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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2021, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (6): 40-53.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2020236

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Effect of social capital on herders’ willingness to participate in grassland ecological governance——A case study of the Yellow River catchment area in Gannan autonomous prefecture

Qiang-qiang CHEN1,2(), Wen-juan CHEN3, Ya-fei MA1, Jie-yu YANG1, Qing YANG1   

  1. 1.College of Finance and Economics,Gansu Agricultural University,Lanzhou 730070,China
    2.Gansu Research Center for Ecological Construction and Environmental Protection,Lanzhou 730070,China
    3.College of Science,Gansu Agricultural University,Lanzhou 730070,China
  • Received:2020-05-26 Revised:2020-07-29 Online:2021-05-21 Published:2021-05-21

Abstract:

The Yellow River catchment in Gannan Autonomous Prefecture is a typical ecologically fragile area, and its ecological security has important strategic significance for the Yellow River Basin and even the whole of China. Active participation and effective supervision are fundamental factors for rangeland ecological protection. In this study, the double-hurdle model and 188 survey datasets derived from herders were used to analyze the effect of social capital on herders’ participation in rangeland ecological governance of the Yellow River catchment in Gannan Autonomous Prefecture. The main findings were that: 1) Herders showed high willingness to participate in rangeland ecological governance, with a ratio of 88.3%. However, due to the ‘free riding’ mentality, there was little motivation to convert this willingness into actual behavior, and the amount that herders were willing to pay for rangeland ecological governance was only 233.25-272.36 CNY·yr-1·household-1. 2) The communication between cadres and the masses had a negative effect (P<0.10) on the willingness of herders to participate in rangeland ecological governance. Trust among herders not only positively affected their willingness to participate (average marginal effect of 0.039) but also benefited the formation of uniform collective governance behavior. Informal social standards actively guided herders’ willingness to participate (average marginal effect of 0.069). In addition, limited by their resource-dependent livelihood, older herders and family decision makers were more willing to participate than were other categories of herders (average marginal effect of 0.036 and 0.084, respectively). The communication among herdsmen positively affected their willingness to pay. 3) Party membership had significant positive effects on herders’ willingness to participate in, and pay for rangeland ecological governance. Annual family income had a significant positive impact on willingness to pay for, but not on willingness to participate. Finally, some policy recommendations are proposed to enhance herders’ willingness to participate in grassland ecological governance, including the development of a grassland ecological civilization value system, the construction of an information network sharing platform for herders, encouraging pastoral party membership and strengthening its role, and broadening the channels of herders’ livelihood and income.

Key words: social capital, grassland ecological governance, participation willingness, payment willingness, double-hurdle model, Gannan Prefecture