,divided into three groups according to the characteristics of forage production and processing area,forage-livestock conversion and grass-product production area,and forage-livestock conversion and forage-livestock balancing area,and selected the townships of Zhuaxixiulong,Dongdatan,and Songshan,using the field questionnaire interview method,and finally obtaining 235 valid questionnaires at household level and 12 questionnaires at village level.Based on the research data,descriptive statistical analysis method,comparative analysis method and dichotomous logistic regression model were used for empirical analysis to investigate the willingness of herders to participate in community forage-livestock balance and the influencing factors,in order to provide theoretical reference for grassland community governance practice.The following main results were obtained:(1)The difficulty of achieving forage-livestock balance at the research community level is less than that at the herding household level.58.1%of the respondents in the 235 samples were over 50 years old,their education level was mainly at junior high school and below,80%of the herders indicated that their self-health was good,and 71.7%of the herding households had≤2 persons in the household labor force.The largest area of natural grass is 11,300 hm~2in Daiqian community,the smallest area of natural grass is 262.64 hm~2in Hualang,and the largest area of artificial grass is 333.33 hm~2in Shangquanwan,and the smallest is43.68 hm~2in Hualang community.artificial forage cultivation is mainly oats,and purchased forage is mainly corn straw and corn seed kernels.The percentage of herding households in the research area that have achieved forage-livestock balance is 47.7%,and the percentage of communities that have achieved forage-livestock balance is 75.0%.(2)The research community forage-livestock balance governance has a certain mass base and institutional guarantee.Among the 235 samples,84.7%of herders said they were willing to participate in community forage-livestock balance,66.0%of herders believed that community governance had a safeguarding effect on grassland ecology,54.9%of herders thought community governance was income secure,and herders had high recognition of community forage-livestock balance.91.5%of herders said they abided by village rules and regulations,91.9%said village representatives were elected through democratic discussions,and 98.3%said village representatives were democratically elected.91.9%of herders said that they would discuss village matters through meetings,and 98.3%of herders said that village representatives were democratically elected,indicating that the democratic rights and interests of herders in the surveyed communities are fully protected,and herders have better channels for communication and expression of demands.The differences in grassland management in the surveyed communities are mainly attributed to the different definitions of property rights in the grassland between communities,the simpler process of boundary rights and lower flow costs for grazing quotas compared to fencing to households,and the possibility of grazing quotas to allow herders to actively participate in the negotiation and discussion of community rules and regulations as well as to achieve organic unity between collective and individual actions within the community.(3)Among the factors affecting herders’willingness to participate in community forage-livestock balance,the six variables of"literacy","pasture area","farming and herding labor","pastoral training","social norms"and"personal ecological perception"have statistical significance on herders’willingness to participate in community forage-livestock balance.Among them,"literacy","pastoral training","social norms"and"personal ecological perception"positively affect herders’willingness to participate in community forage-livestock balance,while"pasture area"and"farming and herding labor"negatively affect herders’willingness to participate.Based on the above results,the following recommendations are made:firstly,vigorously develop local forage and livestock industries to increase herders’income;secondly,take multiple measures to improve the comprehensive quality of herders and accelerate the cultivation of local grassland management and protection talents;thirdly,strengthen community governance capacity building and attach importance to the leading role of communities;fourthly,increase policy support to empower and increase the effectiveness of community governance,consolidate ecological construction achievements,and help rural revitalization and sustainable development of forage and livestock industries.