Can grassland rental achieve a win-win situation between livestock production and grassland ecological conservation? Evidence from pastoral areas in Northern China

Achieving coordination between grassland ecological conservation and livestock production is a global concern. Based on the survey data for 818 herders in China, we empirically analyzed grassland rental’s (GR) impact on herders’ technical efficiency (TE) and overgrazing under a unified framework. Results indicate that GR offers concurrent benefits of improving TE and reducing overgrazing; it helps to achieve a win-win situation between livestock production and grassland conservation. However, GR does little to promote TE by reducing overgrazing. Further analysis reveals that GR’s promotion effect on TE and the inhibition effect on overgrazing are heterogeneous among different income groups and grassland types. GR plays a stronger role in improving TE and reducing overgrazing by low-income herders, which is conducive in narrowing the animal husbandry development gap between rich and poor. The key policy implication is that GR should be encouraged under the condition of strengthening supervision.实现草原生态保护与畜牧生产的协同发展是全球备受关注的议题。基于中国818户牧民的调研数据，本文在统一分析框架下实证分析了草地流转（grassland rental，GR）对牧民技术效率（technical efficiency，TE）与过度放牧的影响。研究结果表明，草地流转兼具提升技术效率与缓解过度放牧的协同效益，有助于实现畜牧生产与草原保护的双赢局面。不过，草地流转并未通过缓解过度放牧来促进技术效率。进一步分析显示，草地流转对技术效率的提升效应以及对过度放牧的抑制效应在不同收入群体与草地类型间存在异质性。草地流转对低收入牧民提升技术效率、缓解过度放牧的作用更为显著，这有助于缩小贫富群体间的畜牧业发展差距。核心政策启示为：应在强化监管的前提下鼓励开展草地流转。