Innovation of Grassland Ecological Governance Systems : Synergy between Government Regulation and Grassroots Governance

The Chinese government has taken regulatory measures to address grassland degradation in pastoral areas, but problems such as inadequate monitoring and low efficiency still exist. Previous studies have revealed that grassroots governance played active roles in protecting grassland ecology and realizing sustainable use of natural resources. However, few studies have discussed the relationship between government regulation and grassroots governance in alleviating grassland degradation. This study provides the first empirical analysis that examines the synergistic effects of government regulation and grassroots governance on herders’ grazing behavior (i.e. grazing intensity and overgrazing) using a panel dataset of 711 herder households in pastoral areas of China. The findings show that government regulation, grazing monitoring, and grassland management negatively and positively affect herders’ overgrazing. In grassroots governance, both informal institutions and punishment curb herders’ overgrazing. Besides, informal institutions weakened the inhibitory effect of grazing monitoring and the incentive effect of grassland managers. Meanwhile, punishment weakened the incentive effect of grassland subsidy and the inhibitory effect of grazing monitoring. Hence, this study suggests that the government should be more attentive toward the coordinated development of government regulation and grassroots governance rather than dealing with the two separately